<buy and hold...trading accounts>
Wow, do I feel a whole lot better now... I'd become
convinced that I was not able to capture anything
by trading--I found no benefit to churning my account
through March. However...two weeks into April somehow,
my churned account is 100k ahead of an old snapshot,
unmanaged since early February. So, as bad as things
have gone of late, I've actually mitigated the effects
of this crash.
Of course I'd love to say I was smart enough to have
missed the crash, no such luck, but I also think it is
true that over long periods of time you only have to do
marginally better than the market to come out way ahead.
Having got into biotech at approximately the end of a
long bear market in the sector, and, having captured a
little better performance for myself these past couple
weeks had I done nothing, I think I have no further
adjustments to make. And next week is going to be a
market for only the most skillful traders, I'm not
part of that club, so I will sit out. There are a few
things that I'd be tempted to write a check for...but
I'm sticking to keeping the mad money seperate from
everything else. Mike's Microcap Madness of last year
has actually evolved into a pretty decent portfolio--
I know the bioexperts here on SI would make a few
changes immediately if it were theirs, but I'm okay
for now.
That said...I think it is going to be weeks if not
months before the sector warms up--and I wouldn't be
surprised if I didn't pass the old high water mark
of a month ago for a couple of years. The best way
to get back, is probably not to change strategies
mid stream... I'd bail and buy back lower if I was
sure the sector was going lower--but I'm trying to
think of where my companies will be in 3-5 years, and
I'm more confident of that than where the shares will
be priced 3-5 days from now. |
