Grommit, the way I'm looking at pride of pride/shame ratio is that a stock has a high pride number if you tell your friends you bought it, and they say/imply that they like it too, they are considering buying it, or, especially, if they murmur how wise you are for picking up such a wonderful company/opportunity. And before you tell them what you've done (bought that particular stock), you already know deep down that that is what their response will be.
Some examples could be: Someone who says (last year) "I bought Cisco. It just keeps going up. How can you lose with such a great company, right?"
or: "I'm buying MSFT on dips - it'll come back." (or 6 month's ago: "I have a lot of Microsoft, it's growth and future are terrific.")
JDS Uniphase was/is another imo. Okay I admit I'm not technical, but I still suspect that when I see old line portfolio managers say they've added this one or others like it to their portfolios - they don't really know what they have. (Maybe they're following the analysts who they employ). To me though, a big reason it's added is because it's a stock du jour. Other competitor funds have added it. It's high pride/shame ratio is thus a factor getting it into the fund (imo).
To me, a high pride/shame ratio is an indicator of a stock I want to stay away from buying. Maybe it's something about I'm fearful everybody who wants in is now in, so where's the stock going to go?
For low pride/shame, one of my personal category choices has been utilities. In the past 6 months, I've bought three. Never owned any before that. Too embarrassed though to even mention those selections on the value thread -- now that suggests a very high shame component indeed. -g-. --- Although the ratio's come up a lot in my mind now that I see Warren Buffett has bought some.
Re: SKO. I'm underwater on it. I'm considering adding more to my position here though. It's another one with low pride/shame. As when I might discuss this with people outside of this thread (and maybe even with some people here -g-), I envision them saying (or wanting to say -g-), "A stock that seems to be having troubles and is trading at a multi-year low? A small retail company that competes with Wal-Mart? Senior, you idiot, guess why they're having troubles and their stock is down. And don't you know the retail sector is terrible? Shopko? ShopKo?? Whoever heard of them? Where do you find dreck like this?"
Paul
and sometimes people who would talk to me like this are very right. |
