T, Actually, somebody did remind Abelson of that very fact in the Mailbag section. The guy made a glaring error at the end of his note and I wrote a nasty reminder to let him know, but he was right about Abelson's bearishness. And selling short rather than using long puts would have killed anyone following his advice.
I have never followed Templeton's advice, but I did find out after the fact that we had done the same thing once. We both bought Japan big time in the 1970s and 1980s, he a bit bigger than I did. Once I started working full time, I couldn't continue to buy stuff my firm didn't offer. And my firm didn't offer much that had profit potential at that time. <g>
I am not a fanatic about commissions. When I look back at my winners and losers, the commissions are totally non-relevant. But, then, as you know, I swing for the fences on the 90/10, so losing all your money or making 400% + doesn't leave one too much room to gripe about whether a commission is 1/2 of 1% or 3%. Mox nix, as we used to say in Germany. <g> |
