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Strategies & Market Trends : Booms, Busts, and Recoveries
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To: Steve Hegji who wrote (2430)3/18/2001 11:34:59 AM
From: tradermike_1999  Read Replies (1) of 74559
 

I talk stocks occasionally with friends, all of whom are unsophisticated investors, just to get a feel for what the average stock investor is "thinking".

I have people come up and ask me about stocks all of the time. All year I tell them to sell, but I don't think they have ever taken my advice. And I'm talking about some stocks that it was obvious where they were going like ETYS. Now I can tell people to buy and they'll go and call their broker up.

One amazing one is last August I bought some shares in Activision. I told one guy I knew to buy it and I'd call him and tell him when to sell and take a profit. A few days later I sold, took profits, called the guy and told him it was time to get out. He called his broker and the broker told him to hold on because it was a good company. A few days later he told me he never sold. I couldn't believe it.

I've told some relatives to sell the mutual funds that they have in IRAs and just collect interest for a year. Tell them they are guaranteed a return and can't lose - but none of them will do it.

This is similar to the people you mention. I think what happens is that as long as you hold on to a position there is always a chance that it will go up. It might be slim but it is there. So in the back of their minds people hold on to the fantasy that the market will go up and their stocks will go up to where they were.

Secondly - once you sell you are ending this fantasy and admitting to yourself that you are no longer in a good investment. If you take a loss you are admitting that you made mistake. As long as they hold on they do not have to think about these things.
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