Craig,
I found that you have been engaged in debate on the Amazon thread about my attitude, bearing, truthfulness, and whatever else.
I certainly appreciate your posting (though I think you waste your time if you're trying trying to convince), because I think most of the criticism is unfounded, and I don't understand the ad hominem stuff at all. Never have. I have a few theories, but they're only guesses. No one has pointed to anything other than my holding stocks while they depreciated. I didn't take any credit for the advance, and I'm not taking blame for the decline. These are cycles, but as I have said often many of these equities are public venture capital and the dislocation of this decline has been historic. If it were a no-brainer, then where are the profits from shorting among those people?
I made it quite clear last spring that even though the market looked horrible I had decided to become a buy-and-holder, and I did it. I did replace stock in 2000 to take off-setting losses against gains I took in January, but never carried a cash balance, and drew just living expenses. It wasn't easy (and there were scary and discouraging moments because this was a first for me), but I can tell you without any hesitation that I am better player for it. That experience is part of my skill set now. For example, buy-and-holders learn what their worst-case balance sheet looks like, and that is huge for confidence. Traders never do.
Only a couple people here know the true extent of the gains I made and the drawdown I've had. Everyone has his own tolerance for risk and has varying financial and emotional envelopes. I made great money on the way up and luckily I still had a solid base in early April. As my companies grow from here I will enjoy satisfaction I never felt before, even going into 2000.
I'm not going to go back and pull up posts about going my own way or not fighting the tape on margin, but they're there. I was in New Economy stocks shortly after the beginning low, in at the high, and still in at this year's low. I'm still here, and just like I was as a kid during the Summer of Love living in the in the Height, I am lucky to participate in the passion of these times.
Anyone who thinks that this business is an ego trip simply doesn't understand investing or trading. It's not about winning or boasting, it's about growing and progressively wising up. Tops are just as humbling as bottoms.
I have never lied on SI and never will. I regret only one post and that had to do with eating margin clerks for breakfast. I still believe in the economic power unleashed by the Information revolution, and I still think we're in the very early innings.
So let them stew in discontent if that's what makes them tick. It's of their own making. I'll continue to say what I believe, continue to share hunches and data points, continue to link opinion, and do all the things I have done for the past five years here. No apologies. No one has complete information. Alan Greenspan and John Chambers are recent living testimony to that irrefutable fact.
I appreciate your vocal support of that principle, and I'm sure many others do, too. |
