Softbank, my long-term buy and hold (harrumphh). I am one of the idiots who bought Softbank in the year 2000, after its peak near 65,000 yen, for about 12,000 yen. It went down and down from there. I did not sell -- I have always prided myself to be a typical bag-holder (insert dirty smirk). The stock went down from 65,000 to ca. 2,000 yen and languished there for a long time, rising briefly to near 7,000 yen in late 2003.
Finally, Softbank cut through this 2003 peak's resistance in the beginning of November 2005 and is now shilly-shallying betwixt 10,000 and 11,000 yen -- a three-bagger for anybody buying in the first half of 2005.
Where to from here?
Softbank has improved its widely spread business (its hugely popular Yahoo-Japan's ADSL+internet phone packages, its baseball team, and its banking/financing/venture capital arms pull in serious dough), and of course, the Japanese stock-market is rising from its gloom of doom at last.
And the upcoming 3:1 share split might do some good, too. Softbank shares are traded in 100 share lots, i.e. presently, a small investor must put a minimum of US$9,000 on the table. In a few weeks, this minimum will come down to ca. US$3,000 -- opening the door for many of the less pecunious, often young and high-tech savvy Japanese Softbank-believers.
I'll keep my hundred shares for fun and moral self-education. Money? That might be more easily made with oil-sands, golds and silvers.
Maybe. |
