James,
A while back you made a posting about WHX stating that it offered lessons in the merits of Value Investing. I would like to offer another lesson.
I bought BOTX months ago @ $4.25. It was an unrecognized value play selling well below BV. They had a bad period in 1996 but had successfully turned the company around to good profitability. All I had to do was be patient and wait for the market to discover what I had found.
I sat on the stock thru two excellent earnings reports, yet the price never appreciated above 4-7/8. I had found another stock that I felt was poised to move. As BOTX wasn't going anywhere, I decided to sell it, sure that I could buy it back later near the same price, perhaps lower. I sold at 4-3/4 to buy the other stock.
The other stock did fine, up 20%. At the same time, BOTX went from 4-3/4 to 9.00, up 89%. Had I just waited 2-3 more weeks...
Buying on value requires patience. When the market is going up, it's very difficult to hang onto a stock that isn't moving, but a good value buy will likely, eventually, give a better return. Since you never know when that move will happen....
Learning from my mistakes,
Ron |
