OT. My short-sales. I continue to do poorly with the rare shorts I make. In my experience I've found it crazy that people say a person can find, evaluate and buy undervalued stocks and in similar fashion that person ought to be able to find, evaluate and sell-short stocks that are overvalued. To me, that's like saying you walk forward--walking backward should just be the opposite of that and just as easy. It ain't so, imo and experience. Successful shorting requires quite a different skill and temperament set, in my view.
The result for me is my shorts are very minor in amount, few in number and irrelevant to the success or failure of my portfolio. My one short last year was GPS (the Gap) which I closed year-end for a loss. The one short I have this year is PFCB (PF Chang). I have a small watch list of shorts, and the stocks in that list have generally not done well as shorts-- stocks like CALM, CMG, IT, FII. have moved up.
APOL (Apollo Group) on that watch list is one stock that has declined. To such an extent as to where it looks like a value stock now to me, and I'll now start acquiring shares.
Low p/e, relatively high roe, more cash than debt. Company dominates the sector.
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