<<I take it your a short term trader?>>
No, basically long-term. But I don't sit on stocks when I know they're going down.
<<If people jump in and out of stocks on every market concern, they'd have a hell of tax return and most likely miss all the major ups. If you only miss a few of the best days your return is greatly diminished.>>
This is certainly true from an historical perspective, and an excellent investment philosophy that I share with you. Problem is, today, a big sell-off was preordained. In other words, the chances of today being "a few of the best days" was 0.
With $20/trade trading available, if a person has the time to be watchful, it can save some money. I'm not holding Cymer anyway, but I dumped some PRIA and TER at opening and saved a couple of grand.
If I wanted to stay long, I'd be ahead. If I wanted out, it was a good time to move.
Actually, I am competely out of semi equipment stocks for a little while, until the cycle bottoms out and I see some price consolidation. But you should realize, I rode Asyst from $30 to $16, averaging down to a per-share price of $21, until it turned up last summer. I know how to hold 'em!
I'm going to get some "cheap tech stocks" at some point, too, but I think I'll wait until the smoke clears a little in Asia and we get some consolidation. (You misspoke, as I'm sure you realize, when you said "1 year holding period", at least for tax purposes. Unless it's a personal timing philosophy for you.) |
