Stoney, FWIW:
I went into 73-'74 fully margined. That was like trying to carry a tomcat home by the tail: you can learn some things that way you just can't learn any other way.
A few of them:
* You need deeper pockets than I had to ride out a bad downturn
* When you are margined, you are at the mercy of every irrational move, macro or micro, that slams markets/groups/stocks lower
* If you're not into nausea, don't be around when margin calls come
* Short-term strategies are fun going up; they're hell going down (thanks to a series of brilliant moves on my part, I went from $104,000 to $21,000 in a few weeks-- but they seemed like years!)
This isn't '73-74. But you can get spooked out of a great group, like oil service, if not hurt, in a shake-out like we've got going on now... unless you've got more cash, courage, or conviction than a Mississippi riverboat gambler if things get painful.
Anyhow, like I said, it's just FWIW.
( I'm long FGII and every deepwater driller you ever heard of.)
Good luck to all, and thanks for all your helpful insights! |
