I am a 20+ year veteran of the IC manufacturing industry whose primary job function was Photolithography and Etch. I have lived and breathed this stuff for more than two decades. I am not the ultimate expert in this field but I am most certainly a force to be reckoned with when it comes to the technicals related to these types of companies.
My resume of Stocks includes DPMI, PLAB, ASYT, AMAT, NVLS, LRCX, UTEK, ASMLF, CYMI, KLAC, TNCR(now KLAC) and AEIS, among others, as either core holdings or trading shares at opportune times. I am a great advocate of the Peter Lynch method of investing: Knowing the companies you are investing in and understanding them. I know and understand these companies better than most of the analysts and employees.
I have the contacts to get the types of information and answers to questions I need to make an informed decision. That is my investing edge over most. I can talk to fellow engineers across the industry and get a handle on what they are ordering, what they are interested in, what there problems are, etal. while at the same time know the right things to look for and ask for when talking to the analysts and the companies themselves. I consider all my successes due to my broad based knowledge of what I am doing and understanding these companies better than the street. I sometimes get there too soon or too late. All my failures I am able to blame on comprehension issues by "The Street" because they really do not understand<GGG>. This usually means I have to wait awhile to recoup the $$$ paper losses attributed to the
"other guy's mistake"<GGG>.
But seriously, and all ego intended, being intimately involved in the IC manufacturing industry, specifically Lithography, and being able to speak intelligently and having some of the best research sources (analysts, engineers across the industry, and company contacts) to formulate my investment decisions, gives me enough of an edge to prosper in this sector. Not to embarass some analysts, and we know who they are, I have been more on target than any of them. I buy before the major run ups while they have downgraded the stocks and I always make my moves before they publish their upgrade/downgrade information. I am not perfect by any stretch of the imagination but as bad as some of my timing has been, I am a heck of a lot more timely then them.
Since my ego has gotten the better of me here if feel compelled to deflate it somewhat with my last comments. My timing is not good for the most part. I find myself getting involved in a stock 2-4 days prematurely since they seem to drop a little further. This results in days or weeks of reversal to get back to break even before going into the profit side of things. I usually catch the stocks on the downside of the curve and not at the bottom. I could say that it is my strategy to do that but it is really my impatience. I prefer to catch it on the downdraft to ensure I am there on the updraft.
Andrew |
