Good Evening, Dharampal: Judging by your comments, you appear to be a good read of the market and an accomplished trader. However, what seems to be a very common theme amongst many investors on this thread is the constant lamenting by most, myself included, of gigantic lost opportunities continually suffered through selling too early.
Just as the commentator said on CNBC a couple of Friday's ago, our own worst enemy as investors is staring right back at us in the mirror. Ever seeking that instant gratification in grabbing a quick profit! Your story re: CSCO reminds me of a Wall St Week I once watched, where one of the most successful money managers of all time couldn't ram home the point strongly enough to 'never ever sell a winner until it clearly becomes a loser'. Judging by the number of issues like Dell and Cisco that are still making new record highs to this day, this remains extremely prescient advice.
I think some important lessons have already been learnt too soon by participants here.
After learning my own lesson in selling CCI way too early, for a measly 60% gain in 1991 at the expense of a becoming 1900 percenter, and after buying it for only 10 bucks, I vowed to develop a system that would enable me to ride those winners no matter what, through whatever storms or turbulence the market might throw at me.
Hence the evolution of my STAR 'Sentinel Trading, Analysis and Research' system, incorporating a '10 plus to 10 minus' scale rating for ease of use.
The basic mantra of this system is such, that once a stock rates a '10', the mentality dictates that it becomes a must buy dip candidate. Whenever, the stock pulls back 3 to 5 units, it is usually in buy territory. Each time it resumes to a '10' rating, the bullish argument subsequently increases. Such that the mantra then becomes:
When a stock rates a '10', there's nothing to fear till it turns down '7'. In other words when a stock deteriorates to a minus 6 you're already on a high alert sell watch.
A perfect example of a '10' to illustrate this point would be AT&T, which coming off a severe bear market in May 1997, achieved its first '10' rating in over a year at 35 in July last year. It managed to maintain an overall '10' rating all the way through to mid-April, hardly budging during October '97, but giving its first line warning sell at 65 1/2 a few weeks ago and then going to a negative '7', or a mandatory sell at 63 the other day. It closed today at 57 1/2.
The fact that FNTN, after coming off a bear market and long basing formation, still hasn't reached a '10' rating yet. After this much of a run-up already, this carries enormously bullish implications down the road.
I know from experience that once anything achieves a perfect '10' status, it inevitably strengthens the bullish case considerably, no matter what the issue or market.
Rgds
Wiz |
