I've got to say that its comforting to read other folks have had the experience of getting into a long term winner, only to play it short term.
Like I said, I have my own. AOL, Best Buy, Starbucks, A few times I have been in the winner, only to travel with it up, and travel with it down. Those stocks, though, were up because of "pure speculation"
without any real product. I was just listening to a radio program on Warren Buffet. We know in 81 Berkshire was selling at about 1200, and now its at 69,000. His philosophy is to pick a company with good management, and product, and stick with it through good and bad times. Of course none of us could have predicted the unbelievable success of the stocks we mentioned, but we probably could say that we had no "real" reason on getting out of them. Except for the fact that it "woulnd't be exciting to just sit on a stock for a few years". And thats what keeps many of us (me) from building a fortune. No patience, because we are "hooked" on the trading game, rather than
looking to increase our net worth. For me its hard to admit. But I know I get a high out of "trading" stocks. Or I used to. I've mellowed a lot lately. Especially when I see where I could have been if I had held onto the "good ones" and stopped going into "speculative trash". Gees, look a COKE. But who could have predicted that in 15 years, a $1000 investment would be worth $75,000 now. Most of us
do not want to trade that long term. ITS TOO BORING. And when you have the possibility, especially in this market, of finding many small companies, where you can get a 300% uptick, very quickly. But in the long term, how many of us do that so well, that we can match the long term philosophy. Many here have indicated they have hurt themselves by "jumping out" at a percentage gain. This works sometimes, but probably for those stocks that didn't have that much behind them anyway. I'm hoping for all of us, that perhaps this one will give us the long term goals we are saying we are now looking for. So, in the future, lets talk more of where this one could go as we increase in price, rather than putting a short term price goal on it to jump out. If FNTN has a product, internet, that starts to grab the attention of the investment community, and we see a good trend in subscriptions, there will be no reason to jump out. Just sit on the train until we are sure its time to get off, based on fundamentals. I have AOL as my painful example. Any more, the idea of getting into a stock with good potential,and leaving it there, while I enjoy life, and do other things, is much more appealing than continually looking for the next one to jump into and out of, in the short term. |
