Good morning Lucretius,
You said something in this post that I think is so glaringly incorrect that it ought to be the subject of an entire thread! You said:
I've said it before: don't be greedy, take your profits.
Why do I take exception to this? Well, I've owned certain stocks since the 1960's: IBM, T. I never sold them. In fact, I've added to my holdings periodically through DRIPs and additional investments, to the point where its impossible to figure out what's happened on a rate of return basis.
But here is a stock that I've owned since 1986: TYC. I bought it at around $5 and it currently sells at around $55. So I've held the stock through two bear markets and one and a half market crashes! The annualized yield over that eleven year holding period (neglecting dividends) is approximately 24.4%. It became a Bahamian company last year, so I had to pay capital gains taxes, so those numbers don't reflect the tax payment.
Nevertheless, the point is clear: long-term investors profit to a much greater degree than short-term investors, and equating long-term investing (as in Warren Buffet) with greed is just plain silly!
Back in November DELL dropped by around 30% from its high, and the doom and gloomsters were out in force. Oh, we Dojis and God knows what else portending all manner of future horror. That was when the stock was $36. But look at what would have happened if you bought at the absolute high during the summer ($46). After 9 months the stock is selling at about $92. That's 100% in 9 months!!!!
So, I think you need to rethink your definition of greed. Greed is when you establish a day-trading position or a very short-term position, make a couple of points and vanish. It's kind of like the mind-set of a kid swiping some cookies from the cookie-jar when nobody is watching. Investing is when you put your money in a stock with the expectation of a large payback in the distant future.
TTFN,
CTC |
