I hate to quote country and western but "you gotta know when to hold and you gotta know when to fold". I watched this thread from the sidelines for a while. Some of the picks have been hype, some good; some from Shawn, and some from others. I and others have posted cautions and even Shawn on occasion has chimed in with certain advice for the naive, novice, or seasoned investor.
I, too, in a previous post, made statements similar to what you are alluding to. I even made a statement that was misinterpreted relative to a pyramid scheme and was justifiably chastised for actions I took that actually perpetuated the pyramid principle. I immediately stopped and apologized because the chastiser was indeed correct (when I reflected on my comments).
However, for whatever reason, some (everyone notice it is SOME) of the numerous picks have been winners. For whatever reasons, the track record is better than most of the boiler room guys that call me occasionally with sure winners. With as good a batting average as this thread has had, I decided to get involved with some of the picks.
I have made it known that my investments in this thread are insignificant relative to my core holdings and in essence was Vegas money considering the risks associated with some of these companies. Others like you have been helpful in re-terating warnings and the inherent risks. I have grouped these people as the "conscience" of this thread. Short of shutting down this thread, we cannot stop people from taking the picks presented on this thread and investing in them.
We can, however, watch these stocks from the sidelines and put out warnings to sell when certain loss thresholds have been reached or take nice profits at the appropriate time. We can teach the naive and novice by our comments and actions. They will see us make the right and wrong calls but they will benefit from the advice and learn. Then they will be more savvy and experienced. That is all we can do, especially when the success rate here has been adequate to good.
I have posted my buy ins and my sells prior to making the transactions in order to make a point and to at least show some of the novices how to make money, if they were already invested or are investing in the picks in this thread. I have given 2 very good examples with CSGI and ACLY. CSGI is above the 7.50 entry point and above my entry point in the 10-13 ranges. ACLY is in the dog house relative to my numerous ins and outs. I hope those posts did not incite a riot and provide more impetus for people to jump in. That was not my intent. My intent was that if you must get in, do not look a gift horse in the mouth.
Within the last day, we have seen some very GOOD people mention taking some of the profits or tuition money and diverting it to safer investments that show promise for healthy returns in the mid-term as opposed to daily. Hopefully this advice will be taken and some of these funds diverted. This is a good first step.
This thread is evolving and should not revolve around Shawn. He may have started it with a purpose in mind but it is like a child and it needs to grow into what it will become. When the gravy train leaves the station for the last time, hopefully people like you, me and others will be able to walk away with the following knowledge.
0. All good things do come to an end.
1. They were not only warned but we tried to educate them.
2. We provided sound advice, hopefully, to make sound decisions.
3. We were able to get some of them to take the brass ring and not wait for the gold ring on this merry go round, a couple of times.
4. If and when the end does come, some of them might have successfully diverted funds to safer investments such that they did not suffer a major loss and have a respectable portfolio to grow with.
5. When these stocks fall, like ACLY, they will not be bitter since they still might have funds in reserve.
In closing, I do not know when I will go to the sidelines again by selling my positions on this thread entirely but I do know that I am handsomely ahead, have diverted the original funds back to other investments outside of this thread, and am only playing with profits.
I am gambling not investing (until someone supplies good data and info on some of these picks) with "pick profits" and not my mortgage money.
And hopefully this last statement will be taken to heart by some people. |
