John,
Sorry I didn't get back sooner, but the firewall at work prevents me from posting. I have a discount broker and I try to ignore everything he says. This I learned from my old man, who watched is portfolio grow at about twice the rate, once he cut loose of Merrill Flinch. My investment strategy is fairly simple:
1. Invest in companies which you know have a solid product.
2. The Company must have good management.
-Good management can sell a bad product, and bad management can kill a good product.
3. Have as much inside knowledge as possible.
-Do you work for the company? Do your friends?
-Do you sell, or buy their product?
4. Buy low, sell high.
5. Don't be too greedy.
6. Long term is best.
That may sound kind of "hokie" to you, but my portfolio is doing quite well, with the exception of Ross. With Ross I ignored a couple of my rules -2,5, and 6. Ross was cycling between 9 and 14 since the IPO, so I bought some at 9 thinking I'd sell at 14 in a couple of months, naturally the stock took a crap. Then I bought more at 4 1/4, after Ross had lay-off's, this was when I ignored rule 2. Despite all the nasty things I heard about Roger Ross' bad management decisions, I thought, well, I need to cover my loss. Then the stock sunk to the 2's, which is where it will be again, because other than an announcement of a sale to NuTec, nothing has changed. Pure speculation has brought this stock back up the the 5 mark, where I sold all of my stock, and took the loss. Here is what I see hapening in the next few months. Ross will delay reporting the quarterly earnings. Then they will say earnings are lower than expected. Then their earnings (loss) will be anounced and it will be even lower than expected. Stock price plumets.
Just my two cents.
Kelvin |
