Hi Blue, great post and it looked like an intro to Making A Million In Internets Part III and Blue's Guide to Valuing An Internet Stock, Looking Forward To It! Pals, I'm feeling better this morning and determined to putting in as full a day at the dayjob and stockmarket as I can muster, today. This has been a bad time to get sick; a rally like this that shows me how my years work has done. Thanks for taking such great care of the market for me, Blue, giving me some time to get better to enjoy it and figure out what to do next...Techstock '99 has blazed on all week, of course; I could hear the music from the fairgrounds but could not attend...will get back to reporting the show soon.
Starting the day off with a post of my own: "How I Got Started In Investing, then on to Techs and Internets"
Some years ago, I went from adding to a couple of mutual funds whenever I could, to buying AT& T, to buying small blocks of some nice dividend-giving Blue Chip Stocks after splits "for half-price".
These either gave spin-offs or split again once or twice, and went up. I always saved the dividends and put them back into buying more shares. Being a strict buy and hold gal; didn't pay much attention to the stock prices except to look them up when I was ready to make a buy so as to decide whether to add or go into something new. One day I noticed that Apple was only $13. a share. I thought that was cheap, so I bought some (summer of '96)- it quickly went up to $27. I sold it and did something I'd never done before, I used the money for a vacation. In the fall, it was down to $16 or so again, so I bought it again, and it did me another doubler. Sold it again, this time bought more Merck or Pfizer; then Apple went down again in spring, I bought it again, it doubled again; sold it again, bought more of something else cheap after a split. 3 times in a year; I felt like a Techstock Gazillionaire. I'd also learned Something Core - Even When The Market Is Up, There Are Many Bargains - Reinvesting Immediately Is The Way To Grow The Shares. So, when in winter of '97 dreading knowing the time had come to buy a computer and put in that painful aggrivation time to learn how to use it, a friend recommended Gateway. I ordered the computer and when I saw the stock was only $27 I bought some shares, too. By spring GTW had doubled; by then I was researching stocks Online, learning and posting on a great stock forum , and was so impressed by the techs and the growth and future possibilities of the Internet I decided to get some powder for a sector.
So I sold the Gateway doubler (lucky guess, GTW was about tapped out at that point),the mutual funds, and the shaggy tops of the blue chips to trade for some other techs (BEI a m/a for a quick profit, SEG, INTC, DIS, CPQ DELL and NSCP) and Internets (AOL) to add to ATT and to the spinoffs from that (notably LU). I bought some GNET, too, and twice I traded it from a nice fast 50 - 60% profit to get something else then sell that when it went up to get GNET again when it went low again.
I increased the GNET again just in time for the pop; I sold NSCP and SEG for a nice profit to get it, thanks Blue for pulling my coat. The AOL split twice for me; sold some once or twice at a high to get something else and then bought it back when it went down a bit and the other thing went up. What I've been doing this year is concentrating on increasing my shares and companies. I have some good penny stocks that I took profits from to get others or increase Class A Internet holdings, and I kept enough shares so that if these turn out to be high flyers, well, I'm there. I took a bad hit with Zap, the only Internet (a wannabe internet that flopped)that failed me; but got some good lessons from that experience. It also motivated me to learn about penny stocks and make up for that crunching loss so I could afford stocks with higher share prices again. My focus now is to get more of the First-Class internets like CMGI, YHOO, AMZN, etc. with profits from the penny stock pops; while at the same time getting in on what's next for cheap (e.g. DIS, MLRE). My next research will be to get a bead on some smaller IAP's that look like they're expanding into a good Portal - will let you pals know what I find. Portal's are the thing, Internet Auction Sites are big too. It's a sector that isn't going to sit still, it takes alot of attention, and the rewards for the difficulty of the due diligence is great. I've got some cable/broadband stocks with USAI and SRCM & a pennystock or two - this issue will be coming up this year and I'm ready for enjoying the Spotlight on that sector when it inevitably happens. But with Internets, the utmost concentration is on the present, on the moment.
I believe a factor of demand in the Internet Stocks that many WS Analysts don't understand, is the inherent value of owning a work of art. The Internet is the Biggest Work Of Art Of This Generation... and it's still in Introductory Stage Of The Product Cycle. I do love being among the Prospectors Of This New Lode, panning for gold alongside my pals here on Techride....like Blue says, staking the early claim and then moving on when it peters out. It's just beginning and there's plenty of room to grow before that happens. And Yes, finding the new untapped vein before it gets too crowded is going to be the way to profit big with this; so staying nimble is the key to success. It takes up a large amount of time to browse the TradeShows, watch who's partnering up with who, and view the actual websites and hints of possibilities therein - like panning for nuggets surrounded by sand. It's not just as easy as just looking at Stats, Charts, Properties, and Statements like it is with the Blue Chips. All that's contained in any of these Internet Stocks is Art, Air, Wires, Consoles, Desks, and the Talent and Imagination of the People Putting It Together. And That's The Fun Of It!
Gotta go see what's shakin' in the Market & On The Split Parade,
909,
Joanie |
