Several PM's lately have brought to mind what has happened since I joined SI.
I joined 6/15/98. On the day I joined, 17 months ago, my portfolio consisted of 10 stocks that were worth 12% of what my portfolio has grown to today!
I had bought and read "The Gorilla Game" that spring, and because of that book, I was 40% Cisco. I also had 13% AOL, 12% SAP, 12% Dell, and 8% LU.
I was also a "basket case", with I2, PSFT, Manugistics, Vantive, and Siebel making up the rest of the mix.
I started posting to the Cisco thread, and I thought I was a genius who had discovered a "hidden treasure" in SAP. I bought more SAP, and posted to that thread until August, 98. I was up to 18% SAP when I realized I had been had, and sold. I got out just in time. My thread mates were not too happy with me for selling, to say the least!
By then I had dumped my " basket", and by 9/1/99 I was down to 50% Cisco, 15% AOL, 15% Dell, 13% MSFT, and 7% LU. My portfolio was up to 13% of today's valuation.
I was posting mainly to the MSFT and Cisco threads, and learning a lot. But boy, were people who hated Cisco and softy bombarding me! We had stockman and Jach on Cisco, and several people on softy, who seemed to spend all day and night posting hate mail. The AOL and Dell threads were so euphoric that I did not read, or post, to them.
By the first of this year, AOL and Dell had been very good to me, and I was at 21% of my present portfolio, with 33% AOL, 28% Cisco, 26% MSFT and 13% Dell.
I had become friendly with Uncle Frank, and when he started this thread on 2/15/99, I had post # 5 to it. Frank put the Index's together, I came up with a Gorilla "Cheat sheet" on the book, and Mike put a "breeding grounds" index together. I had known "Merlin" since I joined "Motley Fool", and started posting to the threads he ran there. I made 8 of the first 100 posts, and we had DownSouth, Teflon, Freeus, and Lucius Lamar with us from the start.
By then, I had sold my Dell at 91 before the bad news, and was down to AOL, Cisco, and Softy. We started discussing the Gorilla's and Kings, and by March 31st, when I made my first buy of Qualcomm, My portfolio was up to 28% of its present value.
And here we are, 5 1/2 months later!
I know that without the input from my SI experience, I would never have done anywhere near as well as I have.
I learned from the constant input from some very smart people on these threads.
I learned by arguing with some jerks that did not know what they were talking about, but who forced me to do my DD and articulate my thinking.
I learned by simply engaging in chatting with other people on these threads, without a serious point to the chatting. This constant exposure helped me to subconsciously firm up my thinking and helped me make decisions to buy and sell. A lot of people turn up their noses at this chatting, and it can get out of hand, but, in moderation, it is very valuable.
My particular thanks to Uncle Frank and Mike, who is the two major, influences on my thinking here. Uncle Frank, by starting and managing this wonderful thread, and Mike for his fantastic input on companies. All of you who have joined us along the way have been a real "Hoot", and have made some very valuable contributions.
I was extremely lucky to hit with Qualcomm this year, and we have used this thread to discover and do DD on some other wonderful companies. It is going to be a real pleasure to watch the "newbies" here get rich!
|
