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Technology Stocks : IFMX - Investment Discussion -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Hardly B. Solipsist who wrote (13857)	1/28/2000 10:47:00 AM
From: Fred Levine	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 14631

Hardley-- I love your question (and your name), especially since I am a psychologist. I am also constantly amazed by our (including my) capacity for self-deception. I bought into IFMX (and ORCL) after reading about the future of data management. IFMX was then considered as having the best technology by some analysts AND several people on this thread who seemed to know the technical side. Every post was positive except one semi-literate raving about how Phil White was a lying turd. The semi-literate one, of course, proved correct. However, the company was all positive pr's, and put the sign in front of ORCL about how IFMX will beat them. I bought more at 16. Then the shit hit the fan and the stock was simply too low too fast to be worth selling. I, also, went into the question of self-deception and realized that threads amplify by a factor of squaring either bad or good news. Threads, on the whole are cheerleading hopes, rather than information. Eg, EMC just came out with earnings better than expected; the threaders predicted a big increase and the stock sank. IMO, emotion--either greed, anxiety, or vanity--interfere with the problem-solving aproach to investing. We all know we're fallible, and cutting losses is a real skill. However, we are all dependent upon information, and this information is constantly being filtered by the media, by people with agendas, AND by our our own ego's. Having said this, I must admit that the market has done very well for me, and that I think IFMX is a better investment now than it was at 6 because they simply are more intact financially now, and management is considerably improved. We'll see. Also, I randomly divided my portfolio into threads I read and those I don't and the ones I don't are slightly ahead. fred