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Strategies & Market Trends : Gorilla and King Portfolio Candidates -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: areokat who wrote (21108)	3/23/2000 10:32:00 AM
From: freeus	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 54805

I have had margin calls too when I was new at this. But margin is a tool, and a valuable one, that can increase your profits mightily. You learn NOT to have only one stock in a margin account. You learn NOT to buy more on the way down in a margin account. You learn to watch your % carefully and keep "cash buying" power. Cash buying power evaporates before you get a margin call so if it has evaporated you are wise to sell underperformers. Also I cannot understand this investor's broker just selling the stock without calling and talking to him. Neither of my brokers would have done that: they generally give you three days to decide what to do: I don't know Celera but apparently it bounced up and he would not have been wiped out had the broker given him the three days. A few days ago I had a "make believe" margin call on my grandson's account: I had bought him more Qcom (his account is 100% Qcom) when it fell to 120 than he had money for, without realizing it (his account is not a margin account). Fidelity sent me a warning letter that they might sell some to meet the margin call. OF course days had passed and the margin call was off but I sold a couple of shares (the margin call was only $300) so there would be no debt in that account. The point is Fidelity told me before they did anything...that is the courteous, accepted thing for a broker to do. Freeus