Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

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

To: Sunny who wrote (29715)	8/9/2000 11:19:40 PM
From: kumar	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 54805

OT : <<I have found that watching the price action frequently sorely tempts you to "don't just sit there, do something.">> very true for me too. until recently (couple years), I was happy to be informed on a quarterly basis, what my 1 company was worth. then I got interested in a few more companies :-). then I found the ease of "online brokers". which quickly led to "hey, its so easy to tweak my portfolio real-time, why not?". then it became a pain in the proverbial. and thats when I stopped gawking at the tickers. these days, I'm happy to look at performance on a monthly basis. hoping that I can get back to quarterly/semi-annual basis soon. cheers, kumar

To: Sunny who wrote (29715)	8/10/2000 12:53:00 AM
From: StockHawk	Respond to of 54805

Sunny, thanks for your comments. >>It will be very interestng to see what happens a year or more from now, if the Q bounces big...I first bought INTC, CSCO and EMC in early 94 and made a nice chuck of change on all of them, but I missed the real money by initially trading out of them in 96 & 97.<< I traded out of INTC a couple of years ago at what looked like a top, and for a few months I was right. But it's not too smart in hindsight. Traders usually miss the big money. Realizing our mistakes is the best teacher. StockHawk

To: Sunny who wrote (29715)	8/10/2000 12:56:57 AM
From: Mike Buckley	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 54805

Sunny, Often I think that my nearly evangelistic approach regarding long-term holding periods is not much more than a pain to readers. Every once in awhile I see a post such as yours in which you've noticed the conversations about that and taken them into your decision-making process. Thanks for letting Bruce and I know the value those discussions brought to your process. --Mike Buckley

To: Sunny who wrote (29715)	8/10/2000 1:28:49 AM
From: Bruce Brown	Respond to of 54805

I see that Mike has already responded to your excellent post, Sunny. You mentioned EMC and Cisco as investments you held in the 90's, but sold in 1996 and 1997. Yes, those were two of the top five performing stocks in the entire decade in terms of returns. The other three were Dell, CMGI and America Online. Part of that performance for being a top performer for the decade includes letting the lovely effect of compounding take place. The only way to get the compounding is to simply hold the stock. I know it sounds easier than it is, yet we all have the ability to position our portfolio with the best possible investments to grow over a number of years where the compounding can kick in and give us huge returns. How do we know we are holding 'great' investments? That's why I was encouraging anyone interested to sign up for the seminar that just completed over at the Fool to be able to pound out balance sheets and pick the cream of the crop companies like EMC and Cisco as well as many others for the longer haul. Even if an investor already had these companies in their portfolio, it would be nice to know how to rank and rate them on a quarterly basis when the numbers come in. Kind of like a annual exam at the Doc's office to say "everything's okay, see you next year". When you pass the exam, you know the best course of action is to leave things as they are. If you fail the exam, you know to take the Doc's advice and increase the exercise, cut the calorie intake, lower the salt intake or whatever. Same with your investments. That avoids the costly mistake of selling your best performing companies that are 'healthy' using FA. Regardless, I'm glad to see that you have settled on a portfolio of investments that are most likely poised to perform quite well if you just 'leave them alone' over the upcoming quarters - which turn into years - which turn into compounding. I wish you continued success. BB