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 : Z PORTFOLIO -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Susan Saline who wrote (5414)	10/8/2000 8:15:00 AM
From: William H Huebl	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 11568

I have a book floating around here someplace called "When to Sell." And your series of posts on getting clobbered by losers is one thing addressed. And I think we all know WHY it happens! The interesting question is, if you sell a loser - say at a 5% loss and it gains 10% right after that, does that make you a DOUBLE loser??? (Now how many times does that REALLY happen???) My technique, which I admit I have yet to use (not true, I really have used it but not as frequently as I should) - I write up my expectations about a position including weakness, if any, I should see in it... if it doesn't play how I expect it to, then I exit. Not soon enough, mind you, but I exit. But then all I do is play options with pin money... so what do I know?

To: Susan Saline who wrote (5414)	10/8/2000 6:18:11 PM
From: Kelvin Taylor	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 11568

Looking at the Z port only two positions have been held for over 200 days. in fact most of our holdings were purchased after June. the average holding period for all trades is 24 days and we are up over 5% YTD. not too bad considering we are beating the averages by a very wide margin. when to sell a loser? well, speaking for only my experience when I have sold a stock for a loss, more times than not I could have avoided the loss just by being patient a while longer. How much longer? they longest time was 7.5 months. the shortest? 2 days!!!! in fact I sold some so-called losers last year at this time by requirement only to see those post over 50% gains in just 3 months. sure, you can avoid even more losses by cutting a bad decision early, but when do you get back in? or do you average cost down? I'll wait it out.