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Technology Stocks : Cisco Systems, Inc. (CSCO) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tulvio Durand who wrote (47349)	1/27/2001 8:09:29 PM
From: Eric	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 77400

OT Tulvio Well what I like to do is rotate out of my long positions that have really moved into becoming a larger percentage of my portfolio and sell them as the market rises. The only exception is when I think the stock has a lot further to go. Cisco is one of those that I've played the game with over the last 8 years or so. I have sold about 1/3 of my position in it the last few years. That paid for a lot of new investments that has helped diversify the pot. Sometimes I am in margin for a few years and I don't mind paying the price. I have negotiated good rates with my broker that is below the broker margin rate listed in the WSJ so that doesn't bother me too much to pay the interest as long as I feel comfortable with the growth prospects of the companies I purchased on margin. What I really like is the investment interest deduction which I sometimes carry over for years to use against future gains. You sure can't do that with your home mortgage deduction! 25% is pretty conservative and my dad goes farther than that. He has 1.5X me over the last ten years but I haven't done that bad either. I'm just a little bit more conservative than he is. He has been doing it a lot longer than I have so I guess he is just more comfortable with it than me at this time. Margin is one animal that you have to have a lot of respect for because it can bite at the wrong time. That's why I only go into it about 25%. I was greedy years ago but not anymore! I just try to use it as a tool to leverage my assets at times like this. The time of the year doesn't concern me although you are correct with the May October time frame being tough some years. Heck with the fed cutting so hard (assuming a 50 basis cut this Wednesday) we have only seen the beginning of massive cuts. That plus the huge budget surplus creates an environment for stocks that I have not seen in my lifetime. The wild cards are energy prices but for me I'm glad to see the country now hopefully admitting that more oil is not the solution to our long term energy problems. regards, Eric