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.

Technology Stocks : PALM - The rebirth of Palm Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mang Cheng who wrote (4518)	3/28/2001 9:24:29 PM
From: David E. Taylor	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6784

Mang: Your contributions to this thread have been considerable and well appreciated, I'm sure by more than just I, and I hope you stick around and don't give up. This has been a real whack up the side of the head, and serves to point out even that the stocks of good companies like Palm with good products and a leading position in a rapidly growing market can get taken down by combinations of circumstances that are not really predictable. I believe that this Q4 screw up will turn out to be a one-time event, and that Palm will recover from it by year end. I'm prepared (as I usually am) to give what I consider a good management team the benefit of the doubt one time, and allow that even good management teams can get hit by things they have little or no control over. But I'm also going to keep a close watch for the next few months for other signs that they are, as Khan said, "stretched too thin", or maybe not just up to the task of managing the rapid growth of the company in a rapidly growing business. One major screw up is already one too many, whatever the reason, and shareholders have paid the price. Running on margin is a risky approach, as I found out myself in Oct 1997. Since then I've used margin sparingly, and only for short periods. You could (IMO) do worse than a large Palm position around this price, in a couple of years you could look back and see it was one of the smarter things to have done. Good luck. David T.

To: Mang Cheng who wrote (4518)	3/29/2001 10:30:12 AM
From: sunfish	Respond to of 6784

Mang- My whole portfolio had just been chopped to almost nothing .... (so) this is what I'm going to do: I'll amass, sell other shares etc and re-accumulate Palm at lower price than $8 until I'm back to my glory day's holding of the number of shares on no margin. I too think that PALM is a great buy at $8, but let me suggest that you take a strategy of buying at least "several", if not a dozen or so high tech companies that are equally good buys, i.e. near 2 year lows. There are PLENTY to chose from now! This way you won't get wiped out again the next time PALM (or any other single stock) takes an unexpected dive. Diversification is like medical insurance, when you need it, you REALLY need it.

To: Mang Cheng who wrote (4518)	3/29/2001 3:00:19 PM
From: Harry J.	Respond to of 6784

Mang - You wrote what a lot of us felt and added that you need a new strategy and ". . . have to totally get out of margin at this time." I like your new strategy already. A few of us missed the late 1970s run-up when the "new metrics" meant the "old rules" didn't apply. Thus, we bought on margin in the mid 1980s and felt really smart until October 1987. I know exactly where I was when I got my first margin call. Answering those margin calls and, thus, being mostly out of money and stock when the market recovered and then some in 1988 was a long, hard lesson for me. I now leave the leveraged trading to the people without nervous systems, soft stomachs, or hearts. I just know my nerves are no longer frayed, I can eat (not necessarily a positive, however), and my blood pressure is normal. And, I don't take it personally if leveraged traders really win big and don't gloat when they don't. I have no doubt that, someday, you'll be giving this same pablum speech to somebody else. And I have no doubt you'll feel just like I do writing it: "Oh, yeah, I remember what that feels like, and I got to try help because I wouldn't wish that feeling on anybody." And another thing, using cash instead of margin to buy stocks prevents me from buying too many "sure things" that I can't afford if they turn out not to be so sure. Is what my wife likes about my strategy. 8-) Regards, Harry J. Making money the hard way over here: one dollar at a time.

To: Mang Cheng who wrote (4518)	3/29/2001 3:41:52 PM
From: Luce Wildebeest	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6784

Mang I concur with a few of the other posts to you. I feel your pain as well. If it wasn't for the great bull run about 4 years ago I would have been wiped out. I went into margin big time. Luckily I couldn't take the stress and got out alive. Going into margin with this kind of market with no forward visibility is suicide plain and simple. Another thing you have to watch out is trying to get back lost money by being compulsive. I've been battling a compulsive nature from the get go and still do stupid things. Most recently my purchase of PALM before earnings. Anyway good luck to you and hopefully all of this will have a happy ending..though I'm not holding my breath.