A woman on the ABC morning show today did an article about 'fat pills'. She spoke of Regeneron's Axokine, although I'm not sure that she had the mechanism of action at all right. Anyway, she then made what I am sure was a reference to Genset's Famoxin (without naming names) but said it would be 'years and years' from humans. Still, she painted a rosy picture for a few seconds there, with those mice eating away.
Ruminating--obsessing about the stock market, I'm sure it is unhealthy for me lately. The thing that is discouraging, is just how much money went away--counting down from September, when I did set aside cash, still -30%. Counting down from the March 3rd '00 (or thereabouts) high: -50% for me. I know the dot com people were wiped out, I should be grateful that I only lost half.
Anyway, that puts me back to where I was in about the middle or end of January 00, not bad--and I suppose I could tell myself that I might have sold everything at that point, having made approximately 10x my initial grubstake.
But I liked it a lot more when I was up 20x--retirement at 34 was within reach last March. It was something, what a time.
Particulary frustrating for me however was the fact that early in the biotech rally, I made but a fraction of what I might have gained in the Ariad frenzy. I've whined about that before, sorry I am repeating myself. Equally frustrating, in March '00, for a couple of weeks, I had rather large positions in things like Boeing, and Washington Mutual. That was the right idea, but I have no real interest in things outside biotech...I walked away and got nothing when I should have doubled my money in those two. Even more recently, a buy of Albertson's and Penny's last fall was a good call...but I decided they spend far too many people hours shuffling the product lately. And energy prices are going to be a negative in the earnings I think soon. A dozen trips to the grocery store, and a few visits to the department store foiled a potentially good trade.
Yeah, I'm sure this is called ruminating, going over and over in your mind what you should have done, not able to shake it. It is a little pathetic, I'm embarrassed. Why I flog myself on the internet, only an shrink could say, but I don't have one of those, yet. Oh, with any luck the feeling will go away when I rotate back on to the dayshift. Springtime is really very nice here in Seattle, between the showers--everything is in bloom. It is snowing in the mountains for Goshsake, I'll probably ski this week, cool.
That pretty much brings me to the end of my insipid little story. Even at the risk of looking weak-minded and emotional, somehow it is a comfort to share ones thoughts--even in this most dysfuntional of forums, where, maybe only a few readers will stumble across these words. As I've said before, the Nasdaq collapse has essentially stopped me out, so it is all moot now. Fortunately, I did not sell at the precise low, I even snagged some good trades this past week, but it brought no satisfaction. That's a big flag.
It will be a little difficult to watch biotech recover now that I'm mostly out of the sector--the past week suggests that "tech" finally bottomed. But a stop is a stop. With any luck, those stocks I call my stinky pets, CeNeS, Cadus, Genset, Axys, Tgen, Synaptic--maybe I'll get a little out of them someday. I've tagged them in Madness with the number of shares ending in 99 (kdus, and Cen.L not included). But I have written them off to zero as part of the discipline of the stop.
There is a chance I'll go into lurker mode now. Scalping a few grand here and there a couple times a month. Or not.
I am going to try and not post to this thread now. When I get the urge to go online, I'll force my nose into my Cell textbook. In the event that I find a nugget or have a genuine insight, I'll post to a company specific thread.
Full stop I think. |
