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Biotech / Medical : The thread of life -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Benny-Rubin who wrote (721)	6/10/2005 2:39:51 PM
From: Mike McFarland	Respond to of 1336

No, I've never shorted anything. Spring 2000 was a once in a lifetime chance to buy puts, and I didn't do that either. I have been thinking about my most miserable failure--not holding the blue chips I'd bought with my biotech profits. They all went on to be three to five baggers, sickening. Corning maybe did the worst, but even it did well. I think maybe JCPenny would have done the best for me, I probably held it fow only a few weeks, and then for whatever reason got bored. Owned it around $10 or $12, I think it is $50 now. Anyway--would I have held any of those for my 3 to 5x?? Probably not, so I cant beat myself up for it too much I guess. Several times I've thought of one of my Poker buddies strategy. He hasn't done as well as I have (1999 and early '00 funded my retirement, athough I haven't actually retired yet) but he has done awfully well--and in only one stock. This fellow bought Philip Morris years ago, kept buying, got his dividend, and did it all in a retirement account. He did very well, with just the one stock, and never sold. I had some luck--but no luck at all since 2000. Increasingly, I think I would trade infrequent luck, for one good stock to hold for a decade. Buy it and forget it. Meanwhile, I am content to guess that, as I said, we are in for several awful years and cash is king. Silly me--it never really ocurred to me that the greenback would lose value agaist yen/pound/euro, as it did for the past couple years, and also pay a miserly rate, the 4%. ............ Actually, with JCP, the stock was obviously very cheap--but I don't shop there. I thought if I am not shopping a JCP, why am I bullish on the stock? So there was some rationalization for not holding the shares. Likewise, an investment in WaMu only lasted a few weeks. Ouch, that would have done quite well for me too. After awhile, I probably thought to myself that everything that WaMu does, my credit union does better. Again, the stock was fairly cheap, but I rationalized dumping the position for something sexier. But if a gut spilling here, thanks for endulging me.