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Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TobagoJack who wrote (13009)	12/26/2006 9:45:12 AM
From: carranza2	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 219907

Wonderful post. Too bad you don't have Mq to respond to you any longer. All you say is mostly correct, though I disagree with your views on the WOT. All you need to do is read Zawahiri's writings to see exactly how sophisticated the Salafist ideology is and how determined to hurt the West the jihadists really are. They are very, very dangerous and it is correct to go after them. In the pantheon of dangers, they outshine the Russian killing of Chechens by a very large margin. Plus, not everything can be righted, as you imply, if only the right targets are put in crosshairs. What would Captain Kirk and Admiral So-and-So do if they lead the US and observed the Russians in Chechnya? Likely nothing. There is, however, one thing. As you know, this is a dog eat dog world, one in which fear and envy create strife. Hong Kong is a financial paradise because the PRC wisely left it alone so that its true rulers, the PRC elite, could learn the ways of capitalism. Probably is also a very nice way for the elite to hide ill-gotten gains. And watch them grow tax free. So, is HK's wonderful financial system a product of idealism, high thinking, and liberty or is it built on a bed of corruption? What will happen to HK once it serves its purpose? It is decidedly not an Asian Switzerland because it cannot fight if it ever has to. If its terrific approach to capitalism is ever threatened, it will bow because it cannot do anything else.

To: TobagoJack who wrote (13009)	12/26/2006 5:43:11 PM
From: Slagle	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 219907

TJ, We really need to stick to topics related to investing, I see that is the spirit of the board these days. <grin> But we really need to figure out a way to do it in a more profitable and productive manner. Really, if you think about it WE ALL are a bunch of dunces, YOU INCLUDED and have cost ourselves, our families, and I suppose each other LOTS of money in lost opportunity and misplaced investments. Let me explain: Look at the title of this board, "Collapse of 2001 and BEYOND" which as we know now is the collapse that never happened. What we did on this and other "bear boards" was to feed each others fears and to scare each other and our individual selves out of lots of potentially wonderfully profitable speculations that have come our way since the eventful year of 2001. Shame on you and shame on me. Really, the board SHOULD have been titled "Recovery of 2001 and Beyond" and we should have participated in that spirit as 2001 was really THE BOTTOM instead of the top. We had it exactly backwards. Like I said, shame on us, because we probably scared other innocents out of some wonderful gains, too. <grin> I have a smile on my face but I am dead serious about this. You have charts, look at them, practically any sound investment, utility stocks, REITS, BDC's, USA based or elsewhere. Anything with a strong balance sheet, you could have found them with a dart board and the time to buy AND GO ON FULL MARGIN was 2001, our year of the "collapse". Now just tell me why we are not fools? As the good stuff were divy payers the margin loan would have been free. Instead, we fretted about "platform companies" and "the dollar" and took our eye off the ball. And we fed each others paranoia and were cautious when we should not have been. I know you have made some good trades, you have posted many of them in real time and that is much appreciated, and shows character on your part. But in a bunch of them, you would have been better off just sitting tight. I had some good trading gains in 2004 and even better in 2005, this year I haven't traded as much. But what has served me best is stuff I bought back in 2002 and held, collecting the divy and enjoying the gain. And I have been 60% to 80% invested the whole time and am now, maybe a little more than half that held since some time in 2002 or late 2001. And in all this I have a good gain. But I should have LOADED THE BOAT back then and just enjoyed the ride. You should have too. I was full invested most of the 1990's but sold every last single share in 1999 and early 2000. That proved to be a really good move as not a single thing I held then is back to my selling price yet, and may never get there for all I know. On the downside, I paid tremendous cap gains taxes for two years in a row but even worse, that prescient selling gave me a swelled head and got me to thinking I was a "good trader". "Trading" is not where the money is made, I am convinced. Picking your spot is where the money is made. Anyway, looking forward to 2007 maybe we need to rethink our approach. Slagle