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Gold/Mining/Energy : Winspear Resources -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Alfonso Agostino who wrote (4732)	1/4/1998 1:19:00 PM
From: Walt	Respond to of 26850

Greetings Alfonso (stock talk not related to WSP) It actually sounds like you have mastered one of the main tricks to playing the market and that is to develope a game plan or style that you are comfortable with. I forget where I heard the quote, but it was from a person who made alot on the market over the years and when asked how he did it he said "He always bought too high and sold too low." In other words he didnt try to buy at the absolute bottom or hang on for the absolute highs which are hard to hit and impossible to hit consistently. Yet alot of people beat themselves up pyschologically if they dont. 1. DD stands for due diligence which is used a couple of ways. Do a little investigation on the company and property, the stock etc on your own so you are comfortable with your investment. Its used on SI alot. Probably because most of us on SI are investors sharing info not brokers. I dont want anyone buying or selling stocks on my say so. Alot depends on your time frame. Ive bought stocks knowing absolutely nothing about the company on a short term bases because it seemed hot I was bored and had some money to play with but I get in and out quick. Other stocks I hold for a period of time because I can see a potential for futher developements. The companies I invest in I think have a reasonable chance of finding a mine, the ones I flip I just think are just hot stock plays. 2,3,4 Shows in my mind a good healthy attitude to the market. When I started investing I wanted every stock to be a winner but soon learned this was unrealistic you are going to have winners and losers. As George said protecting your capital is important so if I get a loser I try to get out with 75% of what I put in, if I break even thats a success and the ones that go up I usually sell part of my position on the way up or when I can get my original investment out and the rest is gravy. I never put all my eggs in one basket either. Because of my buisness/life style I cannt watch the market every day so the way I play the market depends alot on this. In winter I can flip stocks but in the summer I invest in longer term plays. But every once in awhile I get caught with a dog. 5. People dont invest to lose? On one hand or on one level you are right people dont gamble, play bingo , buy lotto tickets or stocks to lose but statistically most do. Seems like a contradiction doesnt it. A bingo player or novice investor will say they won big untill you ask then how much it cost them. If you tried to explain to an alien how bingo works or most Games of chance work they would think humans were grazy. I got talking to a broker one time and he said one of the hardest things he had to do was when a widow would come in with her late husbands shares from a safety deposit box etc and ask what was it worth and what should be done. Nine times out of ten he would look the stuff over half the shares or companies would no longer be trading and the others would be worth a fraction of what they were bought for. It seems alot of investors buy stocks and just never sell them because they are waiting for that big win and if you sell at a lose you are admitting you made a mistake or got conned. When the diamond play got started up here alot of people who had never really invested in stocks befor got in on the action because it looked like you could make alot of money quickly. Just buy a diamond stock and watch it go up. On paper they were doing well so they put more and more money in and margined to the hilt. When the bubble burst with DHK and then Mill City it sent shock waves out that literally wiped out whole stock accounts. Not only did some lose everything they had invested they ended up owing money. The moral is never invest more then you can afford to lose and if you miss one bus or stock play, just wait awhile cause soon another will come along. If it were easy to get rich playing the market we all would be. I enjoy your enthusiasm, best of luck with your investments. regards Walt

To: Alfonso Agostino who wrote (4732)	1/5/1998 3:45:00 PM
From: maintenance	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 26850

Alphonso, I love your style. Your Prof's must love you. My style is similar, as long as we're telling stories, here's one. I have been doing this for years, my knowledge base is finance not geology. I began with the larger caps and made fair returns. Twas boring and hey even a whopping 20% or 30% returns is peanuts if you start with peanuts. So I began the fun risky stuff, I put a small % of my money in exploration stocks and made a few 2 or 3 bangers in a row . I figure now I am so clever I will just put 90% of my money into derivatives and penny stocks, then retire. For a couple of weeks I did really well, I began thinking I was a witch I called it so well. Then I watched as my holdings dropped and dropped and dropped. I was essentially out of the market until I had saved enough to get back in. Now I am much more reluctant to lose money so quickly. Watching some of my investments go to 0 was quite an eye opener for me. I still do the high risk but now I take some profits now and then and buy something nice. Have you traded options, they're a blast, too bad they expire. Best of luck Cheers