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Strategies & Market Trends : Roger's 1998 Short Picks -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Roger A. Babb who wrote (12694)	8/13/1998 9:25:00 AM
From: craig crawford	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 18691

>> Yes it was luck that you made those big gains in a narrowly focused portfolio << It's all luck or part of it was luck? Because if it's all luck why even try to pick winners? Why not just pick an index fund or randomly pick a mutual fund and then go play some golf? >> I have seen many genius traders make big gains only to lose it all when the fad crashes as they all do. << I could lose 80% of my gains and still would be up more than the S&P 500 for all of this decade. >> My advice is for you to cash some of those big gains and diversify your portfolio. << I have, especially when the market is weak like it is now. The key to making the impressive gains is to have the discipline to place large bets when the time is right and scale back when it's more shaky. I consider trading discipline more important to high returns than actual stock picking. I'm not claiming I can do 3000% every year, and I realize that as the size of the portfolio grows the harder it is to make gains, but that still doesn't prevent me from making 3000% this year. Also, I don't agree with Larry that you need to achieve 1500%-3000% to consider yourself a successful investor. I think that is preposterous.