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Politics : Idea Of The Day -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ThebigE who wrote (24733)	3/29/1999 5:04:00 PM
From: Judy	Respond to of 50167

e, you asked a general question regarding profit taking and the setting of stop losses for which I have no general answer. I employ various rules for different types of stocks and sectors. For instance, the semis and oil service/driller stocks are cyclicals ... and unless one is willing to buy/hold over a very long-time period that encompasses several cycles, it may be better to take profits at what one estimates to be the top of any particular cycle or to take a loss if one enters at the wrong point in time or be sitting on dead money for a couple of years. Such was the case for those who bought AMAT and INTC and HAL and SLB at their previous highs ... Among the oil service/driller stocks, I like SLB and HAL and RIG and NE for the long-term ... but they have already risen more than 30-35 percent since the price of oil bottomed at 10+. On pullback, they remain good investments. I do expect the price of oil has topped now, tough resistance at 17 and not sustainable in my opinion. My sense is that the price of oil will correct as well as the overall market, so another opportunity should present itself. Also I tend to hold only large caps stocks well-sponsored by the institutions for the long-term and set price targets for everything else. I usually sell early, often a market call ... but my current line of thinking is I try taking a definite good profit than wait for a probabilistic home-run.