If we longs are right, we should exercise restraint and sit tight. AVXL stock price remains at a level that, if we are correct, will eventually show a great profit. Disregarding the swings in trying to jump in and out will likely prove to be fatal because nobody can catch all the fluctuations.
I say this from personal experience. Some years ago, I purchased REGN at $20 per share. It eventually went to $70, and I sold because a Motley Fool article said it was over bought/over priced. After I sold, the stock price of REGN shot up dramatically to a few hundred dollars per share. I lost the big move, because I did not sit tight. REGN closed Friday at around $404 per share. I sold REGN thinking I would get back in at a price much less than my $70 per share. That never happened, and I turned out to be just another Fool.
I have been doing AVXL DD for about two years. I have bought and sold a few shares, but all the while I have been accumulating shares to increase my overall position. I think I am right about AVXL having great potential.
Most great investments begin in discomfort. The things most people feel good about – investments where the underlying premise is widely accepted are unlikely to be available at bargain prices. Rather, bargains are usually found among things that are controversial, that people are pessimistic about, and that maybe have performed badly for a long while (look at the long term chart for AVXL - AVXL's stock performed badly for a long time). Buying AVXL stock has at times been uncomfortable. Sometimes it has been painful owing AVXL stock. It is NEVER easy to do things that entail discomfort, but being uncomfortable comes with the territory when investing in new ideas.
Innovative ideas like this, AVXL's new class of drugs, have to be lonely. By definition, non-consensus ideas that are popular and widely held or obvious are an oxymoron. Thus, such new ideas are oxymoron and uncomfortable. Non-conformists don’t enjoy the warmth that comes with being at the center of the herd. Unconventional ideas often appear imprudent because what AVXL is doing is something that is NOT "what everyone does.” You will never make any serious money doing what everyone else does. Most of the other drug companies, big pharma, are doing something else -- something else that's not working.
This is really the bottom-line: whether you dare to be different. Do you dare to look wrong. Any new, innovative, revolutionary idea has to go through the stage of looking wrong because you are doing something that no one else is doing.
As an investor, don't worry about what the herd thinks or is doing. Do diversify your investments (don't invest money here that you cannot afford to lose). However, do not believe that you should never buy something because you may look bad. If you worry about temporarily looking bad you must understand that it will keep you from buying enough of something that works for it to make much of a difference for the better.
I am long, I believe what most longs on this board believe -- that we are right about AVXL and that it will eventually be successful in a big way. However, it will take time. In the meantime, have patience. Ignore the "noise". The Fool is simply "noise". I believe I am right. So, I will sit tight!
