I am not writing this at this ungodly hour because I am disturbed by what you said, in fact I appreciate the fact that you care enough to respond... I just can't sleep.
For the most part I agree with you, but we all have picked dogs in our portfolios and since my son has closed his, I can use his as an example. Our portfolio consisted of ELD, NSU, CBD, APG, EXN, WRM, AMM, MWA & SWG. His portfolio made a substantial amount of money and he had to cash out before this run up because he bought a home and need the money for the downpayment. ELD, NSU, WRM, AMM, CBD & SWG made him all the money. EXN broke even. MWA lost money, but the one we should have dumped a long time ago was APG. We had bought it when it was known as International Pursuit and we have owned it for over a year. Since we bought it I have never read of a management change any new acquisitions, yet even John Embry has it as one of his main holdings, unless he bought it at it's low of $1.99 this thing is a POS. If we had taken the money out of the "dead wood" and put it into a stock with some potential, we would have lost less money and had the potiential to make some. I remember you saying to cut our losses, after all isn't that what a 'stop loss' is for. So you are altering your Portfolio.
As for emotion... did you not buy MAE because you knew the President and the company he was connected with in the '80's made you a lot of money? I bought it on your faith in this man, and I haven't been disappointed, even though we had a few rough moments, I was patient and kept the faith.
Besides you also say to get out totally at strategic points in the market, you then modify your Portfolio, because new and better opportunities present themselves.
We are all here to try and make some money. These discussions help us do that, but we all must understand that there is no exact science to this. We all depend on people's experience. Whether it be Russ, Claude, The Chief, Basserdan, John Embry, Don Coxe, Thom Chandra, or someone we have come to trust and respect on one of the threads we follow, it is their experience that we are relying on to tell us about some new company we have never heard of, or an old one that has been sitting dormant and has just come alive, or an acquisition that is going to propell the joint company's stock.
Charts are great, but the only give you the past history of the stock and an indication of momentum... They can not give you the exact time that you should buy or sell. You are good at reading charts because of your years of experience and research... If they were exact you would never pick a bad stock.
We are, for the most part, all here to help each other make some money. My hope is that someday my experiences will help someone make some money or prevent them from losing some.
Here are some POS I have encountered and lost money with: APG, EXN, DMX, AFT, NXS, AXO, WRX, CDV, SLGLF.OB. I have watch these stocks go nowhere for over one year... if you decide to invest in them... BE CAREFUL!!!
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