Zeev's Turnips Patch-No Politics (ZEEV)

[John Jet]

Today's tepid volume is not the only difference. There's also the matter of valuation, but I wont get into that right now. The interesting thing was that we were in the infancy of the PC revolution and we were using Osbornes and Kaypros to keep Visicalc spreadsheets of our stocks. I have always had a keen sense of value so naturally I stayed out of the Microsoft and Lotus IPOs and shorted an astronomically priced hardware chain by the name of Home Depot. <g> I think that was my first short--and I was lucky not to lose my shirt. There were many others-- some winners, others losers, like Holly Sugar. I climbed the experience curve with fairly small positions so no mistake would be lethal.

Trying to make money on the short side in a bull market is usually a losing experience. I simply liked to have one or two shorts for insurance purposes. Still think it makes sense to be long stocks one likes and short stocks one hates. Market neutrality is not such a bad idea.