Zeev's Turnips Patch-No Politics (ZEEV)

[Paul A]

Gotcha.. but really my sarcasm was pertaining to some bashing myself and others took from him about a year or so ago on s/i when he was drawing on his decades of experience to try and set short sellers straight before they lost every penny.. If I recall correctly, there was a good few months where most of his posts made reference to the foolish folks who sell short and I never forgot that..

Do what works for you.. I personally feel that by not short selling you cheat yourself out of 1/2 the opportunities.. Of course the market provides endless opportunities, so one can make profits simply playing long without missing much.. but balance is important to me and short selling also improves ones allocation skills and emotional well being necessary for surviving in the markets. I analyzed all my trades from the last 3 years some time back and found that my profits on the long side during this big bad bear have almost doubled since I started shorting- and that can be attributed to the fact that short selling requires you to follow a strict game plan and digressing will cost you your account.. Now I apply those disciplines to every trade which when playing the long side only I dont think I would have developed the skills as quickly.

but like you say- to each his own. I don't bite your ankles for your feelings on short selling.. but when someone is so adamant that its a losing strategy and essentially calls people 'fools' for even attempting to do the impossible only to adopt the strategy a few short years later.. well.. I dunno.. I find that too funny to resist commenting on..