From: Olga Bourlin (fauxever@sprynet.com)
Date: Wed Jun 11 2003 - 06:28:00 MDT
From: "Ramez Naam" <mez@apexnano.com>
> From: Phil Osborn [mailto:philosborn2001@yahoo.com]
> > Anyway, the rub is that if I sell at the points where
> > I might think I ought to, then I get to pay a large %
> > of any earnings in taxes. Suggestions? Note that I
> > am a real amateur in this area.
>
> Buy and hold. Or is that too old fashioned of me?
>
It depends on how long you mean by "hold." Buy and hold works great in a
bully market or a recovering market. But otherwise it makes no sense. If
this were February 2000 and you had made, say, $250,000 in the years prior
to this month - you stood a good chance of subsequently losing all your
gains and then some if you didn't sell at some point (unless all your money
was in KKD or some of the few stocks that actually made money when the bull
morphed into the bear). At some point it makes more sense to sell (to take
a profit) or to bail (in a declining market), in order to preserve as much
of your capital as possible.
Olga
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