Here's another one of those hot IPO's that are going to blow up right before your very eyes.... Twitter (TWTR). I actually had bought some of these shares early on -- they ran up FAST - and I cut and ran and pocketed a nice profit. Here's why I did that rather than INVEST in it. I found the service very helpful during the big Sun Valley fires last year... but after the fires were out... I couldn't find anything that was of interest to me -- and I certainly don't do anything that's tweetable! LOL
So here's where the Peter Lynch style of investing I've mentioned before comes in to play for INVESTING. I'm pretty damn comfortable knowing I'm mister Joe Average.... and If I stop eating at McDonalds -- and I can't find a reason to Tweet... then maybe others are feeling the same way. Guess what... Twitter reported less usage. SEE!! My guts and my head were telling me early on to listen to what I was thinking and I was thinking this is nothing but kind of a Fad that really doesn't serve a big purpose for me. Dumped the stock. Made some money.
My point isn't that I'm smart - I'm lucky as hell and I know it... my point is that you need to continue to be aware of your own senses... How you feel about a store - a product - the advertising - whatever! Invest in stuff you feel good about using... and if you stop using something and own the company.. DUDE! Time to sell!
For those that don't recognize the Peter Lynch reference -- he was the head of Magellan and grew that into the largest Mutual Fund in existence at the time... He's written many books on investing and you should all read them. One of his early "themes" was to invest in stuff where he was a shopper or was familiar with the products etc. I preach that method here because it works -- and it's easy to pay attention to your own habits and activities. The problem becomes on the sell side --- when you don't listen to yourself and recognize when you're no longer happy with "X". Say if you switched to shopping at Lowe's when you own stock in Home Depot etc. Or you're going to Chipotle and not going to McDonalds -- or you quit drinking Starbucks... or Budweiser...
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