Quote:
Originally Posted by GregWeld
LOL -- There are 469 posts here -- 300 of them probably mention that you should start out buying companies you know or understand their business.
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Greg - I have been in the semiconductor field since 1997, prior to that I was an auto mechanic. Basically I am a technician that went to college and became an engineer. I have been riding the roller coaster of this industry for a while. In 2003 the factory I was working for made semiconductor capital equipment shut down permanently and I was out. Pre-9/11 we were trying to cope w/ growth with over 250 employees and working to expand from $5M per month to $40M per month to fill demand. In 2002 our sales were about $5M total and they ended up shutting down MFG and dropping in several steps down to about 60 employees. At the end of May 2003 I was the only person left in the building as I transferred all the design and documentation to the parent company. I took the opportunity to go to graduate school rather than transfer to the main office in Kyushu. In 2006 I left a "quiet" research engineer job at the university to go back to the semiconductor field, this time in the more "stable" MFG side of the chip business. I was rewarded in 2007 when that factory was shut down. Fortunately I was able to find another position in the company at a smaller facility at the same site.
Investing in this industry scares me because I understand the business and consider myself a long term investor, it is bad enough that my income is somewhat dependent on this sector.