Investing 102

[GregWeld]

In this "crappy" market -- which I have long warned all about WILL happen during your investing horizons.... and I've reminded many times to remember how easy it was to look "brilliant" during an up market. I wanted to just check the pulse on some names we've talked about. Remember that I'm just using these as examples and nothing more.


I pulled up a chart of the ONE YEAR price performance of Altria (MO) - Alibaba (BABA) - GoPro (GPRO) and AT&T (T) and Philip Morris (PM)... just to plot them in my mind. Remember that PM, T, and MO pay dividends - which is the MAIN REASON to own them long term... because they keep paying while the share price is poop....


MO - is UP 20.5%

PM - is DOWN 3.8%

T - is DOWN 8.6%

BABA - is DOWN 30.3%

GPRO - is DOWN 55%

So.... if you owned the three on the top of the list - your account would be positive overall... and you'd be collecting 5% (just rounding off here) dividend... If you owned the last two -- OUCH... and you get nothing while you're waiting for them to come back to even.


Staying in the game in the down market periods is about 99% of the battle... getting PAID while you play the game is even better. Yeah - you're buddy at the office was making a killing the first few weeks or months on his IPO buys... but I'll bet he hasn't mentioned them for awhile... LOL