Investing 102

[GregWeld]

The market is poopie no doubt.... but here's what I want you to focus on. Your guts. Are you full of fear when you look at your account? Do you see this sell off as the end of your investing and you're telling yourself you should have never ever gotten in the market because it's doing exactly what you feared? Or do you look at this as a set up for buying lower, so you can kill it when the market rebounds?

You need to pay attention to these feelings - because investing is about emotions many times. Emotions can override your brain and make you do things that aren't good for you.

I reminded people many times to "take stock" so to speak when the market was going up every day.... and to remember how that felt - so you could recall that when the market SUCKS. Well.... now it sucks.... and I want you to remember how you feel about it. Because if you're going to be a true investor - there will be MANY highs and lows over many years. Days when you're just crushing it - and days when you wonder what the hell are you doing.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++


Lance mentions Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) -- it's been a tremendous stock for quite a while now.... huge gains -- and also some huge dips. I've personally bought and sold it many times. It's not a core holding for me because it's expensive - and it doesn't pay a dividend... BUT ---- if a guy was patient and bought near the 400ish low this last week... he's picked up $75 a share in just the last 4 days of so. If you're a longer term player and you bought this stock back in 2006 or 07 or 08 or 09 or 10 or 11 or 12 or 13..... you have a gain even with the selloff. If you bought recently - you're feeling used and abused.

The company has had some issues - no question about that!! Will it regain it's luster? Who knows? My personal guess is - it will learn from this bad experience and institute some controls so this doesn't happen again. I wish there was one around me because I loved the food and the concept. I'd like one here because it would give me a read on traffic and whether or not the customer abandoned them or are they coming back and creating lines again. Without that read - I can't make an investment. I need that sense of how it's going.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


Oil and related:

I continuously hear the talking heads on TV telling me how lower oil prices are good for the consumer. I'm calling this nothing but talking head bullcrap. The damage this is doing to the COUNTRIES that produce - our STATES that produce - The suppliers that feed this industry pipe and pumps and trucks and anything else they use -- they HAVE to be feeling this big time. California is a producer - Alaska - The Dakotas - Texas.... Oil is important to these regions. So I ask myself -- is it important that I'm saving (pocketing) $30 a week when I fill up the Jeep -- or is it more important that Caterpillar (CAT) sells a $400K tractor... I personally feel these low prices are HURTING the economy not helping it. Where it goes is anybodies guess. We'll just have to wait and see where this goes.