Investing 102

[GregWeld]

Originally Posted by SSLance

Apparently Mr Market enjoyed KMI's earnings call yesterday.

KMI has been a hard one to own for sure! I'm in it 25,000 shares -- and it's down huge (66% one year)... and the 75% cut in the dividend certainly didn't help -- although will help the company long term (which I'm okay with). An almost 20% bounce up today just shows you how fast things can go "the other way" if there's favorable news (thus the reason I won't sell and guarantee myself the loss!). It's a good - well run entity - that is collateral damage in the Saudi oil "war".

CNBC had a lady on today that owned a "hardware store" in the oil patch somewhere in Texas (sorry - didn't pay any attention to the details)... and she said that business was off 90% - and that they can't continue much longer at that rate. This is the kind of thing that I look at (bigger picture) which lead me to post the "low oil might not be so hot" sentiment. It'll take a lot of consumerism to make up for entire business's going out of business!

The cut in dividend on KMI alone - chopped my dividend from $50K a year to $12,500 ---- not a personal "biggie" for me --- but that dividend is paid to lots and lots of people - and it might be a biggie for many. Cuts like that far surpass the little bit their saving on a tank of gas!