1. Know thyself
2. Nothing in excess
Gravitating around those two rules will reduce the chances of getting stuck in troubled places where it would be hard to get out.
1. Know thyself
In investing and finance, knowing thyself is a measurable, yet in news writing and reporting, few media writers would need to quantify their stock tips by reporting a "return-on-stock-tips" figure.
Ditto for Analysts.
Chart 1
Since writing for Seeking Alpha (www.seekingalpha.com), my reports (written in February 2009) yielded the following returns below. The phenomenal returns would look impressive, if not for the S&P returning almost 50% within the same period.
Companies Analyzed: BCE, Microsoft, Silver Wheaton, Valeant Pharmaceuticals (merged with Biovail in 2010):
Right: Total return (%)
Chart 2
As for Seeking Alpha (www.seekingalpha.com) reports written from May 2009, the following returns below are illustrated.This chart was generated in yahoo finance and represents reports for 9 companies: BCE, Activision, Gamestop, FedEx, First Solar, Ford, Family Dollar Stores, Strayer Education.
Right: Total return (%)
Notes: Strayer Education and FedEx were argued for short plays. The rest were long plays. No report was written on Motorola in 2009.
Motorola was analyzed in 2010 and has reached its target price (with a 50% margin of safety level).
Published reports here.
