Jun

17

"Duuude, you really missed it!" said the surfer on the shore as I came up and asked him how the waves have been. "Ya should have been here yesterday. It was 6 feet, glassy and perfect." It's a classic scenario played over and over. You have to go in and surf the lousy, windy, junky days when the surf is bad in order to get the really good days. You can't just pick the good days or you won't be in good enough shape when the waves hit, and due to the random ever-changing cycles and sudden runs, unless you are there "on it" in the water, you're going to miss the epic sessions. How many days have I been out in lousy conditions by myself when the winds turn around, the swell hits, the tide turns and I am out in perfect conditions with no one out?

In Reminiscences of a Stock Operator, Lefevre recounted the story of Mr. Partidge, "The Old Turkey," an older operator who refused to sell out his position on rises.

Lefevre wrote, "Everybody knew that the way to do that was to take profits and buy back your stocks on reactions. And that is precisely what I did, or rather what I tried to do; for I often took profits and waited for a reaction that never came. And I saw my stock go kiting up ten points more and I sat there with my four-point profit safe in my conservative pocket. They say you never grow poor taking profits. No, you don't. But neither do you grow rich taking a four-point profit in a bull market. Where I should have made twenty thousand dollars I made two thousand."

Wise old Mr. Partridge said, "I couldn't think of selling that stock. Why this is a bull market!" And he said it as though he had given a long and detailed explanation. "My dear boy, if I sold that stock now I'd lose my position and then where would I be?"

Not much chance to get back in last week's rise except for the young and the brave.


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