Quote for the Week
Some years ago I was the adviser to a profit-sharing trust for a large commodities dealer, I bought for them — I think the stock has been split 15 times since then — a block of Texas Instruments at $14 a share. When the stock got up to $28, the pressure got so strong (“Well, why don’t we sell half of it, so as to get our bait back?”) I had all I could do to hold them until it got to $35. Then the same argument: “Phil, sell some of it; we can buy it back when it gets down again.”
That is a totally ridiculous argument. Either this is a better investment than another one or a worse one. Getting your bait back is just a question of psychological comfort. It doesn’t have anything to do with whether it is the right move or not.
But, at any rate, we did that. The stock subsequently went above $250 within two or three years. Then it had a wide open break and fell to the mid-50s. But it didn’t go down to $35. — Philip Fisher (source)
From the Archives
Last Call
- 15 Ideas, Frameworks, and Lessons from 15 Years – Newfound Research
- Rediscovering Berkshire Hathaway’s 1985 Annual Meeting – Kingswell
- The Harrowing Story of a Top Manager’s Biggest Investing Mistake – Morningstar
- I Hate Guidance – MicroCapClub
- I, Exponential – Not Boring
- Simple Questions and Game Changing Innovations – Periscope
- Toys for Billionaires: Sports Franchises as Trophy Assets! – Musings on Markets
- Vending Machine Mania (podcast) – Preferred Shares
- Telegraph Doomers of the 19th Century – Part 1 – Pessimists Archive
- One Win, 17,000 Defeats: Life as a Washington General – BBC
