Over the last week, while I was off showing my parents around Seattle, my Roth IRA balance continued to plummet almost daily. New York & Co. (NWY) reported a solid quarter today and even raised its full-year guidance, and as a reward, the stock's down another $1.17 as I write this. After being up over 20% a couple weeks ago, it's now down around what I originally paid for it! The market is hating on retailers right now. But I'm going to continue holding, as I believe it's a strong company, and if it goes lower I may even buy some more to reduce my cost basis.
Toll Brothers (TOL) has also taken a serious dip, as have all the homebuilders, it seems. After reaching a high of over $58, it's now trading around $48 -- the market clearly believes this is the last good quarter for the homebuilders, and Cramer's advising people to get out. They report earnings in a week, but I won't be there -- I sold at $48.03. It was a fun ride, and I made a small amount on the stock, though not the 20+% I thought I had locked in, so I look at it as a learning experience. The lesson I've learned is that I can't count on Cramer (or anyone) to tell me when I'm at the top. In retrospect I should have sold when it was at $54 or $55, when I started thinking "wow, that's a nice gain to make in a couple months." It went higher from there, but I should have taken my profit. A friend of mine with a lot more trading experience says you should always have an exit point in mind for every trade. Clearly this is why. If I'd known "I want to make 10% on this" or whatever, I would have sold it when I'd reached that price, and I'd be happy with my gain. I'm beginning to think that longer-term investing is more for me, and that I should avoid Cramer-style sector-chasing.
The good news is I now have a couple of chunks of money I can invest, and damned if the market isn't having a bit of a sale right now. A couple of fairly recent Motley Fools Hidden Gems recommendations are trading below their recommendation price -- I'll be doing a little research over the next few days to figure out which one(s) to get into.
Posted by kindall at August 18, 2005 09:19 AM