Thursday, February 7, 2008

Slow Money

I knew I couldn't do it.

I knew I couldn't go for any length of time without checking the price of GOOG. Not while I still owned the stock - it would have been financial suicide. Still, I held out for the weekend.

Monday night, I went to bed restless. At 3 AM, I woke up my wife and told her I needed to check the price of GOOG. She went back to sleep. I went upstairs to my little office. The computer screen lit up the dark room: 495.43.

In search of an encouraging word, I watched a Real Money video where Farnoosh Torabi interviewed Cramer about GOOG. He was somber. He shook his head and explained how Hedge Fund Managers would look at the situation: what kind of multiple to apply was the big question. He mused: 20? 25? I turned it off.

25 x = 375

20 x = 300

I made up my mind and went back to bed. I slept like the kudzu had my pasture. The next morning, I put in orders to sell everything. At the market. I got 489, even. I felt better, immediately. When it turned around and headed north of 500, I waved it on. I was jubilant. A fool and his money had been reunited.

Actually, it wasn't a disaster: in the profit column, a 17% gain over the whole position - broken down as 159% for the 100 shares I bought in 2004, and 0% for the load I bought last year; in the loss column: a dream.

The only thing that will save me now is The Mother of All Recessions. When everything gets taken out and shot. I ain't dead yet.

I love this game. I'm just glad I don't have to do it for a living.

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