Monday, April 7, 2008

Larry's Little GOOG

Today, the market was beneath contempt. I will not dignify the action, today, by discussing it.

Instead, I will ruminate on one of my financial whimseys, a GOOG version of God's Little Acre, which was not a particular plot of ground, but one that moved around so as always to be beneath the feet of a particular someone, in need of God's constant reflection.

Larry's Little GOOG is a hundred shares of Google stock that I have owned and sold and owned again, and sold again, through the years, and into the future. It's always the same hundred shares. Even though I may buy and sell many other shares of GOOG, I can always trace the purchases and sales of that original lot.

I first acquired Larry's Little GOOG in late 2004, in three separate purchases, and sold it a few weeks later, along with another, undocumented lot for a $200 profit.

I guess I couldn't stand not having it around any more, because I bought the lot back a month later and kept it close for over a year. By then, it had grown to 350. When it got to 366, I sold half of it. I didn't want to, but Cramer said I was a schmuck if I didn't, so I did. I regretted it immediately.

Then, in April, 2007, I bought those 50 prodigals back. They were included with a bunch of other GOOG shares that I got. The price was a lot higher, but it was good to have the whole hundred in one place again.

I determined to keep them together through thick and thin, but I didn't realize how thin it was going to get. This past January, I pawned them again - the whole lot, this time. For a couple of months I was totally without GOOG shares, with no prospect of ever seeing any of them again.

Nevertheless, through the kindness of strangers, I was offered my original shares back at a cheaper price. Actually, for a while, they were included in a batch of over 300 shares, but I soon pared them down, closer to the essentials.

Now, I have Larry's Little Goog back, plus 17 shares that I am holding for Somebody Else's Little GOOG. It's called Grid Investing.

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