Another One Booked
One of the things that I have learned over the years … is that I have learned a lot over the years – except for maybe patience, that doesn’t seem to be improving any. But one thing is clear, my stock picking abilities have strengthened over time …. nowadays, however, my time to research opportunities is severely limited.
Back around 2002-2005 I bought a number of stocks that I was confident would do well in the next 5 years. I’ve now sold all but one … I think I was up to something like 8 different stocks. Of the ones I’ve sold … my worst performance was United Airlines, where I lost about $1k. Microsoft was the next worst, which gave me only 10% return over 3 years. All others have been gangbusters with 20-30%/yr returns.
I just sold my Union Pacific stock – I bought it at $57.82 in 3Q04 …. I watched it hit 90 … held … 100 … held …. 110 … held … 120 … held. Then last week I told Decy that if it hits 130 … I’m pulling the plug. Well, on Thursday it broke 130 … and held at 134 on Friday. I did a gut check over the weekend … and then pulled the plug on Monday ….. SOLD $135.20 … not too bad “just” a 32%/yr return.
Today at work we have an emergency response drill. I will be part of that …. while other folks in my department give accounting tests to the 75 applicants I lined up for today. I’m also lining up about another 80 more for next week. We need to hire about 15 folks in 1Q08 … so we are blowing and going on this front – we intereviewed 14 yesterday – all very good.
So much to do this week – no time to rest – but thanks to Decy, I was able to enjoy a massage last night which helped loosen my back.
Gotta run … have some work I must take care of.
ciao ciao
