Updated 3.1.2007, By LM Lupo, originally  published 2.12. 2007

Wingless Devils On Wall Street

Today, I captured some hellish advice off of the news wires (from a major broker no less) that detailed managing a severe loss in ones portfolio after the dagger like downturn we experienced this week.  It seems as though every charlatan, and sententious mountebank arises to seize the opportunity that ugly sell-offs create: planting seeds in the fertile soil of market confusion.

The specific advice was,  "wait 10 days before making any decisions and take a sleeping pill if need be."  I think the broker would have been better off advising how to down an elephant with a quail feather in hand while running nude from a hungry lion, than proffering up such damaging advice.

Waiting is fine, but artificially induced investment peace is no peace at all.  A universal axiom that applies to all living investors is easy to remember: If your portfolio keeps you awake, or disturbs your peace, you do not own stocks, they own you.  If that is too simplistic, we have the militant Napoleonic quote, "To fear loss is to have already lost." 

We are returning to the following salient article below for our readers since it is not only timely, but also timeless.

Own Too Much Stock?

Own too much stock? Never says the greedy bull, only when prices fall.  Yet, King Solomon once wrote, " The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much: but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep. Ec: 5:12"

Since Solomon was richer than any man alive today, let's stick with his thinking with no offense to the hoards of lemmings that follow the Gates, and Buffets with drool and envy, not to mention the most trendy business best seller on money management and wealth. 

Save your money, and get comfortable for a few minutes as we ask a simple 10 question test, which will reveal whether or not you own too much stock in either one company, or in total.

1.  You can't sleep, or your sleep is disturbed by your large position.  See Solomon above to argue.
 

2.  If your stock spikes lower so does your heart.  If this is you, skip the remaining 8 questions and run immediately to the 'what to do' portion of the article.

3.  You look for any information over the weekend that might impact your stock or investments for the following week.

4.  Weekends are wicked interruptions to your stocks trading activity, and deep down you believe holidays were meant for weaklings, and government workers.

5.  When you have free time of no work and no markets, you find that you really are quite boring and have few outside interests.

6.  You fantasize about future stock returns--be honest here.
 

7.  You watch the overseas market into the wee hours,  bleary eyed hoping to catch a foreshadowing glimpse of the next days early action, even though you know it means very little.
 

8.  You search the message boards for relevant information all the time, and you write on message boards all the time, with different ID's even.

9.   You believe that your stock has the answer to your future financial interests.

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