AOL used to be the biggest ISP when the Internet was just a baby. What went wrong? Could we have predicted that AT&T and cable companies would be your ISP? The answer is yes you can. The reason is that phone companies and cable companies already have the network built. We all know that dial up would be replaced by high speed.

When you invest in technology, you must always know that there will be someone who going to come up with a better products. Do you remember the ZIP drive from Iomega? Zip drive was a hot product back in the day, but now nobody care about ZIP drive. The ZIP drive was replaced by CD-R.

I also believe that in a few years spinning hard drive will be replace by flash hard drive. The problem with investing in technology is that it has a short life. Coca-Cola will always be Coca-Cola because there’s no need to reinvent the same products. Can Coca-Cola adapt to non soft drink? Of course they can they already did, they bought Vitamin Water.

Sometime we invest our money in mutual fund without knowing where the money is invested. I guess that is the reason that I decided to invest on my own. We don’t really care if the business model is sound and promising in long term. The only thing that we care is if the stock price goes up. When we don’t think of our self as a business owner, then that is when we start to lose our money. Today I bought Visa around 64 dollars because the company really has a unique business model. I know 64 dollars is expensive but if it keeps going down I would keep on buying because I like the business model.

Final Thought

I am more active than ever in investing and building this website. I guess you can says I have become a better investor because of this website. This website gives me the motivation to become a great investor. Don’t think negative of yourself; you can become whom you want to be if you don’t give up. I also like to thank the readers who think what I am writing make sense.

I am thinking back at my years of investing. I was reading an article from Money. Do you remember when Krispy Kreme Doughnuts was 44 dollars a share. During that time Warren Buffet was seen eating Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, and investors were wondering whether to buy Krispy Kreme share. I thought to myself this is so silly, Krispy Kreme is 52 week high. Why on earth should I buy because the Old Man is eating Krispy Kreme? The second thing is that selling doughnuts is a low margin business. Everyone in America and the World must eat doughnuts for me to buy that stock. Krispy Kreme was not a sound investment it not rocket science.

I was right on my judgment, skill and experience. I didn’t even touch Krispy Kreme with a ten foot pole. Please I have nothing against Warren Buffet. We learned investing by one person, and that person is Benjamin Graham. Ben is the person that I look up to the most even though the only memory of him is his book. The second person that I look up to the most is Phil Fisher for growth investing.

Warren Buffet doesn’t want you to follow his every moves. I think I know the reason for this, and the reason is that he want you to think for yourself. Don’t copy him. You can look at what he owned but do your own research. He want you to think for yourself. I want you to think for yourself that why I don’t show the stocks I owned in my portfolio.

I admit I do look at his holding but I always research the companies that he holds. I ask myself is this a good business that I want to be in? How does the company make money? Does the management think of only themselves? How much is the company long term debts?

In conclusion, DO NOT FOLLOW THE OLD MAN!!!!

How could I have not seen that the housing bubble was coming? I saw the clues but I didn’t really pay any attention to it. This is the following clues that I saw:

• I was looking for a house and the bank told me how much I can afford. They recommended an ARM to finance the house. The banker told me to use an ARM because I can sell it within 5 years and still make a profit from it (I hate sell men because they are full of B.S).
• The second clues is why is there so much activities with housing? I had a bad feeling with Washington Mutual. When I compare WaMu to competitor, WaMu is weak compare to Bank of America.

Did I watch my portfolio with the banks I owned? Yes, I did watched. Did I do anything about it? No, I did not because I was a lazy hawk. I let the snake bite me. Was I a bad investor? I was of course. How much did I lost in WaMu? I only lost $300 that all. I did take a hit in my portfolio. Did I learned anything? Not a dame thing.

The performance of your portfolio is very dependent on what kind of person you are. If you are lazy and don’t do your homework, then you probably going to get lousy result from your portfolio.

What started the housing bubble? I been hawking the market for a while now. This is the script that I came up with.

In the year 2000, tech companies went skyrocket. Investors believe that there is only upside, so investors kept buying no matter how high the price went. They never ask how much is for valinux, or theglobe.com. New IPO kept popping up, and on it first day the stock price would be sky high. Was I excited like other people when tech skyrocket? Of course I was, I was buying QQQ 100.

Did I lost money during the tech bubble? I did of course. I was 18 years old back then went I started investing. Anyway, let get back to our story; after tech bubble the Fed lower interest rate to pump up the economy. People then start buying home because of the lower interest rate. The lowest interest for 15 year mortgage were as little as 4 percent.

People that can’t even afford a home can now because of lower interest rate. The Fed did pump up the market but then created another one. Now they created the Housing Bubble of 2007, and many people are losing their home. It sad seeing people losing their home, but that how the system work. People always suffer from greed.

What happen when you sell your stock too short before it reach it peak? How do you know when your Apple is just right to eat? What indication do you have. How do you know when to sell and when to buy? You do you have a clues? What should you do?

Don’t look at the quote
I am so hard headed that I didn’t take Grahams teaching and applying it. If the stock have no quote than everyone would be a better investor. The concentration is not on how high the stock price get, but how profitable is the business. News and quotes are available to us 24/7 whether it from Yahoo! or MSN. Come to think of it, I feel sad and disappointed in myself that I didn’t take my master’s discipline and teaching into consideration. I was blind with the stock going up so fast, and I couldn’t make the decision myself. I had let Wall Street made the decision for me.

Don’t take it too hard on yourself
If you would have kept Apple stock right now, it would have been worth close to $18,000 right now with your $2,100 investment; buying at $21 a share. I am just kiddy don’t take it hard on yourself like something die. If you want to be a superinvestor, then you have to learn from the mistakes you made. Superinvestor such as Grahams, Lynch, Buffet, and Phil Fisher all made some mistakes in their lifetime. The most important thing is learning from it, and hope that you don’t make the same mistakes the second time. If you do, then I don’t know what to think about you, hehehehe…