The Motley Fool: The Fribble, The Joys of the Foolish, by Michael Giudicissi

Wednesday, September 23, 1998

The Joys of the Foolish
by Michael Giudicissi [email protected]

Ah, but for the joys of being Foolish. I'm a newcomer to the world of Fooldom and I can't seem to shake all of my former Wise ways. In a nutshell here are the Wisest of habits that this newly born Fool wishes to banish:

1) The Joys of the Personal Computer: "Hi I am Michael and I am a recovering quoteaholic." Yes friends, that laptop follows me, it follows me wherever I go. Work? Home? Vacation? Yes to these, a thousand times yes! Why is it that I feel the need to check the price fluctuations of my dearly held pieces of Americana almost every minute? Does it matter? No, investing Foolishly deems the short term price movements of ANY stock to be unimportant. What is important are the fundamentals behind the company at hand. Have they changed? For the better or worse? These then are the criteria upon which smart decisions are made, not the senseless refresh button that has worked its way into my brain (or lack thereof).

2) The Tip: Of course, any Fool worth his cap knows that a "hot tip" from a friend means that, well... it means that you make your circle of friends one person smaller. Why, then, am I compelled to chase these "sure-to-be-a-winner" tidbits of information like a stray dog after a French poodle? Because like all of us, we are investors for the mighty dollar. I am not the most intelligent person on the planet (close, but I have yet to earn the top spot) so I am duped into believing that there are others that have "more," "better," "inside" information than I. That, dear Fools, is where I have crashed and burned (or, more often, been burned). Never buy a stock because you, or worse yet, someone you know "likes the company." Who cares? Would you trust me to write your last will and testament because you liked this little Fribble? I hope not. Invest in stocks that are of your choosing, based upon solid fundamentals and research.

3) The "Average In": Here is the scenario: My neighborhood is falling apart. Too many people like myself have moved in (curses!) thereby lowering property values by 50%. I make a Wise decision to buy all of the vacant properties with the remainder of my dwindling savings, thereby assuring that when values go up (and they never will with me living there) I will make a hefty profit. Hey! how about a Foolish approach to the situation. When values drop based upon a change for the worse in the neighborhood, maybe I could sell my home, take the money and buy a new home in a community that better suits my lifestyle? Of course the rub is, once I move out, the property values go right back up and I am duped again (at least this time it is my doing).

The moral of the story, fellow Fools? There are many distractions to keep us from realizing our financial goals. A Fool with the best of intentions could easily go astray in a market filled with turmoil such as we are in now. Mistakes are everywhere (ever hear of daytrading?).

But persevere my fellow Foolish brethren, stick to what you know works and will continue to work. For as the Wise cash out to protect their profits only to jump in again "when the time is right," the Fools among us will turn off their computers, ignore the naysayers and avoid throwing our life savings upon a sinking ship recommended by others. We will continue on the course we have charted for ourselves.

By the way, does anyone have the latest quote on AOL?

[Hey Fools, why not pen a Fribble, yourself? We welcome submissions from readers. Just click here and read the "What's a Fribble?" item, pen a short masterpiece, and send it off to TMF [email protected].]