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Thursday, December 3, 1998

Picking Up a Foolish Hobby

by Foolgolf

Five years ago I sold part of my business and with the help of a Wise friend I invested most of my money in the stock market. This Wise friend introduced me to a professional full-service broker. I traveled several hundreds miles to meet her and had a wonderful enlightening conversation. During the course of the following four-plus years, I bought and sold as the Wise advisor called me with the latest and most complete information regarding stocks.

Then, during one of the important phone calls, I was advised to sell part of one of my best stocks (which was my idea to buy anyway) and to buy three other "hot" stocks. As I watched these "hot" stocks go down in price and the stock that I sold continue to go up in price, I became suspicious concerning several of the other trades over the past four years. I knew that I was going to sell the balance of my business in six months and semi-retire, and I had to find a hobby other than golf.

I began reading financial magazines and the idea of on-line discount investing kept intriguing me, and before I knew what was happening I was signing a contract with a discount broker. I also read numerous magazine articles and several books on stock investing and within a short period of time I said to myself, "Hey, I was successful in business why can't I be successful in investing?"

I wrote a letter to my Wise financial advisor informing her of my decision to do my own investing via an on-line discount broker. I did not mention the fact that I would be saving hundreds of dollars in trading expenses by transferring all my investments to a discount broker, nor did I mention the fact that by now I was somewhat more knowledgeable and had many questions regarding some of the past buy and sell deals. I really expected a phone call from the Wise person immediately, but I never heard a single word from her. To this day I wonder why? Did the Wise know that I found out the secret of many of the trades over the past four years! I think I was more upset composing the letter to the Wise than the Wise was at receiving the letter.

I went on vacation and was reading an article on investing websites and an article with two goofy looking Fools in a weird hat caught my eye. I thought to myself, "I must be bored to read an article with two goofy looking Fools on the front page." Needless to say, this was my introduction to Fooldom and now today I have my portfolios set up on this web site and I have been following the mechanical models of the unemotional growth and value, and the Fool Portfolio. I have studied the 13 Steps to Investing Foolishly and have been an avid reader of the daily reports. Effective January 2nd I plan to roll over my IRA, mutual funds, and several of my stocks into these mechanical models. And as of today, I just made the Motley Fool my home page on the Internet.

I have acquired tremendous knowledge in the past year regarding investing and I know that with the excellent work of The Motley Fool I will continue to expand my knowledge of the world of investments. My Wise friend that introduced me to the professional Wise investment advisor is now talking to me about my programs and ideas.

I still look at those Foolish hats and I can only say, great Folly, Fools! I may even be close to purchasing one of those hats for myself.

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