<THE FOOLISH FOUR>
Fageddaboutit
by Ann Coleman
(TMF AnnC)
Alexandria, VA. (September 11, 1998) -- I just got out of the staff meeting here at Fool Global HQ where we all held hands and chanted, "Think long term, think long term." With our brains all clean and shiny, we rush to our keyboards to dash off a few more cheery words to lure you all into complacency while the world falls apart around your ears.
It's easy today, because the market ended the day UP! Whew! Maybe the world will go on for another week or two. Of course, the Dow is still DOWN over 1500 points from mid-July, and that's bad. Meanwhile, the Foolish Four is still in the black for the year while the Dow stays in the red year-to-date. Many Dow stocks had good days today. Unfortunately, the Foolish Four portfolio stocks were not among them, although International Paper <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: IP)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: IP)") end if %> nudged higher and Philip Morris <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: MO)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: MO)") end if %> got a nice little flip. It's a "sin" stock and sin was on everyone's mind today.
The Motley Fool is caught in a paradox: We are committed to discussing our investments every single day that the market is open, yet we strongly believe that most people are better off ignoring "the market" and even, to a certain extent, their own stocks. Of course, strategies that focus on small cap stocks, like the Fool Portfolio, need more careful watching, but the Foolish Four is a "buy and forget about it" strategy.
We don't say "forget about it" lightly by the way. It's not a kind of come-on to get people to think that they can make money with no effort (like certain mass emailings I receive, but do not read, every single day -- spammers, if you are reading this, you can take me off your lists!) Forgetting about it is a key part of the strategy. Perhaps the most important part.
What do people do when they worry? Well, first they feel uncomfortable. Then they try to "do something" to restore a certain level of comfort. I don't know about you, but I am most likely to make bad decisions when I get into the "I've got to DO something" mentality. The Foolish Four's discipline encourages investors not to DO anything. And that is often the right thing to do. Fageddabutit.
The market goes up, the market goes down, but over time, the market always goes up -- not for some mysterious reason beyond the ken of mortal man, but because, over time, Americans, and the human race in general, have worked and saved and built and explored and discovered and, in general, tried to come up with ways to make their lives easier -- and sometimes even better. Through fire, flood, and famine; through wars hot and cold; through bad leaders, bad Pentium chips, and bad pizza; through acid rock and tongue piercing, we somehow manage to continue our crawl up from the primordial ooze.
Now that's thinking long term!
Fool on and prosper!
Current Dow Order | 1998 Dow Returns
What Happened to Robert Sheard?
09/11/98 Close
Stock Change Last -------------------- UK -1 1/8 38.25 IP + 3/16 41.69 MO + 3/16 43.19 EK -1 78.00 |
Day Month Year
FOOL-4 -0.82% 2.50% 3.84%
DJIA +2.36% 3.40% -1.43%
S&P 500 +2.94% 5.38% 3.98%
NASDAQ +3.54% 9.50% 4.54%
Rec'd # Security In At Now Change
12/31/97 206 Eastman Ko 60.56 78.00 28.79%
12/31/97 289 Int'l Pape 43.13 41.69 -3.33%
12/31/97 276 Philip Mor 45.25 43.19 -4.56%
12/31/97 291 Union Carb 42.94 38.25 -10.92%
Rec'd # Security In At Value Change
12/31/97 206 Eastman Ko 12475.88 16068.00 $3592.13
12/31/97 289 Int'l Pape 12463.13 12047.69 -$415.44
12/31/97 276 Philip Mor 12489.00 11919.75 -$569.25
12/31/97 291 Union Carb 12494.81 11130.75 -$1364.06
CASH $754.73
TOTAL $51920.92
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