Hi Classmates,

Click here to download my papers for Stratman2. I know they are supposed to be summaries but I think it is more important to share insights rather than just making summaries... Mere summaries are boring. I take solace in what Warren Buffett said:

"You're neither right nor wrong because other people agree with you. You're right because your facts are right and your reasoning is right -- and that's the only thing that makes you right. And if your facts and reasoning are right, you don't have to worry about anybody else."

Disclaimer: my papers would be totally useless if we are to have an objective exam - good thing we're not.


Regards,

Mike

P.S.: Here's the passage Prof. Javier read last night (one thing we should remember about StratMan2):

High-technology conglomerate United Technologies has written: “People don’t want to be managed. They want to be led. Whoever heard of a ‘world manager’? But a ‘world leader’, yes. We know of educational leaders, political leaders, religious leaders, scout leaders, community leaders, labour leaders and business leaders. They lead. They don’t manage. The leader’s carrot always wins over the manager’s stick. You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink. If you want to manage somebody, manage yourself. Do that well and you’ll be ready to stop managing, and start leading.”

Now that I have started to invest in the stock market, I find it interesting that there is a striking parallelism between how I handle my romantic relationships and my stock investments. I am not inclined to “buy” or “sell” based on the day-to-day “gyrations” of the market. If a stock is fundamentally sound, day-to-day highs and lows should NOT affect my general perception of it - at least not to the extent of buying or selling. However, if a stock has failing intrinsic value, I just have to let go. While you can still probably profit from going technical on its “gyrations”, it is most likely not worth the effort, as the stock would probably give you more losses than gains… well it really depends on how good a “technician” you are. I am starting to learn “technical analysis” and it is kind of interesting… but I am scared that once I become good at it, I might get addicted.

Given this, I think I can be called a fundamentalist rather than a technician. Although in the past, I did use technical analysis to time my “entry”. The key difference is that love is a generally one-at-time thing, unless of course you want to get into trouble.