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versus someone who is trying to trade for TICS
[ticks?]. When I say TICS, I mean, if a stock is
trading at 10 1/8, a TIC trader would buy a [sic] 10
and try to sell it at 10 1/4, make 25 cents, and say,
thank you and goodbye. I mean, that’s something that I
felt I was ever [sic] good at. I understand the
fundamentals of a company. So I did position trading.
You know, position trading is probably 60 to 70 percent
of the trading done on Wall Street.
Q What was the average length of time that you
held each position?
A Well, the average length of time can’t be
predetermined. Whereas a TIC trader would say, Okay,
I’m buying at 10, as soon as it hits 10-1/4, I’m out
and gone; and if it trades at 9-7/8, I’m out, because
you’re playing for the TICs. A position trader would
say that this, and relative to other groups on my
spreadsheet, it’s undervalued or overvalued. Because
it’s undervalued, it should at least migrate towards
the mean. That’s what I’m trying to wait for. I don’t
know how long that migration may be. At the same time,
you’ve got to be careful of your losses.
I mean, I can’t say, you know what, it’s 20
percent undervalued, but this is the way we were paying
our mortgage payments. So I can think all day long
that it’s 20 percent undervalued , but if it goes to 50
percent undervalued, we’d be mowing lawns.
Q The original 1040 for 2000 doesn’t show any
long term gain or loss. Did you ever hold any
positions in 1998 for long term gain or loss?
* * * * * * *
A Not on purpose. When I say, not on purpose,
that would not be the reason. It would happen because
I would have a spreadsheet of names, and on those
names, I’d find something that was 20 to 30 percent
undervalued. If it’s creeping up and it’s now 10
percent undervalued compared to the group, there’s no
necessary reason for me to sell it just to sell it.
I’d sell it just because it went above that median
valuation.
Q In 1999?
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