"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 20 Aug 2008 21:50:35 -0400, John H.
salmonremovebait@gmaildotcom wrote:

Well yeah, but what do you see in the economy going forward?

No one knows for sure. Long term it always recovers but the timing is
uncertain as is the sector rotation. The keys to investment success
are not really a secret:

1. Good solid companies that have been around a while and pay
dividends.

2. A widely diversified portfolio.

3. A track record of competent management and building shareholder
value.

4. Good value vs assets and future income stream.

Trying to time market tops and bottoms is a risky game. Picking good
companies at a good value is easier. I continue to like the big
integrated oils over the long term as well as some of the exploration
and drilling companies. None of them will double your money in 6
months but you really shouldn't be trying to do that.



We never played in the stock market at all until about 8 years ago. At that
time we decided to take a small amount of money and try our hand. Not
knowing anything about it, we bought stock in about 6 technology based
companies ... two that were highly speculative, high risk, and four that
were larger companies that although they had been around for a while, were
suffering from the telecom fiasco and the stock prices were at a low. I was
familiar with the companies and felt that the four still had promise in the
future, once they recovered.

The two high risk companies have long since gone belly up. But the other
four have recovered nicely, one in particular, and, even now in the current
slump, we have almost quadrupled our total, initial investment including the
losses associated with the two that went belly up.

Eisboch