Fool Portfolio Report
Tuesday, June 4, 1996
Tuesday, June 04, 1996
(FOOL GLOBAL
WIRE)
by David Gardner
(MotleyFool)
SOUTH WOODSTOCK, VT, June 4 -- It continued to snow in June today for the Fool Portfolio, as America's least Wise measure of stock market performance wilted another 0.43%. Coming after yesterday's loss of 3.75%, that's just salt in our wounds. Oh, well. Ho hum.
Doing it to us for a second day in a row was America Online. Off $2 1/4 yesterday, AMER stock -- our second biggest winner ever -- lost another $1 3/8 today. The darned overall market ROSE Tuesday, so our America Online shares remain under obvious pressure. Once $70, now $52 7/8, AMER and its shareholders have been getting hosed for a few weeks now. But hey, hosed can be good: without ever being hosed, one can't really ever enjoy success, right? Let's look at that for a few paragraphs.
If your portfolio rose 1% every day, ad infinitum, you would be the richest Fool in the world in fairly short order. After the first year, you'd be up about 11 times your initial value. The second year, you'd be up 143 times that initial value, and after the end of your first decade, you'd have a 63,596,681,795-bagger. What I'm saying here is that even if you started with just one buck, you'd have $63.6 billion a decade later. But by the end of that, do you think you'd be any happier as an investor?
Oh sure, for the first few months you'd be happy as an Iomega shareholder who doesn't listen to the media. "One percent AGAIN, today?!" you'd crow. A few more months, you'd be totting up those returns with a smile... maybe missing a day or two, since you've done so well and don't feel as if you have to stay on top of things that closely anymore. Of course, after your first year you'd be ignoring the market more often than not, as it's just not that interesting to see your numbers come out up 1% again. And after another year or two, you'd probably just stop following altogether.
Meantime, if anything in your usual daily life went a bit wrong -- say, the dry cleaning wasn't done the day you'd been told it would, or your scrambled eggs were served a bit burned -- you'd suddenly find yourself chewing out the person responsible, and expending no small amount of emotion in doing so. In some cases, you'd no doubt blame someone else when it was actually your fault. And then, one day a few months later, you'd wake up and find you had fewer friends. A glance in the mirror might disclose an extra wrinkle or two, or dark circles under your eyes. And you probably wouldn't find so much pleasure in the outdoors anymore, either. Goes without saying that a day-hike to climb a mountain with friends or family wouldn't be worth the effort. And so it would go.
It's really just a simple rule of human nature: without pain, there will be no pleasure. There CAN be no pleasure; constant pleasure itself is just numbing and debilitating. It's only through trial, or suffering, or yeah -- going down 4.16% to start June -- that one can actually enjoy life (or, in this case, the rest of June). That's our Gardnersop's Fable for today.
MORAL: Expect Gardner to write something like this when he's on vacation.
Yes, that's true, this particular Gardner's away in Vermont for the week. And this week has already been extremely pleasurable, following a lot of hard work over the past several weeks including speeches, Wisemen interviews, answering reader questions, the constant (and enjoyable) ongoing writeups... the works. A lot of it is terribly fun, but some of it's a pain, and it's THAT portion that makes this week so enjoyable for me.
Met a Frenchmen last night, a retired businessman, a very great gentleman from Bordeaux. We were talking (yeah, I do this sometimes) stock market. I was telling him about The Motley Fool, and he was letting on that we need to go to France. "Nothing like it, there," he said, although the French MiniTel system does make it possible for anyone to get ANY company's most recent financial statements. (At $2 a minute.)
"Discount brokers in France?" I asked. Nope. Full-service everything in France, where even the investment clubs are bank-sponsored (to lure clients to other bank services). He left me with the name of another Frenchman whom he described as very Foolish. I myself heard the first faint sounds of another revolution. (Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite, Foolishness!)
We've always thought we had an international message at Fool Headquarters: teach yourself, and base your own decisions on the online work of tens of thousands of others, wherever the heck they are.
Maybe, on some misty future morning, you'll see someone hoist up a bright parti-colored flag. "Le Bouffon Bariole" it reads, gracing someone else's shores.
Fool on.
-- David Gardner, June 4, 1996
Transmitted: 6/4/96
NOTE: Our policy regarding Fool Portfolio trade announcements has changed...Click HERE for details (Foolish e-mail list subscribers have a copy in their box, as well). Interested readers should make a point of reading this document.
Day Month Year HistoryFOOL -0.43% -4.16% 93.50% 261.32%
S&P 500 +0.73% 0.51% 9.20% 46.72%
NASDAQ +0.40% 0.02% 18.20% 72.69%
*Scroll down or expand screen for full portfolio accounting
AMER -1 3/8 ...CHV + 1/2 ...GE + 7/8 ...GPS + 1/2 ... IOMG - 1/8 ...KLAC + 3/8 ...MDRX - 1/2 ...S +1 1/8 ...
Rec'd # Security In At Now Change
5/17/95 2010 Iomega Cor 2.52 41.00 1527.65%
8/5/94 680 AmOnline 7.27 52.88 627.02%
4/20/95 310 The Gap 16.28 34.88 114.29%
8/5/94 165 Sears 28.93 51.50 78.05%
8/11/95 95 GenElec 57.91 83.75 44.61%
1/29/96 250 Medicis Ph 27.86 34.50 23.84%
8/11/95 110 Chevron 49.00 59.63 21.68%
8/24/95 130 KLA Instrm 44.71 26.25 -41.29%
Rec'd # Security Cost Value Change
5/17/95 2010 Iomega Cor 5063.13 82410.00 $77346.87
8/5/94 680 AmOnline 4945.56 35955.00 $31009.44
4/20/95 310 The Gap 5045.25 10811.25 $5766.00
8/5/94 165 Sears 4772.65 8497.50 $3724.85
8/11/95 95 GenElec 5501.87 7956.25 $2454.38
1/29/96 250 Medicis Ph 6964.99 8625.00 $1660.01
8/11/95 110 Chevron 5389.99 6558.75 $1168.76
8/24/95 130 KLA Instrm 5812.49 3412.50 -$2399.99
CASH $16434.53
TOTAL $180660.78