The Expensive Lesson
I shorted the stock of United Airlines two years ago -- at anything over $0.00 I felt the equity was ridiculously mis-priced as bad management, a tough industry, and difficult operating conditions made any positive valuation ludicrous.
And in fact, I was proved to be right. Two years later...
But what happened in the interim is instructive for small individual investor.
Despite being a worthless stock -- the management put out a press release years ago that flatly stated the equity would have no value after the re-organization -- the market managed to continue levitating this issue.
Namely, UAL shot up as high as $3.00 (!), and not having the fortitude or the fortune to back up my bet, I folded.
So investing is as much about timing, resources, and of course patience, as it is about being right. Ouch, that was a costly lesson to learn.
