Word: stockings
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...stock-picking bug has even bitten people who would ordinarily take no pleasure in studying price-earnings ratios and balance sheets. "It's so simple, it's insane. If you do this carefully, it's like picking money off trees," declares Michael Petryni, a Los Angeles screenwriter, sounding more like a TV pitchman. But behind the scenes, Petryni spends at least two hours a day studying financial papers like Investor's Daily and following stock quotes using the same computer terminal on which he writes his scripts...
Many investors are surprisingly daring at an early stage. Fairfax Randall, a Houston homemaker and sometime interior decorator, boosted her portfolio from $250,000 to $2 million in just three years by leveraging, or borrowing money to increase her stock-market wagers. But she ventured naively into risky stock options and lost $1.5 million during the 1981-82 recession. Then, through cautious decisions and hard work, she built her portfolio back to $2 million. Says she: "The stock market is my absolute love. I don't buy pretty clothes, and I never spend much money on myself...
...everyone is willing to risk such setbacks, especially if the savings in question are earmarked for retirement or education. J.H. Freeman, a 70-year- old former financial manager of a Houston law firm, is primarily interested in steady-dividend income rather than a zooming but precarious stock price. Thus he prefers companies with reliable profits, like power utilities. Though his taste is conservative, Freeman has doubled the value of his portfolio in five years...
...variety of their methods, private investors have many common guidelines. For example, many small investors avoid buying individual foreign stocks, since they may have trouble getting timely information about the securities. Small-time investors generally shun stock options, futures and other risky instruments unless they have carefully constructed a way to use them as a hedge against losses in their common-stock portfolio. Finally, they frequently establish predetermined selling points at which they will dump a stock to cut their losses or capture their gains. Says Melissa Lamb, 28, a Manhattan real-estate broker who is learning the hard...
...desire of so many investors to make their own decisions has become a boon for discount stock brokerages. These firms charge smaller commissions than full-service investment firms because, unlike the traditional houses, the discounters provide no advice or portfolio management. For example, on a sale of 100 shares of a $60 stock, a discounter's commission would be about $50, in contrast to nearly $100 at a full-service brokerage. As a result, the percentage of retail stock transactions placed with discounters has increased from 8% in 1982 to an estimated 22% this year. Most successful is San Francisco...