I think what is really underlying the complaining is not so much what a BOD is doing but what an investor didn't do. Every last person on this site could have been a millionaire having traded NOT or any other good stock properly. The game of finance has always been the same and will likely continue long after I'm gone, therefore, as has always been the case and always will be, those who learn to play without emotion or attachment will fare better. There are still too many people relying on NOT to be their financial salvation. I sold some NOT lately at prices people would think they should buy at, only to watch NOT go down further while I gained a few pennies in other stocks of solid value, having been hit buy the market for a dip. The fact is that it doesn't matter whether I make money in NOT or another stock, as long as I make money. If NOT takes off I'm still trading with rules that will do well by me over the long term as opposed to worrying about something taking off and losing "big" over the short term. NOT will be at the center of a very big movement at some point but there should be lots of time to play, not to sit with white knuckles glaring at a computer screen waiting for dollars to come pouring in. There will always be opportunities in the market but only if one knows how to play it.

I ask again, how many of you have watched NOT go down from over $2...... again? I thought so. Hard lesson isn't it? It's amazing how the phrase "buy low sell high" is so well known but so little used. It's almost a no-brainer that buying on a good dip is as close as you could get to a guarantee that the sp will move up after you've bought it. I caught FVI at 2.59 yesterday at 10% down. It's a good stock and today closed at 2.72. It obviously won't always turn out that way but it is the recommended tactic to use by virtually all gurus on investing. When is the last time you kept some dry powder to do this? Did anyone buy CMM above or around .40 with it now sitting at about .365. Some individuals were touting how it would go up to .50 or .60 shortly but are now blogging about how the sp should be higher based on comparisons with other company stats. They may be correct but the sp is the sp and it dropped as should be expected after such a hike.....but some still bought it high with some encouragement from the cheerleading squadron.

There are many things one can do to improve ones lot simply by considering what you know about time honoured tactics and asking how many of them you apply to your investing. Perhaps it was never as much a question about your knowledge as much as the discipline to put it into practice. It's not easy. I'm always trying to stay on course and not let the voices trick me into bad practices.....of which I am guilty of many.

Best of balance, discipline, patience and detachment in your investing..... and some luck, but it has more to do with the others than luck. As Chopra writes, luck is the meeting of opportunity with preparedness.