Robert Freedland

Why I Had to Sell Ecolab

GregT,

Thank you for your comment and for taking the time to read a couple of my other entries here.

Rest assured that I do not choose which of my entries shows up here on Seeking Alpha or even on Yahoo. Seeking Alpha approached me regarding participating in their endeavors and I am delighted to be a participant in this multi-author website. Apparently Seeking Alpha and Yahoo have a special relationship whereby posts here on Seeking Alpha that pertain to individual companies are rather automatically included on the Yahoo Finance site. I would tend to agree that this particular entry of mine is not necessarily of broad interest. But then again, what I am trying to do is not to "gamble" as you have suggested but rather to develop a system including selling my losing stocks quickly on 8% losses that will allow me or anyone else to manage their own portfolios in a rational fashion.

While you feel I am not a "true investor" it is my "truth" that is most disturbing to you. I share with my readers each and every one of my trades and my rationale for those trades. I point out with each of my entries on my blog, Stock Picks Bob's Advice, that I am an amateur investor. I have never claimed otherwise. I am what I appear to be.

But while occasionally, and very occasionally indeed, I have chosen to make a "trade" as I did with Microsoft, I have each time resorted to managing my own core portfolio in a disciplined fashion, selling losing stocks quickly and completely, and gaining stocks slowly and partially at pre-determined levels. I am far from a "gambler".

Please do take the time to read more of my entries and my own approach to investing before dismissing it in haste. You may well find little there to your liking and approval and if so, I apologize for wasting your time. If, however, you find that maybe, perchance, there is some element of insight in what I write, then all will not be for naught.

Like the making of hotdogs, it is often best not to see the details too closely. Each of my transactions is but a detail in the overall picture of portfolio management. I hope that the "hotdogs" I create will be of better taste than the appearance of each ingredient.

Thanks again and I look forward to your future remarks.