RLLH

Jatropha Feedstock Developments

I am a subscriber to the Biodigest Digest and it published a quite devastating article about the commercial development of Jatropha Oil based on several projects. Obviously there are two sides to any story, but I would look quite long and hard before investing too much money in Jatropha.

Buy and Hold Is Alive and Well

I invested in each of 5 mutual funds in 1986 and have held them ever since. I tested your hypothesis and found:
Acorn Fund 1010% increase
Evergreen 480% (split into 2 funds in 90's)
Partners Fund 490%
Nicholas Fund 360%
Valley Forge 280%
--------------
528% average increase

Could I have done better by buying and selling? Perhaps, but it was nice to know that while I was playing with stocks on my own, these funds have continued to steadily increase (although obviously down considerably over what they would have been last year at this time.)