Thus far, the Toshuo Portfolio has been smashing the market. I have to admit that the I feel some small pride not having sold anything I’ve bought since starting this investment project early in 2005. Rather than camping out in front of a stock-ticker screen to watch my investments twenty-four hours a day, I’ve ignored the day to day fluctuations in their prices. Whatever gains I’ve made have been due to patience, long term thinking, and luck.

Unfortunately, pride is a liability for an investor. The idea of not selling is dangerously appealing, at least to me. Yes, there are tax considerations that make it a good idea to hold onto some borderline stocks that might not be ideal candidates for purchase. Still, there comes a time when it’s time to free up money for better opportunities. Every stock I buy, I buy with the intent to hold, but mindlessly holding them after circumstances change makes about as much sense as refusing to switch to an open check-out line at a grocery store out of some fear of wasting time already “invested” in my current check-out line.

How I was wrong about Columbia Sportswear

The main factor that I mis-predicted was the success of their footwear. Sales really haven’t grown like I thought they would. It hasn’t been a disaster, though. Equipment sales have been great, and overall sales have been good, especially here in Asia. It’s still a respected brand, and I don’t see anything terrible in the future for the company. By my estimates, it will continue growing at around 10-11% a year over the next few years.

I can do better than that, so I sold my Columbia Sportswear shares.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 19th, 2007 at 5:59 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.