Second-Chance Stocks - By Bill Mann (TMF Otter)

If you invest, and you're honest with yourself, you'll look back on your actions and inactions and see things that cost you a heck of a lot of money. Two types can drive you particularly crazy: companies that you looked at and liked that proceeded to run into the stratosphere, and companies that you owned and sold that did the same.

Investing masochism
I keep a portfolio of these things, mostly because I enjoy torture. Most painful for me is my non-investment in Tatneft (NYSE: TNT), a Russian oil exploration and production company. In 2004, shares of Tatneft and other Russian/former Soviet oil and gas companies were hurt by concerns about how the Russian government had functionally nationalized the most valuable assets of oil giant YUKOS. Tatneft dropped from $30 to $20 per share. I was interested. I was excited. I wanted to read up a little more ...

...and the stock started rising, never looking back. It now sits at $105 per share -- a little expensive, but not very. That's a multibagger, missed. It wasn't the first. It won't be the last. It's always a mistake to anchor your buys and sells on the price at which you first saw them, because businesses change with price. But still, for those of us who looked hard at USG (NYSE: USG) when it traded below $10, it's hard not to do this.

Sometimes, once-in-a-lifetime chances happen, well, twice. (At least.) Sometimes the reason for the stock's retracement is clear, and sometimes it's just straight volatility. Motley Fool Hidden Gems Watch List stock Denny's (Nasdaq: DENN), a bona fide turnaround company, has seen its shares move rapidly between $4 and $6 per share and back again. That's not the stuff multibaggers are made of, but it's a big move nonetheless. Sometimes companies really do give you several chances to buy at a good price.

Cheap is cheap
Keep in mind: That "good price" may not be as low as you'd like. How many times have you looked at a company and said, "Wow, this looks great! I wish I had seen it six months ago when it was a whole lot cheaper!"

When companies give you a second chance, the tumble in their stock price usually relates to bad news. Most investors will buy into the negativity and hold off on buying, worried that the shares will drop further. But a good price is a good price. And if that price gets a wee bit better -- or a lot better -- in the following weeks, it doesn't matter; if you're right about the company's prospects, eventually the market will agree with you. (This is much easier to do with companies that you know particularly well, so be sure to do your due diligence.)

While we preach long-term investing, sometimes opportunities can be fleeting. General Dynamics (NYSE: GD) doesn't drop down to $50 per share for long (as it did suddenly in early 2003). Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) doesn't lose 40% of its value for long (as it did in 2000). Home Depot (NYSE: HD), one of the great growth stories of the past decade, lost 70% of its value, from $70 to $20, among titters that the company was being killed by rival Lowe's (NYSE: LOW). It gave all those people who missed out on the Home Depot machine the first time around a second bite at the apple. How many did so?

The Foolish bottom line
When companies and stocks become detached from one another, you need to be ready. The great investors, from Warren Buffett to David Nierenberg to Peter Lynch, recognize that when the market is gloomy about companies, it's almost always the right time for you to be interested.

News Excerpted from http://www.fool.com/news/commentary/2006/commentary06022207.htm

I Turned $3,000 Into $210,000 - By Selena Maranjian (TMF Selena)

This article sports quite the headline, doesn't it? It might smack of exaggeration. But believe it or not, it's true. Come with me now, on a journey into the past.
How it happened
Picture it: New Jersey, 1995. I was not yet a Fool employee. Perhaps like you, I was an avid reader of the online site. The Fool-founding brothers, David and Tom Gardner, were occasionally recommending stocks, and in this case they picked an online service provider called America Online (AOL).

I was still quite new to investing, and didn't know enough to do much of my own research. But at least I had one thing going for me: I was an AOL customer. I used the service every day and liked what I saw of its user-friendliness, usefulness, and potential. So I bought. I snapped up $3,000 worth of shares and hung on.

Over the following years, the stock would go up and down, sometimes significantly, but I kept holding on. And overall, it mainly went up, and it split and split. I remember checking very regularly -- several times a day! -- how rich I was becoming. I think that near the stock's peak, I was in possession of a 70-bagger! My $3,000 investment had become worth $210,000. If it doubled in value only two more times, I'd be (almost) a millionaire! All from a measly $3,000 investment.

Did I sell shares along the ride up? No. Did I sell at least some near the top, when my mom told me to? Nope. (That strange thudding sound you hear is me kicking myself.) I kept holding on. AOL merged with Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) in 2001, and ever since then, the stock has struggled. I remember when the shares were priced in the $70s. But it's a fuzzy memory. They've been below $20 for almost four years now. I did sell a big chunk of my shares -- in the teens -- when I needed money for a down payment on my house. And I finally got smart and sold some shares to diversify into some other stocks instead of holding such a big chunk of my net worth in a company in which I no longer had the most faith.

I still hold some shares, though, and despite my inclination to curse my stupidity at not selling earlier, I'm still sitting on a handsome profit, even at current levels. My cost basis is ridiculously low, and this has still been one of my best investments, ever. I really shouldn't complain.

How you can do it
If any of this story appeals to you, know that you have a chance to make it yours -- perhaps with an even happier ending, if you make a few decisions differently:

First, pay attention to products and services you know, use, and love -- especially if you see more and more people using them. There may a great stock behind them, no matter whether they're big or small companies. There are some wealthy people out there who years ago noticed that a coffee vendor named Starbucks was starting to spread out. And some early users of eBay's service probably saw the financial potential of the company long before you and I did. There are plenty of well-known companies that have done phenomenally well over the past decade or two. Women's-apparel retailer Chico's FAS (NYSE: CHS), for example, has rocketed ahead nearly 100-fold since 1993. Large-cap titan Citigroup (NYSE: C) has been a 23-plus-bagger over the past 20 years. Consumer-goods stalwart Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) has been more than a 20-bagger in the same period.

Along those same lines, be wary of what you don't understand.

If you buy in to such a company, buy to hold. As long as you have faith in the company's future, it's often best to just hang on, despite inevitable hiccups. Don't let some naysayers in the media get you out of a stock because of short-term concerns when you still have long-term confidence. Consider Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT). For its earliest investors, it's been more than a 250-bagger. For those who've hung on for just the past decade, during which the company was criticized for having missed the boat on the Internet, it's quintupled their money -- still not bad, eh?

Do consider selling at least some of your shares if they rise to levels you can't justify. That was my main mistake -- irrationally and greedily hoping to get even richer. If a stock is trading for more than you know in your heart that it's worth and you still hang on, you're no longer investing -- you're speculating, at great risk.

Finally, consider checking out the stocks that David and Tom Gardner are recommending now. They have some darned impressive track records, and you can access their ideas for free. Their Motley Fool Stock Advisor newsletter service, launched in April 2002, offers two picks (and two investing styles) each month. Their returns since inception speak for themselves: On average, their recommendations are up 59.5%, vs. 22% for like amounts invested in the S&P 500. Those gains are in part made up of NVIDIA (Nasdaq: NVDA), a David pick that has more than doubled in about a year, and Tom's pick Quality Systems (Nasdaq: QSII), which became an eight-bagger for some investors after rising more than 700%. They have a few losers, of course, but those two picks show just how fast money can grow. You can try Stock Advisor free for 30 days -- and you'll have full access to past issues' recommendations.
Here's to big profits in your future!

(Consider forwarding this article to anyone you care about. Just click on the "Email This Page" link near the bottom of the page.

Singapore's Tat Hong rated 'outperform' - Credit Suisse

My analysis on Tat Hong.

Tat Hong Holdings - My Singapore Portfolio

Analyst Report on Tat Hong Holdings

Tat Hong Eyes Further Expansion Into Overseas Market



SINGAPORE (XFN-ASIA) - Credit Suisse said that it has initiated coverage of heavy equipment leasing firm Tat Hong Holdings Ltd with an "outperform" rating and a one-year target price of 1.05 sgd.

"With mega-projects in the oil and gas and infrastructure sectors on the rise, management has confidently predicted a 25 pct earnings compound annual growth rate through [the year to March] 2008," Credit Suisse said.

"We believe this is, indeed, likely and it suggests the stock [is] worth more than the current market price," it said.

Credit Suisse forecasts Tat Hong net profit for the year to this March at 31.2 mln sgd, up from 20.6 mln sgd the year before, and for the year to March 2007 at 36.3 mln sgd.

At 10.09 am, Tat Hong was up 0.025 sgd or 2.99 pct at 0.86, on volume of 2.00 mln shares.

geraldine.chua@xfn.com


Cheers
Niversphere
Please read the prospectus and perform your analysis before making any investment decision. The above does not constitute a recommendation to apply for this company. I will not be liable for any losses incurred by anyone who invests based solely on the above-mentioned information.