Blew it, big time!

ESLR soars

8-Nov-07. When I sold my shares of Evergreen Solar on Tuesday for a tidy profit of 29%, after hanging onto them for nearly 8 months — during which time I flirted with a potential loss of 25% — I felt reasonably smug for having trusted my instincts while hanging on and for resisting greed to sell with a nice profit. Alas, in this case greed would have been its own reward.

Yesterday, the market swooned, with the Dow losing 360 points. Nevertheless, ESLR closed with a 2¢ gain. Hmmmm.

Today, with the Dow down another 75 points, ESLR has shot up another 25%, trading as high as $17.55 earlier in the session.

If only. If only I had not sold, I would be looking at a 65% profit — $7 per share — at today's price. Moral of the story: Sometimes caution can bite you in the ass.

But: It could have gone the other way!