A Seasoned Investor Takes
The Long-Term View

You Win Some, You Lose Some

Dave talks easily about his investment successes and failures. He recounts what he calls a huge failure in 1989: "I trusted a broker who told me of a 'sure thing' investment (big mistake #1: there are no 'sure things'). I was young and fell for his advice and invested everything (second big mistake) and within weeks my portfolio, which, fortunately, was pretty small, was cut in half. Last time that ever happened. I learned my lesson well." He also says that in the past 10 years he has failed to trust his instinct on the market several times. He rues the opportunities lost as a result of not following his "gut" instinct.

On the other side of the coin, he is proud of the successes in his portfolio - especially, investments in the telecommunications industry. "For the past 5 years, I've had a significant amount invested in various telecommunications stocks that have really done well - ADC Tel, Lucent, Tellabs."