fOR WHAT ITS WORTH
I was extremely disappointed, when I looked at Winstar's price; and for moment my heart seemed to stop and I had a near death experience; because I had visions of the Titanic sinking and I was scrambling for the lifeboats. Those were the people that bailed out this morning. ( I apologize for poor attempt at humor; but if we take things too seriously we won't know where we will end up) I won't give proper names because the purpose is not to be a bragart but to share some experiences that might help one make the right decisions.
About 5-6 months ago I sold some shares of a company that I had purchased at a very low price. A lot of promise; no production. It went through the same growing process as Winstar; and by coicidence is in the same part of the world exploring for. And it also wasn't going down much but it wasn't going up either. Well it made a large find on somenew lands and it went up in incriments of .35-.40 every couple of months. After almost 3 years it stary climbing and reach not really any substantial price; but it was almost 1600% of my original purchase price, and before everyone gets upset.. the total proceeds wasn't all that much. I sold because I expected more and it was not moving as quick and as high as I wanted. About 2-3 months along it started moving and in the following 3-4 week it more than doubled from my selling price (3200%) As I reflected on this another picture came into my mind. A story I had heard long time ago about Evil Kneival trying to break a speed record and his motorcycle loses control skidding 500 ft into the Great Salt Lake (UTAH). The news teams were all josling for position to report his disasorous crash and death. To everyones surprise, he got up and started to walk towards shore, newsmen wanting his first words, shoved microphones in his face, and ... he was reported to have said, "For my next number, I'm going to set myself on fire".
What dawned on me was that the preformance today was only from the investors that have been following Winstar. And it is a somewhat obscure company, However subsequent wells will attract new people and the results give new reactions. Has management failed us? I think not. Everything has its time. The answer is Do not make your move too soon. I hope its helpful, it helped me when I started thinking in this way.