I can't comment on the long term value garnered by anyone investing in Westfields Initial Public Offering. I can comment though on the shares I held in Westfield America (wfa) that rolled into Westfields Stapled shares (wdc). The purchase costs of my wfa equated to $13.50 per wdc and I held them all the way up to the dizzy heights of $21.00+ and all the way back down to $10:30 (they went down under $9.00 after I bit the bullet).
Even though I had received significant returns in the interim from steady dividends, the lesson learnt was to take the profits on capital gains when the share price is on the rise.
Holding for the "long term" simply means you will ride the rollercoaster up when they go up and will ride the roller coaster down when they go down.
I also had WDC when they converted to the stapled securities. Sold in 06 at only a moderate profit.
Just because the market is currently very volatile and has been acting on impulse news rather then long term outlooks, I don't think that warrants not being in a company because the market is selling it off. The underlying entity with your own research is what your investing in, not the short-term perception of the market (of course this is in regards to long term core holdings, if your chasing short term spec stocks obviously the market perceptions play a large role).
Kermit, good that you can discuss your views in such a reasonable way - it's appreciated.
We simply have a different investment philosophy. You seem to like the idea of 'owning a bit of a business' over a long term and see making maximum profit as very secondary.
I just don't see it that way. I want to see my capital growing.
You say "if you're chasing short term spec stocks.......": I've indeed chased a few of these in my time, rarely with positive results so I don't do it any more.
But what I do do, is take advantage of uptrends in solid, well managed companies, selling in significant downturns. e.g. sold my whole p/f in January 08 when the GFC was happening.
Maybe take a look at LEI, WOR, CPB, MND, WES charts for 2009 and compare with same for WDC. Unless you have some passionate interest in shopping malls, I just don't know why you wouldn't prefer to own a stock which is going to give you a decent capital gain.
It all depends on your investment strategy, but if your looking at a large company like WDC when your aggresive spec investor then obviously your strategy is off point already anyway. As a long term core asset, i think the underlying company is undervalued and over the long term you'd expect that the market realises that (once these tougher times continue to subside and volatility to company announcements lowers).
Again, it doesn't seem to me that I'm an 'aggressive spec investor' when I simply take advantage of a rising share price.
So many people who take a purely fundamental approach focus on the company 'being undervalued'. Sure, it might be, but given that it's market sentiment that moves the SP, isn't that something you accept and go with, rather than patiently waiting for the rest of the market to see the light on your undervalued company?
Again, it's interesting to have the discussion and I'm not being critical of your approach, it just rather puzzles me, given that I'm not arguing for some speccie miner where you could lose all your investment.