bottom feeding

citibank is trading over $3 today, up from less than a buck two weeks ago. aig is pushing $1.50, up from 33 cents. if you had been conservative, and waited and bought the day AFTER citi and b of a announced running the first two months of 2009 at a profit, you'd still be up over 100% on each, been able to sell half your holdings today to recoup your entire original investment--and you'd still be sitting in the market with who knows how many free shares of previously-trainwrecked financial services stock. considering that your taxes will be vastly inflated over the next several decades in order to pay for the resurgence of these two securities, it's not a bad hedge, if i do say so myself. (and i do say so myself, since i can today pat myself on the back for having done exactly this over the past week and a half).

buy when everybody else is selling, and then hold. that's my motto. (nstar is still going gangbusters since its nadir a couple years back, complete with dividends). if only i were making buffett-sized market bets, i might actually be getting somewhere...