Sunday, August 1, 2010

Why'd I sell DFS?

This was the question I got after my previous 2 posts, which was a simple disclosure that I sold my stake in DFS where I didn't really provide any rationale (my apologies)...

My guess is DFS is worth about $20 to $25 dollars, so I don't see a huge potential upside. Additionally, given the current state of the economy, there is a relatively large amount of uncertainty in my guess of DFS's fair value - who knows, maybe its fair value is $10, or maybe it's $30... only time will tell.

Also, the stock has basically tripled from its March 2009 lows, and this type of run-up always makes me a little nervous. This is similar to when I sold USG and SHLD after their run-ups, see my previous posts on those former holdings for details (you can click on the "zzClosed Position..." labels on the right to easily navigate there).

Anyway, someone said that when it comes to investing the science is buying and the art is selling... and someone else said there's no rule that says you have to get 100% of the upside. So maybe DFS will continue higher and I'll end up kicking myself, or maybe it'll go back down to the single digits and I'll buy more...