[MRM]

The only money I manage myself is the money I put into my Keogh at the end of the year. I started my business three years ago so I have two full years of cotributions. I started investing it actively the first of the year when the PPOT stock pick thread started. I used all of 2006's Keogh contribution (which fortunately was relatively small) and bought TCF Bank (TCB) at 17.90. It promptly went up to about $22 or $24 and I thought I beat the market. Subprime hit, then the mortgage crisis, then the general meltdown, and it dropped to $16 and the hovered around there before the bottom dropped out and it went to about $12. After watching it for a while, I put all of 2007's Keogh contribution (which fortunately was about twice as much as 2006's contribution) into TCF at $12.90. And it promptly went to about $9. Then regional banks with decent ballance sheets came back into favor and it spiked to the mid teens, kept going, and hit $20. I watched and got nervous the week before the bailout was proposed, and sold it all at $19.10, making a little over 35% return on the combined lots of stock. It's now safely in a money market fund. I can hold it there for two years and still get a good yearly return. I am planning to hold it a while and get a good feel for something else before I dive in again. I think we're going to see a slow bleed for a long time.

The rest of the story is that two days after I liquidated everything the bailout was announced and it shot up to $28. Woulda shoulda coulda. I'm still glad I got out with a good profit after not buying at the bottom or selling at the peak, just buying and selling when it made sense. It closed today at $17.38, which was down over a dollar and several dollars down for the week. I think it will continue to slide, but I think financial stocks are the place to be now.