The Investor of the Year — 50 years and counting
Away from the din of the big-time investment world, this advisory’s Investor of the Year has been making money and having fun doing it.
This year’s Investor of the Year lives in Illinois. She’s been investing for over 50 years. She just turned 77.
She does not have a show on CNBC or an online column or a book about an amazing new way to make millions on the market.
But then none of the Investors of the Year ever do. Not when they come from The Bowser Report.
During the time we’ve been following this microcap advisory, the Investors of the Year have been a women in Oregon who loves gardening and a man who made hand-weaving looms in the state of Washington.
This year, Mr. Max Bowser has moved from the Pacific Northwest to the Midwest to find his honored investor.
We’ll tell her story in her own words and pick up a few insights on small stock investing along the way.
(see Daily Buy-Sell Adviser, September 19)
Just an ordinary person
Ms. Ruby M. Haugaard was born in Poynette, Wisconsin, and was an employee of the State of Wisconsin for many years. She also worked in a cannery. Following retirement she moved to Illinois. She has been a widow for some time.
Interviewing his Investor of the Year, Mr. Bowser starts with the lead story in his previous issue, the “Terrible Ten.” He urged his subscribers to buy 200 shares of 10 stocks on the New York Stock Exchange trading for less than 75¢ (see Daily Buy-Sell Adviser, April 20).
This investor took his advice. “I did buy nine of the ten,” she says. “The tenth I already had in my account. And, incidentally, it exposes your subscribers to a section of the market in which they have not participated.”
These are not microcap stocks — they’ve just been trading as if they were. All but two had gone up in price since he recommended them.
As this suggests, Ms. Haugaard has no fear of buying in a bear market. She is not discouraged because many stocks are down, she says.
She checks her stocks daily and usually buys 200 shares at a time. “Sometimes I’ll scrape up some extra money and buy 500. I’m just an ordinary person and don’t have a lot of money.”
She uses direct market orders rather than limit orders. Nothing fancy.
A big winner
Ms. Haugaard follows Mr. Bowser’s Game Plan for buying and selling microcaps, and buys each of his Companies of the Month.
In that case, interjects Mr. Bowser, she bought one of the advisory’s biggest recent winners, Zagg Inc. (OTC-ZAGG). Zagg makes an invisible shield for handheld devices developed from the protective film used on the blades of military helicopters (see Daily Buy-Sell Adviser, January 16).
When it was recommended in January, the shares stood at $0.99. They have been as high as $4.95 and now trade at $4.30.
But it’s just one in a long line of stocks that have found their way to her portfolio. She began back in 1958, when she had a supervisor in the state government who was interested in stocks.
“I told someone that I should have become a stockbroker because I find the business so fascinating.”
In response to another question, she admits that she is willing to average down (for the uninitiated, that’s buying more shares of a stock you own at a lower price than you originally paid). “Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn’t,” she adds philosophically.
The right attitude
When Mr. Bowser sends out a sell signal to his subscribers, she usually complies. “If I still have it, I’ll sell it. I’m always interested in why you think it should be sold.”
And when a stock loses money does it upset you, the editor asks? “No. Stocks go up and stocks go down.”
If you get the impression that this is someone who has just the right attitude to succeed as an investor, we’re not going to disagree with you.
The best stock she ever bought, she reminisces, was another of Mr. Bowser’s Companies of the Month. She purchased Contango Oil & Gas (NYSE-MCF) in 1998 for $2.09, including commission. It rose as high as $95 when it was almost sold last year and now trades at about $44.
She bought 500 shares of that stock. “I’ve sold 300. The other 200 will probably go to my heirs.”
She also fesses up to her worst stock. It was a company from Hawaii that made products from algae. “I have arthritis and one of their products treated that ailment. But it was a flop of a stock.”
Still, that seems like a relatively small bump on a road that has stretched out pretty smoothly for half a century.
Think about it. Far from Wall Street or Bay Street, people can invest with patience and persistence, enjoy the ride and make money into the bargain.
Somebody oughta write a book about it.
|
E-mail this article
Printer-Friendly
