Is lost? Gets mucho losses? Here is my ever-existing situation. I get hot on a company and then because of my cautious nature I hold off investing. The company continues to grow and build equity and then I think they have peaked and it is too late to get in, of course they continue to go and grow some more and the cycle repeats itself.

My latest victim over the last few years has been Google. Because of its always high price I have been afraid to get in. Leaving that aside, when and how do you make yourself pull the trigger on those gut guesses that you think have a real shot?

Speaking from experience, it's impossible to time the market. If you like the company and the stock put a bid in that you think is fair and then you can either sell it or hold it depending on what your goals were for buying that stock.

But if you think a stock has peaked and its fundamentals are poor, be careful. Sure it may go up in the near term but as we found out in the late 90's it can come crashing down in a hurry.

By the way Triumph. I don't blame you for being gun shy about Google. The stock is selling at $400 and has a P/E ration of 80! Take it from someone who left thousands on the table during the internet boom, that stock will eventually take some sort of hit. How much and when? Well if I knew that......

I have my stocks targeted at different risk levels and investment spans so if something interesting comes up I'll buy into my portfolio, but with limits. That means I'm never going to make runaway returns because I don't take high enough risks but on the flip side it means the potential for losses is reduced. Hey I still make good gains and sometimes I grab a stock that tanks. All being even it works well for me.

As for GOOG, I thought they were over-priced at the IPO when selling for $80/share. The price has gone up entirely on novelty and expectation and if S&P hadn't bought into the stock there would be a lot of traders losing more shirts.

I think YHOO are the stronger and safer company in the long-term and they're only selling just over $30.

Having been right in the middle of the boom and having lost millions in stock options, I can have some sympathy. Thanks for bringing up the P/E ratio. Even as a young boy my father always schooled me in the important of the P/E ratio, and 80 is only about 4x higher than where I think it should be...

It is just one of those things when you see a stock you considered that keeps growing and you never get in. Same thing happened with Yahoo! way back when.