[David Sklansky]

There is so much wrong with your post

"The EV is negative."

A random stock has a positive EV

"The reason is that it is beyond stupid to buy a stock because someone tells you to."

I'll agree that is probably somewhat accurate as a general rule

"The fact that he is a millionaire is irrelevant. I know plenty of millionaires that can't invest in the stock market to save their lives."

True again. Except that he was also a world class poker player and the combination is a strong indication of multi faceted talents.

"The information that you can not share... it sounds like he may have an inside edge. That is also irrelevant. People manipulate stock prices on the short for a number of different reasons. He may even be playing YOU for the sucker."

Didn't you read my post? He was a friend of mine. And he was obviously feeling guilty about walking away without mentioning the stock. He wasn't touting. And he wouldn't have behaved that way unless IN HIS MIND anyway the EV was WAY positive.

"If this is how you invest, I would suggest you buy some Mutual Funds and adopt a long-term approach. Oh, and do not not NOT not NOT not EVER try to speculate in options."

I don't think that even my biggest critics doubt that I could quickly learn to play options better than all but the most elite. I turned down mega money to do just that.

"So when he told you about this stock, you checked the technical aspects of it."

Please

"You also researched the history of the company and got at the very least a feel for the business at hand. Then you looked at the balance sheet."

You think there is information there not already taken into account by the market?

"Then you looked at the market in question, such as the competitors, the government regulations, "cousin" companies related to the stock, and what the insiders are doing?"

ditto

"I think that you are saying you did none of these things but you are going on something a friend said and you had a "feeling" about this and you tripled your initial investment."

It wasn't a "feeling". See my posts about adjusting evaluations when smart people are sure about something.

"Sorry for the tone of the post, Mr. Sklansky. But there is nothing more pain inducing to my ears then "A friend told me to buy XYZ because it is a sure thing". *Vomit*"

Agreed. But that's not what happened.