Visa: Why I Sold All of My Shares

Fortunately, I don't often write up a stock like Visa, which I just reviewed on May 29, 2008, suggest a "Buy" rating, buy shares of the stock and then, two weeks later, sell them. However, that is exactly what has happened!

On May 29, 2008, after a partial sale of Copart (CPRT) on a gain, I purchased 70 shares of Visa (V) at a cost basis of $86.03. Yesterday, with the market once again under pressure, Visa shares were selling off, and as I wrote this post, were trading at $78.14/share, down $2.17 or 2.70% on the day. When they passed my 8% loss level, I initiated a sale and sold all 70 shares at $78.99. This worked out to a loss of $7.04 or 8.2% since purchase.

Without anything fundamentally wrong with the stock, but with my own sale of shares, VISA (V) IS RATED A HOLD.

After an initial purchase of shares, no matter how much I 'like' a stock, I sell my shares should they decline to an (8)% loss. Since this is on 'bad news', I do not plan on replacing these shares, but instead am now back to my five position level, my minimum, and shall wait either for a sale on bad news (which I shall in this case find a replacement for), or a sale on good news to be buying a new position. 'Good news' for me is a partial sale of a holding at an appreciation target reached.

Comments

[User 208998]

That was 2 minutes of my life I will never get back

[nxs_uno]

7 Whole dollars? Guess you just get to eat crackers for the rest of the week. Good Lord who allowed this tripe to be published? Fire them.

[galen clittle]

I don't understand this. Why would you sell at a loss?

[V 4 Me]

I understand having an 8% loss as part of the system you stick to when trading, but nobody thinks V will stay in the 70s for long. Look for 90 by the end of June, 100 by the end of August/early September after the next earnings report and 115 by the end of the year. This stock should be a 4 bagger (4XIPO=176 by this time next year) and trading at 750 or split equivalent by 10 years. It's a long play and V is the present and future of money transaction in the whole world. Just look do some basic research and you can figure that out...who do you know that doesn't have a Visa card?

[V 4 Me]

Go to visaglobalwinners.blog... for those who are bullish on Visa and to join a group of prominent investors who trade as little as 100 V to many thousands.

[boots]

I sometimes wonder why I do some of the things I do but this guy needs mental evaluation.

[charley]

you are an idiot!!! wait at least 2 or more qtrs at 8% loss before selling

[roy_mcd]

Sometimes 8% is to soon, These are hard times for all stocks not just Visa, Sometimes a buy and hold approach still works! I think that is how to approach Visa!

[stevenhmiller]

You held it for a whole week? Wow, what balls (I say this tongue-in-cheek)! You're the type of person that buys high and sells low and then cries to his mommy about how horrible the market is being to him!

In case you haven't noticed, THE WHOLE MARKET IS GETTING BEATEN UP!!! Visa is not being singled out. Visa is a world leader in transaction processing for plastic money and has no exposure to the credit crisis or any of that crap. They are simply a tollbooth for purchases made with a piece of plastic bearing their logo. they collect a transaction fee from the bank issuing the card! They do not extend credit. They are a long term buy-to-hold scenario that will make it's investors very wealthy. They will be reporting exceptional earnings quater-after-quarter! Why? Because nearly everyone in the world (except 3rd world countries maybe) has either a Visa credit card or Visa debit card, and they use it! More and more, people are pulling out the plastic to pay for items. It's convenient, and quick. Watch out for a blockbuster earnings report for the quarter filed just after the Olympics!

Sure, Visa will take it's beatings, like every stock out there. But, smart people stick and hold it. Look at MAstercard trading at 300 level, and it's not anywhere near as big as Visa. They don't even have nearly the quantity and quality of products Visa offers! No body does!

So, to buy 70 whole shares, hold it for a week and sell is absolute stupidity! I would be embarrased to write an article for the whole world to see that touts that! You're an embarrasment to investors with a brain and a little common sense.

Hey, why don't you go buy 1 or 2 shares of Ebay? It's at a rockbottom price now! Becareful, it may fall .10 cents and then you'll sell and go crying to your mommy again!

[User 209126]

There nothing wrong with the company, I don't see why I need to sell it. The fundamental is still strong. You just look at short term but in the long term Visa would be a good investment. People are going to use credit once the economy get better.

[V 4 Me]

The article writer says he was concerned about the bad news V has been getting. I'm assuming he is talking about the litigation against V by Discover card, and also the "Credit Card Fair Fee Act of 2008" in Congress. To deal with Discover V has 3 billion set aside from its IPO to pay them off. Discover is suing Visa due to anticompetive practices, which in reality the suit should be stating just how good Visa is and Discover can't keep up. Visa has a flawless business model making more money every day and forecast to earn more for years to come. Everyone likes to challenge the "Silverback" in the group and Visas dominance is just being made public now which the smartest investors are learning and jumping on-board.

Also, the legislation going to Congress now aims to reduce the transaction fees cards process, but this will not hurt Visa. It will mostly hurt the banks who get much more of the transaction fee than Visa does. The government doesn't want to hurt the banks, so don't expect that legislation to pass, and if it did it's going to be trival to Visa who dominates the world transacting market.

The founders and majority owners of Visa are very lucky and smart people to have come up with a company that is literally the future of money, us investors in V will only benefit, some of us greatly.

By the way, V is the coolest stock ticker symbol ever, buy it just based on that haha

[The Psychoof Compton]

Seems like you didn't research the stock before you got into it. At least you could have waited until the stock had a close to $90's swing, and sell it then. For that matter, stick to short term T-Bills and you won't crap in your pants.

[gaucho420]

Why is this an article? And why did you buy Visa in the $80s to begin with?

I bought in the $60s and I'm waiting, taking a long hold...buying a stock and then selling it two weeks later tells me you didn't do your homework, at all and are just kneejerking based on daily price fluctuations.

[V 4 Me]

Oh, by the way as prices of everyday life increase, more people use credit/debit instead of cash so they don't have to carry so much cash. And as oil prices go up, guess what, nobody pays with cash at the pump. And when people have less money to spend like in our current economy, they use credit to get them through. Visa cards will be transacted in good times and in bad, and the number of transactions literally goes up daily and is expected to until all of us are a lot older.

Do you use cash? Probably not. Nobody under age 30 uses cash ever, age group 30-50 uses almost no cash especially when times are tough, and the oldies use cash to buy the outdated newspaper (sorry Dad) haha

According to Visa in 12-18 months the majority of Visa's transactions will come from countries outside of the US. There are literally 6 billion people in the world who are just learning of a Visa card (except in Europe where it already widely used)

[JoeSRT]

If this person is a member of the Seeking Alpha team,as opposed to some 'Joe Schmo' who just wrote an article for them, then I am completely done listening to anything they have to say.

They have lost every shred of credibility with me if the author's affilation is true.

Except for maybe popping onto their website from time to time to get a good laiugh, I am fini' with these people.

This is the goofiest way of investing that I ever heard of.
Here is a stock that has great fundamentals,is recommended as a BUY by nearly every pro,etc. and then gets sold just because it dropped to some arbitrary % is nuts!

They say laughter is good for the health so do you have any other stock tips that can help me laugh my way to lower BP?

[VNetWkEng]

Stop letting your computer do all the thinking for you. If you setup your account to sell after a 8% loss then that is exactly what you get. Manage your money on common sense. You stated that you don't often write up a stock like Visa. That is quite apparent because if you had paid attention in the past two months you would have seen that Visa stock is moving along smoothly. I expect by next year this time the stock to be around 175. Also, you only bought 70 shares and your giving advise on purchasing shares.. You need to find another way to make a living.

[Improviz]

OK, I'm a stock n00b and even I know you buy low and sell high, LOL. Given V's daily volatility, what kind of moron would hold it for 2 weeks and sell it for an 8% loss?? Good god, and this guy is supposed to be giving stock advice? If anything, at 77 he should have bought MORE V. The Discover suit is whining. Visa makes the point that the government doesn't force Burger King to sell Big Macs; same thing with banks issuing competing cards; would you force a Ford dealer to sell Volkswagons? Not like there aren't plenty of choices out there. Plus as mentioned in another forum, Visa's liability is strictly limited by the "retroactive liability" scheme they put in place, as part of the IPO. In return for getting stock and being able to pump up their cash reserves by selling it, the issuing banks are all on the hook for payments due to litigation going forward. Not Visa itself.

[triphopgirl]

What at wuss. I have been watching Visa since it went public and I was actually mad I didn't buy it yesterday when it hit $77.

Right now it is back up to $79. Hello! This guy apparently has no stomach for volatility and should stick to something nice and safe maybe a high yield savings account would be more his cup of tea.

[User 19624]

Taking a loss on a mistimed buy of V makes no sense. The last time to buy V was on 5/23-27 at 75-78 and you would not even have had a loss

[Jojostreet]

Without anything fundamentally wrong about the company, you downgrade it to a HOLD when you actually SOLD OUT?

[nb]

Maybe he has V puts and he's hoping his article will bring down the price a bit.

[Jake Blues]

Is this April 1st? Are we being Punk'd? I hope so, because if not it's the dumbest thing I've ever read on Seeking Alpha...and that's saying a lot.

[Gateli]

You recommend Buy rating According Point and Figure Chartings that made double top break out at 84. but did you know that 87 according to your charts is resistance?
and why you rated visa as a hold , just because u are losing 8% from 70 shares holding?
the worst thing is you close it at support 79.
If you do short term trading , you should Cut loss when Visa hitting 88 and did 4 box reversal...
You recommend people to buy Using PnF charts, but You don't even know how to read and act according to it

[blah-blah]

The first commentor said it best - this is 2 mins I will never get back

[Hoser]

Gimme a break.
This friggin' idiot dumps his stock after an 8% loss in a week? And what took him so long to get in, anyway? After kicking myself for not getting in on Google's and Mastercard's IPOs, I scraped up as much $$$ I could afford and got in the 1st day on Visa (175 shares at about $58). Even with this mild downturn, I'm sitting pretty and will probably buy more this week if it stays below $80 (25 shares maybe. I'm just a small investor without the last name of Kennedy or Bush). My sell point should be sometime early next year: when it hits $120 (so I've doubled my money) and it hits 1/3 of MA (Visa has something like 7 million shares, MA has 2.25 million. With a little extra as a margin because of Visa's dominance, I figure a 3:1 MA to Visa price ratio is about right and V may be overvalued if it goes above that. No hard numbers to back it up really, just my gut feeling).

[Jake Blues]

Hey Hoser-

Visa will be buying back shares in either the 4Q or 1Q of 2009.

[frostywins]

Cannot believe what I just read! Next time buy 1000sh and trade on the swings daily, make yourself $500 twice or three times each day. best trader stock I've seen in a long time. Made 60K since IPO. Great stock so hold long if thats your bag, geat rich in 5 to 10 yrs.

[greencapitalist]

rob, i am sorry to say this. but you are not a good investor.

see my mastercard blog at matrader.blogspot.com/

plastic story has not stopped and no need to panic for small market movements. if you had got mastercard at 150 when everybody was so skeptical or visa at 60 when everybody hated to touch it, you could have tens of thousands.

see the fundamentals of the company and don't sell it based on day to day stock movement.

the plastic story is just starting in many of the world regions and mastercard (and visa) will only continue to grow.

[H_Town_Native]

What I can't believe is that you would post this on the net for us to read and laugh at you. You must love attention. So what if V lost 8% in a week. I have seen it lose 10% and even then I was sitting on a 39% return on my intial investment. I bought V on 3/19/08 for 57.88/share. Yes the market is a rough and scary place to play right now so if you can't hang then stay off the field. The fact is Visa is great and is going to be great. The other fact is you obviously should've given me your money on 3/19/08 and let me buy V for you. It's obvious that I need to go back to school and get my finance degree so I can go to work in the industry when morons like you are getting attention for worthless blogs like this on the yahoo finance news wire lines... I'm out!

[User 209362]

This is the worst site for any financial advice... Every time I read it I'm blown away buy how big of a douche bag the writer is...

[Raminator]

Honeslty, deep from my heart, with my very short 3 years of investing experiece I felt you are

"The JOKER of the decade".

Don't write articles just because you want to show your photo on the internet. There are many places to slap your damn photo.

Seeking alpha admins must ban these jokers from even accessing their website. Don't ruin your brand "Seeking Alpha"

[Raminator]

www.podomatic.com/peop...

scroll down all the way to the bottom of the page and listen to one of the podcasts. It was hilarious. I was LMAO. You got to listen to his stock analysis after his poetic blabber.

Bob claims himself as ametuer investor who do podcasts for ametuer investors - at the same time he claims he has 39 year of investing experiencing. He starts with like this.
"while picking a stock he don't care about status economy, industry, blah blah ... .... "and it goes on.
I just hooked my headset while I am doing a least priority thing in my life.

Bob, get a life, you can spend your time in a much better way....
PLEASE get the hell outa here. RUNAWAYYYYY........

[User 209395]

last time to buy was at 58- 63.00 sold mine at 79 because it droped from 89 and the pending law suit, is a gamble ?

[Gateli]

When u Sold at 79, I was the buyer than

[Jake Blues]

User 209395-

V set aside 3 billion dollars at their IPO to handle lawsuits. The fight against Discover is already paid for.

Read the prospectus, people.

[bigwallrat]

this guy need to give up the canslim IBD strategy that thing is a joke
everybody knows V is going to $400.00 adn one day will be the highest valued company in the stock market this is the last time I ever read anything from seeking alpha this site didnt even exist in the nasdaq monter rally of the late 1990 s

[LIONSGATED]

Thank you for your opinion, who am I to bash anyone's investment method. That is what makes the market the market. I have bought V from 65 to 86, with an average cost of $75.00 for 520 shares!!! I'm not selling anytime soon!!! at these levels.

[MMapes]

Good Grief why did I waste my time. I own 300 shares of V. Starting at 61.33 and ending at 85.14. I have seen this stock go up 24% and down 17%. You sold in less than a week. Good Grief what a bunch of wasted space and time.

Go sell something else perhaps your car

[InvestingVisa]

This is absolutely the worst financial blog I have ever read. It does reveal that you are a rookie stock trader and should not be giving stock advice to others. While Visa was moving down the last week, I bought more shares, because if you invest in Visa with a longer term mentality, you will be richly rewarded in the upcoming months.

[looking]

This is the strangest story I ever read.

[TricklingMoney]

Good gawd, I came to this page because someone asked me to. So you lost $490, big deal... you should have bought more at 77. Heck, I bought at an average of $82 and I'm still holding because it's a good long term investment in my eyes. But just because it went down, doesn't mean I sit and hold... I bought options to hedge my stock and since then I've managed to gain 50% discount on my visa stocks. Heck, I'm glad I'm not wasting my time as a regular reader here.

[Gateli]

Hey TricklingMoney, i don't think the writer know about options as a hedge for stocks. His comment really hurt investors like us. He manipulates the stocks because of his bad trades. I doubt that the writer know about delta neutral hedging or making positive or negative delta.
Don't listen up to this comment Folks it will just ruin your investment plan in this wonderful company. just stick with it.
It's good company and now near it's fair price value. like Warren Buffet said better to buy wonderful company at fair price instead of fair company with wonderful price.
Visa will keep growing with Olympic games near , that redeemed class B shares by Visa itself late of this year. Every top analyst don't even rate Visa as a sell.
it's not only Visa have litigations cases, see Wall Mart , have a lot litigations cases did analyst recommend it as a sell?

[TricklingMoney]

Okay, I get it now. Your bio says you are amateur, so I guess that explains it.

[stacked up]

Wow, this genius sold his entire huge position: 70 shares !!
What a loss ! My gosh, the guy must be suicidal ..
Thanks Alpha..If there's anything we need it's some loser trading 70 shares positions, and offering useless advice ..Who cares what this nobody does ?

[TRUCKERBLUES]

All you have to do is look at the man's face and you can see why his article should haveen titled Mor-on Visa.

[TRUCKERBLUES]

All you have to do is look at the man's face and you can see why this
article should have been titled, Mor-on Visa.

Reposted due to a spelling error.

[Mikelandia]

How about no one is going to pay their credit cards now that there is no more home equity refinance money to bail them out to consolidate?

No one talks about the 800 pound gorilla in the room. Now that we are in a tightening phase. Not as good as my crox and wamu shorts but something stinks on ice. IPO= cashout. Could care less about a dime/qtr dividend. Am I missing something here that we have people going long?

Reminds me of the Blackstone IPO.

[TKTK53]

WHY????
Would anybody that writes everyday about stocks and claims to be an expert buy Visa at $86.03 when he could have got it at $44.00 to start and at $55.00 to $59.00 the first day it went on sale to the general public
Robert Freedland you need to get another job!!!!!!
TERRY -- TKTK53

[TKTK53]

OH
AND ONOTHER THING - WHY DON'T YOU PUT THE CURRENT (LAST) COMMENTS AT THE TOP INSTEAD OF AT THE BOTTOM??????????
TERRY -- TKTK53

[User 12619]

You sound like a broker who buys and sells a lot. It makes a lot of money for you, but not for clients. VISA is a solid company. Your 8% loss could one day be a 16% + gain.

[AmyBeth22]

MIKELANDIA,
LISTEN very closely...Visa and Mastercard DO NOT COLLECT OR LEND one dime of money to card holders!! They issue the LOGO to the BANKS which gives the card a level of security. THE BANKS and American Express and Discover cards are the ONLY ONES who collect MONEY. NO CARD OWNERS OWE ONE DIME TO VISA OR MASTERCARD!!!!! Get it? Visa and mastercard are PAID BY THE MERCHANTS (stores, gas stations, etc.) NOT BY CARDHOLDERS! Everytime a card is "swiped" a FEE is PAID DIRECTLY TO VISA or MASTERCARD. Very simple. NO cardholder pays the visa or mastercard companies ONE DIME EVER!! OMG how many times do I have to explain this..NO GD 800 pound gorilla in the room!! You just don't GET IT. No one cares if people PAY their credit cards, visa gets paid when it is SWIPED, and everytime it is SWIPED, BY THE STORE!!!! Pleaser read this over and over until it sinks in.

[jackooo]

Remind me of my friend. He won't sell his stock because he doesn't want to pay taxes on the profit.
You just want to take losses so the government pays you... lol

[jackooo]

Bob,
V is at $81.50. Plz email me for advise in the future. No charge.
jackooo

[1machoduck]

wow! I feel much better now, I put a covered call on my shares in April and they were called away for a $6.00 profit.
Since then I have been playing puts with the profits, luv big V!
As long as we got folks like this guy, buy high sell low,we are happy campers! ........... You go dude!

[King Solomon]

"I am a simple goat farmer who sold 10 goats to purchase 1 stock of V in hopes that I can one day sell it with a 15% return and retire" -Goat Farmer from Afghanistan. I think the lesson here is that volume is relative.

[Jake Blues]

This guy must be a masochist.

[cher50]

Hey dude....get a rope! Purchased my VISA at 57.00, ALL 500 shares and sixty more round sixty-some. STILL own my 560 shares. Last week I dumped my one remaining Discover Card because Discover wants to ride MA & Visa's coat tail's to success (hope attorneys for both cardholders make Discover eat their lunch) and today V announced its first paying dividend. I love my V ~ Life Takes V. Buy More.....not less!

[spc4l]

AmyBeth22
you good, ppls just don't get it, do they

[spc4l]

We all should thanks him for the good laugh after a touch week
peace

[cm7111]

Buy high and sell low on company with good fundamentals..
PLs tell us what else you hold and is close to your -8%. So I might buy it from you

[greencapitalist]

rob, did you notice one thing. dow has plunged from 13200 to 12200, a 1000 point loss. ma has gone from 240 to 290 and still underpriced in valuation compared to v and compared to its growth.

analyse the fundamentals, buy/hold the stock. you can make money. you should have seen the scron on ma when it was 150. you can hear it again when it is 290, you will hear it again at 400 after oct 2008 qtr.

checkout my blog at matrader.blogspot.com

[RobertFreedland]

Thank you all for your kind comments.

I do not have a record of any of your trades but I enjoy your commentary. My trading record is available over on Covestor.

My trading rules include the IBD 8% loss. I just follow my rules.

My term "bad news" is simply that I took a loss on a stock. It is an internal portfolio management device that times my own entries into and out of the market. You can read my blog further if you desire.

I have never claimed to be more than an 'amateur investor'. I do my homework, and try to think rationally about investing. You all must do much better and buy and sell stocks frequently without any of my input. Please don't bother reading anything I write if you feel it is not helpful to you.

For those of you who do appreciate honest and straight forward discussions from my perspective I would encourage you to drop by and check out my website for yourself.

Bob

[RobertFreedland]

Thank you all for your kind comments.

I do not have a record of any of your trades but I enjoy your commentary. My trading record is available over on Covestor.

My trading rules include the IBD 8% loss. I just follow my rules.

My term "bad news" is simply that I took a loss on a stock. It is an internal portfolio management device that times my own entries into and out of the market. You can read my blog further if you desire.

I have never claimed to be more than an 'amateur investor'. I do my homework, and try to think rationally about investing. You all must do much better and buy and sell stocks frequently without any of my input. Please don't bother reading anything I write if you feel it is not helpful to you.

For those of you who do appreciate honest and straight forward discussions from my perspective I would encourage you to drop by and check out my website for yourself.

Bob

[InvestingVisa]

Bob, it is sheer PRIDE on your part that you feel you can post an article like this. It is quite apparent that you have NOT done your homework on Visa. Just because you have your own website and podcast doesn't mean you are qualified in giving stock advice (even if you preface it by saying you are an amateur investor).

[Adesai]

I bought the shares you sold BOB....

I own several thousand shares and bought 200 more when it dipped.

Thanks for selling your shares to me. You can buy them back when it goes back up to 85+...

[Adesai]

As one blogger claimed.....you must have big balls to write this article when you know you were going to get slammed.

[RobertFreedland]

Friends,

Thank you for your many comments---some kind and others less than kind.

If you will visit my blog, you will note that I do state that I am an amateur investor. I do not claim to know when stocks will rise in the future or decline. I do not believe that anyone really knows that information.

This is not about the size of one's balls. It is about the ability to manage a portfolio.

I subscribe to the belief that it is imperative for the individual investor to limit losses. I sell my stocks at 8% loss limits regardless of my own belief about their future prospects. For some that may be foolhardy. I believe it represents a disciplined approach to one's holdings.

I try very hard to only select stocks where the possibility of this is limited. I do this by selecting stocks with consistent records of revenue growth, earnings growth, free cash flow growth, solid balance sheets, and reasonable valuation. I also like to see companies with decent charts.

But I do not ever remain married to my investments. I am not on a crusade, I am not a blind follower of any investment.

Investing is a passion for me. But it is a passion built on thought and observation. Selling declining stocks quickly and appreciating stocks slowly and partially is my method of dealing with the chaos of the marketplace.

The rest of you may depend on your balls and your guts. I shall be referring to my brain from time to time.

Regards.

Bob

[Cat~eyes]

Once again and for the record...

Come on over to VisaGlobalWinners.blog...
for some information, commentary, and news about Visa and some other market news of interest. Take care everyone and have fun out there. It's not all 'bad news' .. it's about learning how to make the best decisions in these times to keep those arrows green!

[Adesai]

Robert Freedland,

Investing in stocks is not about "balls" but about using your intuition and knowledge and research. You seem to go by numbers.....if stock A falls below 8% then automatically sell, there is no brain, knowledge, intuition about that. You claimed that you used your brain...but i believe you use your calculator for your trading decisions. Because a culculator will tell you that you have a 8% loss....but the calculator will not tell you that the stock will rebound and will definetly go back up to $90 if not to $100 b/c of numerous factors such as: 1. 20% growth each year 2. use of credit cards in developing countries 3. trend of switching from cash to plastic 4. Visa will buy Visa europe in several months 5. visa will buy back shares in 2009. I believe these are the information you need to BUY or SELL to make an informed decision not just simply stock is down 8% so sell. Thats a knee jerk reaction....which does not your brain.

So even though you claim you used your brain..... I believe you didnt.

And please give us other reason's why you sold your shares like good information instead of just it went down 8%.

[Adesai]

And by the way Robert Freedland, you claimed:

"Investing is a passion for me. But it is a passion built on thought and observation. Selling declining stocks quickly and appreciating stocks slowly and partially is my method of dealing with the chaos of the marketplace"

Visa is NOT a declining stock. IT IS AN APPRECIATING STOCK...look at the past 3-4 months.

[RobertFreedland]

Thank you all again,

I do use my calculator when determining a sale. I do this on the upside and the downside. I am sorry if that doesn't work for the vast majority of you.

I am in agreement that the chart for Visa is in an uptrend. I did not recommend anyone else to sell their shares. I simply sold my own shares because I have chosen to limit my losses to 8%. And yes, I calculate that out.

Probably those that can anticipate price moves better than I shall be far more successful. Kudos to you all.

I shall continue to limit my losses on each of my investments by selling them quickly on declines and selling them slowly and partially as they appreciate.

There are many other fish in the ocean. Congratulations to all of you who have been successful with your Visa stock holdings.

I believe strongly that the individual investor is best served by a disciplined approach to selection of stocks and managing them in a disciplined fashion as well. This strategy is not likely to be very well suited for everyone. It seems to work for me. And I shall continue to follow it and write about stocks as I go.

I am sorry that so many of you do not seem to appreciate what I am doing and are quick to condemn what you do not understand. If I have wasted any of your time here on Seeking Alpha I apologize for that.

But I do not think that I shall be changing my approach which is both how I manage my holdings as well as how I select my investments.

Regards.

Bob

[User 211250]

Completely pointless article. Uh... I had a bowl of Wheaties for breakfast this morning. Normally I have two bowls, but I just had one, today because I wasn't that hungry. On another day if I'm more hungry I'll eat two bowls of Wheaties again. Thank you...

Good lord!

[User 211067]

“But I do not think that I shall be changing my approach which is both how I manage my holdings as well as how I select my investments”

I would suggest changing your approach on writing about your mistakes for the whole world to see.

This is the Wizard of Oz revisited. No heart, No courage, No brain, and No balls.

Dorothy, good luck with your future investments.

[keekee]

Well, the charts are pointing down [specifically last week my sell indicators went off]. For the next few months V will likely fall. Just throw up a weekly chart and you'll see, same goes with MA. It's an extremely bad time to consider buying stocks. Wait a few months, V will be cheaper.

MA didn't shoot through the roof, it had pull backs and periods where it stayed at certain levels. This will likely occur with V.

Robert Freeland: while you sold because you got stopped out, perhaps ironically you sold last week - right when weekly sell indicators went off. V will rise again, however we're just entering a normal sell-off cycle

[taperx]

June 17 V Is at $85.00 and gaining! I would have at least waited until after the summer Olympics!! Helloooo McFly!!

[keekee]

taperx, simedawg: you have to wait until the end of this week, will V become overbought on a real fast daily chart? I would label this as an opportunity to sell. You can't come here to "celebrate" whenever V goes up a bit. Sure it has gone up, but how severe will the next pullback be? Pay attention to that.

V is in a downtrend for the next few months, for it to break out of that trend it will have to carry on this movement for a few weeks in a row. IMO it's unlikely.

[Improviz]

Look for V to uptrend with the summer Olympics as advertising pushes brand awareness to the forefront. Visa buying Visa Europe? I don't know what you're all smoking but I WORK for Visa and I can tell that ain't gonna happen. Buying back shares? Again, pretty unlikely, I won't believe 'til I see it.
V closed at 84 and change today. Good thing you stuck to your 8% loss formula and sold it. Bob, I'd like to know what your long term, i.e. 1 and 5 year gains/losses are if you let a didactic formula rule your trades. Visa is a volatile stock on a daily basis, and it seems that 8% auto-trading is not a very smart way to handle a stock like V, especially since it's a brand-new stock. Just like "one size fits all", I can't really believe you can be successful with a "one formula trades all" approach, can you?

[vgeorge19]

Agreed the article was terrible and a just a bad time to sell.

Today was good news with MA getting shut down on the European Interchange Fees while V doesnt have to just yet. I hope that they can negotiate to keep at least part of the fee around.

[Adesai]

Improviz,

You claim that you work for visa and that buying V europe is not going to happen and neither is buying back shares. So you are basically stating that your CEO Saunders is bullshitting all of us....correct me if Im wrong. In the conference call Saunders claimed of

1. Buying of visa shares in august or october (i dont remember exactly)
2. Expects a 20% increase in revenues year on year
3. Visa will buy back shares in 2009, once V europe is bought out.

[Adesai]

Robert Freedland,

If you rated Visa as a hold why is it that you sold your shares??????? And what parameters, information did you use to change your analyst to a HOLD rating?????

[taperx]

The buy back of visa shares will happen, there will be a 20% gain but internationally not domestic, and visa has no plans to take over visa europe yet, but, will be buying back visa europes visa shares back, is the way i understood the last meetings minutes. As far as a short term investor in visa i would not have worried about the ups and downs during this part of the fiscal year. This summer is like a bonus year for V and MC with the summer olympics coming. Massive amounts of revenue and interchange fees coming that will better the bottom line. Like i stated above i would have waited to sell after the Olympics when VISA is on an every other year bonus season. The holidays is always there for them in the U.S.

[taperx]

Improviz i will never confirm nor deny any affiliation with visa however if you are and employee of visa you should know better than to say visa will NEVER obtain V Europe. Even as an employee you cant know that unless you have extreme insider trading info and i doubt that. I do feel that this blogger bought some stock without understanding the business model of visa. This stock could be great short term and even better long term. With the cost of living who has hundred dollar bills in their pocket any more? Credit is ok but the real key is debit! Most people today have direct deposit and a debit card to function with that costs them zero dollars. This will be the way of the future in even 3rd world countries. This is where the major growth will be.

[newbie]

Improviz, I doubt you work for Visa. Even if you do, you have not researched the prospectus. I strongly suggest that everyone who does not know what will happen in October 2008 to read up on it.

[torino-t]

If you all (short or long) would please pray or preform some sort of an act so that VISA goes down below $70.00 need to buy more...I've added some to my core holding around $75.00...

I hope to god that some of you shorts are correct and visa goes down now...cuz, in a year or so, you'll see its price north of $150.00 and yes 150.00 because of EU's, lock ups, Discover, foreclosure & so on...

Credit card transactions (just remember the way we use our cards here in the US & W.Europe since the 70s), now let's welcome the new generation of rich middle class of India-China- Brazil-Russia & some non-EU members that will use their VISA or MA.

Call me selfish but let's hope that the price goes down, need to add to my core holding...whoever has a doubt go and check...ETN, BLK, AMG, BEN, PRU...if and only if we all bought in these companies 5-10 years ago...same concept.

[Sammy H]

Why not look to Mastercard, and by virtue of Visa being 2-3 times bigger, and knowing that the economy is going to be OK by 2010, and seeing the growth of Visa both domestically and internationally (see SEC filings) in the outyears, why would you not conclude that at some point in time, Visa will not only hit Mastercards price levels, but will eventually beat it as well? Any good, experiencially sound arguements as to why as opposed to intellectual possiblities that have nothing to do with reality?

[Cat~eyes]

Here's a link to the Webcast of VISA at the UBS Electronic Payments Summit from June 4, 2008. Elizabeth Buse, Global Head of Product for Visa, is the speaker. The audio is approximately 30 minutes long. It updates Visa's stats and plans for the future we last heard about during the Q2 earnings report.

For Real Media Player: events.streamx.us/US/e...

For Windows Media Player:
events.streamx.us/US/e...

We don't get to hear from these folks very often, so it's always informative when we do.

I've noticed there are some great commentors on these forums and I would love for you all to write articles of your own, in your own voice, about Visa or anything else that's driving the market these days. Not to sound to 'rah rah', but come over to VisaGlobalWinners.blog.../ and click on the link in the upper right-hand corner to Become a Member. From there you can begin posting your own articles and having people comment on them. I'd love to see you over there!

[NetWkEng]

It's 4pm ET 6/19 and the price is 84.27. Do you know what you lost? Remember guys and gals, Visa has already exceeded their yearly mark by reaching 89.84. What do you want to bet that it reaches over 100 before the end of this year? Or perhaps in the next three months. This stock is way under valued.

[Newb]

well my only doubt to the mastercard comparison is the fact that so many more shares of visa were issued thus diluting the price of the stock...if you look at the PE ratio of each stock arent both within the same ballpark? fundamentals seem to be similar...someone correct me if im wrong here

[reddy2pla]

HE BOUGHT IN TOO LATE AND DISPLAYED POOR JUDGEMENT IN SELLING.THIS IPO HAS GOT LEGS ! BUY NOW AND HOLD FOR THE LONG TERM.IF IT TRIPLES IN 2 YEARS NOONE WOULD BE TOO AMAZED
EXCEPT GUYS LIKE THE PUBLISHER OF THIS ARTICLE.

[Jake Blues]

Jesus Christ, stop spamming your blog's URL in every frigging post, Cat Eyes. WE SAW IT THE FIRST TEN TIMES IN THIS AND EVERY OTHER VISA THREAD!

[samadams]

I love toll bridges and invested in mastercard after the IPO went nowhere. I thought it was due to the prior IPO of Vonage.
Visa has a great toll bridge business model but is fully valued here.
I would hold off.
Also, dont fall in love with a company, leave emotion out of your investment decisions. To the guy who keeps spamming you need to get a life. I'm sorry you missed Mastercard. Dont expect a repeat performance.

[Cat~eyes]

Okay, so today is Quadruple Witching (a day when contracts for stock index futures, stock index options, s