Everyone Steps in a Value Trap Once in a While

This is a tough year for all investors, despite what the index says it’s done year-to-date.  This morning’s daily affirmation comes in the form of a reminder:

Even the most brilliant investors don’t get ’em all right.  The world’s best asset allocator, Ray Dalio has negative YTD performance numbers for the first half of this year.  Louis Bacon just gave his investors their money back rather than feel the pressure to perform in this environment.

And get a load of the of the value traps David Einhorn, one of the most brilliant equity guys in history, has just unloaded…

From Barron’s:

David Einhorn sold his entire stakes in Dell (DELL) and Research in Motion (RIMM) as of the end of the second quarter, according to a filing his hedge fund Greenlight Capital made with the SEC. As of the end of the first quarter, he had owned 11.9 million shares of Dell and 1.6 million shares of RIMM.

Einhorn also decreased his stake in Best Buy (BBY) by 84%, according to InsiderScore.com.

Remember: No matter how good or smart you are, how much research you’ve done or how long you’ve been in the game, you will still get a few stocks wrong and you will still be positioned incorrectly sometimes.

It’s okay.