Avoid These Five Common Portfolio Mistakes

Editor's Note: This article ran originally in May 2002.

One of the things I like most about writing for RealMoney is the dialogue I have with readers. They send me all sorts of interesting comments and opinions, and in return, they get inside the head of an active money manager, one whose opinions are outside the mainstream -- or should I say maelstrom -- that is Wall Street.

I have to ask my readers to forgive me on this one, though: Sometimes I use your emails as a contrary indicator. When I solicited suggestions last October for a list of promising stocks, roughly 80% of the names proffered were tech and telco names. I considered the amazing level of interest in those sectors to be one more indication that last cycle's excess has yet to be purged. ...