Good rule to follow

Article Excerpt

It’s always a good idea to sell if you have any doubts about the integrity of the people who are in charge of a company. In other words, if you think a company is run by crooks, you should sell right away, no matter how attractive it seems as an investment. There are no limits to the ways in which unscrupulous operators can and will cheat you. Over the years, I’ve refrained from recommending or advised selling a number of companies because I felt their capital structure or promotional materials were designed to make it easy for insiders to mislead or take advantage of the investing public. I didn’t miss much as a result, but I did sidestep some ugly situations. In fact, I avoided a couple of popular Canadian investments years ago, because I had doubts about insiders. Now those insiders are in jail, or headed there. To profit from this rule — that is, to use it to enhance your long-term…