Buying General Maritime GMR in Feb of 2009. I was smart enough to know I need to add some money into a down market, virtually any investment made at that time did. Not mine, I invested in a shipping company (owner operated) that paid a huge dividend in an industry heavy on supply and low on demand. They had just bought more tankers at rock bottom rates and I thought once things turned around they would be flush once more. I sold prior to their bankruptcy wiser and poorer.
I did learn lessons. Shipping is outside my circle of competance. I avoid leveraged companies unless the revenue streams are very predicatable and well understood. and lastly the owner-operator was still chairman but he had hired a CEO and was running a second shipping company. He had recouped all of his investments in GMR via dividends and poured them into his new ventures and was actively running them. My money wasn't in his "baby" but in his worn out old workhorse that he had already put out to pasture.
A few months ago I read "The shipping man" and it pretty accurately reflected my experience in the industry.
