Nails

Yesterday, businessman and ex-baseball star, Lenny Dykstra declared bankruptcy. It is reported that he listed assets of $50,000 and liabilities of over $10 million. Dykstra had grown a reputation in the investment community and his newsletter “Nails (his nickname) on the Numbers” was once promoted by thestreet.com.
We loved Dykstra’s baseball career. He was a hustler (that term also might be applied to his investment career) who always seemed to give it his all. As Mets’ fans, we fondly remember his .295 batting average and 77 runs scored in the Mets last championship season of 1986. Heck, we’ll also forgive him for winning a World Series with the Phillies. We have a hard time however, forgiving him for some of his antics as an investment advisor.
Dykstra once claimed to have 90 straight profitable options trades. His deep in the money call strategy was difficult for investors to understand much less profit from. We always doubted the grandiose return claims and string of profitable trades claims made by his newsletter. Imagine the odds of 90 winning trades in a ROW!
We will miss (and have missed) Dykstra “the player” as he is the antithesis of today’s baseball player. Dykstra played hurt, he played hard and his teams won. At games’ end, his uniform was dirty and his fans always felt that winning mattered most of all to Lenny Dykstra.
We will not miss Dykstra the “investment newsletter writer” as hs is dangerous for the investment community. His fame prompted investors to send him their hard earned money and opened doors of media access to him. For a while, he was on CNBC with some frequency.Investors wanted to believe (that was a Mets battle cry too) in the glitz, the hype and the downhomeness of this ex-baseball player and straight shooter simplifying Wall Street and conquering the investment world. The truth of the matter is that investments require patience and perseverence. We would have liked to have trusted Dykstra (just like the tooth and credit fairies) and seen him thrive but instead are left with a bad taste in his mouth (and its not his trademark chewing tobacco)

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 9th, 2009 at 9:18 am and is filed under Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.