Recently, we asked for some of your experiences with investing, both good and bad. There were literally hundreds of responses, with numerous informative and instructive stories. We are grateful to all of you who wrote in, and we thank you for the time you spent. We only wish we could publish them all. In the meantime, here are a few stories from the "I Struck It Rich" category.

There is almost a stereotype these days of the online investor that goes from virtually nothing to financial independence. The truth is, there are people out there who are doing it.

For the most part, the successful investors in this category are doing it by ignoring the past wisdoms of the marketplace. Highly leveraged, highly concentrated positions have sunk many professionals in the past hundred years. But it is precisely the recipe that works today.

Note: Briefing.com has not verified any of the following stories.

Here is a tale from one reader about the virtue of taking a long-term view.

As a former stockbroker and investment advisor I am convinced that successful short-term trading takes too much time and worry. Investment advisors and professional money managers don't have the luxury of sitting back and patiently waiting for bargains, but individuals do. I have great success buying and holding shares in large established companies that are willing to sacrifice short-term corporate performance for long-term results.

If you are patient, stocks in these companies will go "on sale" and can be bought for excellent long-term results.

In 1996 I bought 400 shrs WCOM at $17 then watched it go to $14 now $45 for a 146% gain In 1997 I bought 100 shrs MOT at $70 then watched it go to $40 now $156 for a 122% gain In 1998 I bought 500 shrs NSM at $14 then watched it go to under $10 now $63 for a 350% gain In 1999 I looked hard at Apple Computer but did nothing. In 2000 I am looking at LU as a candidate.

Even when you do buy a stock that skyrockets, it doesn't always leave you feeling totally satisfied.

I purchased 200 shares of Plug Power ($15) and Navisite ($14) at the IPO. Neither did much for a while. When they started moving the broker who got me these shares advised selling both. I have no complaints. I doubled one and tripled the other. A better play would have been to sell half the positions and stay on top of the rest. End of story is that NAVI hit $90+ and Plug went to $140+.

The great thing about selling (or buying) only half a position is that whatever happens, you can always look on the bright side. ("At least I only sold half!" or "At least I only bought half what I planned!") Maybe not too scientific, but comforting nonetheless.

The dream, of course, of every investor is that they go into the market with very little, and in a matter of months, make themselves financially independent. There are people who are doing it.

Started in Oct 98 with 10k, cashed out in mid Oct 99 with 4.7M. I generally put 100% of my money, including margin, in 1 or 2 stocks. Sometimes I traded in and out in a few minutes or hours or would hold for a few days depending on market sentiment. Some examples: 11/27/1998 09:49:45 Bought 1000 NAVR 9 1/8, 11/30/98 sold NAVR at 16.5 During small cap frenzy, bought 2450 GNET at 44-46 on 1/6/99 then sold at 65 on 1/8/99 (Steve Harmon watch list stock), 1/11/99 bought 2000 SEEK at 60, sold at 80 same day, just plain mo-mo I believe. Bought about 2000 and 1000 shares of DCLK and EXDS around 123-124 on 3/12/99 in anticipation of split announcement and sold both on 3/19/99 at 179 & 149. Long story short, my WORST and BEST trades were in Oct 99, shorted YHOO right before earnings at 169-175 with thousands of shares, covered at 190 couple days later and lost 600k. My last desperation trade with 6 browsers open all ready to buy CRDS IPO. Market was lousy so knew I might get it low. Got it near open between 41-47, 55k shares, sold it all 10 minutes later between 65-61 for a gain of 1.2 million. Thanked God and called it quits at 4.7 million. Feel free to shorten this however you would like. But general method was all or nothing with margin, every trade, multiple browsers open to facilitate trading and info gathering. No T&A, just gut instinct about mood of stocks and market. Streaming real time quotes and BRIEFING.COM IN PLAY a must. Pretty much all Internet stocks. Traded from home computer using 56k line.

Please forgive us if you blow our own horn a little, but there are more than one hundred thousand satisfied Briefing.com readers. And it's always gratifying to see that Briefing.com is helping them, particularly when we hear that a reader is benefiting from what we write. Here's one of them, who emphasizes that when investing, as opposed to trading, a decline in the stock price is not necessarily cause for fear.

MFNX - I began reading Briefing in 1998, around six months after I started investing. I found that your analysis was clear, concise and was a good starting point for research. I read a Stock Brief profiling Metromedia Fiber Networks in August, 1998. I realized that this was a risky investment since it was a relatively small player in an industry that will require huge capital outlays. Nevertheless, it was apparent to me that increased bandwidth was, and is, necessary to accommodate the ever increasing Internet users. It was also apparent around this time that infrastructure was a necessary component as the Internet world grew. Therefore, I purchased about $4,000 of MFNX at a "risky" price of 6 7/8. That investment is now up over 1,000%. I also listened to you re: "investments". If you buy a stock as investment, don't panic when it goes down. That is why I've held this stock as I still believe, even at the current valuations, that MFNX is a good investment.

Our thanks to everyone who wrote in.

Robert V. Green