Falling in love with PetroChina may cost me

At least in the short run, PetroChina Company Ltd ADR (NYSE:PTR) is down for the year and may affect my stock pick average when I report the first month of results next Monday. When I wrote about PTR: PetroChina: Not a bargain, but one to watch for 2007 and included the stock as one of my seven picks for the year, I actually stated "I love this company," and I cautioned that it was close to an all-time high. After three weeks the shares are down. In the absence of this pick the rest are doing fine; the other six are up so far.

I'm into the stock at $44 and $55 per share in two different portfolios and have made this stock a mainstay that I cannot imagine selling, for reasons that you can read about in any one of my numerous stories on the company over the last eight months. It closed Tuesday at $127.17 per share, up $3.91 but down from $142.12 on December 28, 2006. For the year I still expect PTR to be up, but the slow start is a reminder, and when I look at my watch list there are picks I would have been less emotional about.

I am writing this story not so much about PTR but to call your attention to the hazard of falling in love with a stock. It is an investment, and besides your family, falling in love is a mistake, in particular with an investment because it can cloud your judgment. (This happens with family too, but that's another story.) If you have been involved with the stock market and investing in general, I'm sure you may have heard this before. Success itself can cloud your judgment as well. In the case of PetroChina, the stock has moved progressively higher, even when other Chinese stocks have faltered over the past few years. I am sticking with this pick because of its products and services, business financials and management -- and cautioning all to leave out the emotion when making investments.

Check out my other posts for BloggingStocks here. Be sure to read You don't have to be 007 to find the best picks for 2007!

Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the vice president for design and research at an architecture & planning firm.