Looks like IAC’s spin off of Tickemaster (TKTM) came just in the nick of time. Barely out of the box, the new company lost an account that provided about 6% of their business and the stock dropped 17%.

Spin offs, IPO’s, price/earnings, price/book or any other single screening tool can be a big help, but they just tell you where you are likely to find winners. What any given stock’s price will do on any given day is unknown until it does it.

We learned that one here, big time.

And, while the professors may be able to put all the spin offs into their computers and crunch the numbers, most of us can’t buy all of them. We have to choose. Hopefully, we choose well and do better than the average for the group. Hopefully, we have risk management tools at the ready and we limit our losses. However you look at it though, one Ticketmaster or, God forbid, Lehman Brothers, can take the shine off a portfolio for quite a while.

Tags: risk management, stock spin-off, Ticketmaster, TKTM, Value Investing