Frankly, I thought it was impossible --that there was no way this could happen againand againand again.But then, sure enough, it did.

It's not what you think !
You might be assuming I'm talking about watching my shares of rock-solid businesses like Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT), and Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE: FCX) drop day after day after day this time last year -- sometimes by double-digit percentages

But I'm actually referring to something much more painful for me personally: watching my beloved Oklahoma Sooners blow it year after year after year in the big dance.

You see, my grandfather played football for Oklahoma, and I've been a Sooners fan since I was old enough to walk. So it was nothing short of devastating to watch Oklahoma lose its fifth straight BCS bowl game -- and its third straight national championship game -- to Ol' Tim Tebow and team.

Of course, I'll alwaysbe a Sooners fan, even though they're now the Buffalo Bills of college football. After all, in sports, sticking by your team through the ups and the downsis a virtue. Just ask any Green Bay Packers fan.

Wall Street is a different ball game
For proof, just ask any longtime "fan" of:

Stock

10-Year Return

Hartford Financial (NYSE: HIG)

(43%)

Eastman Kodak (NYSE: EK)

(91%)

Ambac Financial (NYSE: ABK)

(95%)

Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE)

(96%)

Data provided by Yahoo! Finance.

Or ask my fellow Fools Rich Greifneror Adam "The Wied" Wiederman. Or even ask Jim Cramer. In his book Real Money, Cramer reminds investors, "This is not a sporting event; this is money. We have no room for rooting or hoping."

Yet it happens all the time. Investing message boards are full of desperate investors who hope some cash-rich behemoth will come along and save their decades-old American superbrand. But as Circuit City investors found out, this is often a losing bet -- especially in this credit-strapped market.

Others ride stocks all the way into the ground because they're emotionally attached to the company's story, products, or management -- and meet with similarly dismal results. Take Crocs investors as an example.

Ditch that loser!
One of the "20 Rules for Investment Success" from Investor' s Business Dailyis to "cut every loss when it's 8% below your cost. Make no exceptions so you'll avoid any possible huge, damaging losses."

To a sports fan, that advice might seem cruel and unusual, but it's actually good investment advice. Or is it?

To find out, I dug through David and Tom Gardner's Motley Fool Stock Advisor picks. They often rerecommend a stock even after a big run-up -- or a sharp fall. I actually found two examples where breaking IBD's rule actually paid off big-time:

Stock Advisor Pick

Decline After
Recommendation

Gain After
Re-Recommendation

Netflix

23%

229%

Quality Systems

14% Continued...