My investing career started early in life. Back in high school I ran a social studies project where we bought shares in a junior mining company. We made some money and then I decided to buy out everyone else and hold the stock myself. Well that didn't go so well. After a few years I owned about $25 of stock out of my original $200. I sold and avoided the stock market for years, but I still didn't learn my lesson yet.
Now my current mistake is a diamond mine, Tahara (TAH), I bought over a year ago back when the mine wasn't even open yet. There was a lot of hype around the stock and it climbed for several months and I had this feeling at one point I should just take my gains and run. I didn't. Now the stock, even after a reverse share split, has fallen to the point of being a penny stock again.
Yet strangely enough I have no current plans to sell the stock. I bought it with a different frame of mind this time. I know that I'm speculating and I realize that that is not the same as investing. I also realize that I don't have very much money invested into the company so if it bottoms out and I have nothing. I'm not worried, because this is my form of lottery tickets. Perhaps this is the reason I have gone to index investing with my RRSP.
It's been an entertaining ride so far and I promised myself I would give the company five years after start up to see if they can't make a go of it. Even if I just take a lose at the end, at least I get to claim a capital lose on my tax form.
So what was your worst mistake? If you feel like sharing, please leave a comment.
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2 comments:
Anyone who has invested in stocks has a story to tell on their biggest mistakes. :)
Mine.. well, I invested in the mightly Nortel when it tumbled from $120 -> $60. I bought it because i thought, "it can't go any lower than this". In my defense, at the time, I didn't know a lot about the stock market, just knew how to buy the hype. Lesson Learned: Never try to catch a falling knife.
FrugalTrader
http://www.MillionDollarJourney.com
Dumbest mistakes in the past:
- Speculating in options
Other things:
- Selling ESPP stock @ .72 / share or so right after receiving semi-annual shares (made about 15% or so since that is what it was discounted at) - out of fear and not researching the company better at the time and taking a more objective fundamental view of the company...was worried because it was at the time of the tech bubble, anyway had I held a few years I would have made about 10 times easily :P
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