Recovering losses from Stockmarket!

Hey All!
I was listening to radio this morning and a guy said he had lost his life savings from the stockmarket cause he invested in one stock that went down the gurgler.. It Got me thinking bout how often this proberly happens! But more to the point how would you go about recovering it! This guy was retired now on a pension (so his house is all he has left). Rather sad story!
Have you Just kept investing and hopefully one day you will recover it! or is it a case of once bitten twice shy!


David

I think it is good when people, like the gentleman you refer to, explain how they lost significant sums in the market because it helps others avoid making the same mistakes. The mistakes here (admittedly on very limited information) are 'all eggs in one basket' (life savings in one stock) and failure to sell as the price fell (I assume 'down the gurgler' refers to a price fall).

So here are two good lessons on what not to do.

There are plenty of people making plenty of money in the market, but there is a lot to learn about investing and trading. "Hope" should not enter into trading and investing considerations at all. Try research, hard work, focus and discipline instead.

I'm just curious, did he mention which stock it was and his reasons for selecting it?

I agree, there's a lot that can be learnt from these mistakes, most of them noted by Timmy above.

Ive had a few stocks go belly up over the time ive been investing directly in shares (10+ years), Sons of Gwalia was the worst.

It has also happened to one time market darlings like Onetel or HIH, think anyone who invests solely in just 1 or 2 stocks is adding to the overall risk, although SGW hurt it only had a limited impact overall and in the past few years gains have far far outweighed what i lost, also claiming the capitol loss went some way to easing the pain.

Although company's like Centro, ABC or Allco haven't gone under they are barely worth a fraction of what they were worth 12 months ago, i had Allco and again took a hit but just shows the advantages of diversification.

As the old saying goes, don't put all your eggs in 1 basket no matter how blue the stock.

Worst story I ever heard was one from a guy who borrowed heavily on the advice of his broker in a share called brex in the 90s (don't know how it is spelt) but aparently in was going through the roof. Then it was found out as a fraud.... the rest is history.

bre-x was some imaginary gold mine in northern canada that was found to be a fraud about 5 years ago.

i think it scared a few out of resources for fear of same - now that'd hurt

Hows that saying go?

"a fool and his money are soon separated"

Something like that....as for recovering the losses.

"never throw good money after bad"

http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/throw+good+money+after+bad

Bre-X was listed in Canada but the gold mine was in Indonesia.

Apparently the geologies disappeared on a helicopter flight over Indonesia.

It was a lot more than 5 years ago. Bre-X folded in 1997.

It's thanks for Bre-X we have a JORC code & Canadian equivalent NI 43-101

I certainly would not be wacking all my money into one stock (particularly on the advice of a ticket clipper) but on the other hand believe diversification is overrated. Anyone who has concentrated in the resources sector over the past few years would know this. My experience has been that if you find a few good stocks you concentrate and hammer them, keep buying/building.

The drawdown would be totally mental.

Bre-X was certainly the market darling at the time. One of my co-workers lost almost all of her portfolio after investing most of it in Bre-X.

Not putting all your eggs in one basket is good prevention.

Another thing to keep in mind: if it's too good to be true, it usually is.

I remember the gut feeling I had before the news about Bre-X. The feeling was that Bre-X stank to high heaven. It turned out that gut feeling was right.

I had the same feeling about a company called Livent. I called that one right too.

I'm trusting my gut on Canada's latest market darling and not touching it with a barge pole.

Trusting your gut is good advice too. Maybe you don't know why it doesn't feel right, but in the worst-case scenario, you've missed a good opportunity. There's always other opportunities, it's better to dodge a bullet.

There is nothing wrong with 'putting your eggs in one basket'. Many people do it with other asset classes eg property

For what it's worth, I don't believe my approach should be used for investing in any stock where the target market is at the mercy of economic conditions eg resources. You may think that every stock is at this mercy, but it really is not the case. Some stocks can thrive on global doom.

I have my eggs in one basket for the following reasons:

1. I traded in my stock in the early days so my capital is well and truly convered barring bankruptcy (which can't happen at the stage the company is at)

2. I have researched this company thoroughly, and by 'thoroughly', I don't mean reading a few posts on a few forums. You have to live and breathe this company by spending hours daily on research to to with all eventualities.

3. For me to diversify would be seen as opportunity cost. I never second guess my own judgements. This is weakness. Weakness is costly.

I know this may seem crazy to many off you. However my priority is to make a lot of money. This does not happen with minimizing risk.

Ready to be mocked!

Pommiegranite said:

There is nothing wrong with 'putting your eggs in one basket'. Many people do it with other asset classes eg property

For what it's worth, I don't believe my approach should be used for investing in any stock where the target market is at the mercy of economic conditions eg resources. You may think that every stock is at this mercy, but it really is not the case. Some stocks can thrive on global doom.

I have my eggs in one basket for the following reasons:

1. I traded in my stock in the early days so my capital is well and truly convered barring bankruptcy (which can't happen at the stage the company is at)

2. I have researched this company thoroughly, and by 'thoroughly', I don't mean reading a few posts on a few forums. You have to live and breathe this company by spending hours daily on research to to with all eventualities.

3. For me to diversify would be seen as opportunity cost. I never second guess my own judgements. This is weakness. Weakness is costly.

I know this may seem crazy to many off you. However my priority is to make a lot of money. This does not happen with minimizing risk.

Ready to be mocked!

Click to expand...

Hey PommieG - no mocking from me - what a great post! Very good point - the problem is not necessarily (as I said initially) 'all eggs in one basket' but more so in not knowing enough about the basket. Nice one.

PommieG

Can I ask if you use technical analysis in your trading? It appears you obviously use a lot of 'fundamental' analysis in your decision-making, any TA also?

If your going to be that risky why don't you just buy a few crude oil contracts?

Some great fundamentals and far larger potential upside.

Though you say you want a stock that will thrive on 'global doom', gold?

So you cannot disagree with oil futures if you are simly trying to maximise both R:R, you buy a stock that will benefit from economic meltdown (ends), oil is the means.

It's Snake Pliskin said:

The drawdown would be totally mental.

Click to expand...

But more than worth it dont you think?

(If you are referring to a concentrated portfolio in resources the last few years).

HMM-i reckon balance is the key-i cant have 1 stock with a lot of my money in it-no matter who it is or how good that stock does every year-

at the moment- i have 5 stocks that are not doing to well-i still hold them as i have 17 stocks dragging the 5 bad ones-

like some one said before to good to be true- if i was to tell everyone here i had 22/22 winners- people would say u are a freak- and i would even say this is to good to be true as i am not the best trader-luck only goes so far-

i honeslty like to see how the bad ones are going as the good stock's and reasearch takes care of it self-(i dont know why yet but thats what i have seen on my stuff )

beside's if i had just 1 stock i would be breaking one of my the rules- and that is stressing to the max-

my 2 cent's

Thanks

Nick--

Well, putting all your money in one company isn't so smart. What I do, is putting a stop-loss (8%) at all of my shares. Ones a share price is falling, don't hope it will start to raise, but sell.
And when a share price raises, let it raise

Dimi

Pommiegranite said:

There is nothing wrong with 'putting your eggs in one basket'. Many people do it with other asset classes eg property

For what it's worth, I don't believe my approach should be used for investing in any stock where the target market is at the mercy of economic conditions eg resources. You may think that every stock is at this mercy, but it really is not the case. Some stocks can thrive on global doom.

I have my eggs in one basket for the following reasons:

1. I traded in my stock in the early days so my capital is well and truly convered barring bankruptcy (which can't happen at the stage the company is at)

2. I have researched this company thoroughly, and by 'thoroughly', I don't mean reading a few posts on a few forums. You have to live and breathe this company by spending hours daily on research to to with all eventualities.

3. For me to diversify would be seen as opportunity cost. I never second guess my own judgements. This is weakness. Weakness is costly.

I know this may seem crazy to many off you. However my priority is to make a lot of money. This does not happen with minimizing risk.

Ready to be mocked!

Click to expand...

Ok I'll bite. I think that regardless of how thorough the level of research, that it is still highly risky to have all your capital in the one stock. It would be interesting to know which actual company it is because it would make it a little easier to find some risks you may not have considered, but in my opinion a black swan event can hit any company no matter how robust the balance sheet and how sound the fundamentals. That being said - there is usually enough time to scrape your way out of these things if you are monitoring the stock closely and have your wits about you - as stocks rarely go from robust to delisted overnight - but it can still happen in theory.

If its finance then there is the risk of fraud and the risk of dishonesty about the quality of the loan book etc. and a big debt blowup somewhere.

If its insurance there's the risk of natural disaster.

If its manufacturing there are a variety of legal risks including class actions due to a manufactured product causing illness or injury, there is the slight risk of a new invention making the manufacturers goods obsolete, there is the risk of plant failure or fire, explosion or natural disaster hitting the plant. And also risk of industrial action.

If its mining or oil/gas there are all sorts of risks including a mine disaster, weather/natural disaster, a bad accident requiring shutdown of significant mines or major compensation, or also again the possibility of massive environmental disaster and huge compensation payments for cleanup (e.g. an acid spill destroying wildlife or even getting into a local water supply etc.). Don't think that even a big company like BHP is 100% immune to this sort of thing. There is also the risk of industrial action and legal action from a competitor.

If its property development I don't think I need to say anything - there's all sorts of risks and we've seen plenty of property developers go belly up. Similarly for commercial property there's all sorts of risks including liability, fraud etc. that could come out of the blue.

If its alcohol/tobacco then there's the class action/liability risk and competitive risk as well.

I'm pretty sure some combination of the above risks could be extended to other market sectors as well.

No matter how good the research I personally think that no portfolio should have more than one third of its capital in any one stock and preferably not more than 20% of capital in any one stock.

If you put all your money in one stock, please make sure you place a stop-loss at a certain level... you don't want to lose all of your money.

And, why not diversify your portofolio?

Dimi