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What was your biggest ever mistake?

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prawn_86 said:
Selling STB @ 25c a yr ago. Now 3.87
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I think I sold around then too Prawn. Derrr

Agree with tech on the first wife thing. Disaster. Everyone needs a practice run though.

Selling the likes of AZM, GRY, GIR, BRM, PRU in late 09 were, in retrospect, life changing.
 
Market Depth said:
I protest I don't think that taking a profit constitutes a mistake. With hindsight it does, but we can't trade hindsight, OH how we all wish we could we trade for profits.
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Leaving money on the table without as much as a cursory glance at how to get a large proportion of it if it continues to accumulate after you've taken yours off--- is simply poor business.

Taking a profit with no forward planning is like opening for business on Saturday taking your profits and closing for the rest of your business life.
By the look of this thread there are plenty who have done so.

Nothing wrong with taking a profit but PLENTY wrong with not taking ENOUGH profit!
 
Putting all my money into managed funds which turned out not to be very well managed...
 

I was just havin' a laugh Tech

I agree with all of what you say. I guess it comes down to what time frames the OP had in mind, when they first entered their postions?

For me if I earn 20% profit on an Intraday trade, that began as an Intraday trade, then for me I consider that enough. I'd also consider a 4% profit on an Itraday trade on a stock that typically trades with a 5-7% spread enough for that day. As for longer term swing and postion trades, I let the stock decide how much it's going to give me, or won't give me.
 
Umm not buying FMG @ 48c in 2004 - 5 got as high as $130 before splitting the register.

Now I class the company as a highly profitable blue chip with a great growth profile.
 
Buying ERA @ ~ $21.00 earlier this year and expecting past performance to be repeated.

Lucky to get out without being burnt to bad.
 
Bought AUN @ $4.10 and within 3 months was down to $0.05 back in the late 90's.
 
I went fishing once with a 40 pound strength line.
Caught something massive and had to let it go. For the rest of the day, no bites.
At the end of the day, I caught a small snapper. Didn't weigh much and certainly not
enough to go round at dinner.

Oh well, it was just fishing.
 
Selling some gems in 09 (april in fact) - oh the pain! I thought the overall market had further to fall at the time. Boy was I wrong! I did not buy them back. Why? Trying to convince myself that I was right in selling them I guess....

GIR 60c
BRM $1.16
ORI $17
BHP $33

I also had STB very early, but was not "attached to it" like the above stocks. (I know, one shouldn't get attached)

The other big mistake I made was not buying the stocks that I had put on my "takeover watchlist". Most of those have now been taken over. Why didn't I buy them if I thought they were targets??? Opportunities missed.
 
Oh the pain ,it still hurts me every day that I log onto view my portfolio.
On the 16/09/2010 I bought 14K of BCD @.16c (the worst decision I have ever made)
On the 7/10/2010 BCD want into trading halt followed by voluntary suspension of trading with finance dramas which seemed to be sorted out with MAK.
On reopen on 14/10/2010 it dropped from .15c to .052c OUCH!!! so now at this point most of this trade was gone...in my head i just said to myself @&^%# two thirds of this trade is gone so now im in for the long haul on this one (my trades usually only last for about two weeks or less).
On the 8/11/2010 yet another trading halt as MAK pulls the pin on it cash which followed by another voluntary suspension of trading until 22/11/2010 which saw a further drop to .021c ,(my god now im really depressed hang on I will just get a stiff drink)
BCD now has the cash to continue for the next 12 months
Hang on it gets worse..... On 7/12/2010 BCD hits its low of .013c Now my 14k is worth under 1.5k.
On Friday BCD saw a 28% gain to finish on .027c after dropping form a 50% (.030c high) Oh so depressing talking about this.
Hopefully this will be a rags to riches story for BCD but im prepared to loose whats left of my 14k rather than pull out now.
On a positive note I started trading with my own real money about 6 months ago with a 50k account which is now valued at approximately 75k ....so overall not a bad result but it hurts so much to think what I could have had if I didnt make this huge error of judgment.
I have learn't a lot from this site in the last 12 months and have also learn't from my own mistakes.
One day I hope to tell this story to my grand kids when the pain isn't so great and im old and grey.
 
thinking the Subprime mortgage crisis was a local American issue which would not eclipse the China commodity boom
 
Haven't made one yet but given my appetite for risk it shouldn't be long.
 
Getting greedy and then getting scared.

A few years ago I started investing and the first thing I bought were JB Hi-fi shares, because I saw how many people were going into their stores and it was pretty crazy. I bought in at around $12. It went up to $15 and I got greedy and wanted more, but then it fell to around $7 and I got scared and sold. Now it's hanging around $17

My lesson from this is, if I trust the sales model, stick with it. Luckily it wasn't much money.
 
I've got a pretty good mistake. My first ever investment into a company I was talking about with a family member which made me a few hundred bucks with quite a small investment. I was happy and excited and wanted to explore the stock market for myself. Woke up next day and saw some massive buys for a stock so I quickly researched it. I saw a recent announcement for a trading halt and read forums quickly which all had positive opinions of the trading halt and the potential spike in price it could cause. I rushed to purchase the stock before it could be too late. I'm just making up dates here because I can't remember, but the trading halt announcement said the ann will be out on or before 2 Jan. I purchased on 1 Jan. The next few days stock lost half my money I put in. Turns out I was rushing so much due to excitement that I didn't even realise the announcement was made on Jan 1 before my "buy." Like the idiot I was I thought the ann said on Jan 2,but did not take notice of the on OR BEFORE and did not even take notice that the price had increased so much on Jan 1. So basically I purchased at the high of the price which was caused from the beautiful positive announcement.

I rushed, I got nervous and excited, I made my decision without thinking properly, mainly because I was a real big fat newbie.

Luckily for me, I didn't invest all the money I had into it, and when the price of the stock dropped, I purchased in at a lower price (after reading and doing so much thinking). The stock went up a bit, and my lower purchase's profit covered by higher purchase's loss. I must say though, I was scared s***less when the SP dropped after my initial purchase.

Now, I do so much research before I purchase a stock. Before you buy, research is the key element. While you hold, patience is the key element. When you sell, research is again the key element. Don't trade without research and patience is the lesson I'm giving any newbie out there. Research and patience is what will make you money, not only in the stock market, but anywhere.
 
Selling DGR for 5.7c (bought for an avg. of 4.2c) because simply because I wanted to get rid of them (scarcely gave the chart a look). A few days later it broke out and about a month later peaked at 17.5c!
 
My biggest mistake was forgetting about this forum.

My second biggest was not selling PBG for a (small) profit but selling for a big loss when it headed down quickly in 2009. I kept thinking it would go up instead of following a good stop loss strategy.
 

Luckily it didn't go broke then the lesson would have been COMPLETELY different.
Then the /your sales model would have meant zip.
 
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