Anyone else want to join the "Lost over a million" club?

[NW-Bound]

Absolutely, people who rebuild the infrastructure, homes, fences, debris removal, etc. I know whenever a simple hailstorm comes through this part of the country the roofing contractors seem to come out of the woodwork. I suspect they are all making a lot of money quickly.

Yes, but the gain is indirect and comes from additional labor and fresh material being put up. What is lost by the victims is wealth destroyed, same as in war. The wealth is not transferred like a bag of gold coins getting passed from a robbery victim to a robber.

Speaking of robbers, the bankers that were guilty in the mortgage fiasco of 2008 were wiped out too, or at least the ones not getting TARP'ed.

 

[haha]

Where are all of you folks losing this money? If you lost some, there must be someone else who won an exact amount. Are they posting on a different thread?

You are mistaken about this. If these were commodity contracts, or options, you would be right, as one will always have a counter party. But who is your counter party when you own 500 shares of Apple? Prices on the stock exchange can go up and down merely because people are more or less eager to exchange money for already existing shares.

Prices can change markedly with very few shares actually trading.

Ha

 

[38Chevy454]

Is this like getting on the scale? I've lost the same 5 pounds over and over and I can't tell you how many times I 'lost' 100k. Keep wearing the same pants.

Well then, my portfolio is like my scale: mostly up with a few drops that are soon recovered

 

[Ronstar]

All of this Ferrari talk has me nervous. I check my portfolio on the last day of each month. Haven't checked it since 12/31/2015. I need to do it by COB tomorrow and I better not be down a Ferrari.


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[audreyh1]

Where are all of you folks losing this money? If you lost some, there must be someone else who won an exact amount. Are they posting on a different thread?

That is not actually how it works.

Markets can have trillions vanish into thin air. No one "got" that money. It just went poof.

Market capitalizations rise and fall on the whims of investors.

 

[audreyh1]

You are mistaken about this. If these were commodity contracts, or options, you would be right, as one will always have a counter party. But who is your counter party when you own 500 shares of Apple? Prices on the stock exchange can go up and down merely because people are more or less eager to exchange money for already existing shares.

Prices can change markedly with very few shares actually trading.

Ha

Excellent answer!

 

[mh]

If I had $10,000,000 I wouldn't take much risk. Some 10 year Treasuries for me.

Interesting observation - I'd probably do the same or at least a good chunk of it ( half ? )


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[Ed_The_Gypsy]

Not in dollars, but my investments are down about 40% since Nov 2015. As a side note, I have been out of work for a year now. The play money is gone.

Beer budget, not champagne.

Do you feel better now?

 

[Car-Guy]

If you lost some, there must be someone else who won an exact amount. Are they posting on a different thread?

OK, I'll admit it and will post it on this thread, since you asked. I made money trading in the stock market last month. The total gain "won", wasn't a lot of money but it was in the lower 5 digit range...

 

[DJRR]

Hey, Jeff Bezos lost $6 Billion on Amazon last week. I would much rather be part of that club

 

[jetpack]

I probably lost over a million by keeping a good share of cash out of the market since 2008.

 

[Danmar]

If I had $10,000,000 I wouldn't take much risk. Some 10 year Treasuries for me.

it is very difficult to get that kind of money without taking a fair bit of risk. A bit of a "catch 22"I guess.

 

[haha]

Not in dollars, but my investments are down about 40% since Nov 2015. As a side note, I have been out of work for a year now. The play money is gone.

Beer budget, not champagne.

Do you feel better now?

Holy crap Ed, and I have been feeling sorry for myself!




Ha

 

[kcowan]

This thread reminds me of a conversation I had with my DW a few years ago. It was a good day in the market and I proudly told her we made $xxx,xxx today. She responded by asking me if this was money we had already made before? Alas, it was. Deflated me a bit.

One thing many non-investors don't understand is the impact of volume on the markets. If the daily volume drops in half or more, the value of shares trading hands is half.

Kind of the same dilemma as 50% gain or loss. If I lose 50% today, I need to make 100% tomorrow to get back to where I was...

 

[Hermit]

All of this Ferrari talk has me nervous. I check my portfolio on the last day of each month. Haven't checked it since 12/31/2015. I need to do it by COB tomorrow and I better not be down a Ferrari.


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Its Feb 2. How long are you going to keep us in the dark?

 

[Ronstar]

Its Feb 2. How long are you going to keep us in the dark?

My high was in May/2015. I'm down $106k in equities since then. Not a Ferrari, but bad enough.

 

[W2R]

My high was in May/2015. I'm down $106k in equities since then. Not a Ferrari, but bad enough.

That's really not too bad!

I'm down more, but due to both the market and to buying my dream house. Between the two of those, my loss wouldn't buy a new Ferrari but it would buy me a fleet of eight Corollas, a different one for every day of the week and two on Sunday.

 

[Ronstar]

W2R - You may be down more, but $ spent on your dream house is well worth it. And I like the 8 Corollas reference. I would rather have 8 Corollas than a Ferrari, but I'd have to build one heck of a garage for that.

 

[aja8888]

Looks like that new pickup truck just vanished from my IRA.

 

[Mulligan]

Looks like that new pickup truck just vanished from my IRA.

You can get that back real quick with an oil gig, if the spirit ever moves. Credit rating companies downgraded a slew of them today and ready to downgrade again. You could buy you a fleet of them with all the work that will be out there.


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[NW-Bound]

Don't know yet what vehicle I lose today; still have to wait for MFs to report, but just my stock portion looks plenty bad.

Again, I never had enough to lose $1M, the topic of the thread, but I have lost enough for a Roll Royce Phantom, with enough left over for a top-of-the-line Audi, plus a run-of-the-mill BMW (Why am I suddenly curious about car prices, not caring about cars for the last 3 decades? Must be bad influence from the posters here).

But that is not this time, from the most recent high. My largest loss was during the recession after the tech bust in 2000 followed by 9/11.

And what did I do back in 2003 when that happened? I went on a trip to Europe to clear the cobweb, and stopped by Pompeii to spend a day wandering among the ruins to contemplate the meaning of life, or worse, the brutal sudden snuff out of it.

 

[Big_Hitter]

My high was in May/2015. I'm down $106k in equities since then. Not a Ferrari, but bad enough.

I think I'm in that club...

 

[ejman]

Searching back through my files the largest annual loss was ~ $350K in 2008 with another ~$100K through February 2009 for good measure. Fond memories! But I guess not quite the level of loss required for this thread...