Did you get rich on a single stock?

[NW-Bound]

I would not do it, concentrate on one stock, unless I was employed at the company and able to watch daily operations.

However implementing a buy/sell transaction with such info is called "insider information"

I knew a guy who did that. This was in around 1997. It was a very large semiconductor firm, and he said that the analysts' call on the next quarter earnings was wrong as he saw the orders coming in. So, he put down a 6-figure sum on some options and turned it into a 7 figure in a few months. It is normally hard to buy that many option contracts on the market, but this being a very large company with high trading volumes in both stocks and options, he was able to do that.

The SEC occasionally goes after insider traders, but in this case I wondered if it applied. He was not a high-level employee, and certainly not in upper management. Supposedly, an astute truck driver making delivery runs to the company could have noticed the surge in orders too.

Anyway, soon after winning that big amount, he apparently developed an attitude and could no longer work there or was asked to leave, so he took ER. He was only in the early 40s.

 

[NW-Bound]

Here's another case I know of people getting rich by [-]gambling[/-] taking a risk.

One of my brothers-in-law saw his megacorp in deep financial doo-doo in the late 80s. So, what he did was to transfer all of his 401K into the company stock. The company recovered, and he took ER with nearly $2M in 401K.

At my wife's and my own megacorps, the company matching was 100% in company stock, and we just left it there. Some people would put their own contribution into company stock, but I wanted some diversification. I was too busy with work and did not even check to see how our megacorp stocks fared compared to the S&P.

Back then, the companies did not mind people going 100% in company stocks, as that encouraged loyalty and the awareness of company's well-being. After the debacle in 2003, my wife's megacorp limited employees' stock portion in their 401k to 20% and allowed the company's matching to go to other funds. But at that point, I already diversified it out to other funds. And I already rolled out my 401K to an IRA to divest, so did not know if my former megacorp had the same new policy.

 

[6miths]

Back in the day when I had individual stocks, I would say that I at best broke even and more likely was down a bit. I became rich by investing in index ETFs and the luck of the market run up over the last 5 years. Oh yes, and by getting a good education and working hard at a job in which I was well paid.

 

[richfei]

New to this forum. Retired last year. Married. 44 years old. Net worth 6 million+. 2 kids. House paid off. Invested heavily in tech stocks. No pension or stock options. But LBYM and early and frequent investments helped me tremendously. AAPL did very well for me. If I relied on index funds, I think I'd still be working

 

[NW-Bound]

Your screen name reminds me of the exclamation Al Pacino has been known for in the movie Scent of a Woman.

 

[Asher Aion]

+1

 

[Fermion]

The general idea is you can get well off slowly by investing in index funds, but you can get rich fast by putting all of your eggs in one basket (this unfortunately is also the way to get poor).

It is refreshing to know that so many people on here gamble, or gambled in the past. Makes me feel a bit better about my trading account.

 

[NW-Bound]

Is it the $80K account that you talked about in another thread? If so, there's nothing to worry about as it is only a few percent of your NW, if my memory serves.

I do not have a separate trading account, but mentally keep note of how much I put into what I consider volatile stocks or ETFs. And it can go as high as 10% of portfolio. Or it can be lower, but I play short-term movements with leveraged ETFs. As I do not keep track of these trades separately, I do not really know exactly how well I did with them. However, I know that it is profitable and more than cancels out the lousy return of the cash holdings that I have.

A guy must allow himself some fun. Being as conservative as I am, if I were truly chicken, I would not leave the cozy but suffocating nest of my megacorp to pursue those eventually disastrous ventures. It makes life exciting. Heh heh heh...

And because I did not have a secure income starting in 1997, I did not take even higher risks with my portfolio, whether that was a good or bad thing. So, I did not get rich off any single stock. But I am still left standing, and even get to ER. Heh heh heh...