Back in 1978 I came across the story of a feller by the name of W. Buffett in a fascinating article. All the research I did indicated that this was a very smart fellow doing great things with a company he'd taken over by the name of Berkshire Hathaway. I decided to buy the stock but was taken aback by the fact that the stock then was about $300 a share or so and I had only saved about $5,000 then so I could have only bought about 16 shares or so and would not qualify for a round lot. So I didn't do it. Lets see 16 shares at today's closing price $1,635,200...
Last year, the company I worked for announced a large acquisition about July - but the deal didn't close until November. Because of the agreement and the economy, we paid too much for the company and our company stock went from $45/share to $5/share by Jan '09. At that time, it looked like it could go either way (up or to BK), and I was swayed by conventional wisdom (don't have all your eggs in one company basket - employment, pension, 401K in company stock, etc.) Had about $500K in the 401K at the time - and could have dumped it all (or at least SOME of it) into the company stock - but didn't. Stock is now back to the mid-40's. Could have made nearly $3.5MM in the last 6 months. Market timing is everything....
I'm really trying to come up with one. Other than paying a sales load on my very 1st mutual fund, I'm drawing a blank.Well thanks to all the other mistake makers ! I was convinced I was the only one on this board who ever made a big mistake . I feel better now !
Might be something in our water up here. I see my sons often, we go out to eat, we watch sports together, we take walks- they are always warm and friendly but they don't seem to have any interest at all in learning from me.It grieves me that my kids have no interest in learning anything from me.
Ouch, this one has been sticking to my brain for a long time:I have made a ton of little mistakes. Believe me, they all add up.
It grieves me that my kids have no interest in learning anything from me. Maybe later. What did Mark Twain say? "When I was 18 I couldn't believe how stupid my father was. When I turned 25, I was amazed at how much he had learned in seven years." <or something like that.>
I learned a tremendous amount from my father, but I didn't appreciate how much he'd taught me until I became one.“When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished by how much he'd learned in seven years.”
And of course I've learned a tremendous amount from the examples set by my father-in-law. That's about my most positive summary of that situation.
Nords said:So I think our kids are always learning from us, even if we don't realize that we're teaching...
sigh, so many. Latest example. Bot sva 10k @.80. sold .81. Now 8.3
We've handled that by selling part of a position. For example - since you are up 6x (do you mean 6x?) then you could sell 1/6 of the position to recoup your original investment, and let the rest ride, or come up with some other type of staging strategy.That is usually the mistake I make with individual stocks . I sell too soon . I currently have a stock that is up 600% and I'm really itching to sell but my SO has convinced me to hold for awhile . I don't want to reveal the stock because I'm afraid that will jinx it . So I'll post the results in the future of whether it was a winner or a
We've handled that by selling part of a position. For example - since you are up 6x (do you mean 6x?) then you could sell 1/6 of the position to recoup your original investment, and let the rest ride, or come up with some other type of staging strategy.
Audrey