Investing howlers I have made!!

There isn't enough room to post my howlers. 1980 oil stocks such as Atlantic Resources, Arcon, Eglington. (Could have bought half a house with the cash at the time). Buying Insurance shares the week before 9/11. Buying Marconi at £6 and buying more on the way down at £3, now worthless. (Could have built an extension to my half house). Selling AIB at 9.10 a.m. the morning of the Rusnak affair on a phone call from my broker. They recovered almost immediately. Bought Anglo at 70p and sold at £2.20, Given a tip for FBD at £4.20 from the horses mouth but never invested. I also have Waterford Wedgwood share certs along with a few others in the bottom drawer. Thankfully I have clawed most of these losses back but it has taken a long time plus some more years to come. Now its investing on fundamentals, trading statements and outlook. No more gut feelings or panic moments.
 
Brendan said:
Anyway, I stuck to my policy of buying and holding a diverse portfolio of non-tech shares. I had shares in Fyffes which announced that they were going to particpate in the dot.com boom by setting up Worldof Fruit.com.
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I was (indirectly) indirectly involved in WOF.com at the time and could have warned you about some of the issues that they faced at the time - assuming that this did not constitute insider information of course!
Reduce your exposure to your employer's shares if they form a significant part of your overall wealth.
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The Enron principle!
 
Reduce your exposure to your employer's shares if they form a significant part of your overall wealth.
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Indeed. In fact it makes much more sense to have shares in the biggest direct competitor to the company you work for. The government's tax breaks for employee share ownership schemes are misguided to say the least.

My biggest investment mistakes:
1. Holding off buying property for years and years.
2. Buying pension products from a broker.
The former especially was a disasterous (in)decision. I means that it's likely that I'll never become as wealthy as many of my peers/friends despite having a higher income than most of them.
 
darag said:
The government's tax breaks for employee share ownership schemes are misguided to say the least.
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You mean for Revenue approved schemes? I thought that these were fairly thin on the ground and most people (such as myself) were subject to the normal income tax BIK and CGT rules on shares obtained at a discount to the market value via employer ESPP/ESOP schemes?
 
Fair dues to all of ye.
A lot of people will only mention their stock market success stories, and lead some people to think its foolproof.
 
You mean for Revenue approved schemes?
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Yes. I know of two people who have effectively received tax free shares in the companies they work for. The schemes are thin on the ground because I've heard the amount of paperwork involved in getting approval is very significant making it only practical for the largest of companies. There are also a lot of restrictions on when the employee can sell (three years or something?) after availing of the tax free shares and there seems to be some confusion about what happens if the employee leaves early before this period expires.
 
I guess that I’ve got off lightly apart from being stung by Eircom (like half of the population) and messing up a dip with AIB shares.

At the risk of being overly conservative, I now prefer to buy investment funds. Now I know it takes the thrill of buying & selling on your own and you’re paying someone to manage the fund, but I’m happy to pay someone that is more expert than me to do this.
 
I prefer this approach too because I just find the administrative/tax issues that come with direct shareholdings too much work/hassle. For what it's worth there are some discussion about the direct versus indirect approaches to equity investments in the key topics threads at the top of this forum and the AAM Guide to Savings & Investments.
 
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in those days i was into greyhounds and a newry business man who also raced dogs was telling all and sundry to buy these shares at about one shilling each at that time they went to around £33 before going on the slide, years later i got into buying shares through the popular shares schemes then onto carpetbagging, i always regretted not buying a few hundred of those shares at that time, i know i would have got out long before they crashed
 
I lost quite a lot buying pharmaceutial stocks 5 years ago, this would include all the big named international drug stocks. Took bad investment advice from the media that these were underpriced.
This cured me of active stockpicking, and cured me of buying growth stocks.
I have now seen the light, and retreated into exchange funds with a value bias.
I now possess the missionary zeal of the converted!
 
Would it be possible for the raconteurs to indicate what the specialist terms being used mean. Then we could all enjoy the yarns! Thanks.
 
amen bro!
Re unsolicited "FREE" emails I got one this morn which is a classic pump and dump I mentioned above. The ticker is snfx. DO NOT BUY!
This is up 10% odd on 10 times of average volume.
The email said it was going to $9 by friday.
Now if you go to any discount broker there is no bid or ask!!
Spread on this is huge and the only person making money is broker.
I have mentioned the stock ticker as a warning of the scam that can catch the unwary. AVOID!
 
Markowitzman--- I just checked out your story on that stock. It's unbelievable. Look at its "behaviour" today. What a crazy scam!
 
Lemmings are getting killed.
I know we are not meant to discuss individual stocks but this is for greater good I feel. To any novices (me a few years ago!) beware free emails promising profits in OTCBB stocks with low volumes and small floats.
 
I got a mail on that stock as well this morning. Didn't bother my asre checking out the stock.... I havn't a clue though as got where this crowd got my email address to begin with....

ninsaga
 
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