Best & Worst Investments šŸ’ø

Investing and Markets šŸ“ˆ
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Whilst winding down some of my positions this afternoon, I thought Iā€™d see if we can get a few people sharing some of their recent investments, and some reasoning behind them, donā€™t be afraid to share!

Good investment :+1: Brewdog +428%

Why did I invest? For the discount in the bars! Investing a small amount bagged me a 5% discount, which turned into a 10% discount following my dilution

Lesson learned If there is a product/service you enjoy, and you get the opportunity to invest even a small amount to support it, donā€™t be afraid to! I had pretty much forgotten about this investment until the latest round of Equity for Punks, and the growth was a nice surprise on something that had already paid for itself in discounts.

Bad Investment :face_with_head_bandage: Qualcomm -15% :man_facepalming:

Why did I invest? Assumed the Broadcomm deal was going to go through

Lesson Learned Spend more time analysing the bigger picture, pay more attention to geopolitical developments

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My two pence below

Good investment :+1: Amazon +109%

Why did I invest? Amazon, I believe, is the only company that can enter any market and succeed in it. They have a huge technological advancement, as well as a CEO that can make ultimate decisions without looking back to the board of directors (hello Elon).

Came at various times between the prices of $900 and $1,200. Do not intend to sell even if it reaches $2,000.

Lesson learned Had intentions to liquidate most of the portfolio and convert into Amazon but changed my mind thanks to Trump. Whilst he does not carry any substantial risk himself, he reminded me (when caused a 10% dip recently) that no one can grow parabolically hence do not keep all the eggs in one basket.

Bad investment :face_with_head_bandage: Expedia -13%

Why did I invest? Expedia went down a lot since the former CEO has gone to UBER, whilst their financials and overall vision did not reflect the share price. I believed the price would quickly rebounce but it went further down by about 25% and only rebounced to -13% to date.

Lesson learned Do not be seduced by big dips, but if you re already in, do not panic sell unless it goes against your ultimate opinion about the company itself.

Hard to classify one but there was another case.

Bought Netflix at $185 in December 2017. Went to $250 in less than a month. I thought naaaah, that is a hell of a bubble that will explode very soon. Especially give Disneyā€™s soon-to-hopefully-launch rival service. Now it is $330 and probably the worst sale in the last year despite a huge (relatively) gain.

Lesson learned Go long, do not sell unless something is fundamentally wrong with the company.

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:joy: At least you quit while you were ahead! Thereā€™s no shame in taking a profit.

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Good investment: Monzo - 470+% at last reckoning, most likely higher now.

Why did I invest? To get in on the ground level with a new bank that truly puts customers first was too good an opportunity to miss.

lessons learned Get in quick when you see an awesome opportunity! 96 seconds.

bad investment Sound Energy Plc - 50% down so far

why did I invest? to be honest I saw the sp moving up quickly in a short time, after some investigating it appeared they are sitting on a giant gas field in Morocco. I got in, sp dropped like a brick.

what I learned still in the learning phase, Iā€™ve taken some money out to pay for Freetrade but I am sitting on the rest - letā€™s see where this goes. Also donā€™t invest in AIM, it is a combination of criminals and get panicky sheep who will rob you of your money if youā€™re not careful.

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Well, there is an opportunity cost I suffered. I did not manage to get a 32% return on anything within months of that sale, which I could have if stayed :sob:

@stephen, one thing I have noticed, whenever you buy, it will almost always go down. If you stay for long, you may get some increase. But as soon as you sell, it will start multiplying, literally the day after you sell it!

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Yeah thatā€™s what worries me. I know for a fact if I sell up there will be an rns tomorrow and the sp will shoot up 10,000%. Itā€™s like being handcuffed.

Iā€™ve got enough shares that I should still be nicely rewarded if it climbs but now I have derisked about 25% to put into Freetrade ā€¦ which is another risk hahah!

But I once read that it is better to invest in the services and providers than in the products themselves , e.g. invest in the underlying platform that allows people to buy shares :thinking:

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A lot of the lessons learned here fall under one or more of the 7 Deadly Sins of Investing that @Freetrade_Team posted in a blog.

Itā€™d be interesting to continue stating which psychological sin you made during your worst investments and how to prevent the same occurring in future.
https://freetrade.io/blog/the-psychology-of-investing/

P.S. Props to you all who got in on Amazon, Brewdog and Monzo early :moneybag:

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Worst investment was Torex Retail, -100%, yes a complete loss. This is a long time ago now but basically their accounts etc looked good until they didnā€™t, turned out some of the senior team was cooking the books.

Hereā€™s a summary from The Independent

The speed of the meltdown has caught even the most cynical technology analysts by surprise. Within two weeks of an upbeat trading statement being issued on 18 January, the Oxfordshire-based company has suspended its shares, launched an investigation into its accounts, and lost its controversial chairman and recently appointed chief executive in a boardroom battle that has observers scratching their heads.

And this is what happened in the end:

I learned nothing. You can walk away from this thinking be cynical but thatā€™s not my thing so I learned nothing. Let me know if Iā€™m missing any lessons here.

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Good investment :+1: Monzo +~?%

Why did I invest? I was user 36,083. Love the brand, product, vision, leadership. I got into the March 2017 round and the follow up at the end of last year. Iā€™m assuming this now outstrips my bitcoin gains which are ~+150%

Lesson learned: Keep an eye out for interesting fintech crowdfunding opportunities. Any of them around recently? :relaxed:

Bad Investment :face_with_head_bandage: Avanti Communications -99.9% :man_facepalming: :man_facepalming::man_facepalming::man_facepalming::man_facepalming:

Why did I invest? Advised to invest through a family friend, they were supposed to dominate satellite broadband. They launched a bunch of satellites but the share price has gone from Ā£7 to 5p!!!

Lesson Learned: DYOR

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Sounds like the sin of ā€˜following othersā€™ in the post: https://freetrade.io/blog/the-psychology-of-investing/

Iā€™m guilty of it, too. Story coming soon.

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Maybe with this one a potential lesson could be to be aware of ā€œred flagsā€ - I saw at least 2 clear ones in the article - and also that there is a fine line between creative accounting (legal) versus false accounting (fraudulent).

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@Diversify I donā€™t remember any major flags before they suspended the shares. From what I remember I invested because they had a good market share and itā€™s boring tech which companies need. They also reported good numbers if I remember correctly then 2 days later this happened. The worrying thing is more companies are getting creative with their books.

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Indeed. Hindsight is 20/20 so this is me having this benefit from reading the post-mortem so to speak. :eyes:

Absolutely and the accounting/audit sector is under serious scrutiny right now too

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Iā€™m following two at the moment (already in with Freetrade and Monzo):

I already invested in ā€œWriskā€ on Seedrs which are an Insurtech. They are raising currently. Delivering well and good ethos.

ā€œPlumā€ are about to raise and you can register interest . I had a couple of bad customer support issues with them so I wonā€™t be investing but they are interesting.

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Is this true? Can you post a link of some sort to this?
Iā€™m waiting patiently for Plum to be compatible with Monzo, so Iā€™d also be interested in investing in them.

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Here you go http://plum.seedrs.com/

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I invested in Plum in a previous round, but havenā€™t actually used the saving product (probably because I tried Chip before Plum - Chip seems to ā€œjust workā€, so Iā€™ve stuck with it). But not using the product feels like a negative signal. Interesting that theyā€™re doing themed investing.

If you like Wrisk, then Celo on Crowdcube Celo successfully raised Ā£100,000 - Jun 2018. looks a bit similar but is at an earlier stage.

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@Diversify The Plum Seedrs campaign is open now via Priority Access.

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Cheers, got the email after midday and have had a good read of their campaign. Just waiting on verification so I can see the key documents. Any idea how long it takes for them to verify me on Seedrs?

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I was verified automatically on sign up. In terms of the overall Plum pitch I like their ā€˜Plum Investmentsā€™ proposition - very interesting.