Your worst rookie error?

Friday schadenfreude fun. Let’s put a face on ā€œcapital at riskā€. Beat this.

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That made me wince slightly!

Is there anything you’d do differently next time / that you’ve learnt from this, besides not buying the stock right at that moment perhaps? :wink:

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DEF TESLA !!! It gives me a hard time – I bought in at 282USD — give a like if you are like me in that love hate relationship with TESLA STOCK…

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I definitely think it’s something Freetrade will have to confront with introducing inexperienced investors to the markets. For me this was a classic ā€œbuy low sell high, how much lower could it really go?ā€ when I started in November, hence sharing it as a learning experience. When I saw the test go up I bought more, and when I was up 25% I thought let it keep rising to previous highs.

Since then I’ve learned far more about fundamental analysis, insights along the lines of Simply Wall Street to understand balance sheets would be a great help. I recently learned my dividend-growth balance approach was actually a bit too low risk and loosing out on high-growth stocks where the potential upsides outweigh the risks, hence buying far more US tech recently.

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I just finished reading a book about Theranos called ā€œBad Bloodā€. Turned out not to be a good investment, but the book was a fantastic read about the rise and fall of the startup.

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Great documentary based on it as well ā€œThe Inventor - Out For Blood In Silicon Valleyā€

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My biggest mistakes were in the pre-Freetrade years (below, from when we discussed mistakes a year ago). I learned a lot from them. Current errors: Stitchfix -6 and had been +100% but I held on to it, and Baidu -45%.

I think that the lesson for me is that the two things that work are

  1. putting a lot of time and effort into stock selection while also being very talented at it (which I don’t do)
  2. safe, boring and very patient low-cost, diverse index-trackery strategies (which is what I do, 95%).
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Mine too is Tesla this year, I bought at a similar price, and will now be waiting to see what happens over the next 10 years or so. Still hopeful though!

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I’m learning not to rush and get carried away. A few stocks and I hurried to buy thinking they are at a low price only for them to fall further: Tesla, Vodafone, Aston Martin

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It seems like its getting worse – I am the same I refuse to sell and ā€˜fight’ until the end – maybe Elon will take over the world with his rockets and he will take us loyal shareholders with him to Mars

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Worst error: early stage crowdfunding when I didn’t have a clue about anything. However, I am confident that the Ā£200 punt on Freetrade’s round 1 will make everything come good, if not fantastic. Actually, my worse error might be not putting a grand in.

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How did you get into Theranos?

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How much were the 328 shares if you don’t mind me asking?

TCG was a big one for me. I got out at -20%. In the time it could take TCG to recover, my money can hopefully do a lot more work elsewhere. Impulse purchase gone wrong (shockingly).

What made you invest?

When the sp dropped to 19p I thought that TCG was a greatly under priced (and continue to think that it is). I therefore made a series of purchases based on this dramatic drop in price as the airline itself is valuable, extensive hotel portfolio and fortsun were increasing their holding. I was slightly slow off the mark and ended up with an average buy of 26p. I was using a platform with a high price per trade so held my position (until I sold). Had I had freetrade I would have had a lot of fun as it is a day trader’s playground. I do think that TCG will survive and recover but there are definitely better places for my money while TCG sorts itself out.

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I guess Debenhams I have a 100% loss so was my worst rookie error. I did write the money off when I bought it so it isn’t really an error. Not selling them quicker than I did (they didn’t complete so it has now failed) may be a rookie mistake.

These are classic rookie errors.

I did buy Sainsburys just before the ASDA deal collapsed which sent the stock plunging.
I did buy Stagecoach just before they were banned from government train contracts sent stocks falling.
I did buy ITV just before the Jeremy Kyle story which made the stock fall further.

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Mine is Royal Mail. I got shares at the IPO.

Tried to sell last summer at around Ā£6.50 but I didn’t know my Equinti reference number (terrible system) and couldn’t get home to find it. So I never did sell and now they’re at Ā£2.30, unlikely to get back to Ā£6.50 anytime soon.

I’d keep hold of ITV. They should bounce back towards the end of the year when they release Britbox. Certainly not overvalued currently so sit tight, I am.

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Can you let us know who you buy so we don’t!

Wow that is an unlucky three buys but feel ITV is just a blip and should recover

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