Investment bullets you have dodged
Discussion
We often hear from people crowing about their genius investments.
I would like to hear about the truly appalling investments that you got out of in time, whether because you saw the writing was on the wall before anyone else or you didn't like the idea from minute one.
My father was heavily in RBS pre 2008. He decided he was severely imbalanced so jumped ship a few weeks before it started its move down to pennies. That was more general prudence rather than eerie prescience though.
What of yourselves?
I would like to hear about the truly appalling investments that you got out of in time, whether because you saw the writing was on the wall before anyone else or you didn't like the idea from minute one.
My father was heavily in RBS pre 2008. He decided he was severely imbalanced so jumped ship a few weeks before it started its move down to pennies. That was more general prudence rather than eerie prescience though.
What of yourselves?
A good friend suggested I invested in a scheme that he was involved in, returns of 20% were guaranteed and he'd received a number of monthly payments equating to 20% ROI.
Approved by the FSA and certified by Barclays investment services with masses of supporting documentation, scheme was financing infrastructure services during the run up to the 2012 London Olympics.
It was clearly too good to be true so I declined to invest, said friend thought I was mad.
Ended up as an £80 million Ponzi scheme with the three perpetrators sent to jail last year.
Approved by the FSA and certified by Barclays investment services with masses of supporting documentation, scheme was financing infrastructure services during the run up to the 2012 London Olympics.
It was clearly too good to be true so I declined to invest, said friend thought I was mad.
Ended up as an £80 million Ponzi scheme with the three perpetrators sent to jail last year.
I sold all my holdings on Sep 10th 2001.
Only because I wanted to move out of individual equities and into funds to meet the requirements of a new job.
Lots I can think off that I didn't get out of, or mis-timed.
HMV going under
Selling ARM.L just before the takeover was announced.
Buying any oil stocks (I have kept one in my portfolio as a reminder to not buckle to trends).
Only because I wanted to move out of individual equities and into funds to meet the requirements of a new job.
Lots I can think off that I didn't get out of, or mis-timed.
HMV going under
Selling ARM.L just before the takeover was announced.
Buying any oil stocks (I have kept one in my portfolio as a reminder to not buckle to trends).
ringram said:
Not using St James Place for investment advise!
Saved me 5% up front and ongoing fee's and charges.
DIY is the only way to go. Just make sure you do your research!
Any single share loss pales into insignificance against this dodged bullet.
Not saying you made the wrong choice, but the average DIYer underperforms their chosen benchmark by an impressive margin. Not sure DIY is the way to go for more complex cases.Saved me 5% up front and ongoing fee's and charges.
DIY is the only way to go. Just make sure you do your research!
Any single share loss pales into insignificance against this dodged bullet.
BanzaiMan said:
ringram said:
Not using St James Place for investment advise!
Saved me 5% up front and ongoing fee's and charges.
DIY is the only way to go. Just make sure you do your research!
Any single share loss pales into insignificance against this dodged bullet.
Not saying you made the wrong choice, but the average DIYer underperforms their chosen benchmark by an impressive margin. Not sure DIY is the way to go for more complex cases.Saved me 5% up front and ongoing fee's and charges.
DIY is the only way to go. Just make sure you do your research!
Any single share loss pales into insignificance against this dodged bullet.
BanzaiMan said:
Not saying you made the wrong choice, but the average DIYer underperforms their chosen benchmark by an impressive margin. Not sure DIY is the way to go for more complex cases.
The average active manager underperforms the index full stop. It doesn't really matter whether you pay a pro to stock-pick or do it yourself, the majority of managers have no alpha. If DIY means 'buy Vanguard and go on holiday', that has to be a better choice than SJP over the long run.Sold a flat I had rented out in my area in July 2008... we all know what happened that Autumn. Similar flats are still selling for £20-25k less here, even 9 years later.
Then bought a House in April 2009, right in the middle of it all when few were buying. Probably circa £60k better off overall, which made up slightly for getting on the ladder late at 29.
Then bought a House in April 2009, right in the middle of it all when few were buying. Probably circa £60k better off overall, which made up slightly for getting on the ladder late at 29.
We dumped most of our tech stocks just before they crashed , no visions were received but we wanted to do a load of stuff to the house so liquidated a lot of it and took the tax hit, in 2000 we sold at $38 per share and the price dropped to around $7 per share within months, its taken about 14 years to recover and we finally sold the last of them yesterday for $50 per share.
It had gone from $10 a share just 12 months before and we sold before the peak but you cant get greedy
It had gone from $10 a share just 12 months before and we sold before the peak but you cant get greedy
NickCQ said:
BanzaiMan said:
Not saying you made the wrong choice, but the average DIYer underperforms their chosen benchmark by an impressive margin. Not sure DIY is the way to go for more complex cases.
The average active manager underperforms the index full stop. It doesn't really matter whether you pay a pro to stock-pick or do it yourself, the majority of managers have no alpha. If DIY means 'buy Vanguard and go on holiday', that has to be a better choice than SJP over the long run.A few years ago I took leave of my senses and, based on not much more than some buzz on an internet forum, chucked a decent (for me) amount of cash into shares in an African gold mining company. I bought in at 18p and thankfully needed to sell them to raise funds when they'd only gone down to about 16p. A quick check shows that they're now at about 4p. A lesson learned a lot more cheaply than it could have been. It also taught me that when it comes to investments people only sing when they're winning. I'm now more of the John Bogle/Warren Buffett school, i.e. buy a cheaper tracker and forget about it.
Roger Irrelevant said:
A few years ago I took leave of my senses and, based on not much more than some buzz on an internet forum, chucked a decent (for me) amount of cash into shares in an African gold mining company. I bought in at 18p and thankfully needed to sell them to raise funds when they'd only gone down to about 16p. A quick check shows that they're now at about 4p. A lesson learned a lot more cheaply than it could have been. It also taught me that when it comes to investments people only sing when they're winning. I'm now more of the John Bogle/Warren Buffett school, i.e. buy a cheaper tracker and forget about it.
A friend of mine put about £5k into SeaDrill late 2013, he's still doggedly holding now...
Alfa numeric said:
I've done similar- I bought a flat in the Royal Docks in East London in 1998 and, thanks to a divorce, sold it in early 2006 for twice what I paid for it. Five years later it was still worth less than what I got for it. In 2010 we bought a house in Kingston which we then sold in 2015 for 50% more than we paid for it, moving up to Bedfordshire for work reasons. It appears we again sold at the top of the market as places near mine in Kingston are still advertised at the level we sold for whilst one of my new neighbours just sold theirs for 20% more than we paid. I'd love to claim that I'm some sort of housing genius but in both instances it's just pure dumb luck.
This reminds me of another of my father's moves. I should pay more attention to them. He had a house that needed selling after a divorce. It was in pretty sorry condition, heating was buggered, the kitchen was ancient.
But it did have one small boon - a solitary parking space he owned that the council needed to buy so they could redevelop the school next to it. In the end he forced them to buy the whole house for about 300 grand in 2006.
It was last sold for 150 a year or so back.
rossub said:
Sold a flat I had rented out in my area in July 2008... we all know what happened that Autumn. Similar flats are still selling for £20-25k less here, even 9 years later.
Then bought a House in April 2009, right in the middle of it all when few were buying. Probably circa £60k better off overall, which made up slightly for getting on the ladder late at 29.
I've done similar- I bought a flat in the Royal Docks in East London in 1998 and, thanks to a divorce, sold it in early 2006 for twice what I paid for it. Five years later it was still worth less than what I got for it. In 2010 we bought a house in Kingston which we then sold in 2015 for 50% more than we paid for it, moving up to Bedfordshire for work reasons. It appears we again sold at the top of the market as places near mine in Kingston are still advertised at the level we sold for whilst one of my new neighbours just sold theirs for 20% more than we paid. I'd love to claim that I'm some sort of housing genius but in both instances it's just pure dumb luck.Then bought a House in April 2009, right in the middle of it all when few were buying. Probably circa £60k better off overall, which made up slightly for getting on the ladder late at 29.
I deleted this accidentally just in case anyone's wondering how it's quoted before it was posted...
Alfa numeric said:
rossub said:
Sold a flat I had rented out in my area in July 2008... we all know what happened that Autumn. Similar flats are still selling for £20-25k less here, even 9 years later.
Then bought a House in April 2009, right in the middle of it all when few were buying. Probably circa £60k better off overall, which made up slightly for getting on the ladder late at 29.
I've done similar- I bought a flat in the Royal Docks in East London in 1998 and, thanks to a divorce, sold it in early 2006 for twice what I paid for it. Five years later it was still worth less than what I got for it. In 2010 we bought a house in Kingston which we then sold in 2015 for 50% more than we paid for it, moving up to Bedfordshire for work reasons. It appears we again sold at the top of the market as places near mine in Kingston are still advertised at the level we sold for whilst one of my new neighbours just sold theirs for 20% more than we paid. I'd love to claim that I'm some sort of housing genius but in both instances it's just pure dumb luck.Then bought a House in April 2009, right in the middle of it all when few were buying. Probably circa £60k better off overall, which made up slightly for getting on the ladder late at 29.
I only bought the house at that time as I had a promotion in October, so I can't however claim I knew I'd picked the bottom of the local market!
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