I read this company is now worth almost $250 billion. And Mr. Schmucko here bought 1000 shares if you can believe it when it first came on the market at 100 bucks in Aug of 2004. I put up $50k of my own money - which was everything I had - and $50k on margin and I got too nervous about it and sold it when it went to $99. I could have retired wealthy if had nuts of steel and held on to it. I sold at $99 and of course then it went to $120 a week later then $140 then doubled by January and of course you know the rest - $300 $400 $500 $700 then $1000. You ever have one of those dreams where you are riding on a merry go round and no matter how far you stretch you just can’t grasp that golden ring? Millimeters close but no cigar.
You went in big and sold at a tidy profit?
I’d say you did real good.
No looking back on that call FRiend.
It’s okay, I once told a guy selling a 57 Chevy 210 Coupe that he was asking too much money for it, $150.
Don’t even get me started on the 69 Shelby GT 350H that I didn’t jump on quickly enough.
Don’t second guess Life, you can’t go back and fix it.
“And Mr. Schmucko here bought 1000 shares if you can believe it “
I have a few similar stories. You are not alone :-).
I now invest in mutual funds ... I kind of buy and forget them :-). I mostly use those funds targeted to my retirement date.
I have ZERO patience when it comes to trading and I am far too paranoid. I have some Apple stock I got on the cheap that I refuse to sell since some I sold tripled in value not even a year after I sold it (I did buy a bunch of stuff for jobs I do on the side, so I can’t *really* complain, but I would rather have the over $100K I pissed away by being nervous).
I also invest in a couple of FPGA companies that I hold for the long term since that’s what I do for a living and know those companies well. That’s about it for individual stocks.
Some people are very talented and well disciplined when it comes to trading. I am not one of those people nor will I ever be that way. That’s why I focus on engineering ... When I start something new, I can spend a week or two changing, second guessing, rearranging, and coding stuff w/o losing anything then build on that :-). If you do that kind of stuff with stocks, you’ll either lose, or miss out on opportunities that’ll drive you crazy for a little while :-).
Hindsight and all that. Many of us have similar stories.
After holding it for years with no gain, I sold a stock a few months before it went on a meteoric rise. Missed out what would have been a $600K profit. And it was in a Roth - I would have never had to pay tax on that gain.
A colleague was recruited by a hi-tech company via a friend who went to work for them. He turned down the offer. His friend later retired in his 30s after cashing in $5 million worth of stock options. My colleague is still working...
An so it goes...