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I will go first. Sold Sketchers ar 66.50 6 months ago after a runup of 30%. Figured it had climbed so fast I would take my profits. Tonight in after hours its 143. Well at least I made money. You have a similar story?
I look at Sketchers and I think WTF. I've never been impressed with their shoes. Some kind of hip thing I'm not aware of?
HAIN is one that comes to mind for me as one that got away. SBUX, too.
One that I'm thankful got away is Monitise (MONIF), which I sold a little over a buck a little over a year ago.
It is now 8 cents.
Was owned by Visa/Visa Europe and Mastercard, was owned by a number of hedge funds (Leon Cooperman is still the largest shareholder - ooops) and others, including banks. Was a hot stock for mobile banking/payments. Visa sold its stake and that's when things started to fall apart.
Despite getting out of Monitise before things went South, the stunning nature of how quickly a "hot" stock turned South has lead me to believe that I'll probably never invest in something that speculative again.
@scott: I bought Sketchers as my Peter Lynch "buy what you know" stock. I had bought a couple of pairs, kept seeing them on other people and when they kept running out of what I wanted, bought the stock. I just did not think it would run this high.
One I am glad I sold was PLUG. Bought it at $4.25 or so, sold it at $8.44, its now $2.39. As I have mentioned before, a small part of portfolio I consider my play stocks. Some win, some lose, but they sure keep the blood pumping
Speciality Teleconstructors (built cell towers) - bought the warrants around $2; warrants were called and paid $6 to convert to stock. After a couple of years sold it for around $9. The company was bought about a year later to American Tower for high $20's - low $30's.
Exodus Communication (data farms) - bought a few shares on first day. Company split four times during my possession. I held the shares over a couple years following the splits as the company eventually went bankrupt.
From 2013 going forward couldn't begin to list the small cap biotechs stocks I've owned that have gone up 4 fold to 5 fold and even more, yet made next to nothing. Two that are burned in my mind are NPSP bought around 9 taken over at 45 and HZNP bought in the 3s and now 37. But it sure doesn't show in my equity curve because of trade mismanagement. I have a nice methodology based on earnings and revenue growth in the small cap biotech arena but unable to trade them very profitably. That's because I have become so conditioned to a money management methodology of trading trend persistent equity and bond funds. But it's a trading methodology that does not translate well to individual equities.
I bought into biotech too early....LGND (Ligand Pharma)....about 10 years or so I guess. bought it around 9, went to around a buck and a half, did a 1:10 REVERSE SPLIT (the investor's 2X4 across the forehead signalling that you made a big mistake) and I dumped it somewhere along the way.
Of course, it's now at $106.86 and will most likely be bought out by GILD at $150 so I can re-live this horrible experience once again when Scott posts about what a great pick up it was.
Comments
HAIN is one that comes to mind for me as one that got away. SBUX, too.
One that I'm thankful got away is Monitise (MONIF), which I sold a little over a buck a little over a year ago.
It is now 8 cents.
Was owned by Visa/Visa Europe and Mastercard, was owned by a number of hedge funds (Leon Cooperman is still the largest shareholder - ooops) and others, including banks. Was a hot stock for mobile banking/payments. Visa sold its stake and that's when things started to fall apart.
Despite getting out of Monitise before things went South, the stunning nature of how quickly a "hot" stock turned South has lead me to believe that I'll probably never invest in something that speculative again.
http://www.thestreet.com/story/13019858/1/doug-kass-analyzes-a-failed-trade-a-requiem-for-monitise.html?puc=yahoo&cm_ven=YAHOO
One I am glad I sold was PLUG. Bought it at $4.25 or so, sold it at $8.44, its now $2.39. As I have mentioned before, a small part of portfolio I consider my play stocks. Some win, some lose, but they sure keep the blood pumping
Exodus Communication (data farms) - bought a few shares on first day. Company split four times during my possession. I held the shares over a couple years following the splits as the company eventually went bankrupt.
Of course, it's now at $106.86 and will most likely be bought out by GILD at $150 so I can re-live this horrible experience once again when Scott posts about what a great pick up it was.