# What is the longest you've held a losing stock?



## mb1 (5 February 2007)

How long have you held onto a stock that is on the down? and how much percent?

Did you sell? or held and eventually came good again?


----------



## theasxgorilla (5 February 2007)

Telstra.  I lost nearly 20% gross (not accounting for dividends) and held it about 12 months longer than I should.  I was a budding "investor" back then and didn't understand charts or what a long continuous line that slopped from the top left hand corner down into the bottom right meant.   I sold in the end.


----------



## dj_420 (5 February 2007)

held EXT for a few months, from around 13 - 14 cents all the way down to 8 cents then bailed.

enough was enough, put money into MTN and SMM which did miles and miles better than EXT.

lesson learnt dont hold onto a losing position.


----------



## sleeper88 (5 February 2007)

bought the then AUM back in March 2005 at 4.1c, it continued to fall to around 1.6c, resulting in a +50% loss. the company then consolidated its capital (10:1). i still hold it until now and the rest of the story is self-explanatory. i must say i was pretty lucky it worked out well for me


----------



## Knobby22 (5 February 2007)

My worst ever was Chemeq.

I bought at $3,60, it went to $6 over time, went on holidays without access to a computer. When I came back it was worth only $2! I was in a bit of shock and held till $1.50 making it even worse.

I dislike automatic stops prefering to make the decision in light of the trade depth and didn't have access to stops in 2004 anyway but I use them now when I go on holidays!


----------



## cuttlefish (5 February 2007)

held and topped up on one stock since 2001.  Topped up heavily when it was around its lows and trading at close to cash backing and then traded it a little which recovered a fair bit of the losses.  But its still a loser atm    - it keeps getting side swiped by regulatory changes just as its making money. Offloaded a fair few after the last lot of regulatory changes.  (and no its not a telco - its a small cap gaming stock).


----------



## Techbuy (5 February 2007)

This might be the winner!   Back in 1998 A friend told me about the hot stock (now know as NIA) and to put your life saving on it. I had never bought a stock and this guy was "My Mate" so I bought a 1,000,000 for $15,000.  Going to go to a $1.00 he said.  Well they dropped through the floor completely then did a 40 to 1 reduction and I end up with 25,000 at about $0.02 and totally anti the stock market.  I never looked at them again until I started to go back to the market in Nov 2006 so I have had the 25,000 through two or three name changes from 1998 to 2006. They have been to $0.55 (did not know as was not looking at the market) now at $0.265.  
Its as if they are part of my life now and I leave them there to remind me of what a goose I was for listening to the "hot Tip" Bad move but Nickel is hot and they are in it who knows what tomorrow will do for them.
I am now day trading reasonably well but still got a lot to learn on how to read the market.
While books and training points you in the right direction it does not teach you how to read the market when you are running live, a lot of trial, errors and when a win comes it's cake all around.  Thanks for a really great forum. Love reading all the info and posts.


----------



## son of baglimit (5 February 2007)

there are a large number of folk who jumped on the mad rise of NMS during early 05 - paying well over $1 - thankfully the ones i know since averaged down and are now well in front.

if you believe, fight it out.


----------



## pacer (5 February 2007)

Me to baglimit...NMS....but only from 40c to 28 c average down....happy as now....sneaky....lol

worst trade ....neo....held from 4.5c to 3.8c.....it hit 1.3c so Iwas lucky to have the sense to bail....hot tip that was a bit cool for my liking...lol.....leasons learnt....bye bye neo......bought some more at the latest lows to punish myself though.....hehe.....ouch!


----------



## >Apocalypto< (5 February 2007)

I have never held a stock,

in 05 i had absolutely no idea of what i was doing and i did not even know that the market moves in trends!

I held a Rio Tinto put option till it was worthless, bought it the day after the Oct 05 correction finished! 

It wiped me out! 

Funny thing was every night i would come home and tell girlfriend tomorrow it will  fall, tomorrow it will fall!

LOL


----------



## BSD (5 February 2007)

Any posters not keen to mention the names they held "forever" as losers and knocked-out 10% above buy price on a recoverery to clip a small ticket, only to see their baby double/triple/ten bag???

I can personally mention

KMN
SMY
MMX

Anyone else?

From my experience - it is the boring well-researched stock, bought when unloved and tripled-up-on when VERY unloved that turns into the fast (2 -5 years) 'pay off your morgage" and/or "retirement" stories. 

The level of homework and/or patience is the thing that makes these ideas difficult to capitalise-on for 99% of market participants. 

You do need to be very comfortable with the "long term value" of the firm to hang-on or triple-up when your 'baby' loses 15% one day and 40% over the year since you bought. 

It takes strong 'faith in the numbers' to buy 5 times more when your current holding is being smoked. Or to carry 80% of your net worth on something that has five bagged over the last 18 months. 

You can be shaken out of too many amazing deals because of noise. 

Know any punter who owns massive volume in PDN @ $0.008, FMG @ $0.10, OXR @ <$0.20 etc and who has sold none or only minute amounts of their holding and you could be talking to a very comfortable chap.

Probably also a bloke who doesn't give a toss about what the stock did today because he is on his 40ft+ powerboat and is catching fish.


----------



## tech/a (5 February 2007)

*Too long!*


----------



## Smurf1976 (5 February 2007)

I held Pasminco when it stopped trading...

The other really dumb move was Indcor (now Australian Ethanol). Bought at 7.7c and ended up selling at 0.2 cents. It subsequently traded near $1.00...


----------



## Garpal Gumnut (5 February 2007)

mb1 said:
			
		

> How long have you held onto a stock that is on the down? and how much percent?
> 
> Did you sell? or held and eventually came good again?




One of my first stock buy was a gold hopeful called Pegmin. I bought in at .12c and saw it fall and fall and then gobbled up by directors and advisers fees. I lived 5km from the mine and was convinced by locals of "massive hidden reserves".   Garpal


----------



## sam76 (5 February 2007)

I've got three letters for you;

ION


----------



## dollar man (5 February 2007)

me too ion, got trap by those directors.


----------



## nizar (5 February 2007)

tech/a said:
			
		

> *Too long!*




I second that.


----------



## nizar (6 February 2007)

BSD said:
			
		

> Any posters not keen to mention the names they held "forever" as losers and knocked-out 10% above buy price on a recoverery to clip a small ticket, only to see their baby double/triple/ten bag???
> 
> I can personally mention
> 
> ...




Yeh well if you talk to anybody who has traded those stocks as opposed to the die hard permabulls that held all the way, maybe the latter group have made more, but they wouldnt have sleeped as well during the corrections.

OXR $3.80 to $2.55 in May and PDN $5.50 to $3.50, i mean, you would feel that in a BIG way if you had millions of OXRs and PDNs.

For me, its not faith in anything, but just plain stupid, to average down. Now and then it may pay off but i reckon thats overall a tactic that will cost you.


----------



## reece55 (6 February 2007)

Nizar
Couldn't agree more with you here..... Only losers average out losing trades.... Pick your move, set your stop. If the stop is hit, get out. It's as simple as that IMO!

Cheers


----------



## noirua (6 February 2007)

The longest I've held a losing stock is 24 years and, yes, I'm still holding on. Originally purchased at $3.20 and now standing at an equivalent of 47 cents. A great improvement on the 3.8 cent low. TOTAL dividends paid = 0.72 cents.


----------



## cuttlefish (6 February 2007)

BSD said:
			
		

> From my experience - it is the boring well-researched stock, bought when unloved and tripled-up-on when VERY unloved that turns into the fast (2 -5 years) 'pay off your morgage" and/or "retirement" stories.
> 
> The level of homework and/or patience is the thing that makes these ideas difficult to capitalise-on for 99% of market participants.
> 
> ...




This is pretty much on the money I reckon and have seen it a lot of times. 

Applies to all investment classes not just stocks.  The only thing I've come to believe in more recent times is that its possible to get the timing better on these situations once you know they exist which will make capital work a bit more efficiently - though if the quality investment also provides an above average yield the return is coming via that anyway.  Key factor in making this strategy work is impeccable research and also a clear, unemotional criteria for identifying the difference between a very undervalued asset, a mildly undervalued asset, and worthless crud. Going against the prevailing sentiment is the hardest part of this strategy which is why clear objective criteria for entering the investment is essential.


----------



## Holdon (11 May 2007)

25% on my first trade, and never more than 10% now....thank you ASF posters for the enlightenment before I did something silly, luckily I learnt some great stuff before I came into some serious (inheritance) dollars too, a big thumbs up to all......


----------



## Rob_ee (11 May 2007)

3 Days exactly   Bought BPT 1.33 got stopped out 1.29.

I have very tight stops due to lack of trading funds (17k only)
so am out almost immediately if it doesn't go the way it should.

I can't afford to lose to much ... so far worked well .. a total of 11 losing trades and 3 wining trades for a 2k profit in 4 months.

Sometimes get stoped out quickly and overall its been a good thing.

Brokerage only 18 per trade so not to damaging.

Rob


----------



## Spaghetti (11 May 2007)

Never very long because I see the money as being in one investment, the stock market. If it is in this or that makes no difference except the broker fee to tfr funds as long as it is not realised.

So I look at it as one investment and move the money to where it will make money next week. Can always move it back to loser.

The big issue I have is how to realise gains and losses. If I ever realise a good gain I always take a loss with it. Unless I have no losses then I have a party:


----------



## achan168 (19 May 2007)

Techbuy said:


> This might be the winner!   Back in 1998 A friend told me about the hot stock (now know as NIA) and to put your life saving on it. I had never bought a stock and this guy was "My Mate" so I bought a 1,000,000 for $15,000.  Going to go to a $1.00 he said.  Well they dropped through the floor completely then did a 40 to 1 reduction and I end up with 25,000 at about $0.02 and totally anti the stock market.  I never looked at them again until I started to go back to the market in Nov 2006 so I have had the 25,000 through two or three name changes from 1998 to 2006. They have been to $0.55 (did not know as was not looking at the market) now at $0.265.
> Its as if they are part of my life now and I leave them there to remind me of what a goose I was for listening to the "hot Tip" Bad move but Nickel is hot and they are in it who knows what tomorrow will do for them.
> I am now day trading reasonably well but still got a lot to learn on how to read the market.
> While books and training points you in the right direction it does not teach you how to read the market when you are running live, a lot of trial, errors and when a win comes it's cake all around.  Thanks for a really great forum. Love reading all the info and posts.




Have you checked NIA recently?!? Your 1m shares bought for 15k would now be worth 1.385million! Your "mate" was right!


----------



## questionall_42 (13 June 2007)

This will be a cathartic process...

ION ($3K loss)
CRS ($3K loss) 
Averaged down with MGW; intially at 4.75, then 4.25, finally sold out one year later at 2.55 ($3k loss) 
RHT - bought at 11.5c and still holding (now at 1.7c and worth the princely sum of ~$300). ($1.8K loss) 

But I have learnt, a lot.

Still in 2 minds about holding and forgetting; one that I will struggle with for a lot longer.


----------



## anserine (29 June 2007)

mine would be ERG, I bought them for 45cents and then i went overseas for 4 yrs, the stock went  to 20 dollars. I held out being lazy as i did not want 2 ring australia to sell. 
I ended up losing most of the shares in the consolidations recently and a value of stock went from around 40k down to now 300 dollars, 
I travel around the world on these shares so they did me well but could had been alot better. 
never again will i be lazy


----------

