How much did you lose in your first year?

[korrupt_1]

first year:

made $350K'ish
lost $400K'ish
---------
nett -$50k'ish

 

[So_Cynical]

First year 04...bought 10k worth of Santos at about 5.80 after some plant of
there's blew up, sold about 4 or 5 months later for 13 and a half grand, thought
i was a genius i reckon alot of people buying in 04 though they where pretty
smart too...also made a quick 1200 with Telstra.

So my first year was ok...more dumb luck and good timing than anything else, 08
taught me i wasn't very smart at all...09's been half decent so far..only cos i
Haven't realized any losses from 08....Buying/selling with a plan now...also averaging
down in Nov saved 1 big position and 1 smallish position...turned em into small profits.

 

[Wysiwyg]

first year:

made $350K'ish
lost $400K'ish
---------
nett -$50k'ish

From your posts I can understand how inexperience and money are soon parted. Too stupid to be true.

 

[korrupt_1]

From your posts I can understand how inexperience and money are soon parted. Too stupid to be true.

yeh... it was too stupid... but really... most of the gains and loss was due to hedging... and when the it got too hot... i closed it all...

approximately 250K of hedge was made/loss...

i'm much wiser now... but still a dumb ass in some sense...

 

[nomore4s]

I made about $10,000 in my first 6 or so months then when I thought i knew everything I lost about $30,000 in the next 6 or so months.

There was some very hard lessons to be learnt in that time and there has been alot of hard work and research done. And I'm still learning. Very easy to see why so few people become successful traders, as most people cannot handle failure and give up.

Like TH the challenge of the market is what spurs me on and it certainly has opened up a whole new world of opportunities for me.

 

[lionfish]

Confession time.

Turned 20k into 110k during 1998/1999.

Thought I was the smartest bloke on the the street. Then went on to lose the ENTIRE amount in 1999/2000.

Spent the next four years learning, thinking, worrying. In hindsight, the best thing to happen...I got to see the other side of this game...

 

[wicked]

I am a newbie trader only started in Nov 08. Interesting to read everyone's stories. My mistake is to get really worried that the market will go down and sell just as it's going up. Last week I made about 1K on 3 stocks, sold and then re-bought as it dropped again. Then regretting not selling when I could have made another 1K, thinking it will pick up again on Monday. It dropped in just a few hours! Time will tell!

It all seems to be really hit and miss to me. Some of the companies I have bought look like they are doing well financially. Ansell and Wooloworths just to name 2! Yet their stock price keeps dropping! I just can't work that out. I have seen Rio Tinto drop from $64 to $28 then back to $58, in just a few short months.

I hear some saying it's best to hold onto your stock. But my new strategy is if you have made 10-30% gain on the stock sell and buy low! All easy except when there is no new low...

In answer to the topic, my current holding stocks are down 2-3%. But saying that I have sold a few and to realise about 2.5K. I'm only happy when I see my stocks in the green! I can see how it would have been very easy to loose thousands of dollars in the last 2 years as the stock market collapsed.

Now is probably a good time to watch it grow again!

 

[CapnBirdseye]

Enough to make me numb to losing. Now its just numbers and I have learned money management and how to be profitable, rather than how to make a profit.

Hunger sharpens the mind they say, and I've learned a lot over the last year or so. I'm sure I have a long way to go though..

 

[Julia]

I am a newbie trader only started in Nov 08. Interesting to read everyone's stories. My mistake is to get really worried that the market will go down and sell just as it's going up. Last week I made about 1K on 3 stocks, sold and then re-bought as it dropped again. Then regretting not selling when I could have made another 1K, thinking it will pick up again on Monday. It dropped in just a few hours! Time will tell!

Wicked, it sounds as though you don't have a plan? Why do you buy a stock? What is your investment time? What is your exit strategy (if any)?

It all seems to be really hit and miss to me. Some of the companies I have bought look like they are doing well financially. Ansell and Wooloworths just to name 2! Yet their stock price keeps dropping!

These are two basic defensive stocks. Mostly they will do better when general market appetite for risk is low. WOW held up well while most industrials were falling through the floor. However, now that some people seem to think the worst might be over, some of the investment dollars will swing to the stocks that were previously perceived to be too risky, e.g. the banks. Compare the charts of WOW and the big banks over the last couple of months.

I just can't work that out. I have seen Rio Tinto drop from $64 to $28 then back to $58, in just a few short months.

Lots of factors at play here. Proposed takeover by BHP, ditto the Chinalco situation. If you read the basic financial news you will see plenty of reasons for the volatility. Again, maybe you need to consider your time frame.
If you were to be a long term holder, then the short term swings won't bother you.

(That is not a recommendation for any long term holds, nor is it advice.)

I hear some saying it's best to hold onto your stock. But my new strategy is if you have made 10-30% gain on the stock sell and buy low! All easy except when there is no new low...

Answering your own question here. Try "let your profits run".

 

[wicked]

Wicked, it sounds as though you don't have a plan? Why do you buy a stock? What is your investment time? What is your exit strategy (if any)?

My original plan was to buy and hold onto them for say 5 years! Then I watched my profits drop, by as much as 30%.

Then I panicked and started to sell any that were making a profit, which wasn't a good idea. Most of those continued to rise another 10%!

My plan at the moment is to sell anything that makes 10-30% gain and try to re-buy in the dips.

I don't have an exit strategy. I'm only using spare cash. I can hold out for the market to improve, which it will.

Like I said I'm new to trading...

 

[pavilion103]

Interesting having a read through this thread.

It seems like a lot of the losses may have been due to not enough preparation/a proper plan/money management.

It seems like people have taken a stack of cash, started trading without any idea of position size and its implication, maybe got lucky and made a bit but then inevitably blown it all. Then the realisaton comes that a trading plan/education and money management principles are needed.

This seems to suggest that people enter the market too early without even being aware of these things in some instances.
Very interesting reading.

I'd love to know how long some people have spent in education/research/testing prior to entering?

 

[Garpal Gumnut]

$1300 on a hot tip from a National Party minister in Joh's government in the early eighties on a gold mine.

It dropped in price a few moments after I bought through a full service broker, and left the board about 6 months later.

My first lesson, and well worth the $1300. Anger at the time has reverted to a good dinner story.

gg

 

[Pager]

First started and took a brokers recommendation to buy Pacific Dunlop, they were down about 20% as there was some problem with a heart pacemaker one of there subsidiaries produced, broker reckoned it was over done, 6 months later and the SP was down 50%, broker said hang in there, another 6 months and down 70%, they then sent me a prospectus for a float called Cochlear, looked at it and said to myself you got to be joking and threw it in the bin I had an allocation of 2000 at $2-50, few years later they were $50+ eventually sold Pacific Dunlop and lost about 70% but if only I had taken the time to look at that prospectus……………...

These days I only really trade futures, IMO there the best markets to trade by a mile.

 

[numbercruncher]

First shares I owned were a gift and in a period of approx a year increased over 100pc and then into receivership haha ..... - awesome free lesson.

Lost on plenty of trades but dont think ive ever had a losing financial year (yet), went close ....

 

[Garpal Gumnut]

First started and took a brokers recommendation to buy Pacific Dunlop, they were down about 20% as there was some problem with a heart pacemaker one of there subsidiaries produced, broker reckoned it was over done, 6 months later and the SP was down 50%, broker said hang in there, another 6 months and down 70%, they then sent me a prospectus for a float called Cochlear, looked at it and said to myself you got to be joking and threw it in the bin I had an allocation of 2000 at $2-50, few years later they were $50+ eventually sold Pacific Dunlop and lost about 70% but if only I had taken the time to look at that prospectus……………...

These days I only really trade futures, IMO there the best markets to trade by a mile.

lol

We must have had the same broker Pager.

And I did just as you!

gg

 

[Sir Osisofliver]

OK here's my story...

My first year I was extremely profitable. Turned 25k into almost 80k. I was a trainee broker, university educated in touch with the market every day, able to call on more experienced and worldly brokers for opinion and guidance.

I thought I was a freaking legend - I had a great feel for the market and an opportunity - everything I touched turned to gold...for about eighteen months. Anyone can make money in a bull market. Unfortunately it was mostly client money that was my learning experience. It was soul destroying to speak to people who I'd tried my very (but incompetent) best to make money.

There's a warning in there guys and girls - Don't be a new brokers learning experience. Only the advice of someone else enabled me to not end up in the crapper personally.

It did however lead me to spend about six months of late nights and weekends in research, looking at what makes not just the stock market, but the economy as a whole tick. Meeting someone who I consider a mentor also helped a great deal. All up I probably "lost" about 65K - but I was still better off than when I started.

Cheers

Sir O

 

[Steve C]

Confession time.

Turned 20k into 110k during 1998/1999.

Thought I was the smartest bloke on the the street. Then went on to lose the ENTIRE amount in 1999/2000.

Spent the next four years learning, thinking, worrying. In hindsight, the best thing to happen...I got to see the other side of this game...

Wow that would have certainly been a rollercoster of emotion, to make such a massive gain and then lose it all!

Can I ask how you turned 20k into 110K?

 

[5oclock]

This whole thread is a rollercoaster of emotion.Interesting/good to see some of the early posters are still on ASF and have pulled the game out of the fire,gives a bit of inspiration to those of us still getting burnt!!