Time To Share: Let’s Hear Your Best Trades And Investments
Posted by timothysykes on Sat 9th of Feb, 2008 04:05:38 PM
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You should by now know that I celebrate and detail my losses more than anyone else…ever…but today, I’d like us to all share the stories behind our greatest trades. I’m not just talking about investment, entry price, exit price and dollar gain (c’mon finance is boring enough and what would that accomplish?) No, I want all the glorious details: the variables (news, chart pattern/trend, general consensus, overall market environment, etc.), your expectations going in, what you did right, what you did wrong, if there are any lessons applicable today and most importantly how you celebrated!
Ideally, this post will be commented on hundreds of times—no BS bragging/lying/exaggerating—okay, well maybe a little bragging—but I want this to be more about sharing our experiences honestly so we can truly learn from each other (for once). If you feel that you can’t be totally open due to BullShip industry regulations or to protect your reputation (or lack thereof), feel free to use an alias—whatever gets you to share your story honestly! And remember, learning, patience, character building—that stuff is all well and good, but it’s the huge victories that really make this the awesome sport that it is!
Here, let me get this party started. My most successful trade—not on a $ basis, but on execution—was buying into a little company called Illinois Superconductor (ISO) waaaay back in early 2000 when I was just a wee little college freshman. I detail it extensively in Chapter 6 of my book (which you can read here) but for those who are too lazy to read more than a dozen pages, I basically used ¾ of my net worth—at the time roughly $170,000—to buy into this POS company on a Friday afternoon because their miraculous technology that allegedly increased cell phone reception was going to be featured on a national news program over the weekend. The stock had already tripled on that week alone, but the company was kind enough to put out a press release that Friday about the feature, so I was simply counting on the old weekend smallcap hype game/Monday morning gap up chart pattern to work their magic (and the news feature to be positive).
I’d been successfully playing the smallcap gap up game for months by then, so I fully expected a $2-$3 gap higher on Monday morning, but I underestimated how positive the feature and abuzz the message boards would be. On Monday morning, when the stock opened higher by nearly $12—at $29ish—I nearly pissed myself. Selling as quickly as I could, my profits totaled $123,000, a 72% return, just for holding over the weekend.
What I did right:
Recognized the market mania at the time
Recognized the smallcap hype game
Was aggressive in my buying
ought because it was a highly reliable chart pattern to buy into
What I did wrong:
Sold too quickly—within the next day the stock surged another $10
Ignorance is bliss—my outrageous position size reflected my naivety
Was so stunned by my gigantic success that I ignored tell tale signs of a Tuesday morning gap up, which it did by another few dollars or so.
Ignorance hurts—I had no idea about Short Selling or short squeezes so I didn’t profit from the stock’s $25 price drop over the next 2 days
How I celebrated:
Took my dorm out to dinner, since we were all underage, except for a flask someone snuck in, there was no alcohol involved and the bill came in under $800!
Lessons:
It worked this time, but positions that large (as a % of total assets) are a surefire way to lose it all, never put yourself in that position!
Profit taking is good, but there was no need for me to sell my entire position, why not let 1,000 or 2,000 shares ride? (Just like my (IDMI) trade, the 12% gain was nice, but I covered everything waaaay too quickly and now, just a few days later, the stock is nearly 50% lower (exactly like ISO), gotta learn to hold onto 10-30% of my position on these “perfect” plays)
Learn to play these stocks/patterns both from the long and short side
Smallcap volatility rocks, but the best plays are also the most liquid, wait for them
These patterns still exist today, if not always with same magnitude (See my (APWR) weekend gap up play, only made $1/share, but then again, volume was pathetic, there was no news feature, it was just a similar chart breakout/weekend message board hyper)
Alright that was fun, but I bet some of you are going to top that. And, even if you don’t, sharing openly is fuuuuun. Let’s see whatcha got! Here’s the structure:
Story:
What I Did Right:
What I did Wrong:
How I Celebrated:
Lessons:
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TIM Trades
View All| Date | Stock | Buy | Sell | Net |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2 | KIRK | $10.60 | $11.53 | $1377 |
| June 30 | ISRL | $107.97 | $118 | $985 |
| June 24 | LZB | $4.53 | $4.81 | $1240 |
| June 17 | GWSC | $1.86 | $2.76 | $2679 |
| June 15 | SHZ | $1.66 | $1.83 | $280 |
| June 15 | SPNG | $0.11 | $0.18 | $630 |
| June 12 | JAZZ | $2.84 | $3.26 | $380 |
| June 12 | MAPP | $9.68 | $10.07 | $565 |
| June 8 | HEB | $3.00 | $4.18 | $334 |
| June 3 | GROW | $8.64 | $8.96 | $740 |
| June 3 | SYMX | $1.21 | $1.11 | $940 |
| June 1 | USCN | $0.55 | $0.86 | $260 |
Total: $65,674 (421%)
My best trade was LULU - bought it at $28 and sold at $55! Made a profit of $15,000USD… ofcourse, with tax season upon us, I’m not too happy parting away with it :(
I consider COIN my best trade not because it was my most profitable but one that I was most disciplined on. Bought 1/14 3k @$9.15 sold 1/14 $11.22…sold short 1/16 3k @ $12.50 covered 1/16 $10.50. Left some on the table both ways but I set a target of $2 profit and took profit when targets were met. My total holding time was under 3 hours combined and total profit of $24K minus commissions. Coincidently I had watched TIM’s DVD the weekend before.
About a year ago, Jim Cramer would come on CNBC almost every day around 2:30-3pm for the “Stop Trading” segment. Every time he’d come on, I’d have my buy screen ready on TD Ameritrade with 100-200 shares (depending on the day I was having- I’d risk more if I was way up) ready to buy with a market order (because this strategy was almost impossible to catch with limits)- all I had left to do was enter the stock symbol and submit my order. I would listen carefully to Erin Burnett’s intro to see whether or not he was going to pump a leader or dog a laggard, then enter as quick as my trigger finger would click once he named his horse, wait about 15-25 seconds-long enough for me to get my sell order ready, and dump it. Some days I wouldn’t be able to do anything (I would only buy on positive picks- shorting on negatives didn’t have the same reaction from the market and day traders. Some days he’d pick Google or Toyota, which were a tad too rich for my blood at the time). I remember one day specifically- Erin opened with saying Jim had come around on a stock he’d disliked for a long time- he was as energetic as ever when he appeared. He looked at the camera and paused (almost as if to say, Evan- got you’re trigger finger ready?) Then he blared “EBAY”. Within those 15-25 seconds, the stock rose almost $3!! I exited with a limit order and smiled as I watched Ebay correct back to it’s previous price. I love this game!
My best trade last year was Valueclick. The October 30 call options had heavy buying ahead of the weekend. The options had 5 days to trade before expiration. I bought Friday at the close for 0.30 a contract. On Monday they traded flat but, after the close Cramer pumps the stock for a take over and then Fast Money pumps the stock as a take over sighting the option activity on Friday. Tuesday the market opens and the October 30 calls were trading 1.10-1.20 bid/ask. I sold at the open and took the rest of the week off (400% gain in 2 days).
CORRECTION: $12k profit from the trade on COIN. LESSON: Don’t smoke weed and fill out your Schedule D….lol
My best was TXU. TXU is no longer traded as it went private last year. But three years ago it announced it was “writing off” its British division. The stock fell from 58 down to 11. I read their financials and saw that the british div was about 35% of their revenue but was a huge source of losses. I bought 1800 shares at 14. They had cut the dividend by about 60% and I decided I would hold until they raised the dividend. But 2 1/2 years later I sold when the buyout was announced at a price of $69.60 after a 2 for 1 split making my effective price at $139.20.
What I did right: Read the company reports to see past the bad news. The company would become very profitable after the wash of the British division.
What I did wrong: Didn’t believe in my theory to buy in a whole lot more. I could have retired had I had more faith in my own analysis.
How I celebrated: Put my son through Cornell University (tuition is $34K/year)
Lessons: Keep looking for a real deal until you find one…..
Oh, I am now into Etrade: bought three weeks ago at $2.40. My son recommended it.
I have taught him how to find value stocks and he wants to do that when he graduates.
One of my best trades ever was TCHC its a small insurance company that primarly opperates down in FL the reason that this was one of my best trades was the timing and excution of the trade… I used extensive fundamental analysis as well as techincal analysis to make this trade… The stock had recently gapped down due to a earnings report… Now the report wasnt a bad one but it was a very good report… Its a insurance company and so alot of the report had to do with the way that the company reports revenues and earnings and adjustments on losses and liablities… Heres what happend the company had insuraced a ton of new homes cars ect so it had unearned revenues that was exploding but the company had to adj for future losses much higher and it did so witch showed up as a huge one time loss but in reality it was no loss just the revenunes was going to be spread out over time as they was earned by the company and the loss account was boosted as a 1 time this hammered the earnings for that qrt the stock price plunged from 20$ a share down to 10$ a share… i looked at the chart and noticed the same pattern nearly 5 years ago… i kinda caught the first move back up late but i noticed that it did that last time and it walked its way back down to 10$ then spiked back up sharply… So the stock did just what i thought it would do so i took a huge gamble bought 10,000 shares on margin blah yeah but check this out that same day the company came out with a PR saying that earnings was going to be a record for the year and the stock shot up from 10$ a share to voer 13$ a share i remeber i was pounding the table at thelion.com but anyways i dumped my entire posistion in the stock over 13$ making a very nice profit for a day… celebrated that weekend with some friends and family took them out for some drinks and food but goes to show that DD and patience pays off and being sure of yourself best of luck to all please share your story :)
My first trade ever was my best haha. I had just finished setting up my account and was reading into some mining stocks (I think I read about a coming boom on the internet) and so I used a scan and filter tool to find some stocks that had recently formed bullsih patterns with momentum etc. I picked a small cap stock (Taseko Mines, TGB for US exchanges I think) since my account was small and I read up on them a bit thru financial statements and decided to buy in. 1000 shares @ $2.36 and that same day the stock popped up at least 30 or 40 cents as that is when the summer bull crazed market started up. Stock kept going higher each day and I was ecstatic. Hit a high of $4.35 and I was at work that day and got a quote showing it dropped 30 cents oh no! Ended up believing it would rebound and I was at breakeven at one point. Ended out reboudning after some weeks and I bought 500 more shares and eventually started selling off position at around $3.80-$4.25.
What I did right: Did some research despite the little I knew at the time. Bought in and stuck with my opinion. Started to sell off position as it was gaining steam 2nd time around.
What I did wrong: Lots of things like holding when it was tanking, not using a stop loss or taking profits as it was going up. Also, second time around I sold off too early as it got pumped even more and hit even as high as $6! Could of made at least $4500-$5000 in profits if not double by buying and selling on both pump ups.
How I celebrated: Drinks drinks drinks that nightt
Shorting Oil futures @ $100/bbl has been a great trade in the midst of a 8-20% market decline, offering a 10-12% gain in a few short months.
Nice, good start, but I want more info, no 1-2 sentences, minimum 4: describe the patterns/variable, emotions felt, $$$’s earned
Back in 2003 a buddy and I subscribed to Thom Calandra newsletter and he listed a stock IVAN when it was 80 cents. It became a competition between my friend and I who could own the most. I first bought 6K (80)cent he had 25K in shares I then bought more at 90 cents had a total of 22K in shares roughly price was 1.02 avg share. The newsletter said 10 bucks I knew nothing about trading not a thing but my friend made allot of money and said lets hold till 10 bucks. It hit 7 bucks in three months I sold some at 5.50 and some 6.85. Made 115,200.00 in three months. Knew I got lucky then I went and studied with Pristine.com for two years and now I have a trading career.
Troy are u trading for a company or you work for yourself?
Eric trade my own capital but did my trading training with Pristine.com took their seminars and a two week training lab onsite in Irvine, CA
Hahah I remember IVAN, I shorted that pig, I think around Thanksgiving or Christmas–around some holiday–when too many amateurs were in that stock. Banked, but not as much as you, congrats! How’d you celebrate?
Celebrated by going to Maui stayed at the Four Seasons.
Hello Tim, this is a super idea you have. I
Story: I heard two unknown people having a converstation how the stock market is booming (back in 2000) and they are making profit night over day. My very first trade ever GSTX (a penny stock GST telecommunication) was a whim purchase just because it a company in Texas and I live in Texas, no tips or news or anything like that. I didn’t know any $h*t about stocks, I bought it at 0.52 a share. Meant to buy 500 shares, but accidently hit the buy button twice and then Datek (now TD-Ameritrade) bought it twice as many or 1000 shares total. The following day GSTX traded at $1.25. That was over 140% overnight profit on my small account.
What I Did Right: Nothing.
What I did Wrong: Since I didn’t know anything about stocks, or stock market, I had heard on CNBC, you have to look on the chart. I looked at GSTX chart, it was trading at $3 just a couple of days ago, and I thought I will go back to $3 and I will sell the position. Greed prevailed, I didn’t sell any. There was no news that day. The next morning, GSTX was halted at open, people posted company might have sold, and we may be able to cash out $6 share. Around 11:30 AM, the news came out “GST Telecommunication bankrupted.”
How I Celebrated: Mourned over the period of time, that was all the money I had. It was a good start, but greed made it all bad. After the year end I was advised to take a tax loss!!
Lessons: 1) Know what you are doing, i.e., understand what you are doing when you do something.
2) DO NOT BE OVERGREEDY!!
3) Don’t count the chicken before they are hatched.
Okay- so here I go……. I started an investment club Nov. of 2006, we started out with 4 people, then mid year we added 3 others… investing $125 per person, per month…. Several stocks we bought, we seen an increase within 3 months- a good 20% gain, and that alone set off a bright light in my head!! (I can make easy money) I opened my own account with Scottrade (can’t go wrong with $7 per trade) in Aug.2007 with $10,000….I let the money sit, waiting for the perfect trade. My sister started her first year in College in Atlanta attending Spelman- (her pre-med professor, who is also into stocks- gave her a stock tip for me- assuming she told him about me investing is stocks…) She said buy FSLR (First Solar) it’s at $100 and her professor said it will go up soon, and possibly double. I took the risk- and bought 106 shares on Sept.18 at $94.75 per share- every day since then it increased-with patience, I waited and held- I sold my entire position on 12/26/07 at $281.40 - making a profit about 20k- it sure was a Merry Christmas for me…. I wish had had more money at the time—– however, I think this is the BEST way to make money…..time, understanding….and patience………
655.75% gain …Went long ATRI couple years ago…founder is probably the smartest ceo for this niche of all time, companies up 35% in past year, short them if you like to loose money
Best trade of all time was SOLF and CSIQ. Those two crazy movers went up like 15 dollars in 3 days. Thinly traded Chinese stocks are the best stock. By the way,CSIQ is the best indicator of the direction of the whole market.The marketmaker is super-sharp.
Picked up 10 LEH FEB 60 Puts 3 weeks ago at 1.10 when LEH was trading in the $64 range.
Sold 2/8 at $3.00-3.50 - Was not the best trade ever but it was reasonable