GGP our chance17 Apr 2020 11:40
From a hc member...
How I cheated myself out of $17m on the sharemarket
In 2003, I held 250,000 Oil Search at 60c. Sold them at 70c, they later hit $9.83. That's $2.5 million missed. I also once held 50,000 Zinifex at $2. Sold them at $2.40. They hit $21.60. That's another million.
Then there was the tech boom. That involved selling 200,000 Davnet at 40c, they went to $6; and selling 300,000 Voicenet at 38c that later hit $3.80. Add them up and that's another $2.35 million missed. These are just some of the ones that got away from me. No doubt you have your own story.
The worst thing about all the above trades, is that all I had to do to make $5.85 million was to do absolutely nothing at all. Instead I fiddled my way out of it. An activity that any commission-driven broker is paid to do, creating activity for activity's sake, for a commission, when the best course of action was to simply invest, not tinker.
But forget the $5.85 million, my best stock market opportunity came when I was working at Barton Capital and we got a visit from the investor relations guy of some crappy resources stock. It was February 2004. He was a friend, used to work with him at ABN AMRO, so when he asked if he could come in and sell his wares to the broking desk I made an exception and said "Yes".
Days later the traders were all over it, the volume was rising, the price had ripped up from 1.2c to 3.3c and on momentum alone I had personally bought a million shares at 1.6c. Now I'm no fool and as any stockbroker will tell you, when you find yourself standing at the desk punching the air in delight it can only mean one thing, "Sell!" So I did. It was a holiday in Bali for goodness sake.
Now what was that crappy little resources stock called again? Oh yes. That was it. Paladin. I once held a million Paladin at 1.6c. They went to $10.80. That's another $10.8 million left on the table.
There used to be a bit of a stockbroker thing that you needed $5 million to retire. Win a million on Tatts Lotto and it doesn't actually change things. You need more. A million isn't a million to a retiree, it represents around $50,000 a year of risk-free income, so you need more. But $5 million? Paladin would have delivered twice as much. I had only risked $16,000 that I didn't need – not needing it being the most essential element of long-term patient investment – and all I had had to do was absolutely nothing.
They say it's better to regret the things you've done rather than the things you haven't and I assume they're right. You only get one shot. To have had your chance at transformation, even if you didn't know it, is a thrilling part of "playing" the stockmarket, realising that you were once in the box seat is an everlasting reminder that at any moment you could be again and what better challenge could there be than knowing that right now, at this very moment, in the pages of the internet, the next Paladin is right in front of you, if only you could see it.
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