Hi All, This story is from HC today and follows on from a discussion here last night.
Personally it explains why I don't trade, and don't want to trade(not saying I never will but I don't have the experience or the will or the capital to lose at this stage) but also illustrates the need for a solid plan if you are long, - when should you take some off the table?, and what's an acceptable exit price?, in essence a personal account of the old chestnut - fear and greed.
(mods- I know it relates to another stock but the story is universal-IMO - no cross promoting intended)
It's not intended to big mouth my holding because as you'll see whilst I have already made some gains (not substantial but decent) I have also lost a lot of shares along the way.
There was a time when I owned 6.9m PRR shares. Sounds unbelievable today, even to me.
That was from when the price was around 2c+. I put all my money into Prima.
I sold/bought/sold/bought/sold/bought and eventually managed to throw away a lot of shares because I'm not very smart. I held 3.5m for quite some time.
I even had that many shares when prima hit 28.5c. If you do the math, you will see what that meant. The problem is that in my naivety I held thinking it would go higher. It didn't, it fell. I thought it would return soon after, but it didn't. It continued to fall and I lost a lot of paper value. It reached a low of 8.3c I think it was. Felt very cary and quite depressing to say the least. I thought I was made, but in reality I ended up feeling terrible. Especially since that happened as we were going through GFC2 and the pressure at work was starting to really bite.
Still, I was always prepared for being long term on this stock so it didn't really matter as I knew (and still know) that Prima will come right.
It means I have to wait (oh btw I did the same after it peaked at 42c and kept holding). I really am a stupid fart.
Well another mistake I made is that around the 9-11c mark (between the 28.5 peace and the 42c peak) where the SP toyed for a while I decided to trade PRR again. Very stupidly, I ended up with only 2m shares (which is what I hold today). A far cry from the 6.9m and not even close to the 3.5 shares I had.
My golden rule haw become to not trade PRR quite simply because I'm no good at it when it comes to money I really cannot afford to lose.
I have set my goal as to the price I will get out where I'm happy with the end result. And, I've stopped saying, oh my, what if I hadn't traded and kept those shares and had them still today. It's pointless. We all learn the hard way much of the time. As long as we ultimately learn and have the means to keep in or get back. What matters is to win sufficiently well in the end and know when that time has come.
But,
Just a small but... once I am out at my happy price and pay for a house for my family that I never had to mortgage. I will reserve a small parcel of shares that I won't be relying on and I will do nothing but trade PRR. The problem is that although I'm not very good at it, I will have time on my side to 'play' with a little money I won't need in any hurry, which makes trading a little less reactive in the short term as I'll be able to wait (if needed) for the return swings. That may be a bad strategy or it may not. Time will tell.
QFY Price at posting:
4.7¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
