Ann: Strong Shareholder Support for Share Purchase Plan, page-43

Thank you for a kind, honest and respectful post, and apologies for over-sharing.

Also, please don't call yourself a "pleb". We are all on a journey full of highs and lows, and we all start at the beginning. My first ever trade was when I bought 100 Dunlop Olympic shares at $1.02. At the time, the $102 represented my life savings. I got lucky and made a killing on my first trade when the stock was taken over a year or two later and I received $176 for my trouble. It was important for my journey.

If I can offer a suggestion: do not go for the big windfall, protect against losses and buy stocks that you think make sense. My experience, is that whenever I have thought something is going to shoot the lights out I have almost always been wrong. I was usually missing something and learned the hard way. My best trades have almost always been with solid companies that were beaten down below fair value because of a particular event that did not impact the long term viability of the company. Many times those purchases became surprisingly big winners. I have a woeful record with multi-baggers, but a better record with avoiding big losses that really hurt.

I am here for two reasons. The first one is that I want to hear genuine arguments and opinions that are different to mine. I don't learn from people whose opinions align with mine. The second reason is that I was extremely fortunate as a child to have people around me who taught me well. I didn't get a silver spoon in terms of money, but I got a gold spoon in terms of education and have carried it with me all of my life. Most people are not so fortunate and my being here is giving back by teaching others who are open-minded and want to learn (I can accept the abuse of those who don't want to).

On DRO, my position is that I do not know the future. I like the company and am impressed with the ability to deliver growth but don't like management greed and abuse of capital. I do not know whether DROs future will be bright for shareholders, but caution against over-exuberance and ignoring of risk. If you want to know how I came to be doing big trades, it is not because I am good at picking massive winners, it is because I am good at picking investments that make basic sense, and avoiding wipeouts. I have held hundreds of stocks over my lifetime, many of which have now gone broke. Only once have I been caught holding a stock that went into VA. Then I made a stupid, amateurish mistake. It was 6 or 7 years ago, the legal battles continue, and I got wiped out of more money than I care to ever repeat.

Good luck with your journey!