First Share First Mistake

Hi Everyone

Please go easy on me because I am going to rant as a dumb beginner. When I first looked at buying shares two years (March 2014), I opened my nabTrade account and this "Recommendation" table appeared. It showed "ACR" as a buy. I didn't realised it was really a sponsored "Morningstar" rating. (Now they just say undervalued, fairly valued, over valued).

I looked at ACR and thought how interesting since February 2014, the share price had tanked. That Testosterone report linking it to heart attacks or strokes came out at that time. he value of the shares were hovering about $2 and some figure said its intrinsic value was $2.50. (Little did I know that value would keep dropping.)

Personally I thought that the negative testosterone report would blow over in time. Also previous Annual Reports and financial results looked very positive to me. There was a bonus dividend that year as well.

So I brought 1000 shares @ $1.955 on 11 Mar 2014 with free brokerage (intro offer). Then I brought another 170 shares @ $1.68 on 17 April 2014. I have a very low income, so $2,240.60 represented a fair bit of money to me. Thankfully it represented less than 10% of what I had plus I brought another better 9 stocks since that time.

During July 2014, a very positive report came out about Testosterone and the share price returned to my original purchase price. Stupidly I did not sell. I believed that the share price would not fall below $2 again. I looked on over the next number of months, watching the share price fall again.

So 16 Mar 2015, I did something stupid again, I averaged down and brought 610 shares @ $0.80. Total outlay of $2,743.55. After that I learnt that the management of prior 2014 when its good years were happening is different to the current management. Now my average is around $1.5413.

It may seem obvious to average down again but I would rather keep my money in an account earning interest waiting for a better stock; for example like when I brought SRX at $17.75 March 2015. It may seem obvious to all you experienced investors to cut my losses over approximately 57% or more.

Keeping ACR reminds me of how naive I was 2 years ago. It may reduced my overall portfolio gain but it is a lesson I am willing to learn. I did not sell back in July 2014 when I should have. I had this naive belief that ACR will turn itself around and return to its glory days. I now understand the term falling knife and value trap. I learnt the hard way. This stock and one oil stock is pulling my portfolio down but I know oil will turn around (another story for another thread.) As for ACR???? What would I know?????

All the experienced investors and traders can probably see a million faults in me that I cannot see yet. I doubt anyone of any influence would read this thread. So I feel safe about ranting about my mistake. (It will have no influence over today's share price - no one will listen to me). I guess I am even making that classic beginner's mistake of hanging onto a lost cause.

Thank you for reading. Please be constructive if you want to have a go at me. This was my very first share purchase. I plan to hold it forever as a reminder - rightly or wrongly.
PS: I planned to hold VED forever but it was acquired at a 48% profit for me. Can't see that happening with ACR.