Single “best”, “worst”, and “missed”, trades and why?

[Neverest]

Not interested in $ or volumes - just the backstory.

Best: went long on JDSU the trading day before it was added to the DOW Top 30. Was actively day-trading it on technicals for a couple weeks prior and for some unexplainable reason (that violated one of my day-trading tenets), I decided to go long. Thought I was going to have a heart attack on the after-hours and then for awhile afterwards as the institutional began rebalancing their portfolios. Pure blind luck!

Worst: Pan Am twice. My first stock bought on the advice of my E.F. Hutton broker. Rode it down twice to just about the bottom and sold - you know, the panicking “newbie” buy high, sell low strategy. The airlines have always been my fickle S&M mistress. Still like LUV. Unsure about BA.

Missed: CSCO IPO. Always been a heavy Nasdaq trader and simply could not understand Chamber’s vision, pitch deck, and projected valuation. In fact, I may have shorted it a little. The most memorable one that got away...

[boneil]

I have plenty of stories.

Best:

during the financial crisis and the "great recession" I was working round the clock. Never been busier as a welder working in power plants. I only knew of something happening in the market because of hearing commentary on the radio. One night while channel surfing I came across Mad Money and some crazy guy acting like a fool on TV talking stocks. I told the wife lets start our retirement accounts. I think it was sometime in 09 and 10 that we went in opened 401Ks and maxed the contributions.

Worst: The money in our retirement accounts more than doubled really quickly. I don't remember what we used the money for but we cashed out. Even with the penalties and taxes. At that time, I didn't understand the market. I thought it was some sort of scam, Because:

Would have been the best: My father told me he wanted to buy a little known company called Google when it IPO'd. He called around to brokers and they told him he couldn't buy the IPO, he would have to wait on the open market to buy. Because he didn't understand, he thought it was scam. The rich fat cats get the IPO price, and then when it hits the open market they sell to all retail at a higher price. Unfortunately that shaped my perception for many years.

My personal worst: Celsion. They were going to solve liver cancer. I was buying stock and buying calls for weeks running up to phase 3 results. I spent so much time on the Yahoo Finance chat boards talking to people planning our retirements. I even took out a small loan and bought various calls. There was no way it would fail with all the statistical research, and articles I read about the previous trials. It failed and wiped me out.

Trading best: In 2017 and 2018. I started trading BA and AMZN. every week I was buying call spreads and call calendars. It was the easiest money I ever made. My only regret was closing positions with 200% profits that would have gone much higher. There were times when I would look to see if either was down on a Thursday and buy calls for Friday. It was nearly guaranteed wins

[NitroZ7]

My worst was Boeing at 295. Very bad timing.

my best was buying Apple at a split adjusted price of 80.00 a s still holding almost all of it.

[Bassmaster96]

This is a good thread. I'm going to have to do some thinking on it.

[dvl2700]

Missed: Netflix. Went to visit a buddy in Las Vegas who told me about Netflix way back about a year after they went public. He was not into stocks, just real estate. Never listened and did not buy.
Worst : Stryker. Bought it just before a stock split. It split and promptly went down about 10% and stayed down. Sold it at a tax loss. Now it is double from where it was 10 years ago when I originally bought it.

[Neverest]

My worst was Boeing at 295. Very bad timing.

my best was buying Apple at a split adjusted price of 80.00 a s still holding almost all of it.

Backstories on these trades? It’s the underlying “why” that is intriguing and provides the true therapeutic value...

[Neverest]

Missed: Netflix. Went to visit a buddy in Las Vegas who told me about Netflix way back about a year after they went public. He was not into stocks, just real estate. Never listened and did not buy.
Worst : Stryker. Bought it just before a stock split. It split and promptly went down about 10% and stayed down. Sold it at a tax loss. Now it is double from where it was 10 years ago when I originally bought it.

Why Stryker? What was the impetus?

[milligjg]

Best: I'm hoping Boeing @ $109, bought it a couple of weeks ago.

[NitroZ7]

Backstories on these trades? It’s the underlying “why” that is intriguing and provides the true therapeutic value...

I had been waiting to add Boeing for a long while. When it dipped below 300 I bought 100 shares to hold for the long term. I figured if the stock had held up above that 300 price that it wouldn’t drop too far below that and that the plane would get recertified.The Coronavirus and the impact on airlines changed that.

I bought Apple in the low 300 range a few years ago before the split. It didn’t pay a dividend the Or if it did it was very small. I normally like to buy stocks that pay a dividend so was sort of on the fence with buying Apple. My daughter and her Girl Scout troop got invited to a technology/stem event in Palm Beach. My wife went with her and my son who was probably about 12 or 13 at the time went. Steve Wozniak was there and afterwards he was answering some questions. My son asked him if Apple stock was a buy. Everyone laughed and he answered it’s at a pretty good price. I bought shares for both my kids and myself in my retirement account.

[200xp]

I have a retirement account, and I let her manage that, she is very good.

I day trade, swing trade and have done so for 20+ years...I NEVER go long on my stock picks, heck I have owned some less than 5 minutes when it hits my target.

Best: Ford...In February 2009 it broke two dollars on the way down. I remembering thinking to myself they are not going out of business so this is very low risk..I caught it on the way back up at 2.05 per share. 2 years later, in January of 2011, I sold it at 18.01 a share.

Worst: In violation of always setting a stop loss, but I went for it based on my DD...NAK, bought on the way up at 1.82, rode down to 0.54....could of sold for a small profit, but trusted my DD and I was wrong.

Missed...same time as Ford...CROX, my little social investing circle was all over this and they got in...I did not, they all get in sub $1.50 and rode it into the 29-30 range.

[TheBarBack]

My biggest regret was my first trade ever. I was in college, back in 2010, had $5000 I wanted to invest for a while, did my research and had a buy order in for a company trading in the 20's per share... then I saw a review of their roadster by Jeremy Clarkson, who hated it. Being a motorhead myself I agreed with Clarkson and didn't invest in the company.

That company was tesla.