What is the riskiest share you have bought?

Reaper

Just wondering what risk others may have taken and why. Any novice investors reading should pretty much cross anything you read here off your list!

I'll start the ball rolling...
What? I recently bought "Alpha Pyrenees Trust Ltd" (ALPH).
Why is that risky? Because they buy and rent out commercial property in France and to a lesser extent Spain. As you know there is a lot of doubt over the economies of Europe and the number of unoccupied units is climbing.
Why did I do it? Mostly because of the stonking dividend return owning to their share price being so depressed. If they continue paying dividends at the rate they have been recently it gives a income of better than 13%. Even if that declines (and it probably will) that's pretty darn good and will hopefully tide me over until confidence returns and their share price goes back up.
Any regrets? No regrets, just nerves. Share price is already up on what I paid for it though that is only the long term objective and will doubtless rollercoaster.

Just to emphasise the point again - please don't take this as a recommendation. Risks like this are for a small percentage of your money after you have already done all the boring sensible stuff!

So what risks have the rest of you taken?

malik999

Probably Citigroup (currently $4.04) risky because of the high volume purchased and there was so much uncertainty at the time as to what was happening with the financial industry. Long term play.

StevieJ

I lost money in a tech company in 1997 (well before the bubble burst), share issue, twice oversubscribed, gone bust a short time later, still receiving £1 here and there, until recently. :eek:
One big positive, it made me very wary of 'two bit' tech companies, so a lesson well learnt.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ionica_%28company%29

Oh and Barclays at 50p a share :beer:

Reaper

StevieJ wrote: »

Oh and Barclays at 50p a share

Nice - certainly seen as a risk play at the time. I also bought at just above that price though I sold WAY too early to my eternal regret. On the plus side it still more than made up for my Lloyds shares losses.

luscious_lucy

BP 3 months ago!

turbobob

Never bought any really risky shares - small exploration companies etc. Probably the bravest buy was a fund of hedge funds (think it was a Thames River fund) a few days after the Madoff story broke, at something like a 60% discount to NAV. Was quite a profitable buy in the end. I'd quickly looked up that they didn't appear to have any exposure to Madoff, but this was at the height of the financial crisis and things looked very iffy!

The very brave might want to have a look at Connaught (CNT) - its swinging around wildly at the moment (in percentage terms), up 20% today at time of writing, but a pure gamble on the survival of the company.

Old_Slaphead

Rockwood Holdings & Marconi.

Buy high and wait till they go t*** up - the only surefire way to make a small fortune

Mikeyorks

Eurotunnel ...... many years ago!

Why risky - well, basically because it's just a big hole in the ground. Risk factor multiplied by the fact there's a lot of water above it. And the initial costs legislate against it ever being truly profitable.

Why do it - err, seemed a good idea at the time!

(But - just had a £0.22p dividend late last week. So that's defrayed the losses a little!)

rockitup

Not exactly shares, but Investment Trust Warrants back in 1997 and 1999.

The first was Fleming Income & Growth Capital Share Warrants and made 2 purchases of £1000 and £2000 at 32p and 36p or thereabouts. Sold at 122p after a decision by Fleming to cancel the warrants and convert into Capital Shares.

Next was Fleming Asian Warrants when the market was starting to make good headway in 1999, invested £9300 and sold for £29,900.

Funny thing was I didn't know a tenth as much as I know now on investing and in percentage terms those 2 deals were my best ever.
Pulled out on first week of January 2000 and used as deposit on a house so missed the crash....:D

Reaper

turbobob wrote: »

The very brave might want to have a look at Connaught (CNT) - its swinging around wildly at the moment (in percentage terms), up 20% today at time of writing, but a pure gamble on the survival of the company.

I did look at Connaught funnily enough. The problem is that it is not just a question of whether the share price will go up or down but whether you will get wiped out completely. As I write RBS is discussing a debt-for-equity swap which could mean the shareholders lose everything. That's too much of a gamble for me.

rockitup

Reaper wrote: »

I did look at Connaught funnily enough. The problem is that it is not just a question of whether the share price will go up or down but whether you will get wiped out completely. As I write RBS is discussing a debt-for-equity swap which could mean the shareholders lose everything. That's too much of a gamble for me.

I did a spread bet on Connaught earlier today for £10 a point so the most I could lose is £130, it would probably take alot for them to even double their share price though with 2 profit warnings in consecutive months...