Red Across the Board

Glen_Clark

gadgetmind wrote: »

I've had some 100% losses, but that's the nature of investing in early stage technology companies. I invest in these because I have specialist knowledge regarding technology, IP and patents, which I can use to (hopefully) get an edge.

However, I'm not by nature a risk taker, so I therefore use gains from my tech investing to feed into balanced portfolios, mostly within ISAs, as fast as CGT allowances permit.

If all of my tech shares turned into 100% losses tomorrow, it would really, really hurt, and push back my retirement plans by a few years. But only by a few years as they (now!) represent less than 10% of my total investments.

I also fully accept that I more than likely got lucky!

I know the feeling. I piled into Marconi when they dropped to 40p because I knew they owned technology essential to BT, and guessed rightly they would survive But, as usual, I failed to take into account Westminster politics. So I was taken by surprise when Blair allowed the Banks to declare Marconi worthless, help themselves to 99.5% of the equity in return for their debt without a shareholder vote, then - surprise surprise, Marconi turned out to be worth more than the Bankers said it was. But by then we shareholders only had 0.5% of the Company. :mad:
..... and of course Blair went on to get a highly paid job 'working' for a Bank ....

gadgetmind

I've fallen victim to some pre-packs (yes, read patents, but check who owns the debt!), and been wiped out due to what can only be called shenanigans (also check directors past records!) but the winners have been *big* winners, so I can still smile.

Thrugelmir

Glen_Clark wrote: »

I know the feeling. I piled into Marconi when they dropped to 40p because I knew they owned technology essential to BT, and guessed rightly they would survive

Expensive acquisitions in the dot com era were the start of it's decline.

The lack of contracts from BT was ultimately it's death knell.

Ryan_Futuristics

Glen_Clark wrote: »

I think we are on the same wavelength there
And if the 15.26% hasn't gone to the investors, it must have gone somewhere else. (The only other place I can think of is dealing costs.)
Can you explain that to Ryan Futuristics Please

Not in the case of a fund (I'm trying to find the article in my browser history)

A hypothetical fund portfolio could return +50% in year 1, with 10 investors ... Then 90 more investors buy in; but this year the portfolio goes through a rough patch and loses 20%

Those 90 investors get cold feed and withdraw with 20% losses; then the fund gains +50% again

So the fund portfolio's made per annum gains of 26.67%, but the Mean average investor lost 17.34% per annum, and the Median average investor lost 20% ... And that's because the fund's not a closed universe

So the fund could've had market cap of £10m when it was gaining, and £100m when it was losing, but the performance is always relative to its market cap

Glen_Clark

gadgetmind wrote: »

I've fallen victim to some pre-packs (yes, read patents, but check who owns the debt!), and been wiped out due to what can only be called shenanigans (also check directors past records!) but the winners have been *big* winners, so I can still smile.

Well at least you kept investing. I only lost about 1% of my portfolio directly on Marconi, but lost out on much more than that later by holding too much cash as I had lost the confidence to invest again.

Glen_Clark

Ryan_Futuristics wrote: »

Not in the case of a fund (I'm trying to find the article in my browser history)

A hypothetical fund portfolio could return +50% in year 1, with 10 investors ... Then 90 more investors buy in; but this year the portfolio goes through a rough patch and loses 20%

Those 90 investors get cold feed and withdraw with 20% losses; then the fund gains +50% again

So the fund portfolio's made per annum gains of 26.67%, but the Mean average investor lost 17.34% per annum, and the Median average investor lost 20% ... And that's because the fund's not a closed universe

So the fund could've had market cap of £10m when it was gaining, and £100m when it was losing, but the performance is always relative to its market cap

Arithmetic is not your strongest subject is it

Ryan_Futuristics

Glen_Clark wrote: »

Arithmetic is not your strongest subject is it

I've got a degree in computational mathematics - if my numbers are off it's because I'm doing it in my head (and mental arithmetic's not my forte)

I think I know what you're getting at - with every sale needing a buyer - but that applies to the whole market universe (not a fund), and even then by no means implies the average investor performs as well as an index

Kendall80

Neptune Russia seems to have dropped 20% in a day. I'll have to check that one. That's huge.

In_For_A_Penny_2

Ryan_Futuristics wrote: »

computational mathematics

In my day they called that a calculator

Glen_Clark

In_For_A_Penny wrote: »

In my day they called that a calculator

In my day we didn't have calculators