Your Biggest Investment Losses

lozzy1965

I went from AIM to FTSE100 and 250 back to dabbling in miners (Afren, Tower Resources) and owned the wonderful darling of the stock market Carillion, so plenty of 100% losses as well as 99% paper losses.  The trouble with 'cashing out to minimise a loss' is you have to do it early, and it's often only 100% clear with hindsight that the company is about to fail.  If you don't, the value of what's left doesn't amount to a large percentage of your portfolio after it's partially collapsed, so selling what's left doesn't release much capital!  I've had a few take overs from struggling companies that have put me back into profit and had some bounce back.  I've had Kin and Carta (formerly St Ives) cashing in some profit on the first rise.  Holding through the crash and averaging down to be back in profit through this second rise.
It's all about diversification and experience.  Whether the dividend is still being paid, whether the underlying business is still viable.  You learn a lot when things go horribly wrong, just make sure you don't lose everything too!

highet

railtrack, halifax, alliance and leicester, marks and spencer, woodford - invested in a few dodos over the years!!!

tebbins

I think the opportunity cost of not learning about investing and starting sooner is far greater than any losses I could ever crystallise.

jimjames

highet said:

railtrack, halifax, alliance and leicester, marks and spencer, woodford - invested in a few dodos over the years!!!

Those are good examples. I owned some of them, the banks from when they demutualised in the 1990s. I thought at the time that holding single companies was risky so a couple of years after being given them I sold and invested the money into index trackers instead. Hindsight showed it was the right move to not hold single sector/shares and to diversify into wider holdings.  The index trackers dropped during the crash but not to the extent of Halifax and A&L

NannaH

I bought into the Seraphim Space fund earlier this year and the value pretty much halved the next day 🙄. 

 I only invested £500 and I’m hoping it will start to do better.

I keep dithering over whether to sell some/all of my holding in L&G global tech,  it’s done, and continues to do, very well so I just keep hanging on and I still drip feed £50 a month in.  It’s returned 124% for me. 

Malthusian

Saga said:

newatc said:

Someone convinced me to buy shares in Bolton Wanderers on the basis of the property they owned when they won promotion to Premier League, they price would shoot up. They got promoted but the shares never took off and in a couple of year after promotion they were worthless. I still have the share certificate somewhere, a company once offered to buy the shares off me for £10 but I couldn't be bothered.
Apart from the money, I wasted a few years supporting them from afar!

Ouch! Well they're mid-table now so maybe in couple seasons...

In a couple of seasons the shares may still be worthless even if BW win the league and are taken over by Saudi billionaires. I am guessing that Newatc probably bought the shares when they were on the AIM market (pre 2003) and since then BWFC have gone through multiple private takeovers and an administration. It seems unlikely that individual fans / investors still have any stake.

Given this is football, the property in question may not have even been owned by BWFC.

newatc

Malthusian said:

Saga said:

newatc said:

Someone convinced me to buy shares in Bolton Wanderers on the basis of the property they owned when they won promotion to Premier League, they price would shoot up. They got promoted but the shares never took off and in a couple of year after promotion they were worthless. I still have the share certificate somewhere, a company once offered to buy the shares off me for £10 but I couldn't be bothered.
Apart from the money, I wasted a few years supporting them from afar!

Ouch! Well they're mid-table now so maybe in couple seasons...

In a couple of seasons the shares may still be worthless even if BW win the league and are taken over by Saudi billionaires. I am guessing that Newatc probably bought the shares when they were on the AIM market (pre 2003) and since then BWFC have gone through multiple private takeovers and an administration. It seems unlikely that individual fans / investors still have any stake.

Given this is football, the property in question may not have even been owned by BWFC.

The comment on valuation is correct, I'm not sure of the terminology but the shares have been heavily diluted in the takeovers. The property included a hotel attached to the ground. Expensive lesson but at least I haven't repeated the error of listening to an anonymous person on the internet (Compuserve forum for those with long memories).

masonic

I just say my only significant and irrecoverable investment losses have come from non-mainstream asset classes and leave it at that

DiamondLil

ColdIron said:

Sometimes cutting your losses is the best decision that you can make

Absolutely; I sold my Woodford units when they were dawdling along at a small loss. Maybe not my best decision, but it comes close.

Worried_fool

No need for this thread since we have the thread about investing in Biotech. That thread includes some discussion of Evofem, which lost about two-thirds of its value the day after I invested, and many others.