Mine was 1 share of SIEB on Feb 4 1999 - a big mover that day. I I lost something like $10 on that trade, plus $20 for datek's commissions. My what a difficult education it has been...
There are so many, but this was the first bought at about 10 and sold at about 33, now it's about 40. My all time favorite blunder was ELCO which I got caught short in an after hours run. Think I lost about $1200 bucks covering at 39 or 40 and it now passes on the CNBC ticker for less than a buck. Or in 2000 I dumped STAR 500 shares that I held for years at 7 and change. Just hit my new high list yesterday could've sold for a nice profit. Never mind the other things I bought with that money. All in all I think it is better to get knocked around in the beginning and learn from your mistakes. The alternative is to end up believing your own crap and blowing out being a piggy piggy.
TSIG, back then 32 cents, sent in a market order, and was happy i bought something, even though a high for the day, later bought some more, then the inevitable reverse split 1-10, and now worth 2 cents, but hey i believe in this one, it will make a comeback some day- just watch
Early '00 @ $22.00 per share. I thought they made Lear jets. Then a "professional" told me it wasn't going anywhere, so I dumped it. Mind you I had no intention to sell for 5 years. It was basically a rollover from my annuities. I listened to that guy one more time when he said not to short EXTR @ $126.00 (I was long) after I suggested it. Needless to say I never listened to anybody but myself from then on.
i had been reading "Trader J's" thread over on silicon investor for months... and i had just opened a brand new trading account and was ready to make a trade... everyone was hyping Perfumania and there was a big news release coming.. so, i bought in at like 8 dollars or so... 400 shares... i watched it trade all the way to about 11 or 12 that morning and turned off my monitor thinking about how easy this was... then i came back that afternoon and it was below where i bought it.. something like 6... and i was sick to my stomach... i read through all the message boards looking for hope... i didnt understand... finally the next day i sold it for a big loss... lol, i didnt have a clue ... -qwik
LOL,,,I was a junior in High school and wanted to start trading. So I took all of money from my summer job and opened an E-turd account. At the time I was only 17, so I think I actually lied on my account application and said I was 18 so I could open up an account. I think I bot like 5 shares of AOL and made 10 bucks on it!
June 1994, Mill City Gold. They had some property surrounding the hot spot for diamond exploration in the Canadian north. My buddy's room mate was a pilot who flew a geologist out of the camp and had a 'hot tip'. I was newly married and didn't have a dime. But since it was a sure thing, I got a bank loan for $6000, the most they would give me, and put it all in at $1.90/shr. Kept averaging down with what was left from every pay check until I finally bailed at about 30 cents. Only the first of what was to be many hard lessons to come.
1996 NRGN As I recall there was a biotech bull market and I picked it out from a Barron's article featuring a hedge fund specializing in the sector. I made money....which is a double edged sword. On one hand I was hooked. On the other hand, I thought: "PFfff! This is easy!?!" (sigh) How little I knew/know.
Haha...good topic. My first trade was in futures options of all things. I had scraped enough together for the minimum to open an account with Lind-Waldock ($5k). Since I couldn't afford the S&P at the time (big contract, $15k margin then I think) I figured I could play the options. I mean, my only risk was 100%, I thought to myself. I ended up turning it the same day for $400...even after having to call the orders in and wait 45 minutes for a fill report. It was the worst thing that could happen because I thought it was so easy. I proceeded to run the account down to almost zero over the next couple of months. But I learned a lot from that experience, so I guess it was worth it.