BIG MISTAKE

Yes, I did it- played with margin like a real fool. Invested in DDD, Invense, GoPro,Viacom all at near highs thinking one of them would be a winner. WRONG. Left with $10,000 and starting from scratch once again. Will never,never, ever margin!!!

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Excellent choice.

http://stockcharts.com/h-sc/ui?s=DDD&p=D&yr=1&mn…

Sauls crew should be doing well since the $BDI is rising nicely.

http://stockcharts.com/h-sc/ui?s=%24BDI&p=D&yr=1&…

High fives all around.

Quillnpenn -

1 Like

Margin – handle with care (or maybe not at all …) Here is a post on that subject. It is, one of the most recommended posts in the Fool – if not indeed the most recommemded: http://discussion.fool.com/the-real-real-risks-of-margin-1225137…

culcha

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DDD, GoPro, Invense are also all stocks that had insane valuations.

I would argue that MF is a bit reckless with recommending stocks with great stories after those stories have already inflated a bubble.

Even without margin DDD, GoPro and Invense could have killed you.

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THIS! My biggest beef with MF.

Subject: Re: Re: BIG MISTAKE
Author: Rbuckyfuller | Date: 3/25/2016 9:57:23 AM | Number: 17562

DDD, GoPro, Invense are also all stocks that had insane valuations.

I would argue that MF is a bit reckless with recommending stocks with great stories after those stories have already inflated a bubble.

Even without margin DDD, GoPro and Invense could have killed you.

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Incidentally 4 of them are DG or RB stocks. I believe RB while has done exceptionally well, it has only a 45% accuracy. I believe they have done well because the remaining winners (45% of them) outperform the remaining losers by a decent factor. You can do well there if you generally buy every pick (my opinion), or atleast catch one major winner to compensate for 2-3 losers. Perhaps stick to S&P 500 Index funds with low expense ratio is better.

Having said that, RB or SA or any service, doesn’t matter. I would never margin. If I had a 100K account, I would not even use margin funds to buy additional 5K worth of shares unless I already have money that I is in the process of getting transferred into the brokerage account. And by the way, you can not invest in stocks unless you have paid off your high interest credit card debt and have a decent size emergency fund. (Student loan debt or mortgage or car loans can be exceptions)

Secondly, atleast for me, when I have individual stocks, they usually go up faster than the market in a rising market, and fall faster than the market in a falling market. Since you can never ever know whether the broad market is going to go up or down at any given point, I never margin. The assumption being, if I margin and the market is wrong, the excess gain I was expecting would turn into excess loss. [Long term generally assumption being it will go up, though you can have dry or long negative patches along the way]. Once you start getting used to the margin, you get addicted and start doing more and more. To the point where you end up with 100% margin at market peak and if the tide turns, you get exposed!

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