With all the hype surrounding Facebook going public, I have decided to start my own stock portfolio. I have decided to "buy" $7000 worth of stock. I have invested in A pharmaceutical company, a solar energy company supported by Warren Buffet, an alternative energy company that I've been following for years, whose stock is worth less than a penny. I have also bought 100 shares of Facebook, because it dipped to $34.
Obviously, I'm not using real money, because personally I feel the stock market is joke. Unlike most people, who have delusions of grandeur, I'm not going into like that. I'm looking at it like a poker tournament. If you enter a poker tournament with 100 people for $70, usually the top 10 people get paid. With $7,000 in the prize pool the winner would get about $3,000. Last place would get their money back and 9th place would get $140. I'm not greedy, but want a profit. So by averaging 9th and 10th place, I come to $105. From a $70 investment, that would be a profit of 50% of my investment. I'm not used to losing streaks. When I was playing poker a lot (almost for a living), I was investing about $300 a week and over the course of a year, I tracked my progress and was in the black by about $6,000. So that means, over about 80 weeks, with an investment of $24,000 I won $30,000. A profit of 25% on my investment. Realizing that a $10,500 payout on $7000 investment is petty nice, I'm going to have lower expectations. I want to cash out $9625 (37.5% profit). A nice profit in my eyes and I'd like to do this in no longer than 3 months.
So this is my game. So what's the sad story? Oh it's a doozie. I was having drinks with some friends one night, many years ago. One of our friends gave us all a tip and asked that if we had some spare change, we should invest in her company. She told us that their quarterly reports were about to come out and they had a monster resurgence and despite stocks plummeting, they survived the dot-com crash. The company was Priceline and at the time the stock was about $1.45 per share. I actually had some money saved and approached my genius, millionaire stockbroker cousin looking to purchase a thousand shares. He laughed, told me he wouldn't waste my time or money and told me to thank him, because he had just saved me $1450. Today the stock is worth about $650 per share. While I don't pretend to be a psychic and I'm sure I would have sold a majority of the stock once it approached the $50-60 range, I would have definitely kept at least 100 shares for the long haul. Hard to fathom having a $60,000 in stocks on a pocket change investment. The worst part is I've asked others about stocks I felt something good about. There was a ball bearing company whose stock was hovering around $12 and I read an article about how many major things have ball bearings in them. How there will always be a need for ball bearing companies. I asked two people about purchasing a 100 shares. They both said to save my $1200. Three years later, the stock is at $44. Not a goldmine by any means, but had I bought it, I'd have made a profit of $3200 in three years. Not bad.
So here's my game, my stories and we'll see if I can become make believe rich. It's like Skyringer on Preakness day. Had I been on my game and gone to the track, I would have bet $30 on this horse. I would have walked away with $190. Of course, this is the first year I haven't bet on any of the races. The Belmont might see a different path. We'll see.
Obviously, I'm not using real money, because personally I feel the stock market is joke. Unlike most people, who have delusions of grandeur, I'm not going into like that. I'm looking at it like a poker tournament. If you enter a poker tournament with 100 people for $70, usually the top 10 people get paid. With $7,000 in the prize pool the winner would get about $3,000. Last place would get their money back and 9th place would get $140. I'm not greedy, but want a profit. So by averaging 9th and 10th place, I come to $105. From a $70 investment, that would be a profit of 50% of my investment. I'm not used to losing streaks. When I was playing poker a lot (almost for a living), I was investing about $300 a week and over the course of a year, I tracked my progress and was in the black by about $6,000. So that means, over about 80 weeks, with an investment of $24,000 I won $30,000. A profit of 25% on my investment. Realizing that a $10,500 payout on $7000 investment is petty nice, I'm going to have lower expectations. I want to cash out $9625 (37.5% profit). A nice profit in my eyes and I'd like to do this in no longer than 3 months.
So this is my game. So what's the sad story? Oh it's a doozie. I was having drinks with some friends one night, many years ago. One of our friends gave us all a tip and asked that if we had some spare change, we should invest in her company. She told us that their quarterly reports were about to come out and they had a monster resurgence and despite stocks plummeting, they survived the dot-com crash. The company was Priceline and at the time the stock was about $1.45 per share. I actually had some money saved and approached my genius, millionaire stockbroker cousin looking to purchase a thousand shares. He laughed, told me he wouldn't waste my time or money and told me to thank him, because he had just saved me $1450. Today the stock is worth about $650 per share. While I don't pretend to be a psychic and I'm sure I would have sold a majority of the stock once it approached the $50-60 range, I would have definitely kept at least 100 shares for the long haul. Hard to fathom having a $60,000 in stocks on a pocket change investment. The worst part is I've asked others about stocks I felt something good about. There was a ball bearing company whose stock was hovering around $12 and I read an article about how many major things have ball bearings in them. How there will always be a need for ball bearing companies. I asked two people about purchasing a 100 shares. They both said to save my $1200. Three years later, the stock is at $44. Not a goldmine by any means, but had I bought it, I'd have made a profit of $3200 in three years. Not bad.
So here's my game, my stories and we'll see if I can become make believe rich. It's like Skyringer on Preakness day. Had I been on my game and gone to the track, I would have bet $30 on this horse. I would have walked away with $190. Of course, this is the first year I haven't bet on any of the races. The Belmont might see a different path. We'll see.
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