Tag Archives: extraordinary trades

7 Extraordinary Trades

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I have made bad, mediocre and good trades. Here are the extraordinarily bad and good trades.

MESA AIR GROUP

I bought this in 2009. This went to ZERO. Bankrupt.

TRICO MARINE

I bought this in 2009. This went to ZERO. Bankrupt.

NIVS

I bought this in 2011 and was defrauded. NIVS turned out to be one of many fraudulent Chinese reverse-takeovers that listed on the NYSE. This got delisted and went to ZERO.

BITCOIN

I bought a few in approximately April 2013 for approximately $40 each. Then it went to $10,000 each in 2017 and crashed in 2018. However, it has recovered some since 2018 and I believe it will fully recover or reach new highs.

ENPHASE

I bought this in 2015 for approximately $12 per share. It dropped by approximately 50%, so I put three times more money into the stock (by selling my other stocks) at approximately $6 per share. But it continued to drop until it went down approximately 95% to 72 cents or less in May 2017. Since then, it has shot up to $30 or more.

This has to be the wildest rollercoaster ride that I have ever been on. Who needs to go to Disney World when you can ride Enphase? The next time your kid wants you to take them to Disney World, buy them some Enphase stock.

Enphase is a good example of how the stock is much more extreme than the business metrics. Enphase’s revenue declined in 2016, but the long term future looked okay to good. Prices of solar components continued to decline. If this continues, it will be cheaper than the grid. Nevertheless, shareholders panicked and dumped the stock.

If you cannot handle this kind of volatility, buy ETFs because you will lose money with stocks.

ROKU

I bought $880 worth for my kid in November 2017 for approximately $27 per share. I watched it climb to $70 per share in 2018. Then it started dropping. When it dropped to $44, I thought it was an opportunity to get in, so I bought some in November 2018. But it kept dropping. I waited and waited until it bottomed, which it did at $27, which was 32% lower than the $44 that I bought it at. After it bounced, I bought approximately three times more for myself for approximately $30 per share in December 2018. Since then, it has rocketed to as high as $160.

Since I bought so close to the bottom in December 2018, I wonder if the SEC is going to be suspicious of insider trading.

TESLA

I started researching this company in early 2019 and determined that they make the best car in the world, but the world doesn’t know it yet.

However, bad news were coming out. Tesla had missed street expectations for one or two quarters. Sales dropped from 2018. They had to make a secondary offering to raise cash. Short sellers were bashing Tesla incessantly. Bears used the TSLAQ symbol to imply bankruptcy. They mocked Elon Musk’s “Funding secured at $420” tweet. They mocked Elon Musk’s unfilled claims. They posted news about Tesla cars on fire and Auto-pilot killing its driver. The stock kept declining. I waited and waited and waited until it would bottom. It bottomed at $180. Then it bounced and I bought it at approximately $206 per share in early June 2019.

Like Roku, I bought Tesla near the bottom. Tesla’s stock had been range bound for over 5 years. After the June 2019 bottom, it has rocketed up to $728 per share. The SEC must be convinced that I have insider information now. They are probably spying on me as I type this.

I can unequivocally tell you that I do not have insider information and I do not know Elon Musk personally. I do not even know the janitor at Tesla.

I am simply very bullish on the company. You can read my other posts for my reasons. However, I did not think that it will shoot up this quickly. It would seem that it is due for a correction, but I have no idea what it will do in the short run.