I’ve had my share of blow-ups, being a manager of other people’s money, as well as my own, throughout the years, dating back to 1995 or so. Long ago, I believed the only way to get rich was to put all of my eggs in one basket, then watch that basket carefully—a la Carnegie.
Using that approach, building mammoth positions in a select few stocks, I “enjoyed” massive winship, right alongside HORRIFIC “losedom.” Being young and clinically insane, I put all of my personal savings in America Online, prior to the big-dicked moves in the stock. I was, in a word, NOTTOBEFUCKEDWITH.
Luckily, for my sake, AOL aka AMER turned out to be a once in a lifetime winner, returning several thousand percent my original investment.
Fast forward a dozen years, I am far more timid with my positioning. Generally speaking, I don’t allocate more than 10% of overall capital to any single name. However, from time to time, like in the case of my famous Microvision, Inc. [[MVIS]] position, I make exceptions.
At the present, I have a rather large and stubborn position in Flotek Industries, Inc. [[FTK]] . “The Fly” of 12 years ago would have been doubling down on this stupid bastard of a stock, all the way to $1.50. However, for what I have going on, blessed by the stock Gods with large dicked gains, I have zero motivation to swing for the fences. My buy orders are small, thanks in large part to my 70% year to date returns, on top of the 60% in 2008, on top of the 27% in 2007. You get my drift.
If you insist on building large positions (anything more than 20% of assets), be sure to know what the fuck you are doing. I know someone who lost over $2million in a certain penny stock, back in 2007, due to him chasing the stock lower out of ego. As a matter of fact, this man never researched the stock he was putting his net worth into. Back then, the market was so easy. Every single oil and gas stock was doubling and tripling in a period of months. So, he just, sort of, bellied up to the plate and went “all in” on a name he knew nothing about. Despite my daily warnings, he kept buying and ended up losing 75% of his net worth in a bullshit scam stock.
Don’t be a fucking asshat. The market is designed to fleece fuckers like you (the general retail investor).
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