Taking Stock

Taking Stock was Originally Posted on May 18, 2012 by lavarock

Over the years I have invested in the stock market and did pretty well. My first stock was Hewlett Packard (before I started working for them). Then I bought MCI and Apple.

Not long thereafter I bough Upjohn – the drug company. Up until then I bought stock because the stock had been doing well and I had faith the stock would do well. I did my research on Upjohn and although I had only a few thousand dollars to invest, told everyone else to “mortgage the house” and invest. I had heard a radio request for people to test a new drug. That drug purported to grow hair, which up until then, was never a reality. We now know the drug as Minoxidil or Rogaine. The drug was a high blood pressure medicine, which had already been approved for internal use. My thought was that it would be approved for topical use. Its only drawback was the “werewolf” effect that caused hair to grow,

The stock ran up to 3 times what I paid in just a few months. I sold a day or two before the announcement was made as to whether the drug was approved or not. My thought was that since the stock had trippled, people would take their profits then. I was right.

After starting at HP, I began accumulating stock in the company. Then when we spun off the instrument/medical part to become Agilent, I ended up with their stock too. At some point, HP bought another company and I ended up with stock in a company I did not know.

Eventually I decided to get out of the stock market, knowing that people would go crazy abound the year 2000 with the incorrect idea that civilization would come to an end because computers could not handle the 4 year transition of dates. I knew better, but the public was going into a frenzy worrying.

My profit from stocks was big at that point. I was on easy street. That is, until a bit of greed took over. I heard that Agilent was poised to announce a switch that would revolutionize the Internet by allowing data to be switched rapidly. I fell for it and piled money into the stock and why not? I knew the company and in fact, had friends who worked there, having been split from my company.

Almost instantly the stock began to fall and stupidly, I went for a ride, all the way down. My thinking every day was, look how much I lost and this cannot go on for long. It is a good company and it HAS to go back up. I lost 2/3 of my investment, which amounted to a loss of about $100,000! Imagine my surprise when I realized that I should have sold the stock at yearend and repurchased the next year, so I could record a loss; which I didn’t. So to pour salt in the wound, I had to pay taxes on money that I no longer had.

I decided that being a stock mogul was not my forte`. I went to the casinos and did pretty well, and the stock market is a better investment than the roulette table or blackjack tables.

Flash forward a decade and I cautiously invest in Apple stock at the beginning of this year. Having made money of the stock previously, I reviewed the charts and saw that it has continuously gone up since then. I take the plunge.

In the ensuing couple of months, I invest more and soon decide to take my profit and run. I end up with about $3200 profit. Not much but still free money.

With all the hoopla around Facebooks stock offering, I considered buying stock on the first day. Because I know how the stock can gyrate, I was going to buy about 100 shares at no higher a price of $42, even thought the stock was scheduled to open at $38.

So the stock opened at $42.05 and my purchase would not have been made until minutes after the stock started trading. Then my purchase would have happened as the stock dropped all the way down to $38 before coming around again. Those who set a buy at $38 or just above would have gotten their price and made some money as the stock rose again. As of 2pm EST it is still not up to $42 again, so I would still not be making a profit had I gone through with my purchase.

Will the stock make money for investors? I think so, but I was not willing to try my luck.

In the meantime, even with my previous losses, I was able to move to Hawaii and buy a farm, which was at a pretty discounted price if I do say so. With the profit from the recent Apple stock, I bought an ATV to use for spraying the coffee trees.

I am not all that unhappy with my results in the market. I lost a lot of money and moved to Hawaii to retire. It could have been worse. Remember, sometimes when you lose, you win!