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Do you know "Fuck Up Nights"?

In the startup scene - especially in the tech environment - there are events where founders or teams openly share their experiences of failure: The so-called "Fuck Up Nights".

The tone and choice of words is deliberately provocative and direct; it signals openness, learning from mistakes and an unconventional culture. I'm a big fan of these events!

Why am I sharing this here?

There are also many on this "event" platform who can learn from the "failures" (in investing) of others and the experience gained from them.

So, I hereby encourage you not only to present the successes, but also the "fuck ups" 🙈

And I'll start with my own experiences/fuck ups. Here is a selection:

$AVGO (-2.12%) - Held in the red for a long time and then - when the price finally turned "green" - sold immediately. I completely missed the current rise.

$LMND (+5.3%) - Bought as a tenbagger in the high phase and believed that the "ride" would go on and on. Then sold in the crash at a comparatively high loss, but also missed the current recovery. The hope of making a "quick buck" has blurred our view of the facts.

$SIE (-0.82%) - We sold in panic because of a 15% loss and missed the re-entry instead of trusting that the company would "come back". Lack of patience and calm!

In addition, there are various supposed "high flyers" of Canadian penny stocks that are (repeatedly) advertised on the relevant portals. I must have fallen for them two or three times in my young life as a shareholder.

In addition, various leveraged products where greed has "eaten" the brain and therefore the jump was not made in time.

In total, I "sunk" around 25 - 30k because I was initially too gullible/ naive on the one hand and paid too little attention to the facts and figures on the other. In addition, there was sometimes hectic actionism (both when buying and selling).

What are your experiences/"fuck ups" in investing that others can perhaps learn from?

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9 Comments

TradingHase@TradingHase

1D

$PU11 bought for € 43 and now worth 1 cent and broke, because I believed in the investor Mr. D. from "Der Höhle der Löwen". A good 2k in the sand.

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Mark777@Mark777

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@TradingHase That's bitter, I hope it was only "play money"!

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TradingHase@TradingHase

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@Mark777 It doesn't kill me. 😉 And I still have the 50 cents in the deposit and if too much tax is due at the end of the year, the item is sold for the loss account. It's all a good thing. 😂

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Chris@Multibagger

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The so-called flops are based on misjudgements that are proven afterwards. And everyone who trades regularly on the stock market experiences them. It's simply part of the process. It is annoying in individual cases, but for me the bottom line is that the return has to be right. The problem with these misjudgements is that you only know afterwards that they were wrong, because you make the decisions because you are convinced of them. Then you always say, I'll learn from it. But that's often not true. I have always asked myself afterwards (not only on the stock market, but also in life), if I were in the same situation again, had the same facts, not knowing what would happen afterwards, would I make the same decision. And well over 90% of the time the answer was: YES!
And if that's the case, it wasn't a bad decision.
The important thing is that you follow your plan/strategy and act consistently according to it and only adjust it if it doesn't work for a long time.
Sinking 25-30 k sounds like a lot. But if, on the other hand, you have gained 100k with well-performing trades, your performance is right.

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1D

@Multibagger... assumes, however, that you have a plan / strategy. I definitely didn't have one back then and sometimes just followed along like a lemming. All in all, I am satisfied with my investments "on balance" (overall).
However, I'm also taking a much more conservative approach now (although I do "look over" at your activities from time to time and it's tempting to join in on your journey now and again 💯k). Good luck! 🚀

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Chris@Multibagger

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@Novius Thank you

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Brother L.@Brateeee

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Bought certain values from Fomo: Discovered Block (ex Square) at €45 before Corona - entered at €200 after Corona.... Sunk further money into Farfetch, TeamViewer or Mister Spex.... Belongs to this. Learned a lot.

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NichtRelevant@NichtRelevant

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There used to be a rock-solid German construction company called DYWIDAG. A great company with construction and infrastructure projects all over the world, a good balance sheet and a reasonable dividend.

What I didn't understand was that the free float was not particularly high and that a major shareholder owned another construction company in addition to DYWIDAG - Walter Bau.
When Walter Bau got into difficulties, the owner used his voting rights to merge DYWIDAG into Walter Bau in an attempt to save Walter Bau.
Together with the other Dywidag shareholders, I got my shares derecognized and the Walter Bau shares booked in. Walter Bau went bankrupt shortly afterwards and my 20,000 euros were gone.

The irony of the story: parts of the bankruptcy assets were sold and these profitable parts of the company were continued as DYWIDAG. Every time I see a DYWIDAG car driving in front of me, I still get upset and feel cheated out of 'my company'.

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13H

Bought at the beginning of 2015 at the then all-time high $VOW3 and crashed with the diesel scandal. After that, the share price fell by 40% (30k), although the diesel scandal was officially only responsible for 12k of the loss.

Then, after a long wait, sold all VW shares at the next all-time high in 2021 without a loss, but stupidly got back in shortly afterwards when the share price went (further) through the roof...
BUT:
Due to the VW problems since then, another 40% drop.

Luck in misfortune:
Total return over 10 years nominally still positive (3k), because VW continuously paid very high dividends...But of course a subterranean return per year. Not to mention the opportunity costs due to the money tied up (80k).

All I can do now is hope that VW will take off with the ID.Polo, ID.1 and ID.Cross and that the share price will recover after the typical 7-year model cycle at VW...

Learning:
Do not buy individual shares in companies that are currently doing (too) well and are therefore overvalued. Instead, diversify globally with ETFs.

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