Buy and hold, long term investing? I hold CROX from $75 to $20, hoping for a rebounce. It never came. Sometimes we got to trade stocks to take advantage of price volatility (up and downs). I was successful on this aspect from time to time, especially since the stock rally started this March. I made some money back from NRG Energy (NYSE:NRG) and Huntsman (NYSE:HUN), to cover the loss from holding Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B). Here again the lesson of “buy and hold”, even for a good company like Berkshire, I bought it at wrong time (April, May 2008).
BRK.B Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Buy Apr 9, 2008 1.00 4,349.89 7.00
BRK.B Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Buy May 12, 2008 1.00 4,130.00 7.00
BRK.B Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Sell Mar 23, 2009 1.00 2,894.25 7.00
BRK.B Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Sell Mar 26, 2009 1.00 2,939.51 7.00
Pros and Cons of low cost trading: Sogotrade
Low cost (and electronic trade) tends to make people trade more often, not necessarily a bad thing, but could be a bad thing for me.
How I made my Blockbuster (NYSE:BBI) shares count from 1,682 on July 23 to 1,235 on Spet 8. See below.
Blockbuster Inc. BBI Buy Jul 22, 2009 910.00 0.745 — 3.39
Blockbuster Inc. BBI Buy Jul 23, 2009 772.00 0.75 — 3.00
Blockbuster Inc. BBI Sell Aug 12, 2009 300.00 0.84 — 3.00
Blockbuster Inc. BBI Sell Aug 25, 2009 1,382.00 0.84 1,157.88 3.00
Blockbuster Inc. BBI Buy Aug 27, 2009 1,397.00 1.00 (1,400.00) 3.00
Blockbuster Inc. BBI Sell Sep 2, 2009 1,397.00 1.04 1,449.88 3.00
Blockbuster Inc. BBI Buy Sep 3, 2009 705.00 1.11 (785.55) 3.00
Blockbuster Inc. BBI Buy Sep 8, 2009 530.00 1.25 (665.50) 3.00
So the lesson for me here is while trading is good (to lower cost) and fun, don’t over doing it because it could lose more than 25% of my shares 🙁