October 18, 2006
The Most Important Quality of a Trader: A Willingness to Take Crazy Risks with His Bar Mitzvah Money
I read this interview with a guy who spun $12,415 of Bar Mitzvah money into $1.65 million during the bubble with amusement.
He describes his best (?) trade:
Illinois Superconductor announced on a Friday that their revolutionary superconducting product would be featured that weekend on a major news channel; I think it was CNN or 60 Minutes. This was back in 2000 so the stock had already gone from $10ish to $17ish that week, but I figured even if the product was a dud, they would hype it up and make it look incredible on national TV. Back then people would “invest” in anything with hype so it would be good for a point or two on a Monday morning gap.
So, I put most of my net worth, 10,000 shares, long over the weekend at $17/share. I watched the program and sure enough everyone started talking that it was the next Microsoft. It just kept going up premarket…19..20…21 and I desperately wanted to sell by 8:30am at $24ish, but back then Suretrade didn’t allow premarket trading so I was forced to wait for the market open. I put my order to sell right at the open and it still took about 10 minutes to execute because there were so many buy orders. I finally sold at $29ish and I just couldn’t believe it. One day later it hit $39 before plummeting.
I was day trading back then and recall that ISO (then ISCO) play well. Here’s a daily chart from February/March 2000 to refresh memories:
Oddly, there are no profiles of the kids who plunged all their Bar Mitzvah money into Illinois Superconductor at $45.
October 18th, 2006 at 10:18 am
Aren’t we short a Gratuitous Chick Pic? I thought it was just going to be delayed, not forgotten. Priorities Chairman, priorities :-)
October 18th, 2006 at 10:20 am
Sharky: Yes, alas she was forgotten but if you can keep it in your pants till this coming (no pun intended) weekend, she should make an appearance (assuming I don’t forget again). Maybe I’ll post Timothy Sykes’s pic instead!
October 19th, 2006 at 9:15 pm
alas nuthin for the ladies :)…
October 19th, 2006 at 9:18 pm
scoot: A couple of my female readers have sent in Gratuitous Cute Guy Pics asking me to post them… unfortunately for them, I refuse to alienate my base (10 out of 12 readers are balding men).
October 19th, 2006 at 9:23 pm
those balding men are big babies :)
October 19th, 2006 at 9:27 pm
Scoot: Yes, we are. ;-)