First Ten Bagger

[dealtn]

I think I bought my first share as a teenager over 30 years ago, so it has taken some time, but I took profits today on my first 10 bagging investment. I hope I won't have to wait as long for the next one!

I have lost 100% on a few occasions on that journey too, but this is a milestone to celebrate tonight I reckon.

Best Of The Best (BOTB) if anyone's interested.

[Midsmartin]

Well done! I'm kicking myself over this one. I think I made a note to have a look at it one day, but never did.

My first ten bagger was, I think, British Biotech. It was also my first ten de-bagger as my very youthful self watched it go all the way back down again!

[GoSeigen]

I think I bought my first share as a teenager over 30 years ago, so it has taken some time, but I took profits today on my first 10 bagging investment. I hope I won't have to wait as long for the next one!

I have lost 100% on a few occasions on that journey too, but this is a milestone to celebrate tonight I reckon.

Best Of The Best (BOTB) if anyone's interested.

Heh, I was just looking at a 10 bagger in DD's Child Trust Fund today. AAL bought around 245 in 2016 sold a few today for >2950, for 64% CAGR. I doubt I'll ever beat that again.

GS

[Dod101]

Mine was Tullow Oil, Bought at £1 sold at just over £14.

Well done dealtn. A great feeling.

Dod

[moorfield]

The phrase "N Bagger" has always struck me as rather meaningless without a time frame for context - for example a "10 bagger" in 30 years is an annualised return of 7.9%, rather pedestrian for equities. On the other hand a 10 bagger in 2 years is 216% - now that would be impressive.

[simoan]

Well done, for not selling! I guess far too many people could tell you of more 10 baggers they sold too early than those they held all the way. My first one was BHP Group 10 years ago, bought when it was plain old Billiton at the height of the tech boom 20 years ago. My second, and fastest, was Boohoo bought after the profit warning following the IPO at 27p. Microsoft is slowly edging it's way towards being my third (needs another 10% increase) but that will have been 20 years in the making.

All the best, Si

[dealtn]

The phrase "N Bagger" has always struck me as rather meaningless without a time frame for context - for example a "10 bagger" in 30 years is an annualised return of 7.9%, rather pedestrian for equities. On the other hand a 10 bagger in 2 years is 216% - now that would be impressive.

Just over 3 years.

[Arborbridge]

I can only offer a few -10 baggers

[tjh290633]

I suppose that my first was AstraZeneca, spun off from ICI as Zeneca in 1993 at 630p, and reached the 10x multiple during 2018. I have no intention of selling, although I did trim back in 1997 at 1855p, topped up in 2007 and then trimmed back not long after when overweight at £24. Bought 3 more top-ups then trimmed again in 2014 at £46.75. One more top-up in 2016 at £39.80 then trimmed back twice more when overweight, in 2018 at £62.50 and again last year at £68.90. Currently quite a bit below median weight. IRR 15.9%.

TJH

[Shelford]

Given one of the purposes of the board is educative, we learn as much/more from mistakes, a fun string would be our biggest disasters. I can offer up several:

Woodford Patient Capital Trust
Principal learning: most, if not all, successful fund managers are guilty are hubris in the long term, and Woodford exemplifies this truism.

KKVW (formerly Secure Income Trust, which proved to be neither secure, nor provide an income )
Principal Learning: a) Investing in a business which provides loans to a broad range of SMEs = volatility when a big economic shock viz. Covid happens. The fact the trust was going pear-shaped beforehand didn't help. Gross incompetence. b) don't invest in investment trusts you don't understand

Centrica
Principal learning: if you have a well-diversified HYP portfolio, at any one time, one of your 20 or so holdings is likely to be standing on the naughty step. I have several others. CNA is the worst performer for me over past 10 years: complacent and lazy senior management being given a good kicking by disruptive new entrants and a secular decline in oil/gas prices.


All of them sporting a decrease of 70% on what I paid. In real terms, a loss of £40K on these three alone. Ho hum. Main overall learning: stay diversified and be mindful of balancing your asset allocation as your portfolio grows. Thankfully my overall portfolio CAGR is 12% over the past 8 years. I keep these duds in my portfolio to remind me of the fact I'm not Warren Buffett.

Shelford

[TUK020]

Given one of the purposes of the board is educative, we learn as much/more from mistakes, a fun string would be our biggest disasters.
Shelford

Crufts winner: Carillion
Much has been written on this site.
My key learning is that the one blinking indicator that I should have paid attention to was the short selling activity.

Question marks: Oilies & Tobacco
All still churning out divis, but showing horrible capital depreciation. Market sentiment is that they are on their way to the graveyard.
Too soon to tell - if the tobacos churn divis for long enough, maybe OK.
Oilies probably have some upside.

Rollercoaster award: Marstons
Bought in as I thought the new management team seemed to understand what they were doing.
Then COVID.
In the immortal words of Donald Rumsfeld "Stuff happens". The cat has bounced well though.

Sad Dogs: Telecoms VF & BT
Should have know better.
BT may come good if they get on top of the fibre roll out. If interest rates take off, this will help fix the pension deficit. COVID might help here.
VF: that short selling indicator is blinking here.....

[vagrantbrain]

The worst in my spreadsheet (so far) is Blackrock New Energy Investment Trust (BRNE). One of my first post-bankruptcy investments in a monthly savings plan in early 2008 and ended up at -67.5% a few years later when I finally gave up and sold out. Largest cash loss was the dog that was CF Junior Oils.


Some time ago I remember a similar thread on another website where someone was ruing selling their holdings in ASOS as they'd sold after the shares had 10-bagged or so, however the share price kept going after that, and the initial few thousand investment would have been worth something like £3m by that point...

[moorfield]

Centrica
Principal learning: if you have a well-diversified HYP portfolio, at any one time, one of your 20 or so holdings is likely to be standing on the naughty step. I have several others. CNA is the worst performer for me over past 10 years: complacent and lazy senior management being given a good kicking by disruptive new entrants and a secular decline in oil/gas prices.

Over the last decade, certainly

Carillion, not the initial purchase but subsequent "yield chasing" top ups. However, lesson learnt and risk control built, which stopped me chasing particularly high VOD and IMB yields in recent years before their dividend cuts came.

Centrica, yield chasing as above to a lesser extent. Should have sold/recycled it earlier, but it's gone now.

HSBA, just bad timing with initial purchase, and now locked into a capital loss and low yield for the forseeable future. I don't have the patience to wait for it to recover its dividend, planning to sell/recycle it soon.

WPP, my biggest holding by cost down some 25% and again looking like a low yielder for the forseeable future, undecided yet if this was a bad decision.

REA prefs, if the company doesn't manage to liquidate itself first I am confident the arrears of dividend will be paid eventually, then I may exit.

[monabri]

Carillion and Interserve. I'm particularly peeved about the latter! Lesson learned - don't invest in "no-margin" businesses. I now always check the free Morningstar website.

[Mike88]

My worst was e-capital an AIM share. I only invested a £1000 but sold my entire holding, after after a name change, 18 months later for £12. I'm also a victim of Woodford Patient Capital which currently is down around 65%.

[WickedLester]

My one and only 10 bagger was Volex, bought for about 17p and sold for about £1.87.

If i'd held on to my ODX to the top I would have had another 10 bagger but as per usual I sold too early.

My more recent total losses include GOAL, which was the victim of an accounting fraud and Redhall, bought for the Booth's business and recovery but which ran out of cash before they could manage it.

[everhopeful]

I bought Torex in the 90s. It was a tool hire company which partially reinvented itself as a software outfit aimed at GP surgeries. I made a 10x gain in a matter of months and got out before it went the way of much tech at that time. I also bought Colman's the mustard makers and held on during its gradual metamorphosis into Reckitt Benkiser but that took the best part of 40years. My records are sketchy however so if "recollections vary" please forgive.

[Gilgongo]

I wasn't going to mention this here because it's a bit crass, but in 2014 I bought 6,000 Dogecoin for £3.50. I sold them last week for a shade under £1,500. I think that's a 42,757-bagger.

[Mulberry]

Being very much a tortoise rather than a hare, mine is JP Morgan European Smaller Companies Trust (JESC) bought for 38p in 1997. I sold some a couple of weeks ago for 503p.
Reinvestment of dividends plus various sales over the years does mean that my calculation of the pool cost runs to nearly three dozen lines though.

Mulberry

[Howard]

I wasn't going to mention this here because it's a bit crass, but in 2014 I bought 6,000 Dogecoin for £3.50. I sold them last week for a shade under £1,500. I think that's a 42,757-bagger.

Is that the price for each coin?

And are you posting from your superyacht?

Howard