A few true trading stories shared by traders (Source : Elite Traders)
In the 1930s an Engilishmen was on a holiday trip to Monte Carlo casino. He was playing roulette. While sitting at the table he got into an argument with guy who knocked his drink. After a verbal exchange they stepped outside to settle the thing man to man, but the Englishman forgot to take his chips off the black. On returning to the table, his original bet had double up 10 times straight, and he walked away with 3 million. True story
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Had a doctor client in the middle '90s who sold his practice to a public medical practice company for the company's stock. When the stock ran up to $55, his shares reached a value of $8.60 million. I advised him to sell, because "the worst that could happen is that he'd have $8MM in the bank". (The stock was 99X earnings, the group was 50X, the market was 25X... seems cheap now.) I suggested he would get a chance to buy it back for .20 on the dollar sometime in the next few years. He said, "I like the management". I said, "what do you expect, it to become the next Microsoft?"
Anyway, a few weeks later, he called me. When I heard his voice, I sympathized with him, but he didn't know why. The lead story on CNBC was that the company had missed earnings, guided down, and the stock open about $12... His 8.60 Mil.$ holding was now valued at less than 2 Mil. $. He hadn't heard. Eventually they traded $5. Soon after that, never heard about it again.
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A person who was 75 years old bought Microsoft 1000 shares in 1985. He died of heart attack next year. Nobody knew he bought Microsoft shares until 1996. His grandson found out about the 1000 Microsoft shares had become over $1 million value stocks after 10 years. The family sold half of shares to buy new house, cars, & put some cash into US bonds. They still hold half position into Microsoft.