How did early Apple investors stay involved?

BrokenArrows

How did people who invested in apple when it was down around $1-5 stay involved up to the point where they were millionaires.

Ive read plenty of stories where people invested a few thousand back at those levels and held onto it when they were up at $500+

There were no dividends being issued back at those levels so its a huge amount of money just sitting there. How did they have the balls not to sell at $10, $20 $100.

Ive invested in startups from time to time and generally sell after short while. Im invested in a company who in my eyes have great potential. Im up 10% on my current purchase (Ive bought and sold them a few times, taking profit and ending up buying back in at a higher price) but im thinking of selling again!! even though i still think they have the potential to go further.

RATM

I think that there would be very few people around who bought in at $5 and stayed there all the way to $700. You'd want balls of steel to not take profit along the way. I'd also think that even the greediest person in the world would not be able to resist selling out at 2000% gross profit.

If some did get in at $5 and sold at $700 then fair play to them, that's a 14,000% profit which is just insane. I don't know how anyone could hang on that long and not sell out when their investment is many multiples of where it started.

Also don't forget that it wasn't all plain sailing for Apple, they did have a number of dark periods along the way, in fact you could argue they are in one right now as it is looking like Steve Jobs' innovations in the product pipeline have come to an end.

nogoodnamesleft

RATM wrote: »

I think that there would be very few people around who bought in at $5 and stayed there all the way to $700. You'd want balls of steel to not take profit along the way. I'd also think that even the greediest person in the world would not be able to resist selling out at 2000% gross profit.

If some did get in at $5 and sold at $700 then fair play to them, that's a 14,000% profit which is just insane. I don't know how anyone could hang on that long and not sell out when their investment is many multiples of where it started.

Also don't forget that it wasn't all plain sailing for Apple, they did have a number of dark periods along the way, in fact you could argue they are in one right now as it is looking like Steve Jobs' innovations in the product pipeline have come to an end.

+ 1, Apple had lots of ups and down along the way. Jobs was eccentric to say the least and from what I read could be a very difficult individual to work with. Walter isaacson biography on Jobs is worth a read if your that interested.

zpehtsfd

BrokenArrows wrote: »

How did people who invested in apple when it was down around $1-5 stay involved up to the point where they were millionaires. Ive read plenty of stories where people invested a few thousand back at those levels and held onto it when they were up at $500+

The most recent millionaire i saw was a poster on twitter who had 2K shares of Apple bought the day of the "Flash Crash" at around $200. I followed him up until the day he sold @ $695. He told me the reason he sold was because an analyst had just predicted that the shares would rise to $1,111 and he felt that was a "tell". What also helped his decision was the expected CGT increase January 2013.

Im up 10% on my current purchase (Ive bought and sold them a few times, taking profit and ending up buying back in at a higher price) but im thinking of selling again!! even though i still think they have the potential to go further.

Can you share or are you still accumulating?

BrokenArrows

It's Seamless Distributions http://www.google.co.uk/finance?q=STO%3ASEAM

grange mac

Know few people who work in apple cork, work 20 years bought the shares in share plan never sold a single share yet. We all think these few guys still have communion money!!

BrokenArrows

grange mac wrote: »

Know few people who work in apple cork, work 20 years bought the shares in share plan never sold a single share yet. We all think these few guys still have communion money!!

Madness. Cash in that stuff and retire ffs!

Blisterman

RATM wrote: »

I think that there would be very few people around who bought in at $5 and stayed there all the way to $700. You'd want balls of steel to not take profit along the way. I'd also think that even the greediest person in the world would not be able to resist selling out at 2000% gross profit.

Ah, but you should never sell to "lock in a profit". If a share is valued at a certain price, your choice to sell it should be affected by whether you paid 1% of what it's now worth or 1,000%. It should be based on whether you consider it over or under valued.

SBWife

Blisterman wrote: »

Ah, but you should never sell to "lock in a profit". If a share is valued at a certain price, your choice to sell it should be affected by whether you paid 1% of what it's now worth or 1,000%. It should be based on whether you consider it over or under valued.

But unfortunately humans don't work that way. We will frame the question of whether to sell differently based on what we paid for the share. We will always find loses more painful than the equivalent gain. The economic actor who makes rational decisions based on valuation metrics is pretty much a figment of the economists imagination. I don't know if you've read "Thinking, Fast and Slow" but it has some very interesting examples about how we really make decisions (and justify them).

I recommended APPL for the long portfolio in my first job back in the mid-1990s portfolio manager held it for a while made a few bob and sold it to increase his proportion of Canadian Gold stocks, which are in turn long gone from the portfolio. It's hard to say what if when one is making investment decisions on an ongoing basis.