What are your biggest missed opportunities in PMs?

tydye

I cannot decide between these two.

Two years ago I was about to purchase about 10K worth of Palladium but then opted out because I thought the spreads were very wide. Plus no one local was buying the stuff at the time. I just thought it would be too difficult of a sell. Price was in the low 300s then. Today 800+

This past april the weekend before the silver peak I was at my favorite dealer's store paying off a balance I owed. He asked if i wanted to sell any silver - I thought about it then passed since I had nothing else to do with the money. How I wish I sold and then repurchased just a little later. And then I had to read how gecko sold a sizable stash right at the peak and put in real estate - he must of stepped in something that week for that kind of luck

How about you? What are your biggest PM missed opportunities?

RedTiger

As an active options trader, there are opportunities almost every month. One I remember was a few years ago when GLD was around $70 per share, and I was long a vertical call spread. My position went into the red, and when it came back to green, then started going back to red again, I bailed for a tiny profit. Had I held it would have went to max profit. Had I held and then pyramided by rolling to further out vertical call spreads, it had the potential to be a 25x winner (2500% on the initial investment). Instead of a mega-winner as GLD moved up to over $100, I made about 15% on a small amount of money.

More recently I sold SLV puts on the first hard break from $49 with SLV around $45. I cover near the bottom, and took a huge percentage loss ~400% of the dollar amount of the option. Had I held to expiration I could have gotten out with a 95% profit on the dollar value, -400% vs. +95% is an ugly picture.

Again, while the percentages are eye-popping, the actual dollar amounts tend to be small.

OPA

Sold approx 20 oz of Palladium that I purchased at or just below $300 at $500 per oz...had I waited another year...oh, well you know the story...

DoubleEagle59

With the extreme volotility of the silver and gold markets, each and every one of us could go back within a ten year period and I'm sure there's 2 or 3 times in every year that, provided us with the opportunity of making a financial killing.

nibanny

I buy PM as collectible but I like to deal with them here and there when I need cash. It's a fun way to save some money.
Having said that, I always regret I didn't buy more UHR. Back then, $1289 seemed a lot of money!

renman95

<< <i>With the extreme volotility of the silver and gold markets, each and every one of us could go back within a ten year period and I'm sure there's 2 or 3 times in every year that, provided us with the opportunity of making a financial killing. >>



I agree. I wish I could've bought more but I was heavily (relatively speaking, ) in real estate. I consistently bought numismatic gold but not nearly as much as I wanted. In 2005 I rotated out of RE and into PM and debt reduction. So far so good.

My missed ops weren't so much in PM's , more like equities. I wish I could go back to 2009 and buy Apple under $90 and more recently Netflix under $50. Oh, and Brazilian Reais @ 2.00!

curly

I sold twelve one oz. gold eagles for $3,600.00 a few years back.

secondrepublic

Plenty of missed opportunities on both the buy and sell side... selling two ten oz. Pd. bars when it hit 400/oz comes to mind. Oh well. I needed the money for something else at the time, so it's all good.

I don't worry too much about past missed opportunities. There are an almost infinite number of past opportunities that one could have taken and profited from, in all areas from stock to real estate to PMs. It's better to make something and be happy with it and move on. More important to me are the current opportunities out there, and wondering which of those is the right one.

mkman123

I try not to delve in the lost opportunities but I'm sure all of us could come up with plenty.

dontippet

I bought Apple at $8 and thought I was making a killing when I sold it for $34.

SlangNRox

I bought 800 shares of SLV for between $8-$20. Avg price of $13. Got tired of holding it and sold for $13.50

jmski52

Keep stacking and the opportunities will come to you.

You may still be laboring under the idea that you can beat the market. Maybe. Maybe not.

Gecko had an objective in mind when he sold at the intermediate peak. In that respect, I agree with his selling at that time. If he had sold merely in an attempt to time the market, I'd say that he could just as easily have sold at a bottom as a peak.

Yeah, I realize that technicals can help you finesse the purchase or sale to some degree but if you plan to do that regularly, be prepared to spend considerable amounts of time to increase your odds by a few percentage points.

pmcollectour

I've never sold any of my PM's, so no missed opportunities so far. I traded some silver for gold when silver was 28, so perhaps I should have waited a bit longer to do that.

PinkFloyd

<< <i>I bought Apple at $8 and thought I was making a killing when I sold it for $34. >>



No kidding...it was dirt cheap when it looked like Apple would fold in '97/'98....anyone who bought loads then is swimming in cash now.

My biggest regrets are mainly not being active in the hobby in the late '00s, missed a lot of opportunities with US coins/PMs in 2008 especially.

FistFullOfDollars

I sold a bunch of SAE at $25 thinking silver would fall back under $20...

tydye

Since we are going out on tangents. My all time biggest missed oportunity was about 10 years ago. I was bidding on a piece of property - 33 acres - it was an old icehouse - lots of water. I quit bidding at 120 I believe. Sold for the next bid. Current owner now sells water to one of the spring water firms. I still have to work for a living.

Regarding Apple - many times over the years I said to myself I should purchase it. And every time I thought it was too expensive. And the kicker is I have everyone one of their products - iphone, ipad, ipod and macbook.

I wish I purchased one of those UHR too nibanny

chumley

I like to buy high and make the rest of you rich I bought 2 UHRs and sold them for $2500 each

nibanny

<< <i>I like to buy high and make the rest of you rich I bought 2 UHRs and sold them for $2500 each >>



I bought just one and I am holding it like a treasure! It's a real beauty.
For once that my wife pushed me to put more money on some coins, I didn't listen!

Another little regret is when I found this B&M with a bunch of JM 1/2 ounce silver bars and didn't buy them all. I got the first batch at $10 each and ended up selling them between $40 and $100!
When I got back he told me he started selling them himself on eBay!

guitarwes

my missed opportunity (and regret) was not holding what I bought in the '04 to '08 timeframe when I could have bit the bullet and held it for a few more years. I bought a ton of 90% for 5X face off ebay and thought I was makin' a killing when I sold it for 8-10X face.

I missed a big opportunity last year when I bought a bunch of rolls of SAE's for $360/roll and turned around and sold them for $380/roll.

A little bit of profit staring you in the face will make you do dumb things.

Spooly

For my winners.......I always commit too little capital to the trade. I buy 10 option..... should have bought 20. Bought 100oz silver.... should have bought 200oz..... same old same old story.

For my losers..... bought 20 options... should have bought 10! ect..ect...


Pisses me off that I can't put trailing stops on Options!

I don't like that 1 gram bars in assayer cards don't give you the total weight of the gold plus the card! I want to double check the weight!

I don't like people calling after 9:00 pm!!

I don't like.... sorry for the rant

Pokermandude

Playing a pool account (platinum) over the last couple years I booked some small gains. I would have fared much better had I just held onto all I bought initially when it was around $900 rather than trying to sell the peaks and buy the dips.

derryb

Not reading Peter Schiff's "Crash Proof" sooner.

Spooly

<< <i>Not reading Peter Schiff's "Crash Proof" sooner. >>



Good book

fishcooker

Tulving had green monster boxes for $3100. We thought about it, but concluded we didn't have room to store them.