True story...
I'm a firm believer that stocks can and do rise up from the ashes sometimes. In fact, I often find way oversold stocks by simply checking the markets worst daily performers.
I ran across this communications company back in late October 2002. It was down over 20% for the day. I thought what the heck, just 2 years prior it was trading over $50/sh and it was currently trading below 40 cents. I figured it was worth the gamble because the CEO still owned a bunch of shares that he paid around $20/sh for about a year earlier.
So on October 30th 2002 I bought 1450 shares of it at $0.32/sh. With the roughly $25 broker commission to place the trade I had $487.95 in it. Back then that was a lot of money for me to gamble with. Anyway, about 5 weeks later on December 9th I sold the position for $0.51 a share. With commissions factored in I netted $715.52. That was a 47% gain and I was patting myself on the back for job well done and not being to greedy.
Long story short, the stock is trading today at $162.42/sh and that wasn't because of any reverse splits. And it hit a 52 week high of $177.67 around the first of this year. It makes me sick to think I did good when I turned $488 into $715 in five weeks, when I could have turned that $488 into over $250,000 if I held it for 15 years instead of 5 weeks. The one time in my life when I should have been greedy but wasn't!!!
I'm not saying ICLD has that kind of potential. But I'm hoping for at least a 10 bagger from what I paid for it. Sometimes it's just best to be patient. Sure, ICLD can go broke and file for BK. But if they can hang on until Netlayer takes traction, this stock can be a gold mine.
I see other parallels between ICLD and that communications company that I bought and sold. I sold the communications company when they announced they were restructuring their business and selling off more than 5000 of their towers to raise cash to pay the bills. I thought I might as well count my blessings and sell at a profit instead of wait for them to go completely under and lose my $500 investment. I thought how in the hell are they going to make any money if they're selling off the only assets they have that generate revenues? But somehow they did and they not only survived but they thrived! I kick myself in the ass every time I think about that ticker symbol. It truly haunts me.
By the way, I've been keeping track of all my investment transactions in Quicken since around the late 80s. That's why I know the exact dates and prices that I paid and sold that stock for in case you're thinking I'm full o sh!t :)
The moral of the story is this... It doesn't take a lot of money to win big, if you happen to buy a stock that everyone else gave up on at the worst possible time, and if you have time on your side.
AI
