Theo's Poolside Discussion of Trading Delights and Disasters (BYOB)

[Theo]

The stock that broke my "Disaster" cherry: EUTO

...................................................................................PART II

#msg-50563379 Jim Bishop posted: "LOL I know the feeling well. I don't like going back and looking at some of my old posts from 1998 on SI...I think, no way, I wrote THAT?"

What I can't remember is if we were trading in cents or fractions at that time. In 1997, the Common Cents Stock Pricing Act was signed to simplify the stock market by converting the fractions to decimal. It wasn't supposed to start until 2000. But, it almost seems like the small-cap market was started early and anything under a buck was quoted in decimal...but I just don't recall for sure.

Another remarkable dynamic was taking place at the same time as well and that was the computer which opened up communication among investors and created a herd-like mentality- not just in buying or selling, but we investors no longer had to wait for mailings or newspaper articles to get our information. Almost overnight all of us realized we can CALL anyone we want. And, with a computer and a chat forum, we could now post the phone # of the CEO, PR guy or gal, or anyone and then ALL OF US could call-- and we DID lol!!! The TAs (transfer agents) of all these small caps must have gone nuts back in those days with all of us newbie stock traders calling incessantly. For example- an SI post:

To: Alan Markoff who wrote (342) 10/23/1997 4:21:00 PM
From: Whitetigr
of 12043

I just got off the phone with the TA and yes they are still processing certs. Yes I was another of his MANY calls today and he knew I was calling about EUTO before I even mentioned the company :) He said the float is approx 84mil right now and they have about 160 certs to process. It looks like some time next week <possibly Wednesday> to get the shares retired so I was told. The TA guy sounds stressed, who knows maybe he is getting pressured from both sides, us and those powers to be that may have an undeclared position. So when you see the crazy trading and wonder why it hasen't gone BOOM yet you'll know we're still getting closer.

Whitetigr

To catch up to me, by this time I have invested (wasted about) $2000 since April 1998... I've got 15000 shares avg about 0.18 Now just to provide some context, that two grand that I have locked in represents about 75% of my trading capital at that time. In other words, I got caught up in the hype and I've done the typical casino act- I keep doubling down on a "sure thing" and now I'm in over my head.

By October I'm sweating. This thing is not going anywhere but down... that pig is now being quoted at roughly 3.5 CENTS! There's talk of a merger but the company mysteriously has hundreds of millions of shares.

Eventually, we found out they had been selling shares into the float. They would also eventually do a 1/250 RS (surprise surprise) and then it goes downhill from there lol. The GOOD news is, I was able to sell my shares for about that 3.5 cents... I recovered about 500$ The problem is, back then, there were stiff commission fees. There was the flat rate for the trade AND a percentage of the value. Remember, this is all BEFORE discount trading became the thing. Anyway, after everyone got their cut, I think I cleared $300. I suppose the silver lining is that I made it out with something. If I had waited to see what the merger would do, the R/S would've wiped me out entirely. I don't know for sure what happened AFTER I sold, I know I just never looked back. I was pretty jaded. I hated myself. I vowed I would never ever again spend more than I could afford to lose on any one stock EVER!!

Lesson learned- in fact, it's still quoted in my IHub profile Investment Philosophy: NEVER fall in love with a stock- stocks are only pieces of PAPER