My Return to India (R2I) story > R2I Chapter 2.2
In this section on Return 2 India finances, I wanted to highlight how I managed some of my stock portfolio in my US brokerage accounts after returning to India.
My investment in Blackberry (BB)
The term “play money” is colloquially used by baby boomers
who can afford to set aside a sum of money that they can play with or ‘invest’
in the market and lose without losing sleep over (pun intended). With this
fund, I would pick and invest in individual stocks that would be making the
buzz. With a few losses along the way, I
would generally end up with some short-term gains every year.
Back in 2012 there was a lot of buzz over Apple and its
growth potential. The smart money was following that trend even after Mr. Jobs’
untimely death (in hindsight, kicking my but over not following that trend). I
went contrarian, investing some money in Blackberry. The company was trying to
transform itself after losing the smartphone battle to iPhone and android.
BBRY, as it was known, had hired a new CEO and there was a some buzz over Prem
Watsa - known by some as Canada’s Warren Buffett - making a sizable bet on the
Canadian tech darling. I decided to follow suit.
I ‘invested’ about $10,000 in a few trades in BBRY
that fluctuated between $10 and $13 in 2012. During the next year, I continued
to add to my position, eventually ending up with a whooping 9,000 shares.
While $90K may sound like a drop in the bucket for some, it
ended up as a sizable ‘investment’ in a single stock in my portfolio.
Don’t ask me why I ended up with much of my eggs in a single basket, but as
they say, hindsight is 20/20. Not so smart; I know. Bear in in mind
this was much before the WallStreetBets subedit on reddit even existed. But
then there were other forums on yahoo and google pumping up the stock and its
potential; and I was also swayed by word of mouth from colleagues and friends
who were also into investing their “play money.”
By 2013, I saw the stock sink below $10, but I couldn’t
stomach taking a loss and walking away. While investing was my hobby, it wasn’t
my vocation. Before I knew it, life happened. I had to relocate back to India
to be near my elderly parents and I wasn’t as invested in day-trading or
watching the ups-and-downs of the market. A few years went by, and I would
occasionally watch the stock ticker – BB, as it was renamed - with a sinking
feeling.
The stock price continued to dip, and went down to $5, and
even below. At that point I was too emotionally vested in my ‘investment’
to think of taking a $40-45,000 loss. That would have been a bit too much to
write off for this salaried dude.
During ensuing years, I would occasionally check out BB’s
analyst reports and quarterly earnings while the stock price stagnated.
Analysts continued to downgrade the stock price, but the only redeeming factor
was that they all agreed on the company’s ‘transformation journey.’ The company
was morphing from a smartphone maker to a software-security company with a
unique offering that includes an operating system that automakers were signing
up for. Self-driving and Electric Vehicles are the future after all.
The stock briefly went above $12.5 in 2018 but I decided to
hold. The stock price took a dip the next year; but I held on.
Towards the end of 2020, Blackberry’s stock had begun to
jump up – from $5-6 to $7-8. Googling for a reason for this jump, I came across
the buzz about the stock on Reddit’s WallStreetBets forum. While I have been
lurking on Reddit, Quora and other micro-blogging sites for a long time
WallStreetBets was new to me. Most of my engagements on microblogging forums is
for entertainment and to express my opinions. Along the way, I gain some
nuggets of insights into happenings around the world.
By mid-January, Blackberry’s stock began jumping wildly from
$8-9 to 12, and then $13. I was transfixed by the ‘action’ and curbed my temptation
to sell. Next thing I see, the stock had jumped to $20 by that weekend.
I placed a sell order for my 9K shares. Thanks to the
WallStreetBets driven euphoria, I not only recouped my ‘loss,’ but ended up
with a profit of 90% on my original investment. My $90K had netted me $190K;
annualized over the years, it came to about 9%.
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