Forum Topics Which current investment have you held the longest?
Dafish
3 years ago

Hi Guys just dipping my toes here joined strawman recently and signed up for premium after listening to Andrew on Motley fool podcasts .which I'm also a member

My first introduction and iinvestment was an MLC fund which was through a financial adviser.But what made that an interesting lesson was it was the very day before the twin towers incident.

( anything can happen and don't panic )

 My longest holding is currently IVV which I picked up for  $150 a share  in 2012/13 .it's now  just off $600 and continues to be a great stress free holding which I've added too over the years .

     

 

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Bear77
3 years ago

While the title of this forum thread poses the question, Which current investment have you held the longest?  ...Based on some of the answers below, perhaps we should be asking two questions:

1. What was your first ever investment?

2. Which of your current investments have you held for the longest time?

For both questions, it would be helpful to include the company name, ticker code, price paid (if you remember), and date bought (or at least the year).

I've already answered the second question (which is the same as the forum title) - and my answer (Wesfarmers - WES) is down below somewhere - and my answer to the first question is that I was given shares in a WA company called Rural Traders Cooperative (WA) Ltd (RTC) by my maternal grandmother's second husband (so my step-grandfather, who had been a succesful farmer) when I was in my early twenties (so in the late eighties, probably around 1987 or 1988) and I then bought some more RTC shares with my own money.  They are no longer around - I actually don't know what happened to them.  Further Reading:  https://www.afr.com/companies/brokers-like-what-they-see-in-rtc-19930129-kaqan (AFR, 29-Jan-1993).  It appears they did well in the early 90s.  I'm not even sure what exchange they were listed on at the time, I don't think it was the ASX.  However that sparked my interest in shares, the ability to pay some money to own a small part of a large company and then have the right to share in that company's success in the future.  Or it's ultimate failure in this case it seems. 

My next investments were in dividend payers like the big banks and occasionally Telstra in the following years, and then I got interested in companies that were growing much faster, like Jubilee Mines, founded by and run by Kerry Harmanis, which was bought out (for $3.1 billion) by Xstrata in 2007 at the height of that nickel boom - Xstrata is now part of Glencore, and Glencore sold that Cosmos nickel mine complex on to Western Areas (WSA) for just $24.5 million in 2015.  Jubilee Mines was a 6-bagger for me, and also for my Father-in-law, who I had talked into buying some - because they paid good fully franked dividends at the time - about as good as the banks but Jubilee also had a rapidly rising share price as well.  Not as profitable for Xstrata or Glencore, however Western Areas (WSA) have done well with the asset.  What that taught me was that managers/owners who sell mining assets when commodity prices are absolutely flying (very high) are usually very smart, and the ones who buy those assets at the top of the market are usually not too smart.  Anyway, that's enough for tonight I reckon.

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AUROPAL
3 years ago

My first ever investment was Medibank Private - MPL in November 2014. I have no idea why I bought it at the time but I sold it 12 months later for a 20% profit. Again no idea why I did that. At the time I had never heard of an investing diary! I bought it for $2 and it closed at $3.36 today so if I had held it wouldn't have been a great investment over the past 7 years but not a terrible one either.

Of my current investments, the one I have held the longest is surprisngly Ooh Media! - OML. According to my records I bought it on the 29th November 2017 for $4.31. At the time I was a subscriber to Motley Fool Australia's Share Advisor service and I believe it was a recommendation from that. Unfortunately it has not been a good investment, closing today at $1.70, a 60% loss. It has certainly been hit hard by the pandemic and the associated reduction in outdoor advertising spend but to be honest it has been struggling even before that, having never really recovered from the late 2018 drop on poor FY18 results and negative market sentiment. It's a loser I probably should have cut from my portfolio long ago but I am a very, very slow seller and keep anticipating (hoping?) for a recovery in outdoor advertising spend.

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mmff
3 years ago

Firstly I have to say that I live most of the posts (Straws and Forums) that Everybody puts up...so THANK YOU to you all...

I have held BHP since 1969 when my mother bought 3 x share for me at 15 pounds each!!!!(With MY money)... I was 11 or 12 years old at the time & trying to save to have 50 pounds & she stole (We still laugh about it today) my money!!! & I cried & threw a quite a few tantrums ...to check why, see what 1 x pound was worth in todays money...I was lucky? enough to have  god father who gave me money (into my bank account)  each birthday, Xmas & Easter, which is why I had that amount in the first place... (seriously, this meant I missed out on presents for all those occasions)..again,.try doing that today to anyone!...

Since then til 1995 I received bonus shares that meant in 1995 I had 27 shares at no extra cost....so really, not such a bad investment....but I was a bit older & wiser then...We then got 2 x in specie dividends to get BSL and Onesteel, more than paying for my original investment...dividends have well & truely paid for my original shares...I also bought into 2 x SPP's....Talk about compounding DYOR...they have paid me soooo much....I sold off last year to save on Cap Gains & to get a FF( Fully Franked) dividend.

I still hold 297 shares today at a cost price of $5.67...BHP today closed at $52.96 after being $0.74 down.

So a BIG THANK YOU to my mum,...more than sorry I didn't start on my shares sooner...but I neede all my money for other things

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Chagsy
3 years ago

Starpharma. I bought my first tranche in the late nineties and added most years until last year. I sold the vast majority in 2019 but have held a small portion to remain engaged. 
it is an amazing scientific story. I have some old straws on the company which explain my thesis. 
sadly, I lost confidence on managements capacity to execute but would be ready to re-enter in a meaningful fashion should the DEP platform gain traction. 

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Shapeshifter
3 years ago

Longest for me is AMP.

 

I was given these shares in 1998 when AMP listed on the stock exchange as I had an AMP life insurance policy at the time.

 

What complete lemons!  Smashed at the Royal Commission into misconduct in the banking and financial services industry more than $1 billion in market value was stripped from the share value and there has been high churn of management who have all been hopeless.

 

We are probably more likely to see aliens before we see a turnaround in AMP.

 

 

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