JayBanks wrote:
Do preferreds trade similar to debentures? I've been learning about them a bit. I just got informed to watch conversion prices on debentures, which I never thought about, I just looked at them as company bonds where you just get interest and you investment back. I know some companies have different preferreds and debentures series.
I got into VSN about a year before the sale, I had PPL on a shortlist because they were growing payouts yearly where as VSN was just the same high payout. I stayed through the sale and bought more PPL about a month before they completed the deal to help offset the lower monthly payouts I was gonna get. Unfortunately it's been pretty rough since that deal for us eh. They have a bunch of potential but they have been poor at bringing projects to completion and I think the market hasn't been that interested in them because of it. They are still a little undervalued but the jump the last few months has been good, I think thier price should be low 50s, but the growth projects in the chamber sound great. I really liked the Polypropylene plant we were planning since just after the VSN purchase, and hated that we shelved it when we were trying to get IPL because they had a bigger and similar plant close to completion, we could have utilize both considering the original planned one we had was 3-4 years away and Heartland was suppose to reach capacity fairly early in service with contracts. Now we have nothing in that area. I was very interested in IPL and felt we should have upped the bid, that said we made out pretty well on Brookfield beating us with getting paid very nicely to loose and then we signed a bunch of new project agreements and I like our bid potential on Trans-Mountain but not many are talking about it, but none of this equals what we could have done with IPL.
I've heard of Nobilis Health, I think they used to pop up as top picks on BNN from time to time but that was a few years ago.
My biggest failures have been:
Twin Butte Energy TBE - who went bankrupt even tho it was a cash producing machine because banks were all against the oil producers, 90% loss on investment and that's only cause I did get several months of good dividends (18% yeilder) before the death
Diana Containerships DCIX - a Greek subsidiary shipper from Diana Shipping traded in the US, was the strongest sector when I got in, but anything that could go wrong did after I entered and I never pulled out, was one of my first few investments and it was a rather small play
Black Diamond BDI - they are recovering somewhat now but I bought them just before the oil crash and held on because I thought thier other sectors would keep it propped up until energy camps revovered, I sold out taking a nearly 80% loss and around 3-4 years of time
Chemtrade CHE - I lost 50% and 5-6 years on this cause I didn't get smart enough to exit when things got rough
Marathon Gold MOZ - I was playing with this for short term gains at one time with in prices of like 76, 87 and 93 cents at different times, I stopped playing with them because I felt they were risky and I took a little break from the markets and it was going back and forth over when and if it would get approvals in Newfieland. It's hit tops of $3.40, I've thought about getting back in cause it still has some upside but not crazy upside
CPG and BNE - both bought same week when oil was crashing and still hold, I didn't think oil would fall below $70 during the crash, OUCH! They are recovering very nicely but I'm still down 65% and never added when they tanked so that's hurt also. They are in my TFSA so I could never use the losses had I booked them
Chipolte CMG - Was on the edge of being my first ever investment, but the price of $270 in the US scared me away as I was only gonna get about 20 shares so I went elsewhere, about a year later they were hitting 700s before the fall back and last September hit 1900!!! My original little over 5K I was gonna invest would have been worth over 38k at its tops
I've had other poor plays like PSEC in the US which I ended last fall in the black by like 11% over 8 years, it was one of the companies I bought instead of Chipolte, I was in and outta Sherritt just as the collapse happened in mid 2018, I was lucky with only about 12% loss, SDX energy was a good little company that had potential and traded on TSX, but they pulled out and went to the London exchange while I took a break and ignored the market only took a 28% loss, I'm still in Sullidan Mining SMC which I was using as a penny play that I didn't really know what it was when I bought it and when I found out I thought it had potential and kept it even with a 15% loss and then forgot about it, now it bounces around between 70-40% losses but I still hold it hoping it might recover, and it's not that sizable an investment. I was playing with Athabasca Oil when it was bouncing around a dollar before Covid, always booked gains, but altho I escaped its fall to .11 cents it recently hit 2.30 twice, but it was a purpose short term play when I was bouncing around with it, tho I was considering it for .25 cents early last year but never made the move.
For all my successes for which I'm well ahead on invested capital to current value, I've made some really dumb decisions too that I can't blame on unluckyness, just myself.