On paper profits and virtual losses...

[Debaser82]

If I buy a stock at 1$, it goes to 10$, falls back to 5$ and I sell...

Did I make a profit or did I lose 50%?

I can't get my head around this question.

 

[Kassz007]

Quote from Debaser82:

If I buy a stock at 1$, it goes to 10$, falls back to 5$ and I sell...

Did I make a profit or did I lose 50%?

I can't get my head around this question.

$5-$1 = $4 profit...


Is it just me, or did we learn this in kindergarten?

 

[Debaser82]

Quote from Kassz007:

$5-$1 = $4 profit...


Is it just me, or did we learn this in kindergarten?

Yeah, but your account said 10$....

It was yours.

All you had to do is push the sell buton.

 

[JPope]

I'm guessing you'd argue with whoever decided to respond to this waste of bandwidth.

 

[nazzdack]

Quote from Debaser82:
----Did I make a profit or did I lose?

An optimist would focus on the realized profit.
A pessimist would focus on the drawdown from the peak price.

 

[Kassz007]

Quote from Debaser82:

Yeah, but your account said 10$....

It was yours.

All you had to do is push the sell buton.

You are not familiar with the concept of realized and unrealized gains/losses?

The other poster is right - what a waste of bandwidth...

 

[Fireplace]

Definitely stick with paper trading if this is something you had to think about for more than 3 seconds.

Quote from Debaser82:

Yeah, but your account said 10$....

It was yours.

All you had to do is push the sell buton.

 

[peilthetraveler]

Debaser is no different than all those economists on CNBC that always talk about "Well if you bought silver in 1980, you are still down over 50%" Or the ones that say "Wow, look how great the economy is doing...the dow is up 4,500 points in 19 months! Thats almost double!"

Last year I made a 187% return. I dont focus on the fact that I was up over 400% by june of that year and threw over half of it away on risky trades in the 2nd half of the year.

Well...maybe I do a little bit.

 

[Kassz007]

Quote from peilthetraveler:


Last year I made a 187% return. I dont focus on the fact that I was up over 400% by june of that year and threw over half of it away on risky trades in the 2nd half of the year.

Well...maybe I do a little bit.

You also don't focus on the 300% loss the year before, right?

 

[stock777]

It's a much more complicated question than the pinheads who infest this board will be able to tackle.

I won't waste my time on it, but I'd seek an answer where the average IQ was > 75