 This may sound like a TT (Tall Tale). But I am somewhat familiar with TTI (ThumbTack Investor), who blasted an email last night to his blog subscribers. I have occasionally corresponded with him in the past, mainly over his in-depth posts on certain stocks. Plus, he posted on his blog this unsolicited compliment to NextInsight:  Source: https://thumbtackinvestor.wordpress.com/2016/11/28/ttis-general-portfolio-musings-and-investing-note-the-investing-platform/One day, he posted an analysis of a company I already had some interest in too. So I suggested he take some time out from his full-time job as a professional in the healthcare industry to join me in attending that certain company's investor presentation. He did, but left as soon as it was over... |
OK, that's a short intro and, you may be wondering, what about TTI?
Last night, an email from him appeared in my inbox with a subject header that inspired almost zero interest in me: "Funding Secured (for Teh Bing)".
Oh well, I thought, I'll run through it anyway and decide, in 5 seconds flat, if there's anything of interest.
Started with stuff about going out for lunch with someone and photos of the food. Then suddenly the story blur became -- wait! he's now talking about GME!
He first reminded readers he had actually posted about GME in Dec 2020 before it became one of the most talked-about stocks in the universe: https://thumbtackinvestor.wordpress.com/2020/12/02/thumbtack-fund-report-5-ba-ba-black-sheep/
(GME is the stock code for GameStop, in case you very sadly have never heard of it)
Then ....
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I held 55,000 of GME at an average price of approximately USD 8++ at the start of 2021, way before Chamath even knew the company existed (just sayin). As it spiked, I finally sold everything at around USD40 - USD45, recognizing a 450% or so ROI for General no.2. Big mistake (on hindsight of course!) The share price continued to rise violently, spiking way above USD 400 even, and this looks set to continue next week. At the last count, my 55,000 shares would now be worth approximately USD 22mil!!! <Insert emoticon of someone puking blood pls for the full cinematic effects> Talk about leaving the party early! |
| "TOO SMART TO BE FILTHY RICH" |
TTI is not your ordinary investor. He is too smart to be filthy rich.
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OK, OK, I did do the hypothetical calculations just to have a sense of how much I left on the table, although truth be told, I don't really feel... ... that it's a waste. I guess that's the price to pay if my strategy is focused on assigning intrinsic values to the share price. On hindsight, there are of course, many things I could've looked at. Even in my early mentions of GME on IN, I've already stated a short squeeze as a potential scenario, and that's way before most people spoke about it. So I guess this ends up being 1 of the scenarios whereby my rationale was right, my timing was fortuitous, I did benefit from what would otherwise have been eye popping returns... but left the vast bulk of the gains on the table as I under estimated the insanity of today's markets. As a buddy told me: "You're too smart to be filthy rich." Think about that statement. It's true. It really is. To capitalize on extreme scenarios, and I mean like EXTREMEEEEEEE...... you can't be just smart. Cos being smart implies a degree of judgement and rationality. Doing the sensible thing. |
There's a lot more from his post -- so I suggest you visit his blog and read it.
You will even find out the incredible story which explains why the email subject header was titled Funding Secured (for Teh Bing): https://thumbtackinvestor.wordpress.com/2021/01/31/funding-secured-for-teh-bing/