The shell game can certainly be a test of patience. Certainly...

The shell game can certainly be a test of patience. Certainly hope my holdings (many of the same you mention above) come back to life sooner than later. Patience however is something that I've continued to observe as a trait of almost every successful trader or seasoned speculator.

Patience to hold, patience to watch stocks run and not chase with FOMO. Patience not to trade when conditions aren't right for your strategy. Patient capital in a register is important as well, holding all the way down is one thing, will it hold back up or sell into any liquidity.

With one bio exception, all my shells are trading down on where they were 6 months ago. Its certainly frustrating, hindsight always thinking "should have sold back then and bought back now at a 30%+ discount" but we never know back then what will come to pass.

The bio's last month though show how fast things can turn in any sector. The liquidity in virtually all the resource shells has evaporated. Same for the techies, had a brief flutter over last 8 weeks but no follow through. Would not be at all surprised to see a gold discovery + POG + AUD combine to see all the sub $5m MC goldies come back to life sooner than later.

Its frustrating placing your chips on the roulette wheel, not just seeing your number missed, but the ball not landing at all. Few resource micro's have moved on news, vends, drilling or anything all year.

That said, if you back 3 shells with $10k each. two of them can slump 50% and deal a dud. If the other does 5x bags you have still doubled your account. So then its matter of trying to pick less losers and as many winners as possible to improve those odds further.

Regardless of ones selection though, if the market isn't interested, there's no point fighting it. Back to being patient and letting everyone else sell out at losses and record lows.


Very astute observation on IVZ @952i , I followed IHS for a long time, but not as closely since so many other eyeballs started watching and no longer hold. Certainly looks like a most of the original cygnet capital exited stage left, see what BEW and GC do with it now. Suspect it will still do well given the team and backers, but always worth keeping an eye on who's selling you their stock 100% agree.

SRN my V pick as well, but picked it and loaded up into the rights issue earlier in the year, timing failure yet again