My First Share Purchase

[DazRaz]

My first was 1986 with Cashmere Pacific - a goat breeding company. Sold my shares 6 months later for 3x cost. Pure dumb luck. Had no idea what I was doing.

Mainly been in funds since.

[RTM]

interesting thread. Lots of old memories, thanks.
Three shares bought on the same day faithfully recorded in my “Statham Caesar Jackson & Co Portfolio Book.
Date: 24 April 81
1000 UEB Industries Ltd. $1.10
700 Fisher & Paykel Industries. $2.40
500. Waitaki NZR. $2.23

Sold them all for a combined profit of 426+533+241.7 = 1200.7 a year or so later. I imagine I was pretty happy with myself.
Then progressed to Bendon, National Insurance, Allied Farmers, Arthur Ellis in ‘81. Commercial Securities, New Zealand Property Trust in 83. Chase and Equitycorp in 84, Oil Fields 83/84 ( Did this become NZO ? still hold) Brierly in 87. Brokers look like Morrow Benjamin & Buttle Wilson.

[davflaws]

My first was 1986 with Cashmere Pacific - a goat breeding company. Sold my shares 6 months later for 3x cost. Pure dumb luck. Had no idea what I was doing.

.

The 87 crash destroyed the Goat industry. It still hasn't recovered and with pastoral farming out of climate change favour, it perhaps never will.

[DazRaz]

The 87 crash destroyed the Goat industry. It still hasn't recovered and with pastoral farming out of climate change favour, it perhaps never will.

Like all the farming fads, the money was in the breeding stock supplying all the latecomers who then can't make money out of it. The real warning sign was when one of the directors sold his personal goat breeding business to the company. I had no idea that this was a major warning sign.

[Jaa]

My first share was Contact Energy after Dad the electrical engineer made sure the whole family got the maximum allocation in the 1999 float. It has under-performed over 20 years as Origin Energy bled it dry and its assets like Sparky and the New Plymouth gas storage facility have not been the best in the industry.

Lesson learned, for long term returns always hold the lowest cost producer in an oligopolistic market like electricity - ie Meridian.

Of course the industry is really a natural monopoly and thus should never have been privatised. Dad hated the reforms "Mad Max" Bradford introduced and predicted what has followed.

First purchase with my own money was a couple of dual listed British investment companies in 2006, JPJ and TEM which actively pick Japanese and emerging market companies respectively. They both went ok but nothing amazing.

First individual company was FPH in 2007 which has has done incredibly well, Sharesight says 51% per year! Remember it being expensive then too! Sold out of JPJ when they delisted from the NZX but still hold the rest. My problem has always been selling rather than holding.

[Grimy]

Although I started investing around 1985-86 I can only find my hard copy records back to 1993 (the year my son was born, so perhaps I started taking investing a little more seriously....).
Mostly I was invested in funds, but two shares I owned were Wilson Neill and Environ- Wilson Neill I think ended up being taken over by Boags Brewery in Tasmania and Environ just disappeared down the toilet..... As has been mentioned earlier in this thread, that put me off anything owned or promoted by a "Sir" or a politician.
Some of the funds at the time I used were; ANZ Growth Trust, Prudential NZ Emerging Companies (I think that was Carmel Fisher at the time), Jardine Fleming Taipan Trust, Rothschild Smaller Companies Fund (that did so well over the years), Bankers Trust International NZ Property Syndications and NZ Rural Property Trust.
There were Platinum futures and Currency plays that ended horribly, but overall I can't complain.
Just don't start me on the Finance Companies of the GFC.....
I now invest directly in shares more than funds, but still have what I consider a nice balance.