Silver and Gold, Silver and Gold…
The date: August 2008. Ornoth pulls the trigger on a $10,000 stock deal, adding 100 shares of copper and gold miner Freeport McMoRan (FCX) to his qualified retirement fund.
Well done!
Three months later, the stock has plummeted 83 percent: from $92 a share to just $15. My $10,000 investment is only worth $1,500, having lost $9,000 of value in the banking collapse of 2008.
Timing… I has it!
Since then, the stock has slowly recovered in sporadic fits and starts. But today I was able to sell those 100 shares of FCX off at $92: a wash sale. It took 22 months-two years-for the stock to finally regain the value it lost in those first 3 months. Or you could look at it this way: in the two years since that 2008 low, the stock has appreciated 586 percent, and I just locked in that “gain”.
Wow. That was one scary ride. Jane, stop this crazy thing!
