My top 5 stock market regrets | Metro

ByAlison Griffiths angel, LIFE, national, regret, rogers-sugar, salesforce-com, stock, tesla, tesla-motors Comments Off

High on the list of life’s regrets might be that margarita-inspired vacation tattoo you got with the name of a cabana boy or girl etched within it. Next comes investor regret.

Why didn’t I buy Apple (AAPL-Q) five years ago at $135 US? It’s around $515 now. And why am I still hanging on to Bombardier at a pitiful $4, 14 years after buying it for $26?

As U.S. market research firm Casey Research puts it so aptly: “The stock market is one giant roller coaster of regret for retail investors. Regret for not getting in, regret for getting in too late, regret for being left holding the bag.”

Not even the experts are immune. A survey by venturebeat.com discovered that 46 per cent of angel, or venture, capital investors rued the investments they made or didn’t make in 2013.

Here is my regret list of stocks I should have bought five years ago.

1. Other tech. Sure, if you had bought Apple a decade ago at 12 bucks, your investment would be up a staggering 4,500 plus per cent. Missed that one. But I should also have paid attention to the tech service sector. It includes SanDisk (SNDK-N) and Salesforce.com (CRM-NYSE) — both up about 500 per cent.

2. Canadian Pacific (CP-T). I’ve long owned Canadian National and considered it superior to CP. However, since 2009, CP is up around 300 per cent compared to roughly 170 per cent for CN.

3. Tesla Motors, Inc. (TSLA-N). Between 2010 and early 2013, Tesla was one of those great ideas that never produced a gain for investors at $20 a share. Oh Lordy, how things changed. It is now up nearly 800 per cent. Darn!

4. Rogers Sugar Inc. (RSI-T). It hasn’t been on most investors’ radar, including mine. But this sweet company has maintained a nice dividend (now 5.7 per cent) all through turbulent times and the stock price is up 60 per cent since the recession.

5. Russel Metals Inc. (RUS-T). I’ve thought about buying this stock for years — and should have. Though pummelled by the recession and in an industry that seemed to be dying (think Dofasco and Stelco), this steel company has survived with a stock growth of more than 150 per cent in five years. The fat dividend of 5.4 per cent is a nice bonus.

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Alison Griffiths