For most investors and traders, 2008 was a tough year. But while many people saw their portfolio take a merciless beating and watched their retirement vanish into thin air, there were a select few who made a killing.
In fact, if you had been on the right side of any of these bets, you could have banked enough dough to make up for your losses and then some.
Here are five trades everyone wishes they had made in 2008:
#1 Shorting 'Chindia' the day after New Year's: The Chindia experience peaked in Beijing with Michael Phelps, and the market knew it would a year and a day before the Closing Ceremonies.
#2 Getting long and staying long the 30-year Treasury bond: This strategy went from being a modestly successful trade through October to a hero-sized trade in the past 45 days.
#3 Shorting oil on the Fourth of July: The drop in oil prices has been nothing short of unbelievable. Those that had the fortitude to short crude in early July (and had the stones to stay with that trade) made a killing.
#4 Buying DryShips (DRYS) at the November low: Following its meteoric rise to $116, the stock careened all the way down to $3. But if you went long then, you saw the share price quadruple in less than a month.
#5 Shorting 'too big to fail' Fannie and Freddie: This shorting strategy defied all odds and pretty much defined the year for the stock market.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-30-2008 @ 10:37PM
looser 08 said...
sorry my crystal ball was broken in 2008
12-31-2008 @ 2:16AM
Dorian said...
Why couldn't you have printed this article on 1-1-2008? It would have been a lot more useful to me then.
12-31-2008 @ 11:23AM
FAC said...
This is an idiotic column from some talking head who thinks he is adding value to the average investor. It takes real talent to review a year and tell us what we should have done. Go back to your day job.
12-31-2008 @ 3:53PM
mike said...
good thing i did not buy stock with bed bath and beyond and mervyns. in 2009 it would be wise to buy gold as it increased from $750 to $850 per ounce during the month of december. it is expected to reach over $1,000 in 2009 by march.