Learn From My 15 HUGE INVESTING MISTAKES!!! (free lunch for you) 

I love it when finance RU-vidrs reveal their failures instead of pretending to be godly beings. It is a true manifestation of self esteem and respect to viewers. Kudos Sven for being transparent.

Every investor should strive to make a video like this. If only for him or herself. Facing your past decisions and trying to learn from them is very hard to do in this space.

Great video. Unfortunately, not too many people are able to acknowledge their mistakes in real life and learn from them and on RU-vid it is even more rare! Kudos to you Sven for doing this video - you have earned a lot of respect by doing this!

It takes great humbleness to recognize your mistakes and share them. Thank you Sven!

Thank you for your transparency, Sven. You are a winner in my book.

I usually dont watch videos through my account, but after watching this, I had to sign in and say: Thanks a lot for this gem!

This was your best video to date Sven. Congrats for the courage and candidness. I see a great future for grandpa Sven

So much value here, really learned a lot. Thank you Sven.

I think this is your best educational video ever. I find patience as the most difficult skill. It is also very difficult not to copy people you are mesmerized of, for example I blindly followed Ray Dalio, as many people blindly follow and copy Munger or Pabrai choices without having an own real convinction or knowledge in that choice.

Great respect to a person who described his mistakes in such an open way, admitting unwise decisions and categorizing them. Thank you, sir, indeed, a lot to learn here.

Thank you Sven, well done, appreciate your honesty!

The value in this one is insane!

Amazing video! Loved all 51 minutes!

Man this was a trip down memory lane. It was like getting closure after a bad breakup. Lol. Good stuff sir

The lesson I learned from this video was just to buy Berkshire Hathaway. Then there's no need to watch RU-vid investing channels for stock ideas, free up loads of time and avoid all the mistakes.

Great video. So much to learn here. Great Buffett clip. “Swing you bum!” Thank you!

Probably the best video I have ever seen. If you are not planning to include this in your next book you should definitely consider since it's a pure gold mine.. Taking a step backwards and comparing your mistakes against with my little journey I could clearly see similar mistakes in my investing behavior. So thank you!

Stocks I watch never go as low as I think they should, so if I avoid buying too early, I invariably buy too late or not at all.

One of your best videos! ❤ We must learn from our mistakes, both our mistakes and the mistakes of others!

My biggest mistakes: 1) listening to others (option (a stock) was up 3x asked to sell (as a 18th birthday gift) but my aunt said"no, it will be worth more in a few years. Finally no profits. 2) betting 50% of my profit on Us election results and the index reactions. Lost 100% of the portfolio. (went form 5k to 20k, then 0) 3) Listening to analists (Telenet stock, high div, but value trap, down 60% and big cut in div) 4) Listening to Sven (sorry), bought a big FlowTraders position, down 50% at least) 5) Selling TotalEnergies at a loss of 20% because of ESG hype. 6) Listening to analist (via Yahooo articles), bought Ideanomics and Chargepoint (EV play), down 80% and 50% 7) Alibaba stock in a big position, down 50% at least. Sold the US listing at a loss. 8) Reddit hype, option play on Arcelormittal, never went anywhere and lost big. 9) Selling Tesla to early at 360 dollar (50% profit) before splits!!! Still holding Telenet, Flow, Ideanomics, Chargepoint and Baba (hongkong). Biggest wins: 1) Getting a loan in 2020 covid dip and buying dividend stocks (4% cost) 2) Listening to Sven and buying Russian Gas and commodity. Got out in time though. I do prefer a smaller profit for sure than being greedy) 3) Stopped AVD and actually have some cash on my bank account. 4) Using marging as a loan to buy dividend stocks on 'crashes' (4% cost) Unfortunately no money to AVD due to energy crisis in EU.

I remember, 1-2 years ago you talked about Gazprom´s Nord Stream 2 how risky it is...., I proudly commented that Germany needs Russian gaz, its just FUD bla bla..... Now who has money frozen in Gazprom?😂😂😂 I HAVE!

This needs more views.

Thanks Sven. It takes a lot of pain and courage to analyze one’s past mistake. : )

Thanks for this video Sven! I've seen more than 100 hundred of yours and this is likely the best for me. Very personal, which is something to appreciate. Hope you stay that personal in the future, It will help people engaging with you.

One hour Sven on sunday is better than one hour of formula 1 on sunday;-) Sven, great video!

Without skin in the game y never can become an investor, especially a value one. Congrats Sven😎

Huge thanks. The value of this video is unbelievable.

Thanks for sharing. Failure is a great learning point.

I personally did many of those mistakes. No shame, it s part of the game. I respect your transparency Sven

Thanks for the video and the free lunch! As Monish Pabrai said: don't water the weeds and cut the flowers!

This might be the best financial education video ever! Really appreciate the honesty. Thank you very much!

Your new approach is taking shape and there is a kind of consistency to it that is reassuring as a research platform subscriber. You have spoken often about having a very concentrated portfolio of your three or five best ideas. If you do that you absolutely have to accept the least possible amount of risk. Otherwise a short run of bad luck (anything can happen to one company) could leave you with a permanent loss of capital. That's recoverable if you have $10k and add $1k/month. Not if you were a few years from retirement and now have to work until you die. I would love to see on the Research Platform (NOT on YT) an analysis of all of your current holdings/recommendations, that only speaks about their worst-case downside risks. We already know about the potential upside in each business. It's true that each business analysis also discusses the risks, but it would be fascinating to see them all together. How much is the exposure across the whole portfolio to one event, and how much is isolated operational-type risk in each business.

Probably one of the most useful videos you could find on the net. Mistakes help investors to improve their method and process.

Great content Sven! Would you please analyze ASOS? There appears to be very deep value here. It’s a favorite of Nick Sleep’s.

Thank you so much ! So much value for a 24yo Investor from Germany! Learning from others mistake feels like a cheat code for life ! ;D

Great value at a fair price!

Sven, you convinced me to buy Baidu and Alibaba, but you also gave me Albemarle. I have sold Baidu, I am still hanging on to Alibaba hoping for better times, and I grin 🤑 every time I look at the gains from Albemarle.

Just a nitpick on your last two lessons- Alibaba was a mistake because you didn’t wait for it to fall further, and the final was a mistake because you waited? While they’re obviously contradictory lessons, they both depend purely on price action to learn from them, and the lessons are opposing in their wisdom. Truly a small complaint from me- I appreciate you and your channel!

It is easy to say to do value investing but it is very hard to actually do it. I have seen people on youtube trying to outperform the S&P, researchimg a lot but failing hard. And what is true, there are not that many great ideas for a single person doing occational research. I found two or three great buys last year and should have simply stayed with them, instead of diversifying into nonsense, because somebody said it is a good idea. Eather you buy an ETF or you do not diversify. Nobody would buy 20 fractions of different houses because buying one is too risky. You buy one house, which you think is the best buy in the market and then you live in it.

Bought Amira back in the day after watching one of your videos, Sven. Still sits in my portfolio at a shining -100% loss

about the geopolitical mistakes. I think crisis investing is still smart but it needs to be bought after the huge crash. Just because you bought before the crash in Argentina doesn't mean it isn't a buy now

Oh that's very nice, now I feel much better, cause I'm not the only one... 😊

Maybe you should look more at Terry's philosophy: the best companies out there keep on giving. You had a lot of mistakes on unknown companies.... but you didn't take advantage of the best companies in the world when they dropped: meta, netflix, Adobe, Amazon, Google, EL, Tencent, BN, and so on. My Rule is to have one good buy every year, that is it. One , max 2 ideas a year... This will make me focus on the best opportunity out there

You are the best professor ever!

Buying too early, knowing it might go lower: the problem with this point is that you know it MIGHT go lower. In some industries it's common for stocks to move in a range in a cycle, so in those you can be confident it's going to be cheap again. But for many great companies it just might not happen. For instance something like Microsoft, if you look at the chart, at most points in its history if you wanted to wait for it to get cheaper by 20% you'd eventually get that dip, but before you got to it you'd miss more than 20% gain.

what a classic video. Honest and very helpful. Thank you for sharing. Sharing my summary and notes for others: Summary: - apply common sense when buying business - is business providing true value to its customers right now? if not, thats speculation. - stick to low risk/high reward. avoid high risk. identify high risk as low probability in future, geopolitical risk, IPO, value trap, scammers, cyclic businesses - Value investing is about patience - wait and wait to bet big - Stay within your circle, apply first principle - The best investments are buying quality businesses heavily concentrated patiently waiting for the right price Details: - Peter Lynch - Its okay to do mistakes, keep looking for the top stocks, even if 6-7 out of 10 perform as expected, you are a winner. - FRAUD: If something smells fishy, avoid it. Look for short seller report, balance sheet. Stay away from bad business model - SELLING TOO EARLY: Stay anchored if you believe in your analysis. Adjust the thesis if necessary when stock booms, might be even better value (for self, I remember selling Tesla because everyone around me was telling me to sell) - HIGH RISK: - Stay away from High risk - e.g. IPO, few qtrs of growth doesn’t mean shit. People look at 10 year history and only them invest. There are many businesses in the world, focus on the best ones if you can find same high return with low risk - Geopolitical risk - China, Argentina, etc. Avoid them if possible - Identify the size of the risk 1st - If its too high, or the probability is high or even ≥ 30% then, avoid it. - Stay away from Shady management - especially if they have track record. - Avoid Value Trap - How to tell if a value or cheap stock is a trap? - If its unclear what true business value it will give to its customer. (apply common sense) - Avoid cyclic business - especially do not buy cyclic business in their peak or high side. - **INVEST HEAVY IN YOUR CURRENT PORTFOLIO**: Buy more of good that you already own that keeping the size small (e.g. I bought Apple, but only few shares, I should be buying more) - GROWTH WILL STOP EVENTUALLY - Growth stocks end up becoming Value stock - **INVEST IN YOUR CIRCLE OF COMPETENCE** - THAT YOU UNDERSTAND - DO NOT JUST TAKE ANYONE’s WORD. People in RU-vid and new channels have incentive to tell you to buy buy buy, thats how they get more views, hence don’t take anyones advice just as-is, even Warren Buffet - APPLY FIRST PRINCIPLE ALWAYS. - **BE CONCENTRATED AND FOCUSED**, NOT DILUTED - Make your investing boring - Buying too early when you know it can go lower - Patience and Discipline is value investing - **Value investing is about waiting for 1 out of 10 of your great ideas to reach absolute bargain with little downside and very high upside** - Avoid taking speculative bets or keep that to minimum (== none) - Be clear are you investing in speculation or value - If a **business is providing immediate value** (e.g. revenue, dividend), **then its not speculation**, but if there are future speculation that this business will go 100x in future, future being unknown, then reduce that risk - (e.g. BAIDU in robotaxi, Facebook in META) - **The best investments are buying quality businesses heavily concentrated patiently waiting for the right price**. Focus on great business at fair price, not fair business at great price

I bought Qudian this year when it started showing up in my net-net screener and sold for a nice 110% gain. Goes to show that anything can be a buy at the right price

About geopolitical risks? What is your outlook on the tensions between China and US considering Taiwan? What is the risk having Alibaba stocks?

This is gold, thank you! I am guilty of most of these, too. Let's be less idiotic together (hopefully)!

Another great video. Thank you. Are you going to write an update to your book ‘Modern Value Investing’? Why don’t you have it on the bookshelf? May I suggest: 1. Include references to your book when making important points about investing such as the meaning of risk and the importance of the value/price relationship. 2. The red ‘pen’ doesn’t add as much as hoped for. 3. Using the dotted ‘box tool’ was ok.

Sven doesn’t swear often so when he said “yes I invested also in that shit” I about lost it lol

Thank you very much for sharing such valuable knowledge, we all do mistakes, the important is to realize it quick and then review and change the strategy of entire portfolio.

Thanks, Sven, there is a lot of value in this video, watching great investors speaking about their mistakes is one of the greatest ways to learn in my opinion, and can prevent you o making them. Is often difficult to realize beforehand some mistakes, for example, you could think you are buying too fast and not being patient but being actually "missing quality for a penny", have you found any way to spot and realize which situation you are dealing with?

Thanks for sharing Sven. Regards from Argentina and excuse my country for your loses 🙏😄

Thank you very much Sven. Finally you made the content that I want the most. Hehe

Make a video about bad investments that went well. A critical look back at your profitable investments that did have some red flags and how you did mental gymnastics to overcome them

This video is packed with information. I will have to watch it a few times to fully digest. This may be your magnum opus!

Thx, Sven! A lot of wisdom and value in this video. Well done :)

Hoop dat je een mooie zomer hebt gehad Sven! Working on my thesis now so only scanning this 50-min video, I'll do a deeper dive later!

One if the best videos ever. Thanks Svan.

Thanks for the summary of your mistakes, lessons. My biggest mistake was underestimating the geopolitical risk about Russia. I had a 20% exposure to Russian ADR stocks in my portfolio. I got stuck. What do you think? Will western investors get their stocks back in the future? What do you suggest?

Very informative stuff, Sven! Thanks!

By far your most valuable video. I learned that you should trade where the winds are blowing. Try to find value in something that will be in high demand and has political tailwinds. For sure learned a bunch from mistakes investing in Chinese stocks!

Great video Sven, I'm a member of your research platform. I wish my mistakes we were more like yours. Thought you still did pretty well

hi Sven, great video, very honest, we all make mistakes. You forgot to mention all the money you miss in TSLA :)

CVNA=Lesson 3. Thank you Sven!

15:05 "Yes, I invested also in that shit" :) Nice, Sven brings some spicy language!

I followed you because you were one of the few true long term investment. Hard to see that you ve sold lot of your position after few weeks. However thank you Sven for this video, lot to learn

This is rich in value Dr. Carlin!! Thank you for sharing your mistakes. Hopefully, we can learn from them (or we will repeat them uh-ho!).

I can appreciate you being humble and showing what you thought were doing wrong. For some reason the first video I watched of yours I felt you were an honest human. I had been watching Buffet and Munger but they never really gave out their secrets so I read the books they read. I learned a lot from you, you cleared up many questions I had, so, Thank You. I will continue to be a sub and appreciate what information you send our way.

This might be my favourite ever video, thanks so much for all the great lessons! I also made the same mistake on intel which i kick myself for because I knew that semi's were at the top of the cycle put I was reassured by hearing Pat Gelisinger on the conference call saying effectively this time is different and blah blah blah against my better judgement so I am definitely a big idiot too

Ok this is one of your best videos imo

Best video that I've watched Sven! Best lessons are through mistakes :)

Sven, that's your best video ever !

Good to hear from an honest man

I havn't seen this one yet - but sharing mistakes: Respect. I'll watch later.

One of my favorite quotes: "We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time." T. S. Eliot Great video.

i love the content. and i have learned from you a lot. luckily im improving . i have a few key ground rules im holding to and they improved my results. 1) not to invest on all time highs however good the outlook is, 2) not to invest in companies i have not followed and analyzed for some time 3) not buying stock in bulk in one go 4) have some cash on hand for those rare opportunities What i need to improve on: when to take a loss and when to exit ....and much much more

No catalyst with a beaten down "value stock" is a common trap for "value" seekers.

Interesting topic. Meany investors prefer talking about their wins and not their loses. But i think you can learn a lot from mistakes

Of course you could do better, but what is wrong with an annual return above 12%? Thanks for the self critical analysis.

Hi Sven , I have huge respect to you after you sell your FB at 294$ and felt the heat. This was brilliant move although FB did 380$ later on but look where are they now. Congrats man👏👏👏

Thanks for the free lunch! Do you share your buys and sells in your own portfolio on your research platform?

Your best video to date. Thank you!

Awesome honest video Sven would love to see this periodically

My BABA entry was 90$. Its a good buy I think

This was an incredibly valuable video. I love these lessons of what not to do!

43:55 how would you know how low BABA would go? at the time you made the first video, it still seemed like a bargain as the company was still growing and earning money. That is why Munger bought around there too. Would be good if you can go into specifics and how you can mitigate this in the future.

Thanks for hones insights into lessons learned!

Thank you very much for this video too, it should be in your course.

At 0:40 "Please support the channel so I can put some food on the table" You previously said that all youtube revenue was going to charity! What happened to that Sven? 🤔 I still hit the like button.

Great video. This is how we learn. And learn from these common mistakes . Many of your mistakes were because of a lack of patience. Buffett says the stock market is a machine that transfers wealth from the patient to the impatient. Sven , you are too hard on yourself here. You will do fine going forward. Warren says if you had only 20 stock trades in a lifetime you would do much better. Be extremely careful before investing. Also I believe that most all investors should make a portfolio of Index funds the core of the portfolio and reinvest all dividends and cap gains. Build alpha around that with individual stocks using extreme care. Thanks

Excellent video - transparency on your mistakes - great !!!!

Sven just with the non-stop value, transparency, and honesty

He considerably underperformed the "market" over the past six years. Plain and simple. And there is no reason why he should outperform in the long run. Look at the long-term statistics (SPIVA Scorecard or whatever). He says he's still learning. Maybe. But why on earth would y o u pay for his education?

Best video of the year, congrats!

Yep. Gotta say, I put Sven in the spam folder for awhile after baba. 😵‍💫

Grazie Sven!! :D

You gain a lot of credibility by admitting your mistakes, when you are still doing better than most of us!

Brave. Honest. Value. Respect for making this video Sven!