Stock Market success

A mate of mine, 2 and a half years ago, bought some stocks at 29c. He sold them recently at $7.80. I was wondering if anyone knows of a person who has had a higher % return then that.

Mister Gates ? At one time worth approx $200B

…on the stockmarket

Bill Gates’ fortune is almost entirely based on MSFT
stock, of course. But I take it you mean as an outside investor.

Anyway, example of increases far greater than 2700% are common, particularly in the current market. Take a look at Yahoo, for instance. I’m sure somebody bought on the dip three months after their IPO, and sold at their all-time high of 250. Split-adjusted (3 splits), that dip was to not much over a buck. Actually, you could have had it in about that range for a period of several months. Let’s be generous and say $2. That’s 12500%. See http://quote.yahoo.com/q?s=YHOO&d=5y

Or, for that matter, Oracle, split adjusted, was down to about 0.25 at one point. If somebody bought there, and sold at the high of 90, try 36000%. See http://quote.yahoo.com/q?s=ORCL&d=my

I’m sure there are 100000% examples to be found with just a little digging. These were just the first two I thought to look at.

Of course, the OP was asking do I KNOW anybody who got a >2700% return. Not as an outside investor. I know plenty of people whose company stock options paid off percentages like this - my own have, in fact. Come to think of it, I DO know a couple people who made this kind of return investing - most of them have also had some spectacular losers as well , or held past the high point where they had this kind of return on paper …

My last company, I bought at 10c and sold at $18.50 over the course of 2 years. But that company started private and ended as an acquisition, so it was never publicly traded.

Minor Nit: Bill Gates max wealth was just short of $88B in late Dec 1999. Not $200B, but still a big number.

I’ve never personally known anyone with a 2-year return that high, but I’m sure it happens. I have to wonder how many investments your friend bought over the years that he doesn’t brag about.

My best return ever was 3500%, but it took more than 20 years (about 20% per annum).

My father, a lifelong investor, had a return on one investment of 5900% over 15 years (about 33% per annum).