My big losers

My 2 bigest losses while investing in the stock market.

Photo by Igor Omilaev on Unsplash

I hear a lot of people talk about their wins. 600%+ here. That dude who bought bitcoin when bitcoin wasn’t bitcoin. I love looking online to see people win, but I think it is also important to see people's losses. To know that they are human.

I believe losses can teach you a lot more than wins. With that being said, here are my 2 biggest losses and what I learned from them.

Here we go.

Aston Martin Lagonda Global

Why?

I was a teenager when I started investing in this company. I wasn’t big into cars. I wanted to diversify and decided on Aston Martin at the time, as I knew them as a more ‘top of the line’ car company.

It’s a reminder always to do your due diligence when picking stocks.

pros

It has reminded me that picking stocks has its challenges. It isn’t that this looks nice. There is a reason why going with an all-world ETF is better in the long term.

Don’t go mindlessly into a stock because you’re familiar with the name or because you want to diversify. Go deeper.

Look at the company. What are its goals? How is the management? What’s its balance sheet like?

There is more to a company than just having a big name.

cons.

**96% gone**. It hurts.

You have to be able to accept loss. I was debating whether to sell out when the business went to 1,000. I didn’t want to lose everything I had put in. Now, in self-reflection. Selling it would have been a much better choice.

Ignoring their 20-for-1 share consolidation. The most important part of a larger-scale business is its Production and Supply Chain, which kept failing.

There was really nothing but problems at Aston Martin. Their heavy debt, which persists to this day, weighs on their balance sheet. It averaged a loss of approximately -£45,000 per car sold. That's huge, especially for a car company.

They endded 2025 with Approximately £1.38 billion in debt.

BooHoo (Debenhams group)

96.29% decrease. Dam.

Cons

96% wiped out. Although not much money was lost. It still hurts.

From being in the plus during COVID, to bottoming out. It has taught me that sometimes you need to take profits or accept a certain amount of loss before leaving a company.

Online shopping has taken over.

If you want to admit it or not. You get better deals. You get more options. The 24/7 approach to purchasing whenever you want.

Yes, there are still people who go out and shop. There are many more returns for clothes because you don’t have the luxury of trying them on before you buy. Online shopping is only going to keep growing.

Competition.

Amazon offers same-day or next-day delivery and a crazy range of products. Large businesses, like Walmart, where people already shop, had the funds to adapt to the market.

They had big competitors from day one. Which is good for the consumer. Not so good for a business that

Look at a company and look at its competitors.

People want sustainability and fairness.

The 2020 Leicester scandal. People were paid as little as £3.50 an hour. This resulted in them losing support from larger companies such as Amazon, ASOS, and Zalando, which withdrew.

Its reputation has been stained since that day and will continue to be.

Also, not mentioning the Executive Pay Scandals: The board has pushed through high executive bonuses and “consultancy payments” (whatever that means) to family members of founders while the company was still in the red.

Just because you use or have used a business, doesn’t mean it's a good investment. I spent a lot of money on boohoo back when I was a bit more into fashion. Cheap clothes. Good (enough) quality. I could keep my style on a budget. Nowadays, there are better choices for every aspect of this business.

Why it’s important to keep going!

My wins over the years have way outweighed my losses.

I believe you learn more from your losses than you do from your wins. Okay, each of their investments is practically at 0. Yet they taught me invaluable lessons.

I would rather lose money now than when I am older and have a lot of money to lose. These investments reminded me that you can lose it all (Or practically all). Investing has risk.

Managing that risk is more important then ignoring it.

Why I’ll never sell.

They are reminders.

The stock market (in terms of choosing stocks and, to some degree, ETFs) is ruthless. If you don’t research or keep up to date with companies.

Neither of these positions had life-changing amounts of money in them

Why it’s important to keep updated.

BooHoo was a real eye-opener for me. When you invest in a business, it’s not just a one-and-done like an ETF. It requires you to keep it updated.

Has there been any bad news? I missed the 2020 Leicester scandal. Reports of poor working conditions and modern-day slavery really didn’t help the company. If I kept up to date with what was going on, when the reports started to come out, I should have sold.