I got off to a fine start with my LISA investments on my very first trade - somehow I managed to buy the wrong share.
Call it inattention or pure incompetence but I only realised a couple of days later that I'd invested in the wrong thing. Turns out there were two very similar sounding shares from the same company.
As soon as I discovered my error the dilemma was; should I sell it straight away?
Surely this would be the smart thing to do. Sell it immediately on realising the error, accept the loss from the dealing charges and also accept any loss from the share price fall following purchase.
Selling would ensure that I immediately cut any potential for further losses. Definitely the smart thing to do.
Then I thought that maybe I shouldn't sell it just yet as it hadn't suddenly plummeted in price.
There was no obvious reason that this share was destined to fall in value.
And there was always the potential it could rise.
I'm not completely daft - I'd keep a close eye on the price and be ready to cut it should it go down too far - but this mistake could pay off if I kept hold of it.
My next thought was; if I didn't sell this "incorrect" share and I decided instead to keep it, should I then go and buy the original share I was supposed to buy as well?
I had some choices to make but somewhere in the back of my mind I remembered hearing or reading something from a famous, successful investor who said that with the correct money management and discipline you can buy shares at random and make money. The old 'dart board' method.
The theory is that providing you have the discipline to cut your losses short and let your winners run you can be successful whichever shares you buy.
Hey, if a successful investor says it's OK then I figured I'd take the chance.
In the end I never bought the original share. Instead I decided to keep the 'mistake' in the portfolio but with a strict mental stop loss.
And now, 18 months later, I still hold this particular share and I even bought some more late in 2019 because it had been rising in price steadily.
It's by far my longest held investment and has performed very well.
Of course, should it stray off course I'll get rid of it in a heartbeat but maybe there's something in the old "throw darts at the Financial Times listings" method of investing.
Thankfully this was the only time I made such a mistake as I now always double-check the share name and ticker symbol before pressing the deal button.