Royal Bank of Scotland goes from $1 a share to $19 a share today

So I have friend that is a FreeMason, And he told me to invest in this bank RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland), claiming it was 300 years old, and that there was no way that the Scottish Rite of FreeMasonry would let it fall.

So I look into it, and the shares were at .98 when I decided to invest $3,000.

Should I sell it now?

BTW... Looks like all my conspiracy work has finally paid off.


Looks like the Freemasons took their $money and dumped it all into RBS at the same time?

[edit on 7-11-2008 by Doomsday 2029]

Holy Moly!

I'd sell and pocket the 40 grand or so you'll make after taxes...
Jeez! What a difference a day makes, huh? Sure wish I'd known about this yesterday!

Damn right sell. It's only paper profit until you do and with the swings in banks lately IMHO you'd be a fool not to take at least your original stake plus 100% profit off the table.

EDIT TO ADD

Responded and then checked on this move myself at yahoo finance. I thought the poster may be FoS, but damn good trade there. Seriously dude take at least your original stake out plus some profit. I hope it's not your first trade, the worst thing that can happen to someone trading is to be wildly successful on their first trade. It's almost a curse to be so successful on an early trade.

[edit on 7-11-2008 by jefwane]

SECOND EDIT

RBS has done a reverse split. I really didn't think that a company of that size could increase like that without one.

[edit on 7-11-2008 by jefwane]

Originally posted by jefwane
Damn right sell. It's only paper profit until you do and with the swings in banks lately IMHO you'd be a fool not to take at least your original stake plus 100% profit off the table.

Definitely do what he says. Take your initial investment plus 100% so you make out like a bandit. Then hold the rest and see what happens tomorrow.

I'm always happy to see people get ahead. Even without the 'conspiracy' twist.

Umm, OP i hate to be the one to break it to you, but it looks like there has been a reverse split. That's not good for you. I don't have time to follow up further, but do some research now!

I'm actually inclined to short it now. Companies that do a reverse splits almost always drop in price back to the pre-reverse split levels.

[edit on 7-11-2008 by jefwane]

Hold on, hold on.... I know what exactly occured here. I follow the markets and understand finance/investing. I am confused on how you think you profited so much.

This was actually a "reverse split" on stocks. What that means is if you bought 3000 shares at $1, your position is worth 3000.

Then the stock performed a reverse split meaning every 20 shares you have become ONE (1) share worth $19.

So in this case you have 150 shares worth $19 making your position 2850.

The real current value at this moment is 19.61 * 150 = 2941.50

So i am not exactly sure if you actually bought them and were just confused or maybe you just observed this change and didn't fully understand it..

As far as the scottish rite/freemason connection, they seem to have been confused to?!?! So, I am not sure exactly where the OP is coming from here, but that is my 2 cents on the whole situation.

Feel free to correct me, I am still learning and only 22. In the investor world I am a newbie.

reply to post by vapedson


You are exactly right, see my second EDIT and second post. That's a shame for 2029 though, I was really happy for him for about 5 minutes.

Yeah exactly, this is just a basic revaluation mate.

Im sorry to see that you got excited over nothing, but you didn't really think you could get free money by a market revaluation split did you?

Its basically like the zimbabwean dollar... if you have 200 shares at 1 dollar, and its a 2:1 reverse split, you will now have 100 shares at 2 dollars.

Its all the same.

But do keep your shares in RBS, its a 300 year old bank that has never ever made a loss in 300 years (before this year lol). It will recover. It owns Coutts, which is the queen's bank!

Just for disclosure reasons, I have stock in RBS too.

reply to post by Doomsday 2029


Do not sell. Buy Buy Buy. That stock will probably triple after January 18th! You made a great play. Don't sell unless it drops 5%! And then keep and eye on it!

Congratulations!

Originally posted by 44soulslayer
Yeah exactly, this is just a basic revaluation mate.

Im sorry to see that you got excited over nothing, but you didn't really think you could get free money by a market revaluation split did you?

Its basically like the zimbabwean dollar... if you have 200 shares at 1 dollar, and its a 2:1 reverse split, you will now have 100 shares at 2 dollars.

Its all the same.

But do keep your shares in RBS, its a 300 year old bank that has never ever made a loss in 300 years (before this year lol). It will recover. It owns Coutts, which is the queen's bank!

Just for disclosure reasons, I have stock in RBS too.

I feel so upset right now... I knew it was too good to be true.

I thought I had just made the greatest investment ever.

Oh well. It's only money.

I'm new to investing, I have much to learn.