The worst investments ever: how Trump, lottery winners, sheiks, and actors blow billions in the wind

Billions in losses, bankruptcies, and failed investments by Bin Salman, Trump, lottery winners, Nicolas Cage, and others:  Kryptoszene.de shows an exclusive infographic about the worst investments in recent history.

A state fund from Saudi Arabia sold almost 8.2 million Tesla shares at the end of last year. So far, so good. The crux: a few weeks later, the securities of the electrical pioneer company quoted significantly higher.  At the low, in September 2019, Tesla shares price was $221, but in mid-January, it was trading at $887. If the fund, led by Mohammed bin Salman, had allowed itself just a little more time to sell the shares, the sale would have brought them around $5.5 billion more, according to the infographic.

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The worst investments: Donald Trump is also on the list

The acting US president can speak for a series of unsuccessful deals. In 1988, he bought the “Eastern Air Shuttle” airline, which quickly disappeared from the face of the Earth. Four of his casinos also filed for bankruptcy.  Between 1985 and 1994, his companies experienced approximately $1.17 billion of losses.

Nevertheless, Donald Trump is now worth around $3.1 billion, according to Forbes. However, the following numbers suggest that he is not as brilliant a businessman as he is often said to be: in 1982, he claimed to have $500 million in fortune. If he had simply invested this amount in the DAX, he would not only have saved himself a few bankruptcies but even more: his assets would now have been significantly larger. They would have grown to around $9.3 billion, according to calculations by Kryptoszene.de.

Nicolas Cage: Bad investments are draining his property portfolio

Over the years, the actor Nicolas Cage has earned over $140 million.  Still, he had to struggle with massive money problems at times.  The reason: highly speculative and unsuccessful investments.  He blames his adviser, but he is the one that has to live with the consequences: among other things, he had to sell one of his castles to pay the debt.

What stocks to invest in?  Germans with unlucky hands

However, it turns out that bad investments can also be less spectacular and do not necessarily have to go hand-in-hand with bankruptcies and the like.  For example, Germans tend to fall for the DAX stocks that have severely underperformed in the past five years.  These include VW, BMW, Continental, and Deutsche Bank. Foreign investors, on the other hand, prefer DAX shares withabove-average performance, which is why sharp tongues speak of “stupid  German money”.