Great Post. I'm not trying to date myself but I was at Merrill in 2000 in the same exact position of your post. My friend worked as a prop trader and referred to CMGI as a 'pile of poo'. While he was trading it every day both long and short, I decided to hunt for the stock that would make me a millionaire. So since he said it was total junk I decided to make my own 'amazing' investment decision. BOSTON MARKET: Geez the chicken was great.

Well needless to say I had the same exact experience as you. Watching it melt down to 0 while I sat and dreamed of it going to the moon. I took every penny I owned to make that trade, and to be honest it was probably a cheap lesson that I learned about investing early on. It was that pain that made me learn, but it was a hard lesson.

Diversification and risk management is key. It's all about proportions. Had you taken your 6k investment in CMGI and put in only in $180 dollars or 3% or so of your portfolio you wouldn't have been crying. The same $180 dollars invested in apple when it was trading at $4 dollars could have turned into 30k.

Risk management is so crucial. Buy Steemit, but only with a proper risk management strategy that is proportionally related to your total net worth.