In short: Historical cautionary tale: Ethyl Corp (renamed NewMarket) was his "biggest loss" — he doubled/tripled, patted himself on the back and sold, then watched it go to 10x and 20x. The lesson: don't sell a double in a long-dated recovery.
NewMarket (formerly Ethyl Corporation) makes petroleum and fuel additives. Robotti cites it as a painful lesson, not a current pick: he doubled or tripled his money, congratulated himself, and sold — then watched it climb to 10 times and eventually 20 times his cost.
The takeaway he draws is his core sell discipline: in these long, dramatic recoveries, walking away with a quick double is a mistake — the real money is in holding for the multi-bagger.
18:12double your stock and you sell it, then you're a fool because that's what's really going to happen, is you're going to make five and 10 times your money. And to walk away with two times, which I did, I did that back in this investment I talked about, the biggest loss I ever had was Ethyl Corporation that changed its name to NewMarket, and I doubled or tripled my money and I patted myself on the back, and eventually sold the rest of it at 10 times the money and eventually went to 20 times the money. So I was
Nothing matches this filter.
Verbatim excerpts from the public transcripts (auto-pulled at each mention's timestamp, lightly cleaned). Timestamps link into the video; "source page" opens that commentator's full analysis at this row. Click a mention's header line to expand it (one open at a time). For personal study — not investment advice.