A lot of tech companies went bankrupt. So you got "lucky" selecting the right tech companies and buying and selling them at the right time.
If you bought YHOO or Petsdotcom or any of AOL during the dot com boom and held on, then you would have lost a lot of money. For every AMZN there are dozens of tech companies that went under.
Also, the last 30 years have seen an absurd stock market boom. Take a look at the chart to see what the last 30 years have been like. The S&P has been on a tear.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%26P_500_Index#/media/File:S_...
To the moon baby!
What I like about the approach is that product is a leading indicator and can be judged by anyone. The financials and stock price seem to trail the product by 1-3 years on both the upside and downside.
BTW I fully agree with the original premise of the thread and think if you try actively trade on financials, timing etc. as a part timer you will get smoked by the pros, sooner or later.
On a positive note, the proceeds paid for my honeymoon and the balance went into Apple and Red Hat, both of which did good!
The 90s were fun and a learning experience. I was working in the mall while going to school, feeling like a financial genius for day-trading at a DSL kiosk at lunch. Amazon was money lost, but also money gained!
I rolled a couple thousand dollars into many multiples of paper profit. I pulled some out occasionally and put it in savings bonds, thanks to the constant nagging of my grandparents, so everything I lost was money I never really had.