The worst trade Warren Buffett ever made:

What was the worst trade you ever made and what did you learn from it? The dumbest thing I ever did. Yeah, the dumbest thing I ever did. The dumbest stock I ever bought. It was early in 1962, 1962, and here was this cheap stock, you know, trading at about 11 and a half, 11 and 3/8. It was a stock in a textile company that had been going downhill for years. So it was a huge company originally. And they kept closing one mill after another. And every time they would close a mill, they would take the proceeds in their stock. And I figured they were going to close another one. They only had a few mills left, another one. I'd buy the stock tendered to them and make a small profit. So I started buying the stock and in 1964 we had quite a bit of stock and visited the management. Mr. Stanton. And he looked at me and he said, Mr. Buffett, we've sold some mills, we've got some excess money. We're going to have a tender offer. And at what price will you tender your stock? 11.50. And he said, Mr. Tan, you have my word that I will sell my stock at 11.50. I went back to Omaha and a few weeks later, I opened the mail. Oh, you have this. And here it is, a tender offer from Berkshire Hathaway. That's from 1964. And if you look carefully, you'll see the prices 11 and 3/8. He chiseled me for an eight. And if that letter had come through with 11 and a half, I would have tendered my stock. But this made me mad. So I went out and started buying the stock and I bought control of the company and fired Mr. Stanton. And we went on from there. Now, that sounds like a great little morality tale at this point.