Here is the progression of Darvas’s trades to $2 million. Remember, he used margin and so invested more than he actually had in cash. First trade noted below was in November 1957.

• bought 200 Lorillard at 28 ¾, 200 at 35, 200 at 36 ½ and 400 at 38 5/8. Invested $35,827.50
• bought 500 Diner’s Club at 24 ½ , 500 at 26 1/8. Invested $25,520.80
• sold Diner’s Club for $35,848.85
• sold Lorillard for $56,880.45
• bought E.L. Bruce in 5 increments between 50 ¾ and 53 5/8 for $130,687.55
• sold E.L. Bruce for $425,993
• lost small amounts on Molybdenum and Haveg Industries. Lost about $6500 trying Lorillard again after which he had a total profit of $318,686.45
• bought 300 Universal Controls at 35 ¼ , 1200 at 36 ½ , 1500 at 40. Total $115,313.49
• bought 200 Thiokol at 47 ¼ , 1300 at 49 ½. Total invested: $74,943.98
• a rights offer came from Thiokol which enabled him to convert to a highly leveraged position of 6000 shares for a cost of $350,820
• combined holdings of Thiokol and Universal Controls climbs to over half million
• got over-confident, ignored his rules and lost $96,588.66 trading 14 different stocks (he calls it his mad period). Still held Thiokol and Universal Controls through this period.
• traded a variety of stocks for a profit of $25,000 (he lists 11 stocks)
• sold Universal Controls for $524,669.97
• bought 2000 Texas Instruments at 94 3/8, 1500 at 97 7/8, 200 at 101 7/8. Total $541,996.95
• sold Thiokol for $1,212,851.52
• after probing four stocks, bought $574,842.25 of Zenith, $567,820.60 of Fairchild Camera
• 3 positions - Zenith, Fairchild and Texas Instruments – valued over $2,250,000 in July 1959

   Marco den Ouden