Get a sharp investor talking for long enough, and their stories often become revealing. You’ll undoubtedly hear not just about their wins, but also their most painful mistakes. We asked financial pros to tell us about experiences that left a mark – and, more important, what they’ve managed to learn from them.

I learnt an expensive lesson about the dangers of leverage early on. I bought US Treasury bonds with 10-to-one leverage just months before my career at Pimco began. I had US$10,000 (S$13,500) equity savings from my earlier experience playing blackjack – from which I learnt that any bet should be limited to 3 per cent of your liquid net worth.