If you’d invested in: DP Poland and Carpetright

Pizza sellers DP Poland made a loss of £2.2m last year, after losing £3.6m in 2014 and £3.3m in 2013. But that hasn’t deterred investors.

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DP Poland (LSE: DPP) operates the franchise for Domino's Pizza in Poland. It holds an exclusive 15-year franchise for the brand, which runs until 2025. It opened its first store in Warsaw in 2011 and now operates 24 stores throughout the country, directly and via sub-franchises.

It made a loss of £2.2m last year, after losing £3.6m in 2014 and £3.3m in 2013. But that hasn't deterred investors the share price has risen by 120% in the last year.

Be glad you didn't buy...

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Carpetright (LSE: CPR) is the UK's biggest flooring retailer. The shares took a beating as house prices crashed in 2008, but recovered to a high of 973p by early 2010. But since then, they've been in a gradual decline, which has accelerated in the past year.

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The firm is moving away from its cut-price warehouse model by expanding its range of products and opening smaller high-street stores. But despite a 33% rise in pre-tax profits for the year to April 2016, the share price has slid by more than 60% in the last 12 months.

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Ben Judge

Ben studied modern languages at London University's Queen Mary College. After dabbling unhappily in local government finance for a while, he went to work for The Scotsman newspaper in Edinburgh. The launch of the paper's website, scotsman.com, in the early years of the dotcom craze, saw Ben move online to manage the Business and Motors channels before becoming deputy editor with responsibility for all aspects of online production for The Scotsman, Scotland on Sunday and the Edinburgh Evening News websites, along with the papers' Edinburgh Festivals website.

Ben joined MoneyWeek as website editor in 2008, just as the Great Financial Crisis was brewing. He has written extensively for the website and magazine, with a particular emphasis on alternative finance and fintech, including blockchain and bitcoin. 

As an early adopter of bitcoin, Ben bought when the price was under $200, but went on to spend it all on foolish fripperies.