In view of the 30th anniversary of the 1987 Oct crash, can elitetraders who traded during 1987 Oct crash share war stories how they survived, prospered or got burnt? I am personally more interested of stories of elitetraders getting burnt (hopefully recovered by now) because they carry higher educational value. What were the warning signs you could have heeded at that time with the benefit of hindsight? What long-term lessons did you draw from the trauma? I am too young to be a participant during 1987.
We can short the market to profit from the crash but very difficult to trade as market was moving very violently, with lots of whipsaw. bid offer spread widened. Movement was very huge ie huge potential but difficult to profit from it. slippage was bad. internet speed suddenly degraded because whole world was trading and jammed the internet and exchange can earn thousands of dollars in few minutes and lost thousands of dollars in the next few minutes. must have better strategy, better method and need to practice and be ready for the next market crash.
Thanks for sharing. Do you mean the phones were jammed instead of internet speed suddenly degraded? I was a kid then and don't remember internet being around at that time.
One of the retail brokers in our office quit the biz after the crash. I was told he made >$1Mil on a bunch of OTM puts he'd bought.
NASDAQ market makers back then who were the biggest clip artists just said fuck it and didn't answer the phones. It was BFB- bad for biz.
In 1987 I was selling candy at school 10 blowpops bought for a dollar Sold them for a quarter a piece 150% profit everyday 5 days a week spent it all on guns, girls and the arcade It was all fun and games until the principal seized my candy and raided my locker and took all my damn quarters too.