Like most incorrigible gamblers, my worst days are denied or forgotten. This was one of my best day trades ever, because it happened quickly and for the right reasons. $540,000. http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/HERB-GREENBERG-S-BUSINESS-INSIDER-How-Online-2978931.php The stock was ultimately delisted.
I remember that day and that thread. You and I were going back and forth about whether silver was topping, among with several others. Good call
i-Riley, strange to hear that name of a company that would clip me and make me whole again. I traded Syquest, Applied Magnetic, Hutchinson, Read-Write and Iomega back and forth during the 94-98 period. I think Iomega outlasted our Syquest and my friend's favorite three-legged-horse Applied Magnetic s. A decent old friend had a cunning stock broker who put him in terrible assets for his age-bracket. He helped old Cletus lose his entire retirement account on Syquest and APM. Cletus was the guy who would ask you "What's your opinion about Syquest" and when I would say "I am short Syquest and Applied Magnetic because the employees are very negative and depressed at APM." Cletus dumped APM at $5 (bought at $40 and his Broker told him to average down) and bought it all back at $2.50 thinking it can't go any lower after APM went from $1 back to $2.50 Cletus did the old "Top Tick" and bought and bought all the shares he could. APM goes Bankrupt! His wife approaches me and beg's for a stock tip or idea, I was long 3COM and told her I thought it might make a good investment with a few hundred shares or 1,000. These gamblers put their entire savings and home equity loan in 3COM and when they called me with panic in their voice. "What do we do about 3-COM, it's at $99, I told her to tell Cletus to put in his order at $125 using a GTC order. COMS was trading so fast, I made $80,000 off that trade selling mine at $125, Cletus and Wife by the time their order hit the Market, they got filled at $150 7/8s and above! I helped Cletus and Cheer basically make $1.7 million and I got nothing but a "Thank You" for a lucky guess helping them clean up all his gambling mess and paying off all his debts. Go figure, the best trade I ever made was the trade I told someone else to do. I never expected them to put everything down like some lottery ticket but they did. People are cheap and "takers" as one Elite-Trader adroitly noticed. My $80,000 is nothing to their $1.7 million, I should have listened to my own advice and put everything in on Call Options!
My WORST day was when I MADE 120k during the crazy lehman week. I SHOULD have made 5x that, but I didn't have the confidence to size appropriately and flip my position once I exited. My BEST day was when I LOST 25k on a black box programming error that could have been 10x worse. I completely changed my automation strategy after that day, moving toward very heavy filtering and VERY slowly adding order entry.
my worst day was actually miss due to work. Conviction sell audusd at 10240 on may-9-13. Put my biggest ever order on day before with exact plan for all scenarios, order not done and before high impact news decided to take order out and enter after news. All happened exactly as planned but I was at work and under severe pump and not capable to load. This would be win that would let me step in bigger league and easily let work go. would,would,would now I am punished with minus 0.6 risk balance for the year and waiting for next opportunity like this.
Yesterday might have been my largest up day ever in terms of $$, not percent. I used to trade more actively and leveraged, thought I was the schizzle when my account went up 25K on Goog calls years ago. I continued along not cognizant of market undertow and finished that year in the red, blood red, exsaguinated! I had no organized risk management, no back test, no nothing to guide me other than fear and greed. I leaned into the pain to learn. I leaned hard and long. I should have been seeing Dr Melfi. Things turned around some last year. I do my own thing. My post trade analysis said I can't be an active trade. It said I can pick good companies and stocks but I did not hold them long enough. It suggested that position sizing and risk management would preserve capital and limit gains. It said that if I were right in what I picked and sat through short term pull backs I would do well. I search out the next great growth company with great leadership, great business plans, great execution. I work a day job, as does my spouse. We get paid well. I've earned >5x our yearly income this year with my methods. Very few trades. I laugh at the hyperkinetic pace of youse guys. I am aware that this kind of money comes in fits and spurts. I told my spouse to find out when she can retire.
Hi -- I'm new... I've been trading for years -- but it's just now, that I randomly happened to discover and stumble upon this website. Awesome stuff...been reading for hours+.
'Undertow' is a fave quick & dirty term I like to use when referring to intramarket microstructure, as well as inter-market positioning which 99% of independent traders don't have the tenacity to dig into. 'Leaning into the pain' to learn/evolve - know exactly what you mean there, too. Sounds like you've evolved to higher ground of your mental game and tool sharpening - congrats!