I had a spreadsheet that would track with one of those sparkline column charts how much premium I give back on any given trade. So if I collect $1,200 in premium it would show a full bar, and then I close it for $300 it would shrink down showing I had collected $900 as I had given back -$300 of the $1,200. Well I was running an iron condor on TOS and it was showing the position at -2500, so I was thinking that was off of what I collected because of my spreadsheet. In my defense the way they tally positions is pretty ambiguous imo, they should have 2 columns, cost to open, and cost to close, so it should have been showing -$4000 to open, and $6500 to close, instead of putting them together as -$2500 pnl...but I digress. So when I closed the position, I thought I was still up $1500 ($4000 + $-2500) not down $-2500 lol. The worst part is me calling in trying to tell them their accounting is off...and that my net liq value should be higher until I realized mid sentence what I had done. I did get to save face however when I was down a large amount on a BITO call during the ftx scandal, and one of the phone agents patronizes me by suggesting I open a practice account and learn about stop losses lol. So anyway I said to him "why would I want to close at a loss?" Then after I recovered with profits when Bitcoin rallied which I was expecting...the next time I got them I'm like. "Hey remember that BITO call? Yeah there's a reason why I'm sitting on this side of the phone and you're sitting on that side of the phone." Lol
I had an opinion for last time, I had allowed a $300 stop loss to be cancelled turn into a $10,000 loss. Now all my opinions be last after what my systems dictate. Opinions can't be backtested well but I have recorded them for 20 years and only correct 5% of the time. Once we accept our flaws, life much easier.
If you have a trading plan and follow it, the only way you could do dumb thing is to have a dumb plan. Otherwise, you are just following your plan. But your point is not about dumbest things done, but about having stop loss is a dumb strategy...again. Just using different words to mean the same thing over and over....
My example of my dumbest thing had nothing to do with a stop loss. ???? Actually, my dumbest thing could also be when I bought 5,000 shares of a company when I meant to buy $5,000 worth of shares...But being stubborn and dumb instead of closing, I held it for a loss AND even averaged down! A month or so later they were the target of a buyout...boom 70k.
buying a gap up without a stop loss. buying just before earnings come out. buying right after earnings in the after hours trading before the conference call.
I think we're missing the point here. This isn't about questionable strategies.. Any one of your scenarios could have worked out in your favor... This is about stuff that is just plain dumb.