Sometimes you hear of fat finger trades blowing up accounts. Has anyone ever put on WAY too much size by mistake and been hugely in profit by the time the mistake is spotted?
Years ago I was on a week long vacation in Maui. Just before shutting down my laptop in my hotel room, I caught news on CNBC of the troubles at TYCO. I'd been following it somewhat, so I figured what the hell I'd short 1,000 shares because it certainly wasn't going to rally. I fumbled with the laptop - it was sitting on my bed - and placed the trade. The next morning I heard the news that the stock had tanked seriously. I logged into my account, and was really startled - I thought I was seeing account errors - that I had shorted not 1,000, but 10,000 shares. I nervously called the broker - my hands were shaking - and he confirmed the trade. I asked him to close out the position - he said it would cost an additional $30. for him to do it manually - and I reminded him that at the moment that was the very least of my concerns. An hour later I checked out of my room at the Marriott, and into the Four Seasons!
It's never a mistake when it goes your way - you planned to do it all along. Mistakes are only made when it costs you.
I did it on an Oil trade, 10x's normal amount, got out very quickly with a small profit. I forgot I had 1 trade, hadn't checked or used account, placed a trade, PL said +$400 right from the start, thought I'd done that, just had a trade running for 5days, panic closed it, then took a while to work out what was going on LOL
Here's my ride. I was planning a short trade in silver. One contract. Later I happened to note that the transaction cost was too high. It struck me like lightning what had happened. I (or key rep) had double keyed 1 contract into 11. The step function pucker factor of 55k oz eased as I closed 10. Fortunately it was a relatively quiet day. I wasn't as fortunate as Lindq, but on the other hand I had not blown up either. It was an interesting teaching moment in trade diligence. T200k
Back in late 90's in a Bright office one of the stocks du jour was of course AOL (pre merger). I was short 2000 shares and mistakenly shorted, rather than exited, another 2000 as price moved higher. Stock was in the 80's or 90's or so - a nice "chunk of change" risk to be on the hook. Luckily in the end loss amount was manageable and I learned an important lesson.