maybe comming in thinking about making $100k trading is making you take unnecessary risks? Can you post a bit on your trading style/ what you trade? Maybe its something there that is causing the losses.
Nope, Not stretching it one bit. Your question was how does one lose that much money on a trade, I answered it with a first hand account. If you are around real traders in a firm with dozens of traders, you see it every once in a while and with some luck, you won't be starring at that someone in the mirror that looks just like you when it happens. I am perfectly relaxed as well. nitro
No, nitro. My question was: How did DOMINIC lose $65,000 on one trade? AND, it wasn't due to a trading halt. And, MOST will NEVER encouter such (a $65,000 trading loss). Annnnnnnd, again, relax nitro, the sky's REALLY NOT FALLING.
breakdowns happen more often than we think, people just lose it. Seen it happen on the floor, doesn't really matter what size the loss is, it always goes the same way: 3/15 get a call from one of the traders trading from home that day. panicking on the phone, asking what to do. Find out that he shorted FAST @45.93 with 2000 shares. the main trader on the phone told him to close out the position ASAP. FAST closed ~47.09 that day. Now that the trading day is done, get him on the phone expecting that he closed the position. He didn't. OK, whatever 3/23 Trader shorts another 2000 shares, doubling up. don't know at what price but FAST was trading around ~$47.75 by 3/31 FAST was almost $54. I came by to hang during lunch and see his screen. He was still in it. With 6000 shares. 'the company is really weak financially' he says. Big Whoops. never asked him when he closed the position.
Well, I was trying to quench your curiosity when you said since it seemed that you were more interested in the mechanics of the loss than the fact that it was dominic who was the unfortunate trader on the end of that loss. Also, I was not responding to you directly, but to those other traders that you are referring to it might help, including dominic that he should not feel totally bad. You say that most traders never encouter a $65,000 loss? Well, I have no idea who you trade with or with what size, but I encounter those kinds of losses about two to three times a year at the firms that I have been associated with, and these are not extraordinary traders by any means, at least I do not think so. Big losses seem to come to those that move to size they cannot handle, either out of ego or pressure to make more money. I have seen it so many times. FWIW, the trader that lost the $44K on the MO debacle made it back in two weeks and ended up for the month. Now _that_ is out of the ordinary. Still very relaxed on a fine peaceful evening in Chicago. nitro
well, we cant all marry ketchup billionaires.. seriously, with a 65k loss on one trade with a 4-1 lever, its probably a good thing jingle nuts didnt have 3-5 million buying power.. i watched a friend lose 20 something grand on a trade one time.. it was down on bad news after hours and he bought a "bounce".. more like a flop.. then it became a trade till the next day.. then it was for his "long term account".. he ended up taking the loss a few days later.. fast and loose doesnt seem to work so well in trading.. no matter how many excuses we make for ourselves after the fact.. -qwik
lol, exactly papertrading is bullshit, trading demo is mareshit, unless youre in the game with real money youre not learning or accomplishing anything... bottom line...
after the numerous replies here, where other people say that they know XYZ who'd lost Yk$, the things that are missing is: "what was the account size?". I'm sorry but whatever trader you are, for a prop firm, a private trader or whatever, if after 4 years you blow away 65% of your account on ONE trade, it shows that you don't know/want to know/don't understand, one of the very basic principles of trading: "cutting losses fast". And this is nothing new, fancy. You pick up ANY book on trading and this will be in one of the first chapters. Guess what would happen if you blew out 65% of soros account on ONE trade? The only alternative would be to hang yourself. Again, sorry, but blowing away 65% of your account on ONE trade, proves to me, IMHO, that you don't understand anything what is required to survive in this jungle. FWIW TFD PS: My previous post was just an advice to save you blowing away the remaining 35%...