interesting thread but the scary part is to have such a large position relative to your assets that a 5% move would wipe out your acct.
Thanks everyone for your input and feedback. I especially like the your stories Austinp. More of the same from other would be great. Wave, that was great article of the effects of 9/11. Thanks. To address a couple issues raised: 1) Yes, a blowup from a 5% move does mean I'm trading too big of size. 2) I always only use stop market orders for stopping me out. Some seem to think I was using stop limits when I used the word limit in regards to the lock-limit of futures at 5%. This got me thinking about something however. Do most people place there orders with their broker or at the CME? I've been using my broker (cybertrader) because they offer stop market orders, versus the CME which only has stop limits. However, since there is a daily limit anyways, would it be better to put the stop in at CME with the limit price just beyond the daily limit. I wonder if this would increase the odds (or at least the priority) of your order in case of a huge market slide or surge, which might reduce your slippage since timing would become extremely important. This could also be important in case cybertrader goes down, again..... If the CME goes down, I gues your screwed anyways unless you can hedge at the CBOT with the YM. 3) Related to this last issue, I'm wondering how much slippage one could incurr in the eminis intraday during one of these events. There are so many resting order and deep pockets of liquidity sitting in the market around the current price that I'm wondering how much volume would it take to overwhelm the current price from moving to limit intraday. I'm really concerned and asking for response to events occuring intraday--not overnight gaps. Its much easier to move price overnight on globex since volume is lower. I'm essentially wondering about the chances my stop will actually be executed at a reasonable level. Thanks for your input.