Another thing that has changed is the role of the T-bonds. We used to trade the futures by watching the bonds. Strong bonds=strong S&P's. In fact, Buzzy Schwartz in Pit Bull made a big deal about getting an edge on the floor because he got after hours bond quotes. These days they trade opposite, as hedge funds do asset allocation trades between bonds and stocks. Another once useful indicator bites the dust. In fact, the whole interest rate and currency complex seems to trade tick for tick contra to stocks now. I imagine it has thrown a lot of risk models into the ash can, as currencies never used to be correlated to stocks.
Was IDID the one that went from 1/64 to $1-2 in a single day? I think that was in 1996. I lost a couple thousand on that one. It was a great lesson and worth the money. I haven't traded a single penny stock ( <$1) since then.
My favorite ZYTL and good ole QDEK....and of course back when aol was AMER those were the days. Anyone remember the cover of the 1997 Inc Magazine with the Block Trading guys as the Bad Boys of Wallstreet.......
Along these lines, although not directly related, one should also consider the role that credit interest plays in one's account...An experienced trader once noted that when he was trading futures back in the early 80's when he could earn double digits on his credit balance, the necessity for "gunning" for bigger returns decreased because he could meet most of his overhead on the credit interest alone...Now that the risk free rate of return on most treasury instruments is almost nil, no one gets a free lunch any longer...That is one big difference, even in the past 2-3 years...The ability to earn some credit interest has gone to hell in a handbasket
IDID was some bulletin board garbage that traded some ungodly number of shares for a few days. 500 million or more per day. It was a practice run for the .com scams to come. Even the 'boyz' need a warmup.
I ran a desk in 96, IDID was at 5 cents or so when it started on a thursday. By days end, it was up to .45. On Friday, it went from .45 to 1.10 or so on 100 million shares. Monday, it went from 1.10 to 2.50 or so on 250 million shares, and was the highest volume nasdaq stock to that date. Tuesday from 2.10 to 1.10 or so. Wednesday, the stock never opened, and everything was lost if you were long. comparator Systems supposedly had the technology to fingerprint ID people at ATM's. Come to find out, it was just 3 people in an office in Las Vegas with the IDEA, no product. On my desk, we were buying certs for $1.00, regardless of shares so the clients could take the loss. I can't tell you how many people Scr@##@ the pooch on that one. LIVE AND LEARN!!!!
for retail folks in rural America is what I remember. And watching for days a stock in WSJ until it was time.... Had about 8 or 10 stocks so I was doing what would be called swing. If I got really antsy, I'd call the broker for current quotes. When we got wired long after the urban crowd, I went with Quick & Reilly, a first mover to retail people. Nobody had a second computer that I knew and most had other jobs. So we'd all call the guy we knew who had quotes and, if we were up a few hundred, drive like hell home on two wheels at lunch and sell at market. Also, I remember some really wealthy guys foresaking two or three grand a day from their careers to make 300$ trading. One older guy I knew took 800K that was fully invested from his broker and put it in Datek when they opened up. He'd never typed anything in his life so we went over and put in his orders to buy and sell. Biggest position I ever saw him take was a $1,500 purchase. His broker was livid but what was really interesting to me was that the pros were caught flat foot on the crap companies being traded. When they started getting calls from good customers about this junk, they learned real fast. You had trust officers at the local bank recommending Centennial Technologies or MobileMedia ...... . It was beautiful. Geo