I went back on the chart. The worst ONE DAY drop in EFII occurred on June June 6,2000. It dropped from 36 to 22.5. No where did I see a drop from 49 to 13 overnite. But that's still pretty wicked sucky scary! It eventually got down there but NOT in one shot.
December '97. Here it is: Dec-12-97 14.75 17.25 14.50 14.88 32,373,700 14.88 Dec-11-97 39.00 39.75 37.00 39.00 1,240,500 39.00 Dec-10-97 40.69 40.88 37.56 40.62 978,100 40.62 Dec-09-97 44.12 44.50 41.00 41.06 460,200 41.06 Dec-08-97 44.88 45.00 42.75 44.44 1,791,100 44.44 Dec-05-97 45.88 46.62 44.00 44.50 718,900 44.50 Dec-04-97 47.62 47.75 45.94 46.75 323,600 46.75 Dec-03-97 46.88 47.38 46.00 46.94 277,700 46.94 Dec-02-97 47.25 48.00 46.50 47.12 341,000 47.12 Dec-01-97 48.75 49.88 47.00 47.62 341,600 47.62 Nov-28-97 49.50 49.62 48.00 48.25 81,500 48.25 Don't forget pre-market either, halfwit.
here is where a former options floor broker would advise you to just stop, cold! psychoanalysize why / what was your first thought that made you suspect / expect / hope / wish / pray for / dream about QCOM going massively positive... capture that thought and that time frame, and think: 1) were you high on sugar from a doughnut (midwestern style), donut (NY style) 2) were you high on caffeine from coffee or other gums 3) were you high on life, just coming from lunch or depressed or was it rationale thought? When you decided to swing for the fences with 210 contracts, were it a: 1a) a mistake trade 1b) a mistake trade 1c) a mistake trade 2) all of the above? generally from the retail perspective when you load up on one side unhedged, you're a swing trader hitting for the fences and willing to get struck out. You changed your time horizon from swing to daytrade and blew yourself up by forgetting your original game plan and objective. PM me for further.....
This brings back some memories, I was also short when that "nasty little surprise" came, I lost about a tenth of yours, which to me was a nice little sports car, within minutes. What a time to do it, markets were thin which made things even more painfull. All these stories are great, better than the wins, and anyone who has been trading for a while can relate to them, and those who havn't, well the fun is just around the corner. Losing, is indeed the only way to learn, I hate stops but you gotta use them, just make sure there out of the grasp of the pit floor tree shakers!
JUst freakin forget about it. Stewing over this will only destroy your future trading. The same thing has happened to me the last two expirations. I Coulda, shoulda, woulda not hedged my position and made a bunch of cash. Then again, if I had played it straight two weeks ago, I would be up a lot more as well. By thinking you should hold out at all costs, you're going to lose a lot more money than gain.
How did you dig this up? He seems to be an old-timer that has accumulated an awful amount of trading capital.