Every now and then I do some stupid things trading but this was by far the my worst blunder yet. Over the weekend I was bravely holding KLAC and QQQ calls, also Long TYC, DNA and was trying to watch all my positions for best exit. I also trade MEDI every day and was long and short several times so far. I had to go out to my driveway and show a boat that I was selling and I didn't dare hold my long position (Medi could be down $2.00 In the next 10 min. intraday swings can be really violent) I quickly sold my long position in MEDI then went out for about 60 minutes. When I came back in Medi had gone from 26.15 to 27.50 I was really pissed off that I was not holding my long position. I decided to quit trading about 12:00 Medi was flying at $28.50 by now. That night I was checking my P&L on all my trades and realized that I had somehow not sold but rather bought another 300 shares of MEDI. (Now long 600 MEDI). I quickly checked to see that it had closed at $27.52 well above my average cost of 26.21 but well off the 28.50 high. How the hell could I have done this? Up $2.29 at the high of the day with no clue that I still owned the stock. I was having problems with my confirmations today but I know the difference between a buy and sell order . I logged back into my account to make sure my printed report was correct. Yes 600 MEDI was clearly one of my positions. I woke up today happy to see that the futures were looking good and about 3 minutes after the open I was able to sell into a good rally adding an extra $1200 to my account. The sad thing about a trade like this is that I got rewarded for stupidity. This trade could have easily gone against me $2000. In looking back I realized that my trading on monday was a little nuts. Trying to trade too many stocks drinking way too much caffeine. I got off easy on this one. Any one else have any good tales? :eek:
I have the same kind of tale. Long time ago working on CME floor. I am short 1 car copper. Having small loss I told clerk to buy copper to get out. She understood cotton. Now I am still short copper and long cotton not knowing it. Checking back 20 min. later or so, I realized what was going on. I was following cotton and I knew it was really strong right from the opening bell so I thought screw it I am long, market is strong I'm staying in.(I had no clue where I was filled and felt like an idiot, but I was making money so what). In the meantime I got out of copper and sat tight for the rest of the day. It was the biggest profit ($800, 70% of the move) up to that time (being a newbie). If I stayed short copper I would have made money too. It was such a great lesson. Up to that time I was struggling to make a decent trade to no avail and here I cleaned up with position I didn't put on consciously. It tought me that this business is more about trade management than a great entry.
That is an excellent tale. I was long a few months ago when a halt occurred. After waiting MANY hours it opened back up and was down 20%. I sat there watching in shock as it started closing the gap. When it got within 5% of my break-even I tried to sell, even though it was still going up like a rocket. My order didn't execute because of the fast market. It was skipped over I guess. I cancelled and re-entered it 3 times before it finally "took". I made 3% on the trade.