This year it has to be going long OSTK Leaps(calls), closely followed by selling a major gold futures position at $475 after riding it up from $423 and only putting on 30% of a full position on PFE when it was under $21 (had intended to ease in to a triple position in Dec and take advantage of expected year end selling, will probably hit $26 Monday on the lipitor news) two weeks ago. My return this year will be between 970-1000% depending on what PFE does the rest of the year and yet, mostly because of the gold trade (had 250 mini's), I am not all that pleased with the year. Oh and how can i forget VPHM, bought at 4 and sold at 8 then watched it go to $23+. Most satisfying trades of the year were obviously Gold, short IBM days before the preannounced, Short toll when they started talking down future earnings earlier this year (still could kick myself there too as I was short between $55-47, should have held), and short Rimm a week before they preannounced, also riding AMD up from $21 to 26 was a noteable trade. Smartest trade of the year was advising a friend to get out of Calpine at 2.70, he eventaully listened at 2.25, only I guess it wasn't all that smart as I didn't have the conviction to go short!
Thats not dumb. Thats the risk we take going overnight. This is dumb = 100k+ in your account. Buy 2000 shares of stock @ 14`ish and your buying another 1000 shares every .25 down until your account is down 70k or so.....thats dumb. To this day I don't know what I was thinking...my colleagues watched me do it and didn't say anything. It was if I was hypnotized. Frozen. Finally I sold out with a 75% or so loss. The stock still hasn't recovered after 3 years. And that was the last time I ever added to a loser. So the loss wasn't for naught.
Heres something that happened to someone else. Some 30 or 35 years ago a guy wanted to go partners with a friend to buy 1000 acres of land in Las vegas for 25k. My friend says to this guy "Are you crazy? Why would i spend my money to buy some worthless desert in Las Vegas?" That same land today, has a market value of over 500 Million dollars.
To the guy who called me a scumbag and wants to take me out behind the woodshed you can find me at 123 ASSKICK Street. If you saw the biceps on me you would never be snapping off like that. As far as why your mad I don't get it, you think I'm an advisory service, whatever Mister. Yea here's some advice, stop being such a Jerk. This is one of the first sites I've seen where there are no snapperheads making confrontational posts just because they are hiding behind their computer. You can learn alot reading the posts, and you can tell that most of these guys are the real deal. Myself I'm a long time options trader. I keep it simple, trading Intraday closing-trends. I keep my exposure to the Market as small as I can by always closing out my positions by the Close. My goal is to scalp a 15% gain per trade, never more. I like using a Baseball analogy to describe how I trade, in that I'm only trying to get a "base hit". I never even try for a Homerun because I'm out of the trade when I hit my 15% goal. I cover the downside by never, ever letting my position drop by more than 10%. It goes down 10% and I'm out. The only way this can work is if I'm guessing Market direction into the close correctly, well I hate "guessing". To be successful you obviously have to be right more than wrong. You have two choices here, You can try to figure which way the trend is going yourself, or you can find an expert timer who has a proven record. I tried making my own calls and nearly got wiped out. Then a broker turned me onto his intraday timing guy who nails the call better than 75% of the time. (to avoid accusations that I'm promoting anything I won't post any names). Anyway that's how this old dog plays the Market, determine the closing-trend, get in, then get out 15% higher, 7 "base hits" and I've doubled my money. And I always sleep well since I never hold a position overnight. Nice and simple, just the way I like it. W.R. p.s. sorry you guys, I know this post was off topic but I had to respond to what "H" was trying to imply.
Becoming a prop daytrader two and half years ago instead of collecting the free money in RE as a sales agent or a mortgage broker. Or even being a personal trainer. Live and learn.
By far it was when I was 24. A buddy and I traveled to SE asia. Being an every day pot smoker at the time I thought it would be a good idea to bring with me in case we couldnt get some there. I ended up bringing a 1/4 oz. in my underware to Hong Kong then onto Singapore. From there we went to Malaysia where we finished it. We had to fly back to Singapore to make a connecting flight to Darwin, Australia. Only then on the plane to Singapore did I notice the front of the immigration card we had to fill out upon landing. It was a picture of a man being hanged, with the caption "WE EXECUTE DRUG SMUGGLERS". This was before that American kid was caned for vandilism, and their total intolerence for drugs was played in the media, so I didnt think it would be that "big" of a deal. Not to mention we were young Americans, unshaven, carrying backpacks, it was a miracle we did not get searched based on that alone. I still get a shiver thinking how lucky, and fkcing stupid I was.
In college, I was in the Netherlands visiting a friend who was studying abroad there and considered bringing 4 ounces of "shrooms" back with me on the plane home. My thinking was that they were odorless and that I would hide them really well so that would be enough for me to get away with it. At the last minute, I decided to mail them from Brussels, Belgium instead of risking it (I was there for one day before I was to fly home). When I landed in the US (after flying home from Amsterdam), I was pulled aside and brought into a seperate room. At the time, I was 21 and had 4 earings and was wearing a visor so I looked like a druggie. Anyways, to make a long story short, I got strip searched down to my boxers and had a big german sheppard going through all my stuff from my luggage while a really mean cop kept telling me how fucked i'd be if they found anything. Needless to say, the decision to mail them, while stupid in itself, is what saved me from jail time.
Follow up. When we landed in Darwin we were pulled from the line and had our luggage searched. I was not worried because we had absolutly nothing in us. However, my friend had a fanny pack (back when they weren't so gay) which had a blade of grass in it, not pot, but actual grass. That's all they needed. The custom agents took us to a room where they proceeded to x-ray everything, sneakers, shampoo etc...Then they started to read our journals, word for word, we each kept during the trip. In my friend's he wrote "I can't believe he's bringing the stuff across the border, he's crazy". When they read that, they freaked. They were yelling, "What the fuck is this!","Where's the stuff!". Needless to say we were strip searched (bent over and everything). Though I knew we had nothing, my heart was still beating a mile a minute.
Next time insist on the hot blonde and stacked brunette security chicks before things go too far and that way when you get taken into the back and strip searched the only thing they can bust you for is hiding a loaded and concealed weapon in your shorts.