Back in the bubble days I used to daytrade YHOO, One day I was long 600 shares and I decided to exit at $170. By mistake I entered $17 . When I checked my daily activity it said 600 sold at $17. Words can't describe the feeling i had as I realized I just pissed away 90K on an order entry error. I was in such a panic i did not think to check my account balance. I called ETRADE, told them what happened, and the guy started laughing and said just calm down, Then he said you order was sold at 170.11 and in a matter of 5 minutes my emotions had went from rock bottom to sky high. This was over 4 years ago, and to this day I have never made another order entry mistake.
I was long 3,000 shares of JEF and was in the money 79 cents. I wanted to up tick the stock and get the buyer awake again, so I started to send 100 share market orders . Well guess what? They were 1000 share market orders. I sent 9 of them, two got cancelled. I got filled on 7,000 share 40 cents higher. Then the buyer printed out right after my prints and i was left with 10,000 shares. The stock spread down 60 cents and was getting whacked. I ended up losing $6200 instead of making $3000 or so. That was 2.5 years ago and i still have nightmares
In the '80s, I was once long 20 SPs... (back then, there was only one SP contract, and it was $500/pt.) In a panic to stop out, I accidently said "buy" to the broker. When I realized where I stood (long 40 @ $500/pt), I blanched white.
I sold Yahoo at 48 right on an Instinet terminal. All I was thinking was the last two digits. The price was 148. I did not realize it at all. I saw my P&L was negative big time. (I don't remember if it was 500 or 1000 shares). I figured the software was glitched. Wouldn't have been the first time. Fortunately, someone noticed how much I was down. I was a firm trader at Schonfeld, and they had monitors in NY watching for big P&L swings. They called me, and I was able to get the trade busted. I was very lucky it happened during regular market hours. In those days I traded a lot of overnights, and closed many positions pre-market (which is why I had the Instinet terminal on my desk). If I had made that closing trade before 9:30, I would have been stuck in all likelihood (if another Schonfeld trader was on the other side, I would have at least had a chance...but not a lock...to break the trade). In the end, I sold the stock a few points higher. Ah, those were the days!!!! Peace, RS