DaxDestroyer
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How much have you made in a single trade?
- Thread starter shadowninja
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Phil Mibbutz
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A very thick newcomer to spread betting (ahem) once inadvertently entered a stake of £11 per point instead of £1 on a Dow bet. Then the platform crashed. By the time the dimwit realised what had happened, his planned risk for the trade had been blown to smithereens.
shadowninja
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ooopsWhy?
The post came up 3 times...
shadowninja
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nkruger
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trader_dante
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Earlier this year I was trading an account for a friend. It was really just some fun to see what I could do.
Right at the bottom of the mid-August market freefall I saw a couple of back to back pin bars on the FTSE. Even though I normally trade pin bars, I normally don't try to stem a daily avalanche with an hourly reversal bar.
However, this time something told me to give it a go, so I entered long at £4 a tick with a fairly tight stop, which for me is something like 30 ticks and went to lunch.
When I got back an hour or so later, an American colleague came up to me grinning.
I said to him "What are you so happy about?"
He said: "The Pound is soaring and that is good news for me as it means I get more money when I exchange it".
So I said: "Why is the pound soaring?". I wasn't really paying much attention when I said that to him. I really didn't expect him to know anything that I didn't.
He replied: "Oh well, I just read on the BBC that the US cut their interest rates".
I stopped dead in my tracks. I said: "Are you sure you got that right, I mean you must be mistaken, there isn't an interest rate decision out today?"
He looked a little concerned at this point as I must have gone as white as a sheet.
He said to me: "Yeah, it's breaking news, they made a surprise cut and..."
I was off before he even finished.
When I got to my computer the FTSE was almost 300 points higher. The broker had actually pulled the market and this meant that I couldn't even enter an exit stop order.
I tried phoning to close but I knew none of my friends details and as soon as the security questions were being asked I had to hang up in frustration.
I tried contacting my friend but he was in a meeting and it was then that I started to see the market run out of momentum. My P&L held steady but I was really sweating at this point. I was repeatedly dialing his number and it was going straight to voicemail.
Eventually the market came back online and I came straight out for £1,018 profit.
This was one of the few times that trading has ever seriously stressed me out. It probably won't be the last
Right at the bottom of the mid-August market freefall I saw a couple of back to back pin bars on the FTSE. Even though I normally trade pin bars, I normally don't try to stem a daily avalanche with an hourly reversal bar.
However, this time something told me to give it a go, so I entered long at £4 a tick with a fairly tight stop, which for me is something like 30 ticks and went to lunch.
When I got back an hour or so later, an American colleague came up to me grinning.
I said to him "What are you so happy about?"
He said: "The Pound is soaring and that is good news for me as it means I get more money when I exchange it".
So I said: "Why is the pound soaring?". I wasn't really paying much attention when I said that to him. I really didn't expect him to know anything that I didn't.
He replied: "Oh well, I just read on the BBC that the US cut their interest rates".
I stopped dead in my tracks. I said: "Are you sure you got that right, I mean you must be mistaken, there isn't an interest rate decision out today?"
He looked a little concerned at this point as I must have gone as white as a sheet.
He said to me: "Yeah, it's breaking news, they made a surprise cut and..."
I was off before he even finished.
When I got to my computer the FTSE was almost 300 points higher. The broker had actually pulled the market and this meant that I couldn't even enter an exit stop order.
I tried phoning to close but I knew none of my friends details and as soon as the security questions were being asked I had to hang up in frustration.
I tried contacting my friend but he was in a meeting and it was then that I started to see the market run out of momentum. My P&L held steady but I was really sweating at this point. I was repeatedly dialing his number and it was going straight to voicemail.
Eventually the market came back online and I came straight out for £1,018 profit.
This was one of the few times that trading has ever seriously stressed me out. It probably won't be the last
Last edited:
shadowninja
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handy!
Back sometime in 1999, aged 13, my first ever 'trades' - went long Atlantic telecom, doubled my 1k overnight and took profits, after a few weeks, doubled my money on Cable and Wireless, banked another 1k. I was immortal and only 13..
Fast forward a few months, scaled up big time using my new spread betting account with Cantor, i'll put on another trade in my *lucky* stock. 40% gap down overnight, £1,600 loss and growing!!! and I still haven't learned to use stops! :-(
A couple of years later I got heavily involved in day trading the FTSE & Dow. Thought I would try my luck on the S&P500. Added a some extra digits on the 'pound per point' to gain sufficient exposure, unknown to me that it was pounds per 0.1! Anyway, down hundreds within minutes and about to get a margin call. I left my position open, came back 2 painful hours later to a tidy profit of £600.
Fast forward a few months, scaled up big time using my new spread betting account with Cantor, i'll put on another trade in my *lucky* stock. 40% gap down overnight, £1,600 loss and growing!!! and I still haven't learned to use stops! :-(
A couple of years later I got heavily involved in day trading the FTSE & Dow. Thought I would try my luck on the S&P500. Added a some extra digits on the 'pound per point' to gain sufficient exposure, unknown to me that it was pounds per 0.1! Anyway, down hundreds within minutes and about to get a margin call. I left my position open, came back 2 painful hours later to a tidy profit of £600.
shadowninja
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You started young!
BSD
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Yup.
Now enter the nth world wonder of compounding...
Discrete Compounding Formulas
And sky shall be the limit:
shadowninja
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Notably different to this:
(Stairway in Devon.)
(Stairway in Devon.)
BSD
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shadowninja
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There's a big fall at the end of that walkway. H&S will be on to you.
BSD
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Think it's all about technique, get it right, and you'll be beamed straight up to the bright lights. Get that part wrong, and you'll get an instant crash course on flying without the benefit of mechanical aids.
:cheesy:
Think you said you race cars, sort of like that maybe, know what you're doing with brakes and accelerator and wheel, and you'll be setting a new best time.
Get it a bit wrong, and you'll end up decorating the country side and entertaining bystanders.
Actually, not quite sure what he was doing. That road looks suspiciously straight to me.
Mushrooms, maybe.
;-)
WhoIz H&S btw ?
shadowninja
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Health and safety.
He probably hit something like a pothole at high speed. If you're moving fast, any slight nudge will send you way off course. I noticed this when I was travelling in my space ship.
He probably hit something like a pothole at high speed. If you're moving fast, any slight nudge will send you way off course. I noticed this when I was travelling in my space ship.
BSD
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Directional
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Yes, I've been guilty of travelling at unadvisably high speed on public roads in a similar kind of car and can attest to the fact that even a very long, straight, smooth road seems to develop enormous unseen bumps and undulations that threaten to launch you airborne when travelling at 2.5+ x the national speed limit :innocent:
:whistling
BSD
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Yes, I've been guilty of travelling at unadvisably high speed on public roads in a similar kind of car and can attest to the fact that even a very long, straight, smooth road seems to develop enormous unseen bumps and undulations that threaten to launch you airborne when travelling at 2.5+ x the national speed limit :innocent:
Haha, great stuff :clap:
Sad as it is, but 95% of speed limits are just a money making rip off anyway that have little if anything to do with overall road safety.
DaxDestroyer
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So I apologize for my shivering finger
I thought this would be blocked automatically Quick trading fingers maybe
DaxDestroyer
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Yes, I've been guilty of travelling at unadvisably high speed on public roads in a similar kind of car and can attest to the fact that even a very long, straight, smooth road seems to develop enormous unseen bumps and undulations that threaten to launch you airborne when travelling at 2.5+ x the national speed limit :innocent:
I only often wonder why the streets become so small during "going Warp" :whistling
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