lurkerlurker
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I know how the markets have historically reacted to certain pieces of news, including an assault on a President. Last week, I would have said that I was pretty well prepared for unforeseen circumstances.
Tuesday afternoon, I think I am flat. I am up a fairly good profit for the day, and for the week. I am on target to make my £500 / wk target as I am trying to trade well enough to live off the profits. I am gambling on the markets through spreadbetting. (not my personal view, just the governments)
I come back to my computer after a bit of lunch to see how the Dow is doing. I look at my open positions in shock - a buy on the daily Dow contract has been executed at £6pp. I was meant to be flat. There is a 5 point spread and the position is showing a £60 loss. I freeze. £90 loss and growing. The limit should have been cancelled. There appeared to have been some problem cancelling my limit order - my SB firm has a web interface and I dont think the request went through properly - either that or the price was triggered before the limit was cancelled. Either way, I don't blame the SB company because the mistake was most likely my own. I suppose the correct thing to do would have been to call them and see if they had a record of an attempted cancel of the limit before it was hit - but I didn't do that. Instead, I attempted to trade the position I had been dealt.
My losses grew, the market was going down, and for some reason I held the position, refusing to accept a loss for a trade I hadn't actively decided to take...
I made mistakes, and then let the bet settle on market close. Total loss of ~£250.
How would you have reacted to seeing the order. Close it immediately at a loss? (I wish I had done that, as I would be in profit for this week now, instead of £120 down). How about calling the SB company right away and informing them the bet was to have been cancelled - maybe if I had called them quickly and their systems had a record of a failed cancel request - even a webserver log entry showing the error page - anything?
What other truly unforeseen events have you also experienced, and how did you react to them? What could you have done differently?
Have a nice weekend!
Tuesday afternoon, I think I am flat. I am up a fairly good profit for the day, and for the week. I am on target to make my £500 / wk target as I am trying to trade well enough to live off the profits. I am gambling on the markets through spreadbetting. (not my personal view, just the governments)
I come back to my computer after a bit of lunch to see how the Dow is doing. I look at my open positions in shock - a buy on the daily Dow contract has been executed at £6pp. I was meant to be flat. There is a 5 point spread and the position is showing a £60 loss. I freeze. £90 loss and growing. The limit should have been cancelled. There appeared to have been some problem cancelling my limit order - my SB firm has a web interface and I dont think the request went through properly - either that or the price was triggered before the limit was cancelled. Either way, I don't blame the SB company because the mistake was most likely my own. I suppose the correct thing to do would have been to call them and see if they had a record of an attempted cancel of the limit before it was hit - but I didn't do that. Instead, I attempted to trade the position I had been dealt.
My losses grew, the market was going down, and for some reason I held the position, refusing to accept a loss for a trade I hadn't actively decided to take...
I made mistakes, and then let the bet settle on market close. Total loss of ~£250.
How would you have reacted to seeing the order. Close it immediately at a loss? (I wish I had done that, as I would be in profit for this week now, instead of £120 down). How about calling the SB company right away and informing them the bet was to have been cancelled - maybe if I had called them quickly and their systems had a record of a failed cancel request - even a webserver log entry showing the error page - anything?
What other truly unforeseen events have you also experienced, and how did you react to them? What could you have done differently?
Have a nice weekend!
