What is your worst trade ever?
Mine was shorting GOE on its triumphant run... I shorted 2600 shares (and would have shorted a fucking lot more if there was locate, there was none thankfully) at 24.80 or so on the way up...
Little background info
GOE was a credit suisse created ETN targeting gold. It came out at $10 a share and was supposed to move in % terms with gold, which was around 1000 an ounce when it debuted. I shorted it at a gold equivalent value of 2450 an ounce.... FREE MONEY ARBITRAGE. Not so much... there were only 50,000 shares of this POS and as such it was a deadly squeeze waiting to happen and I do not doubt that the squeeze was engineered, so kudos to whoever made bank and even more kudos to whoever was able to short it near the top... it ran up to around 121 dollars a share (gold=12,100 an ounce.....) and then CS was like 'lolwtf omg this shouldnt happen!' and then later 'checked out what was happening' and decided to delist it to the pink sheets... and it came crashing back down. i was forced to cover due to t+3 short availability at 48 or so :)
and your deadly downfalls?!






I loaded up on BAC (at $32)
I loaded up on BAC (at $32) and WFC ($28) right after Wells bought Wachovia and BAC bought ML. My rationale being that the crisis was going to be bad but not devastating, the markets were overreacting, and the big guys would be even better positioned to rule the market after picking up two big platforms on the cheap. I still like the thesis long-term, but my timing was just a leeeetle off.
Ironically this segues into the best trade of my life, which was to load up on asstons of BAC at $3.10/share in the depths of the crisis to average my $32 purchase down (yes, I held it all like a moron). I bought so many shares that when I sold the whole lot at $16 a few months ago, I ended up making a bundle.
- Capt K -
"Prestige is like a powerful magnet that warps even your beliefs about what you enjoy. If you want to make ambitious people waste their time on errands, bait the hook with prestige." - Paul Graham
I gave Barca goals at a
I gave Barca goals at a discount for receiving Real goals on Monday... damn you Mourinho!
Jack: They’re all former investment bankers who were laid off from that economic crisis that Nancy Pelosi caused. They have zero real world skills, but God they work hard.
-30 Rock
Oh boy, back when shit was
Oh boy, back when shit was going down, I was daytrading lehman, wachovia, etc. They were pretty volatile so I was able to generate quite a large amount of profit. The worst trade I made though would be buying citi at a fairly high price (forget exact amount, but above 12). Months later, I bought a lot of citi at 98 cents though :D
goldman calls after the stock
goldman calls after the stock was only down 15%...got liquidated in three days
I bought faz in march 09
I bought faz in march 09
my friend tricked me into
my friend tricked me into trading a holographic snorlax for a diglett when i was 8.
Amd long in the $40s... That
Amd long in the $40s...
That or buying DSX in the teens.. watching it go up to $40.. and then watching it go back down to the teens.
Opi wrote: my friend tricked
my friend tricked me into trading a holographic snorlax for a diglett when i was 8.
Ah, pokemon.
Brings back so many memories.
It was a grade 6 pokemon battle. I took my best cards to school - dark charizard, blastoise, you name it. Needless to say, I destroyed my opponents and left school victorious. I celebrated by taking a bubble bath (bubble baths are the shit). A week later, I put my pants on (laundered by my mother) and noticed a slight bulge in my pocket. Curiously, I stuck my hands in my pocket and fou- WHA-MY POKEMON CARDS NOOOOOO
two trades wiped out my 5k
two trades wiped out my 5k account. the first when i bought four e mini s&p contracts at the high of the day. rode it all the way down for loss of 66%. the other day i blew up again and waay overbought e mini s&p's and crude oil..
blew up big time. futures and F'ing nasty.
Raptor Jesus wrote: Opi
my friend tricked me into trading a holographic snorlax for a diglett when i was 8.
Ah, pokemon.
Brings back so many memories.
It was a grade 6 pokemon battle. I took my best cards to school - dark charizard, blastoise, you name it. Needless to say, I destroyed my opponents and left school victorious. I celebrated by taking a bubble bath (bubble baths are the shit). A week later, I put my pants on (laundered by my mother) and noticed a slight bulge in my pocket. Curiously, I stuck my hands in my pocket and fou- WHA-MY POKEMON CARDS NOOOOOO
Cool story, bro.
I win here, I win there...
I've had a lot of bad trades
I've had a lot of bad trades over the past 20 or so years, but the one that really sticks out in my mind was a D-mark trade in the late 90's.
I don't even remember how I had it structured, but it was some dipshit butterfly call spread or some such nonsense and I remember there were 4 legs to the trade. It was expiration day and the position was up about $32,000. We're into the last hour before expiration, where if I do absolutely nothing I pocket the $32k. But I'm monkeying with the numbers and I realize that if I lift one of the protective legs of the trade, I can make another $850.
That's right, $850. So I call the head of research and run it by him, he thinks about it and says, "Yeah, it looks good, but why fuck with it? You're already up nicely in the trade, and there's no guarantee something stupid won't happen. That leg is there to protect the trade. But if you really want the extra $850, go for it." So I did it. I sold the protective leg of the trade and made the $850.
Literally 5 minutes before the close, the market starts going berserk. The Bundesbank made a surprise interest rate shift and, without the protective leg in place, my $32,000 profit became an $18,000 loss in five minutes.
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BBYat 40 went down to 35 in
BBYat 40 went down to 35 in two days after it reported earning awhile back, fuck you jim crammer
I bought PPA.T (Protective
I bought PPA.T (Protective Products of America, on the TSX) at 1.40$.
Next thing yo know, the CEO was arrested by the FBI and the company restructured.
Shares now listed on the Pink Sheets, worth $0.0004 (ticker PPAFQ)
No point in selling haha...
I went heavy short *right*
I went heavy short *right* before March '09. I had a TON of AAPL & RIMM calls and they were just lagging and running a loss so I sold out of those longs, which were my only long positions, and stayed short. Needless to say, I got fucked on both of those. Just on the AAPL & RIMM calls I left about $75-80k on the table.
I went short end of August this year too - great call!!!
And then there was my infamous GOOG trade. The afternoon of earnings (also day before expiration) I had a feeling GOOG would put and put an order in for calls $50 ABOVE strike price. I think they were a strike of 500 and GOOG was at 450. They were something like .32/each. It was 3:57 and the order didn't execute and I was getting bored watching it trying to save a few dollars here and there. I cancelled the order. GOOG came out with earnings and teh stock went from 450 to 515. The next morning the GOOG calls I would've purchased opened at 33.00 form .32. I left about $120k on the table which would've been made in 4 minutes.
AWESOME!!!
single life 4 wife @ 24.05
single life 4 wife @ 24.05
remember: long wife=short life
Where I unload on Twits and take verbal S***s
I bought countrywide calls in
Bought CIT last summer for
I blew up a $12K account on a
tyrets wrote: I went heavy
kingtut wrote: tyrets
Does worst trade have to be
spoonfork wrote: Does worst
AMD calls a few years back.
i thought the uaua article
I need a crib, a big estate, I need a boat and that need a lake, I need some salmon that need a plate, that need a chef so I feed my safe
From trading equities to slanging wine in Latin America
A ship is safe in harbor, but that is not what a ship i
New to this, but true to
"Kept feeding him dollars 'till it all started to make cents."
shorttheworld wrote: i
Bought Fannie Mae at about
People tend to think life is a race with other people. They don't realize that every moment they spend sprinting towards the finish line is a moment they lose permanently, and a moment closer to their death.
bought Circuit City in the
'89 upper deck the kid for 91
WSO Conf - June 29, 2013
Worst trade...? How about the
How about another story to
monty09 wrote: '89 upper deck
Midas Mulligan Magoo
Edmundo Braverman
WSO Conf - June 29, 2013
monty09 wrote: '89 upper deck
monty09 wrote: '89 upper deck
FXTrading wrote: monty09
I do not add to losing trades
Bondarb wrote: I do not add
@Bondarb Ouch.
Bondarb wrote: monty09
WSO Conf - June 29, 2013
I lost a lot of money betting
Anybody just trade SWM?
Literally, MARCH 6th...I
vanillathunder12 wrote: I
Liquidmetal Technologies Inc.
Yours truly,
The Young Investor