Can you recall you first day of trading?

Just finished my first day of trading real money during my intern this summer and I lost about 30 bucks. The originall BP accout is around 4000 dollars. I am kinda sad, need some motivation and welcome more stories about your first day of trading (interns and fulltimes are all welcomed)..............

 

I don't exactly remember my first day, but I do remember my first trade. I was lucky. Bought Citigroup at 03/09 at a split adjusted $10++, sold it 3/4 days later for $18++. Made a bit of money. Bear in mind I was trading my parents account, so the money was really quite substantial. Proceeded to lose most of my profit even with the roaring bull.

 

4k is smaller than most personal accounts bro.

But I won't chirp you for that cause I know how it feels - managed a 50k account at a small prop desk during freshman summer. Lost about $800 one day, slightly above my risk limit, but worst of all that loss was subsequent to a string of daily losses so you start questioning if you're in the right industry. Glad I didn't let my self doubt deter me.

Edit: thought this was about the largest loss during first trading internship. Don't recall my first day beyond thinking the food sucks.

 
Best Response

Does this refer to prop shops/arcades because you wont be trading naything real on a BB internship (might sound obvious but there have been some kids that thought that was gonna be the case lol)

My first day trading a book on a sell side desk at a BB was a bit all over the place. Basically got handed a book for a sector as someone left and was just left to figure it out. Everytime a client request came in I had to check DES on bloomberg to see what the company actually did haha, good times. First couple weeks were filled with complete nervousness, get to the office at 5:30 because needed the 2.5 hours before market open to make sure I had all my bases covered. After a couple of months it becomes a bit more second nature, you know your book like the back of your hand, its actually quite surprising how it becomes so ingrained in your head.

 

my first day trading i was trading 30yr bonds at an ibank (i had just recently been hired as the junior off-the-run bond guy...this was my first time actually trading a security of any kind - my expected annual P&L was +2-4mm...works out to an expected +8-16k/day)..i didn't understand the volatility...so i was trading clips of 10mm bonds...i lost 150k before my senior guy looked at my P&L @ 10am and he said "WTF ARE YOU DOING??"

this was about 8 years ago...and i still remember...i was smiling/laughing at the time until i got read the Riot Act by my senior...and that was when i learned how to take losing money seriously..even when it is OPM

I am a proprietary Govt Bond Trader...i post my comments on the mkt intraday at twitter...and longer articles on my blog. I've accumulated a lot of educational info in these blogs..so i highly recommend checking them out http://govttrader.blogspot.com
 
derivstrading:

Does this refer to prop shops/arcades because you wont be trading naything real on a BB internship (might sound obvious but there have been some kids that thought that was gonna be the case lol)

My first day trading a book on a sell side desk at a BB was a bit all over the place. Basically got handed a book for a sector as someone left and was just left to figure it out. Everytime a client request came in I had to check DES on bloomberg to see what the company actually did haha, good times. First couple weeks were filled with complete nervousness, get to the office at 5:30 because needed the 2.5 hours before market open to make sure I had all my bases covered. After a couple of months it becomes a bit more second nature, you know your book like the back of your hand, its actually quite surprising how it becomes so ingrained in your head.

Prop at a boutique ib.

 

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