Can I hear about your worst trades ever?? Everyone will freely talk about their best ones...

Saltynuts · Mar 9, 2018

Dang ET180, any idea on the first one why the insiders were buying when it was so close to bankruptcy? If it was months later they might not have known, but if it was just a few weeks later it seems they would have to know about their difficulties!

JSOP · Mar 9, 2018

Saltynuts said:
Wowzers, you invested 80% of your portfolio in a single strangle? THAT takes balls.

Actually it wasn't even a strangle, it was a Straddle! I was thinking that it's the most volatile stock during its earnings, why not go for the combo that will net me the biggest gain if I am gonna risking everything anyway? And at first I was actually hesitant between investing just 25% of my portfolio or 80% but at the end I decided to go all in thinking if I am going to earn it, I am going to earn BIG!!! That's why I only needed a 5% move, just the price moving FIVE percent EITHER way, I would've been in the clear, walking away with everything I needed to gain.

But alas, it was not meant to be on that day. Balls in a straddle do NOT end well:

JSOP · Mar 9, 2018

Saltynuts said:
Dang ET180, any idea on the first one why the insiders were buying when it was so close to bankruptcy? If it was months later they might not have known, but if it was just a few weeks later it seems they would have to know about their difficulties!

One of those Enron pumping & dumping crap probably

SteveM · Mar 9, 2018

In 2014 I did some backtesting and came to the conclusion that Chinese stocks were due for a big bull move, So I bought $50,000 worth of a 2X leveraged China ETF (XPP), and bought some on margin as well. Ten months later and my $50,000 was up to $160,000. I also bought some for a family member as well - at one point the combined position went up $75,000 in a mere 2 weeks. Things were really going well.

Over the next four months I rode my entire position all the way back down to my initial $50,000 without realizing a single cent of profit. Lesson learned.

SteveM · Mar 9, 2018

Saltynuts said:
I was also not too far away from losing EVERYTHING on XIV/SVXY on the early February blowout.

Ditto - I got flat at 2:30PM at $89.00 on SVXY. Ninety minutes later and it was trading at $12.50 after the close. Would have cost me over $100,000 if I held at the close. Huge lesson.

ET180 · Mar 9, 2018

Saltynuts said:
Dang ET180, any idea on the first one why the insiders were buying when it was so close to bankruptcy? If it was months later they might not have known, but if it was just a few weeks later it seems they would have to know about their difficulties!

It was a real estate equity trust and I think that was actually 2007 before the crisis really got bad. I think the owners were trying to show confidence in the company and get others to buy. Obviously, they did not put their life savings into the company.

I almost bought XIV on the day it crashed. It would have been a very small position, but glad I avoided that loss.

Cabin111 · Mar 9, 2018

Saltynuts said:
Dang, love this thread, glad to see I'm not the only one who has made some major booboos! I remember when I was in college, someone rear ended my Firebird, and it was totaled. I got a check for like $12,000 out of it. Back then tech stocks were hot, and I thought I was going to make a fortune selling covered calls on them. So I bought several tech stock and sold my calls. Market, and techs in particular, cratered shortly thereafter. My ~$12,000 turned into $500.

Tandy Corp., My Space, AOL...What could possibly go wrong? Or was it those great concept tech companies...With no earnings??

R1234 · Mar 9, 2018

I bought a property in July 2006 for $552,500 and sold it in August 2011 for $437,500

Cabin111 · Mar 9, 2018

ET180 said:
It was a real estate equity trust and I think that was actually 2007 before the crisis really got bad. I think the owners were trying to show confidence in the company and get others to buy. Obviously, they did not put their life savings into the company.

I almost bought XIV on the day it crashed. It would have been a very small position, but glad I avoided that loss.

My brother had my mom (widow) in Thornburg Mortgage...Great yield. I told him to get her out of it, just in time. I knew there was something fishy going on with so many loans out there.

lawrence-lugar · Mar 9, 2018

I really have had no bad trades, atleast in recent modern years.

My worst trades all hovered around when I was an amateur in 2008/09 -- when I jumped into the market headfirst.
I made every rookie mistake in the book.

I held onto a couple losing trades...hoping and praying and convinced they would go back up.
And, more or less, as just my luck would have it...they rebounded, kind of, just as I have sold them.

Back then, I was just a jackoff gambling...into the Quarterly Earnings game with stock :wtf:

,

I would essentially go all-in and pick a side. Ride the wave, and immediately cut losses. Simple enough, right?

I have definitely wised-up my game since then. and maturity. and market wisdom. -- and overall tactics.

Ten years since that point, now in 2018...I am Making Trading Great Again...High-Five`
I am so glad I can teach my expertise wisdom to every ET, extraterrestrial trader, here.
I need a medium-rare porterhouse steak, and salad, and double espresso. and whiskey.