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

[schweiz]

A mid 5 digit loss intraday.

 

[JSOP]

A mid 5 digit loss intraday.

What's the story? Care to share?

 

[JSOP]

I looked up Limited brands. Stock was approx 26 cents in 1970s. Today something like 46. Annualized return was about 11percent and it would have been worth tens millions for you. A real world example of compounding. If you had bought and held the spx when you sold limited, you would still have made at least several million.

My worst trade ever just happened to be a profit. I bought "Limited Stores" in 1972 shortly after they went public and held through the 73-74 bear market and had a 6 fold profit by 1978 and sold when they went into an acquisition phase so I thought the run was over. I am not sure what they are called now but they are more famous now for Victoria's Secrets than anything else I suppose. I forgot about them until I read an WSJ article in Jan, 1990 of the top performing NYSE stocks for the decade of the eighties and -- Yes, Limited Stores was the top performer.

My opportunity loss today is in the tens of millions that I could have had. What turns it into one of the worst trades for probably anyone is that I wired to proceeds to a business venture that turned out to be a scam so I lost everything on that trade. I am in my 40th year anniversary of selling my stock of a lifetime so thanks a lot for bringing it to mind and making me tell you about it.

I am sure those people who sold Apple and Google early are feeling lot worse right now.

 

[lawrence-lugar]

What's the story

Care to share?

Dare, I say...I'm intrigued as a mare, who stares at air
My favorite food is a medium-rare porterhouse steak, I bare.
Pears and apples give me gas.
Xare sounds like a cool, smart, unique name for both a male and female.

A "mid 5 digit loss intraday"...you could have bought a used Porsche 911 Turbo.
Or a Ferrari 355 or 360, if you search hard for a really used one, with alot of miles from a desperate, hurried seller.

 

[newwurldmn]

I am sure those people who sold Apple and Google early are feeling lot worse right now.

His story is a fascinating story on compounding. I did more research on LTD. From 1982 to today it earned 17% cagr compared to the spx 11% (dividends reinvested). The difference in net worth to last fall (LTD's peak) was like a factor of 10.

 

[schweiz]

What's the story? Care to share?

In the early 90's. A fairly big position in forex (at least for me at that time). I had big returns (that moment 50% a month), almost never a losing trade. I felt superior and almost invincible.
So I did not follow the rules sometimes like skipping a stop or average down. One day it had a very bad result...took the mother of all losses. Lost over 50K .

It was in the first 6 months I started trading. I was a newbie. Learned my lesson and never had a margin call anymore. Made me humble and from then on never skipped a stop anymore.

Later the broker asked me to sign a document confirming that I decided to take that position and that I knew the risk and ....
They wanted to be covered in case of a claim. They allowed me to trade forex at the rate of 1 million position per 50K account size. I was a newbie and did not realize the risk. This broker was a criminal in hindsight. Trying to find new victims every month and cash commissions. I know from one man working there who cashed over 1 million in commissions a year from tradingclients. Almost all these clients wiped out in short time and had to be replaced by new victims. One client committed even suicide.

 

[JSOP]

In the early 90's. A fairly big position in forex (at least for me at that time). I had big returns (that moment 50% a month), almost never a losing trade. I felt superior and almost invincible.
So I did not follow the rules sometimes like skip a stop or average down. One day it had a very bad result...took the mother of all losses. Lost over 50K .

It was in the first 6 months I started trading. Learned my lesson and never had a margin call anymore. Made me humble and from then on never skipped a stop anymore.

You were averaging 50% return every month? Wow I wish we could go back to those volatility back then.

 

[schweiz]

You were averaging 50% return every month? Wow I wish we could go back to those volatility back then.

It was because I took huge risks and was lucky till the moment I took the hit.
These returns were only the first few months.

 

[samuel11]

The max available leverage in forex was also higher at that time I believe: 1:400, at least in the US

 

[schweiz]

The max available leverage in forex was also higher at that time I believe: 1:400, at least in the US

SPOT? Or futures?
Spot is impossible I think. I could trade 1 million for each 50K in my account.