Quote from heech:
I'd love to see that thread, if you could point it out again... thank ya.
Heech, I don't remember the name of it. It was linked to from something else here I was reading, so I just clicked the link and paid no attention to the title of the thread. However, one guy was down $2 million and ended the day "only" down a million I think.
The whole "surprise news announcement/40 pt gap" stuck in my mind. It scared the hell of out me. Last week and the week before I felt like an ATM machine and was trading size and started testing what it feels like to trade 10-15 lots in my sim account, which means I was having very dangerous thoughts, and the confluence of reading that thread and getting ammo's message at almost the same time just stopped me cold.
It's so easy it is to become complacent and expect the market to always do X, if Y occurs. Thing is, anything can happen. A major news event hits and we retail traders are left in the dust. I mean, what good is a stop if the market suddenly gaps 40 pts and keeps going? If I'm long 10 or 15 CL and something crazy tosses price down 5 points or more, game over for me. If I'm long 1 or 2 CL and that happens, it's a damn rough day, but I'm still very much alive.