I know that tourists and steady Members of this board like trading stories, so I thought I'd share one that might be of some benefit. Most stories are just funny or bizarre, but a few can be quite useful.
I have noticed over the years that some traders are strongly predisposed to a personality trait that has them consistently fading any market. They want to fight the market.
In the 1990's there was a very big, quite prominent 30 Year Treasury Bond independent local futures trader by the name of Chip Kenyon. He gave a brief seminar talk at a CBOT event in Chicago, and I made sure to attend. He told the story of himself building up his account to the point where he was ready to stop leasing his Full Membership and buy it outright. It was a big goal and milestone in his career. In essence, he went on to explain how he gave back his year to date (and the seat purchase amount) in basically one horrific day "cannonballing" the market. [cannonball is an idiosyncratic term for fading everything for size. Just because.] He went on to call the behavior a "disease", and vowed to never do that again. He was just going to stop fighting the market. In several weeks time since that vow, he had quite impressively recovered his account from that disastrous day. He went on to buy that Full Seat, and he concluded that since that quite painful lesson his trading really took off to the next level. He was still at the time of his speech very bitter about 'the complete waste' that horrific day was. At the time of that speech, he was known around the pit as a trader who would take a 2500 lot. If there was a floor broker looking to move serious size and assure a fill for his client with the least drama then Chip Kenyon had the reputation of being one of the few locals that a floor broker could count on. And there were only a few locals like that around.
I have noticed over the years that some traders are strongly predisposed to a personality trait that has them consistently fading any market. They want to fight the market.
In the 1990's there was a very big, quite prominent 30 Year Treasury Bond independent local futures trader by the name of Chip Kenyon. He gave a brief seminar talk at a CBOT event in Chicago, and I made sure to attend. He told the story of himself building up his account to the point where he was ready to stop leasing his Full Membership and buy it outright. It was a big goal and milestone in his career. In essence, he went on to explain how he gave back his year to date (and the seat purchase amount) in basically one horrific day "cannonballing" the market. [cannonball is an idiosyncratic term for fading everything for size. Just because.] He went on to call the behavior a "disease", and vowed to never do that again. He was just going to stop fighting the market. In several weeks time since that vow, he had quite impressively recovered his account from that disastrous day. He went on to buy that Full Seat, and he concluded that since that quite painful lesson his trading really took off to the next level. He was still at the time of his speech very bitter about 'the complete waste' that horrific day was. At the time of that speech, he was known around the pit as a trader who would take a 2500 lot. If there was a floor broker looking to move serious size and assure a fill for his client with the least drama then Chip Kenyon had the reputation of being one of the few locals that a floor broker could count on. And there were only a few locals like that around.
