Prop Blowups, how common are they?

[brokerboy]

Quote from Pumpanddump:

That was the day I lost $180,000 on a trade suspension!!!!!!!!!!!!!! All cash, no margin!!!!!!!!

In April of 2000 i had a day i sold 8000 shares short of a stock. A few days later i had 180k cash in my account.

 

[jem]

Those first two weeks of January were some of my best for my style and I was skiing.

That was the height of the good trading and high volume in my office.

We had trained just about every one in the office and we were getting 25% of the profits or so.

When I came back from skiing I the business had made about half a years worth of profits.

Everyone was telling me I would have killed it as a trader. I do not know if I would have been short or long during the announcement I was not in the office.

But I do know that that week marked the beginning of the end of the good money for my style.

 

[Pumpanddump]

Too bad it was an OTC and couldnt be shorted.

Go back and trade your 100 lots of JDSU.

 

[winter]

Quote from m22au:

Winter, the problem is that you have juxtaposed "realistic" next to "worst-case scenario". These two phrases are two different ideas.

Worst-case scenario is that the NDX / NQ goes to 0, so the worst-case scenario for a NQ long is about $28,340.

Realistic might be 10% of that or about $3,000.

Hmmm, I don't think "realistic" and "worst-case scenario" are incompatible terms.

For instance I don't think the NDX can go to zero or more importantly if it does I don't think it will matter how much money you have in your brokerage account as the only valid currency will be weapons and food so my financial risk exposure to that scenario is irrelevent.

You're saying you don't think the NQ can drop more than 10% at once? Interesting.

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[billybobnasdaq]

Quote from momo trader99:

MXX WOW 11k in a day.You are brain washed and have probably peanuts as balls.Let me try to explain in to you..if your looking to make a ton of p/l (yes p/l) look it up it profits NOT just rebates you could loose 10k easily in a day. I trade 5k goog/rimm/tzoo and so do all the guys around me.we can make in a day what sammy makes in a month, problem is your to stupid to see whats coming...whats coming you ask good question .Nasd is buying ISLD..THEN THERE WILL BE 2 and then kiss rebates goodbye.with no competion your DEAD.And its coming ..sammy and all rebates are getting slammed why because peter decided to hire more and more people tradingf the same way plus the market makers have picked up on what going on.with 2 ecn's soon and more people willing to work for 3-5 GROSS a month you will be dead soon.TAKE THAT TO THE BANK MNX

mnx

You can't make what I make a month in a day. You should specify that you occasionally get lucky trading tzoo/rimm/goog, but usually get smacked doing so. Rebates and credit trading is a thing of the past, this is true; but to shun it means to have turned down easy, risk-free money. You sound like one of those haters who never actually makes money, only sees other people doing so, and then comments on it. Don't call out names. That's very immature, and further validates my opinion that you're just an immature scalper who thinks a dollar profit on 1000 shares of TASR makes you a remarkable trader.

S

 

[Magna]

Guys, even tho the thread is about Blowups an obvious joke like brokerboy's is fine (key word in that sentence is obvious), but no personal abuse and no public tirades against each other. Let's keep it friendly as best we can, please.

 

[Hydroblunt]

Quote from Magna:

Let's keep it friendly as best we can, please.

What exactly do you mean by blowup? I've always thought that meant a total cleaning of the account, meaning you just ended you trading career. Some of you are mentioning bad losses & bad drawdown days, everyone has those, but someone wiping out their account in one day, that's another story.

This guy at our office just started and I think he wiped out his account in 3 days after spending a couple of weeks getting used to the system. Apparently taking 2k shares in AAPL and RIMM and aiming for 5 cent profits but holding for 80 cent losses is not a viable strategy.

 

[trade-ya1]

I saw someone lose more than $15 Million+ of his own money over the course of a few weeks. This was at an affiliate of Worldco. I'm sure some of you know what I'm referring to.

 

[Pumpanddump]

So we've heard......................
....................................................................

I think this is one of the top stories from the tech bubble in prop shops......................................

Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaam!!!!!!!!!!

I guess he didnt have enough options to hedge himself on his positions???????????? :eek: :eek:

I heard about this one severla times. What a phenominon.

Crazy times!!

 

[I Missed Boat]

Quote from trade-ya1:

I saw someone lose more than $15 Million+ of his own money over the course of a few weeks. This was at an affiliate of Worldco. I'm sure some of you know what I'm referring to.

you mean JTPJ, their hedge fund? The brother-in-law?