True Legendary Trading Stories

[Pabst]

Originally posted by illiquid
Anyone remember a few years ago, a biotech called Entremed gapping up from 12 to 80 on a "news" article that was actually a year old? I remember the manager of the daytrading office came in before the open and told everyone that he'd let them short the stock as long as we covered before the close -- back then I didn't dare touch it, but I saw a few people with some nice point gains that day.

The sick part of the story is that I remember someone who actually bought the stock around 60, and just held it in his account underwater for a few years.

He eventually sold it at 80 when the nasdaq hit 5k.

Ironic story illiquid. I too have a similar ENMD tale. A buddy of mine who was quite broke got tipped by a gal he knew at ENMD that the infamous NYT story was going to run that Sunday. He bought 2000 shares at I believe $13. The next week he sold 1000 at 60, keeping the other 1000. Lo and behold the stock comes all the way down again. Finnally in Oct. 2000 she calls him again with the stock in the mid twenties and says that another blockbuster announcement will be coming out. He buys another 1000 more plus about 10k in calls. He tells me whats going on and I load up in the low thirties. ENMD trades $40 the next day.I'm pumped, buying 40 calls 50 calls thinking this is the big one. The news was some very inconclusive effacy test on endostain, the drug that put them on the map. We puked our calls for pennies I was still selling the stock in the high teens, and my friend still has his 2000 shares with the stock now at about $3.

 

[bone]

Chip Kenyon traded 75,000 Bond contracts in the pit the day the Treasury said they were going to stop issuing 30 year paper (last fall).

 

[traderjimbo]

Sat next to a guy who made $100,000 his first year, 1 million his second, 6 mil his 3rd year , and last year 2 mil -- not bad !!!!!

 

[darkhorse]

I had an eyedoctor client who told me this story:

A doctor buddy of his puts 400K into a single tech stock. It runs like crazy, splits a few times, and after some heavy pyramiding the 400K is up to $12.5 million. The guy has a target price for cashing out. It gets within 10% of his price, but he wants that last 5 or 10 points. It starts coming off, he waits for it to come back, eventually it goes into panic freefall (this was around the time microstrategy blew up I think).

Of course he had been adding the whole way up, so the comedown crushed him- ended up declaring bankruptcy because he wasn't liquid enough to cover the margin deficit.

400K to 12.5 million to chapter 11

 

[rs7]

Originally posted by gnome


For years he'd been a dealer in Vegas, and when I'd make a lousy shot, he'd berate me with, "you f*ckn' flea"... I didn't know it was a Vegas expression.

If they call you "George" that is the highest compliment. The opposite of "flea". How this came about??? Not a clue!
Give it a try next time you are at a dice table. Throw a nice tip to the dealers, and you will hear "George" pronto. (Doesn't work at blackjack, 'cause the dealers can't talk to each other...at least not where you can hear them).

rs7

 

[rs7]

Originally posted by traderjimbo
Sat next to a guy who made $100,000 his first year, 1 million his second, 6 mil his 3rd year , and last year 2 mil -- not bad !!!!!

I sat next to a guy that did a very similar thing the first few years. But last year he lost a few mil....couldn't get out of the hole, so he just left the firm and went elsewhere.

Sat with another guy that had frequent 1mm a day swings. Now he has been cut to 1000 shares max and 1mm in buying power. Things change.

RS7

 

[darkhorse]

Originally posted by rs7


Sat with another guy that had frequent 1mm a day swings. Now he has been cut to 1000 shares max and 1mm in buying power. .

sounds like his balls to brains ratio was seriously out of whack

 

[brook89]

I once heard of a guy who gave a speech for a telecom co.

instead of cash they gave him 80k wort of company stock.

One year later it was worth 1.5 million.

his name was GEORGE BUSH.

 

[inandlong]

That was a nice trade!

 

[safecatcher]

Back in 2000. oracle came out with big news bad numbers i think.
everyone in firm was trading oracle. i was trading terion at 150 i think. sent selectnet orders to short 3000 shares underide, i had hedges. our firm orders got bottle necked and didn't actually leave the firm for 15 minutes. YES I KNOW WHY DIDN'T THE ORDERS EXPIRE??? well it beats me all anyone knew is we were frozen. but the stock went down 6 points from where i sent my orders. and then 15 minutes later i got filled after the stock snapped back. i was 37 grand out of the money when the prints showed up on my blotter. i held till i was down 48 grand and put 2000 shares more on my short. i was down 50000 for about 3 seconds. the stock tanked and i closed the position for a 55000 profit. stupidity or luck, i think it depends on the market.