True Legendary Trading Stories
- Thread starter thetraderprofit
- Start date
95.4% profitable trader. Just trades the first hour. Does equity. Still makes 5+ million a year. Trades discretion. Also, my first mentor.
This is a pretty fun thread,I love it.So here are my 2 cents.
There is a guru (who shall remain nameless) among us that made,like a lot of us,a bunch of money in the 90's.He did this with what he learned in the Pristine Method 1 class.Unlike the rest
of us he decided to use his trading record to become the next Wade Cook.To make a long story short.This guy started a hedge fund.I believe it was 2 months (less than 6 months for sure) after the guru,supertrader.......master trader opened his fund,it was down 33%.He stopped trading the fund and investors were allowed to pull their money before the 1 year commitment that was required.A friend of mine just received her final statement last week -40%.The fund is now closed.
,lol
There is a guru (who shall remain nameless) among us that made,like a lot of us,a bunch of money in the 90's.He did this with what he learned in the Pristine Method 1 class.Unlike the rest
of us he decided to use his trading record to become the next Wade Cook.To make a long story short.This guy started a hedge fund.I believe it was 2 months (less than 6 months for sure) after the guru,supertrader.......master trader opened his fund,it was down 33%.He stopped trading the fund and investors were allowed to pull their money before the 1 year commitment that was required.A friend of mine just received her final statement last week -40%.The fund is now closed.
,lolYep, I've signed on as a member just for this post. Its not a pretty story.
Aged 15, I busted my neck from diving into a river. End result - Christopher Reeve type injury, but I can move my arms (but not hands) and breathe without a machine. Got compensated 1.2m two years later. Finished high school. Although I was not particularly bright before my injury, it was interesting how the removal of sport from my life, amongst other things, and a re-focus on acedemia brough about some impressive grades.
I went on from high school - did a double degree in Commerce/Law (Law is offered as a under-grade degree in Australia), practiced Banking and Contract law for 4 years at a large city firm, then got the ass under an 'up-or-out' policy (ie get promoted, otherwise leave). I was pissed off for all of about 2 seconds once I had the epiphany that I was free now to actually pursue a passion (something 'market' related), not an occupation, as lawyering had been.
OK, let me back things up a bits - I was 'Donald Trump'ed in Jan 02. Between 92 -99 I had your standard portfolio - experiencing those lovely, consistent gains of the 90's. Anyway, I was anti tech until a mate told me about a Dot com (Australian) that had strong personal times with Microsoft and even had Gates' co-founder (his name escapes me now) as a major shareholder, something fairly significant for a 'back water' such as Australia.
My mate was expecting immenent announcment of huge contracts which had supposedly been conluded and just awaited release - all this info came through my mate's broker, who had close links to management. (this post is getting way longer than intended, so I'll brief it up.) I took a moderate position on 24 March 2000, being the day NDX topped, and 2 days before my Dot com topped out. The share dropped quickly, without tanking.
Contrary to good legal sense, I did something highly regretful - I pick up the phone to liquidate (dialled hands-free more accurately), to thereby return attention to my existing balanced portfolio, but instead, in a rush of testosterone I rang the company and suggested the CEO call me back or else I'll drop my stock 'at market', which would have created a hefty dint given the thin buyers. 5 mins later I'm shocked to have said CEO on the phone jumping out of his boots with enthusiasm - '2 bucks June, 4 bucks december, this & that announcment soon, even gave me an announcement coming the next day'. I get off the phone almost shaking, and the rest is history. Over the next couple of months I gradually doubled down again and again after more positive phone calls, all the while liquidating portions of my portfolio. At this stage I had not even started to fathomed how completely out of touch CEO's can be with the potential of their businesses.
The end result - the price went to 1c and bankruptcy looked immintent - thought I might as well salvage something, so sold out. They changed businesses completely, stayed alive by issuing 1.1 billion shares (from 86m), and have since traded as high as 12c. 45c would have probably have been my break even - my loss was $700k there abouts.
I do have one 'gloy' story - early 2000, the Nasdaq had a day it fell 400 points and recovered nearly all of them. My furtures account went from 9k to 36k. I was short on the way down, long on the way up, started on the small contracts, moved to the big ones - one helluva ride.
Anyway, back to the lost legal job. I wasn't sure what kind of equity related job I wanted, plus I knew I needed better qualifications. So I did a year long Masters in Applied Finance and am now 2/3 through CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst - anybody know it). With the Masters behing me I haven't yet felt the need to hitch myself to an employer but instead am hoping to continue trading my own account successfully, as has been the case for a 18 months now.
One final comment, I've read a few books and its mentioned occasionally a trader with a lot of easy capital that doesn't feel the pain of a loss can't learn to trade properly. Well, I've certainly removed that impediment.
Aged 15, I busted my neck from diving into a river. End result - Christopher Reeve type injury, but I can move my arms (but not hands) and breathe without a machine. Got compensated 1.2m two years later. Finished high school. Although I was not particularly bright before my injury, it was interesting how the removal of sport from my life, amongst other things, and a re-focus on acedemia brough about some impressive grades.
I went on from high school - did a double degree in Commerce/Law (Law is offered as a under-grade degree in Australia), practiced Banking and Contract law for 4 years at a large city firm, then got the ass under an 'up-or-out' policy (ie get promoted, otherwise leave). I was pissed off for all of about 2 seconds once I had the epiphany that I was free now to actually pursue a passion (something 'market' related), not an occupation, as lawyering had been.
OK, let me back things up a bits - I was 'Donald Trump'ed in Jan 02. Between 92 -99 I had your standard portfolio - experiencing those lovely, consistent gains of the 90's. Anyway, I was anti tech until a mate told me about a Dot com (Australian) that had strong personal times with Microsoft and even had Gates' co-founder (his name escapes me now) as a major shareholder, something fairly significant for a 'back water' such as Australia.
My mate was expecting immenent announcment of huge contracts which had supposedly been conluded and just awaited release - all this info came through my mate's broker, who had close links to management. (this post is getting way longer than intended, so I'll brief it up.) I took a moderate position on 24 March 2000, being the day NDX topped, and 2 days before my Dot com topped out. The share dropped quickly, without tanking.
Contrary to good legal sense, I did something highly regretful - I pick up the phone to liquidate (dialled hands-free more accurately), to thereby return attention to my existing balanced portfolio, but instead, in a rush of testosterone I rang the company and suggested the CEO call me back or else I'll drop my stock 'at market', which would have created a hefty dint given the thin buyers. 5 mins later I'm shocked to have said CEO on the phone jumping out of his boots with enthusiasm - '2 bucks June, 4 bucks december, this & that announcment soon, even gave me an announcement coming the next day'. I get off the phone almost shaking, and the rest is history. Over the next couple of months I gradually doubled down again and again after more positive phone calls, all the while liquidating portions of my portfolio. At this stage I had not even started to fathomed how completely out of touch CEO's can be with the potential of their businesses.
The end result - the price went to 1c and bankruptcy looked immintent - thought I might as well salvage something, so sold out. They changed businesses completely, stayed alive by issuing 1.1 billion shares (from 86m), and have since traded as high as 12c. 45c would have probably have been my break even - my loss was $700k there abouts.
I do have one 'gloy' story - early 2000, the Nasdaq had a day it fell 400 points and recovered nearly all of them. My furtures account went from 9k to 36k. I was short on the way down, long on the way up, started on the small contracts, moved to the big ones - one helluva ride.
Anyway, back to the lost legal job. I wasn't sure what kind of equity related job I wanted, plus I knew I needed better qualifications. So I did a year long Masters in Applied Finance and am now 2/3 through CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst - anybody know it). With the Masters behing me I haven't yet felt the need to hitch myself to an employer but instead am hoping to continue trading my own account successfully, as has been the case for a 18 months now.
One final comment, I've read a few books and its mentioned occasionally a trader with a lot of easy capital that doesn't feel the pain of a loss can't learn to trade properly. Well, I've certainly removed that impediment.
*laugh* I'm glad you are still smiling, Armo.
Interesting story. Thanks.
How do you "type" in your posts? Does voice recognition work well enough or do you use another input device?
Have you read Nick Leeson's "Rogue Trader" autobiography? You'd be able to sympathize with him and you'll feel lucky in comparison.
I'm a CFA myself. It's a great course of study. Interesting stuff.
Well, this story should appeal to the religious types among you 
.
You see, I'm a religious Jew, and as you may or may not know, it is forbidden for us to do certain types of labor and work on the Sabbath, which is from sunset on Friday to Saturday night. Living in Israel, which is 6-7 hours ahead of the US, this would mean that I usually couldn't trade on Fridays. One Friday all the Sabbath preparations were finished early, and I realised the market had just opened, so I turned on the computer "just to see" what the market was doing. Sure enough, a trade was signalled right then and there! I quickly called my broker and entered a short, which started going beautifully down. Of course, the clock was ticking, sunset was getting nearer, and the market was STILL going down! In any case, I gave myself until twenty minutes before sunset, and come what may, I'd exit the trade. And sure enough, 16:30 came along, I called my broker and told him to get out of the trade. He said, and I quote: " you want to get out?? NOW???" And I said yes, and that was that, and I made over $1000. Well, you can imagine how I felt all that Sabbath, imagining the thousands of bucks I must have missed by getting out early. Well, as soon as the Sabbath was over, I took a look at Friday's Market, and....At 16:31, the market totally reversed, and rallied, and would have taken most of my profits with it!!! My broker pestered me for weeks to tell him my secret of market timing.
In Jewish lore it is said that the Sabbath protects those who keep it, and I was happy to be able to confirm that!
All the best,
Phil
.You see, I'm a religious Jew, and as you may or may not know, it is forbidden for us to do certain types of labor and work on the Sabbath, which is from sunset on Friday to Saturday night. Living in Israel, which is 6-7 hours ahead of the US, this would mean that I usually couldn't trade on Fridays. One Friday all the Sabbath preparations were finished early, and I realised the market had just opened, so I turned on the computer "just to see" what the market was doing. Sure enough, a trade was signalled right then and there! I quickly called my broker and entered a short, which started going beautifully down. Of course, the clock was ticking, sunset was getting nearer, and the market was STILL going down! In any case, I gave myself until twenty minutes before sunset, and come what may, I'd exit the trade. And sure enough, 16:30 came along, I called my broker and told him to get out of the trade. He said, and I quote: " you want to get out?? NOW???" And I said yes, and that was that, and I made over $1000. Well, you can imagine how I felt all that Sabbath, imagining the thousands of bucks I must have missed by getting out early. Well, as soon as the Sabbath was over, I took a look at Friday's Market, and....At 16:31, the market totally reversed, and rallied, and would have taken most of my profits with it!!! My broker pestered me for weeks to tell him my secret of market timing
.In Jewish lore it is said that the Sabbath protects those who keep it, and I was happy to be able to confirm that!
All the best,
Phil
That's really cool Phil, I'm glad to hear that you honored your beliefs, and were rewarded for it. I can think of many times that my Higher Power has given me trading advice, and what has happened when I acted on it, or ignored it. While I don't trade based on this connection alone, I believe it can be very helpful to stay in touch with our spiritual side when trading.
I'm not sure if I've shared this before or not but here goes...
It was a roaring bull market in 2000 and I was a totall n00b. Like all the rest of 'em thought I was hot stuff. There I was selling puts on BCE on the TSE. Each month around $2000. It was becoming like a salary really! Bam! $2000, next month, $2000. Each would expire worthless as the stock had appreciated well above it.
Then I decided to get serious! I thought BCE is for losers. I want the real action. I looked around and found JDSU. Here we go, I thought NASDAQ, where the action is. Where the big boys play. So I upped size and wrote a big wad of puts. Easy stuff I thought.
Guess what the market did next. Yup! It tanked. And there I was watching my puts go into the red exponentially each day. It was the classic deer caught in the headlights situation. My stomach would turn into a knot whenever I looked at a quote. I would try to think of something else, hope for a miracle, hope that the option would somehow miraculously stop falling and recover. Or not get exercised!
I thought about doubling down since I thought when hadn't the market rebounded back?
But at that time I had begun reading the Wizards books and if it was one thing I got out of them, it was to NEVER add to a losing position. So as hard as it was, I didn't.
So what happened? I bought the puts back for a huge loss a few days before expiration. Then what did the market do? Yup! It rebounded like a bat outta hell. Had I doubled down, not only would I have saved my hide, I would have actually come out ahead!!
Now I felt like a real ____.
But looking back, I can't decide whether it would be better had I doubled down or not. I think if I had, I would have still learned my lesson and never again added to a loss. But who knows! Maybe it was better this way.
Whatever way may have been best, the result of that incident was that I woke up to the reality that I didn't know jack about the market!
Looking back on those days, I can't help but chuckle at the naivete and courage that came from ignorance.
It was a roaring bull market in 2000 and I was a totall n00b. Like all the rest of 'em thought I was hot stuff. There I was selling puts on BCE on the TSE. Each month around $2000. It was becoming like a salary really! Bam! $2000, next month, $2000. Each would expire worthless as the stock had appreciated well above it.
Then I decided to get serious! I thought BCE is for losers. I want the real action. I looked around and found JDSU. Here we go, I thought NASDAQ, where the action is. Where the big boys play. So I upped size and wrote a big wad of puts. Easy stuff I thought.
Guess what the market did next. Yup! It tanked. And there I was watching my puts go into the red exponentially each day. It was the classic deer caught in the headlights situation. My stomach would turn into a knot whenever I looked at a quote. I would try to think of something else, hope for a miracle, hope that the option would somehow miraculously stop falling and recover. Or not get exercised!
I thought about doubling down since I thought when hadn't the market rebounded back?
But at that time I had begun reading the Wizards books and if it was one thing I got out of them, it was to NEVER add to a losing position. So as hard as it was, I didn't.
So what happened? I bought the puts back for a huge loss a few days before expiration. Then what did the market do? Yup! It rebounded like a bat outta hell. Had I doubled down, not only would I have saved my hide, I would have actually come out ahead!!
Now I felt like a real ____.
But looking back, I can't decide whether it would be better had I doubled down or not. I think if I had, I would have still learned my lesson and never again added to a loss. But who knows! Maybe it was better this way.
Whatever way may have been best, the result of that incident was that I woke up to the reality that I didn't know jack about the market!
Looking back on those days, I can't help but chuckle at the naivete and courage that came from ignorance.
Quote from london:
This is a pretty fun thread,I love it.So here are my 2 cents.
There is a guru (who shall remain nameless) among us that made,like a lot of us,a bunch of money in the 90's.He did this with what he learned in the Pristine Method 1 class.Unlike the rest
of us he decided to use his trading record to become the next Wade Cook.To make a long story short.This guy started a hedge fund.I believe it was 2 months (less than 6 months for sure) after the guru,supertrader.......master trader opened his fund,it was down 33%.He stopped trading the fund and investors were allowed to pull their money before the 1 year commitment that was required.A friend of mine just received her final statement last week -40%.The fund is now closed.
The name is Sammy Chua the scalper.
