My God is this guy crazy? Took out a loan on his house and bougt AAPL + CFC? I'm sorry but this guy is seriously nuts. I pray for him to make it out of this okay but he was asking for it!Quote from nkhoi:
another http://boltar1.blogspot.com/
My God is this guy crazy? Took out a loan on his house and bougt AAPL + CFC? I'm sorry but this guy is seriously nuts. I pray for him to make it out of this okay but he was asking for it!Quote from nkhoi:
another http://boltar1.blogspot.com/
Quote from fyre:
If you don't agree, then state your case - don't just throw crap.

I still fail to see why "hedging" as you describe it is better than simply exiting a losing position. You refer to going market neutral. What could be more neutral and give you more peace of mind than being flat, particularly when your timing is off? I pay less than $5 per round turn (as I imagine is the case with most people here), but that does not encourage me to squander my money.Quote from fyre:
I'm a futures trader - commissions are peanuts (~$10/ emini contract roundtrip) compared to the type of losses these folks are enduring. Obviously the better thing to do is cut your losses before things get out of control.
However, if you somehow find yourself looking at a runaway market and you're on the wrong side in a bad way - you need to do what you can to avoid the dreaded margin call.
At the very least, going market neutral gives you some time to gather your thoughts. Panicking and closing your position at the bottom or top (or being forced to do so by margin call) is a quick way to the poorhouse.
Quote from Thunderdog:
I still fail to see why "hedging" as you describe it is better than simply exiting a losing position.
You are obviously not a trader.Quote from fyre:
I feel for those traders who got their lips ripped off with all the recent volatility - but they all seem to have that deer-in-the-headlights syndrome.
My advice - don't just stare at your losses cursing the markets - Think. Try to trade out of a bad situation. If you're caught long and the market is tanking, go short on a highly correlated instrument and vice versa. E.g. long ES vs Short YM. You won't make money this way, but at least you can stop the bleeding ...
I understand your point, but now the trader is riding two horses. How tenable is that for someone who can't admit defeat? If a person has difficulty dealing with straightforwad information, I don't quite see how adding complexity helps the problem. Now he will potentially worry about the timing of two exits. If he couldn't exit a single trade at the right time, then how much confidence can we have that he will exit two simultanously? And if he starts legging out "strategically," then you go get the can of worms while I get the can opener.Quote from sprstpd:
For a trader that has a huge mental block over a losing position and cannot get out even though they know they should, maybe hedging with a correlated security allows them to "exit" the position without the mental hangup. I would never do it, but maybe this technique would allow a person getting drilled to exit a position without having to admit defeat. I.e., a coping mechanism for people who aren't mentally strong enough to use stops.
Quote from Thunderdog:
I understand your point, but now the trader is riding two horses. How tenable is that for someone who can't admit defeat?