Which one of you guys were around for the 2008 crash?

What you are referring to was traders and customers resetting the 14 day REG-SHO requirement by doing a DITM Buy-Write where the other side would exercise the calls that day and go out flat. The call seller would get short again the next day, but the 14 days reset. Later, a few years later, there were very large fines.

newwurldmn said:
I thought that it was illegal for anyone to short via conversion at that time. If I recall they had killed all the loopholes (except the market making one).
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I recall there were hints/indications as early as summer 2007 around the time Bear Stearns collapsed. There was also public knowledge about issues in subprime mortgages - it didn't arrive out of the blue. It went downhill from there. It was like a slow motion train wreck. Highly tradeable with a gradual and smooth down trend for more than a year, then a cascade down.

I suspect there will be a 'financial accident' somewhere in the world in the coming months. The frequency of near misses seems to be increasing. I think we're headed for GFC + dot-com all in one.
 
SoyUnGanador said:
Who on today was on back then? What do you remember was going on/being said on this forum when shit was cratering back then? Are threads/posts from back then still accessible? I'd love to go back and read some of them.

Heck, I think this forum was founded in 1997? Would LOVE to see what people are saying way back then about stock that are huge today, like Amazon for example. I bet people were panning it left and right as having a ridiculously high PE and not being worthy of a purchase. I know that was definitely my thinking at the time! :)

Oh, the good ole' days, how I miss them. :(
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Been there and done that. I think my live trades from that era are all still up (somewhere).

ES Journal Archive (2006 - 2008)
https://www.elitetrader.com/et/threads/es-journal-archive-2006-2008.228046/

Trader P/L 2008
https://www.elitetrader.com/et/threads/trader-p-l-2008.113193/
 
I actually started auto-trading on the day of Bear Sterns collapse, I was so clueless, I had no idea what was going on in the broader market....here's me with my market orders mean reversion system LOL. Luckily, nothing too bad happened.
 
3 years out of college. Bought my first property in palatine IL (condo) December of 08, place where the Bears wanted to build their new stadium near Arlington park.

Was already trading forex for about 1.5 years. Kind of knew we were in recession. Just wasn't really grasping that the whole world was financially screwed. I just remember gas prices went up crazy high..
 
About all I remember from back then was Jack Hershey's cryptic ramblings and NoDoji trading CL exclusively. Rumor was NoDoji was actually a male pretending to be a female but I'm pretty sure she was indeed a female.I guess she eventually washed out of the market. I made my first trade in feb 2008 and didn't even know what a bear market was much less the fact we were in the middle of one LOL. Made a bunch of trades between 2008 and 2012,made every mistake known to man,lost every dime I owned. I think I actually invented new ways to lose money! Then took a 6 year break from trading altogether.
 
I was going to say I wasn't on but I must have lurked on here as I couldn't stand reading Jack Hershey.

At that time I was on a Myspace stock group. Mostly what I remember is how by 2010 most the people that liked talking about markets that I had known previously had vanished.

I didn't place an order until 2005 but I had an IT job at a small investment firm in 1999. I remember in early 2000s there was still a financial radio network on AM radio too that I would listen to.

Amazon is a good example of how hard it is to get a feel starting now and looking back that long. You can't even really see what happened with the splits on a chart now. You also have to realize that they only sold books when the stock went from 25 cents to 4.60 something. Amazon though was a great company from day one but also had a massive advantage from no tax on internet purchases at the time. I would go look at a book at Barnes and Noble or Borders and then buy it on Amazon with it being way less and no tax. They stock just seemed like an extremely overpriced book seller though.

I remember seriously considering buying AAPL at $2 a share for my stock first purchase too but at that time they were just selling extremely overpriced computers that only had a niche in audio recording and digital art. I ultimately didn't buy but I would have sold it at $4 dollars or something like that anyway.
 
nrstrader said:
Amazon is a good example of how hard it is to get a feel starting now and looking back that long. You can't even really see what happened with the splits on a chart now. You also have to realize that they only sold books when the stock went from 25 cents to 4.60 something. Amazon though was a great company from day one but also had a massive advantage from no tax on internet purchases at the time. I would go look at a book at Barnes and Noble or Borders and then buy it on Amazon with it being way less and no tax. They stock just seemed like an extremely overpriced book seller though.
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AMZN is still barely profitable (actually unprofitable this Q) in e-commerce. What turbocharged the stock was AWS launching in 2013. That wasn't foreseeable in 2009.

Predicting the future is tough.
 
mskl said:
been around since 1987 (great year to start trading)

buy the dip...how can you lose? (lol)
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%%
LOL
THE JAN buy indicator[Stock Traders Almanac] worked well\ until SEPT\OCT\1987.LOL
I remember, that stock + investor was much better than average/, but when was that??
According to SEC filings, Carl Ichan lost the proxy battle, but made $126 on Nabisco Group Holdings, JUN15,1999.
Carl Ichan had the unusual pattern+ talent after his public buy announce + or scale in/ almost always made a good up move. Mr Carl is or was an unusual profitable investor.
I remember being in NGH, wondering how on earth would i know if that WSJ printed chart was going to make money??
Fast forward\ the bear of 2000-01-2002\ took down QQQ to below $20.
I remember the AMZN ,IPO/ much more than $5; any AMZN priced under $5 is split adjusted + never happened in real time.IT could, in future like META\ go below $5\LOL:D:D
 
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