Worst trade of all time

Quote from Cocaine:

This has got to be up there:

In 1626, Peter Minuit acquired (the island of) Manhattan from native peoples in exchange for trade goods, often said to be worth $24.
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Actually I remember doing an an inflation exercise onthe 24 dollars over the past roughly 400 years, and at 3% inflation rate its a straight ripoff, however, at 5% inflation it was a steal for the indians valuing manhatten into the trillions of dollars.
 
- Kerviel 's whole trading record was a recipe for disaster : cut winners and let losers run with billions of dollars for 1 year...LOL

- The guy from MF Global that shorted 17000 contracts of wheat in the overnight session and "decided" to cover it at market, provoking a gigantic spike, is just plain funny

- Joe Lewis with BSC

- Niederhoffer selling put index options in 2007 and buying index futures ( as a hedge? )
 
Don't make this one !

Spending 16-20 hours a day studying the markets and forgetting
about family and enjoying life

Did not want to get gushy, but wanted to make a point!

We do trade when we devote our time to something
and forget about what is important

OK, Carry On












:D :D :D :D :D :D
 
How about this one..
the Petrodollar for the Saudi Scum...

We provide defense for the Saudis and keep their ass in power...they send the money that we use to buy their oil right back to the US which in turn is used to by Treasuries...The money that flowed into Saudi Arabia has been pissed into the wind...

Oil for nothing - chicks for free?

Will be a bad deal for everybody in the end..
but will be especially bad when the US turns on the ragheads and obliterates them all to steal the oil...


Quote from Cutten:

Let's discuss some of the worst trades ever made. Ideally this would be a gigantic loser that the trader/investor either sat on, or kept adding to, despite the market obviously being in a huge trend against them, and the value being non-existent.

I would like to nominate Asian Central Banks, for continuing to buy US treasuries yielding 3-5% per annum during a secular uptrend in inflation, and a collapsing dollar. These morons must have lost *trillions* purely on the dollar devaluation alone in the last 5 years or so. Instead, they could have made a risk-free investment with a much higher return simply by paying down their own government's debt.

Just imagine the per capita cost of this gigantic trading blunder - probably several years' worth of income per citizen. A classic central bank "anti-trade".

The funniest thing is that they didn't even buy TIPS - they went mostly for nominal treasuries. This really is one of the biggest financial blunders of all time.
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Quote from Cutten:

Let's discuss some of the worst trades ever made. Ideally this would be a gigantic loser that the trader/investor either sat on, or kept adding to, despite the market obviously being in a huge trend against them, and the value being non-existent.

I would like to nominate Asian Central Banks, for continuing to buy US treasuries yielding 3-5% per annum during a secular uptrend in inflation, and a collapsing dollar. These morons must have lost *trillions* purely on the dollar devaluation alone in the last 5 years or so. Instead, they could have made a risk-free investment with a much higher return simply by paying down their own government's debt.

Just imagine the per capita cost of this gigantic trading blunder - probably several years' worth of income per citizen. A classic central bank "anti-trade".

The funniest thing is that they didn't even buy TIPS - they went mostly for nominal treasuries. This really is one of the biggest financial blunders of all time.
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Quote from risktaker:

I don't think that counts as a "trade". For their purposes, it's more like a hedge, depending on which Asian country we're talking about. First of all they have no choice but to buy the debt if they want to continue the *huge* trade surplus, accumulation of dollars, and keep their populations employed. Once they stop/slow down their debt purchases, the dollar goes to crap and eventually their products become less competitive/desirable.

So, it's not a "simple trade", more like a huge macroeconomic decision.
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Risktaker gets it. Also Treasury rates are much higher than BOJ rates. The yield diff alone mitigates the dollar slippage. Besides the dollar didn't weaken to the Yen until the past year. Hell until last summer the dollar was on multi year HIGHS against the Yen.

Not even CLOSE Cutten to being the worst "trade" ever. In fact arguably not even a bad trade. Yet. (When ZB trades 65 in a few years we'll talk:p)
 
On Sept.10, 2001, I had backed up the truck and loaded up on Airline stocks, and OEX calls. To hedge this long position I shorted a basket of defence Contractors. The next morning I eagerly turned on the TV to see how the early Market was shaping up.
While clicking around the Cadilac Homepage to eyeball the ElDarado I would buy once this trade paid off, I was suddenly distracted to the TV.... "BREAKING NEWS "...


Jack Rennick Schwager out :cool:

ps. BOBABOOWEEEE,,,,,fictonal story, but this would have been a doozy:D
 
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