buying Bidu after it dropped 70-90 points after its earnings..this was a few months ago
"Woulda, Shoulda, Coulda!"
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That's still etched indelibly in my mind's eye - FAS @ 2.36, and my finger's on the trigger and I suddenly think, "Maybe it'll go lower..." and I never end up trading it at all.
I assure you if I bought those shares, I would've closed the position on Monday as well. The only way I can let a winner run is if my computer shuts down while I'm in the trade
Now, I ain't no psychologist but perhaps the biggest obstacle that impedes us from plunging into any given trade, or bail out prematurely from a profitable one, is the fear factor. That is, we've all got burned at least once from a bad trade we know in hindsight that could have been preventable had we only (fill in the blank as you see fit). I'm sure these trades are just as numerous as the missed opportunities. Won't you share the most silly trade you made that could have been avoided?
Won't you share the most silly trade you made that could have been avoided?
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Oh that's easy ---- the revenge trade. Except I'm not getting revenge at the trade I put on, I'm going to settle an old score for someone else.
A former boss and mentor spent day and night making plans of the big score on Blyvores (now DROOY) the gold stock. My boss tried to get me interested but I wasn't in the investing mode frankly because I was young and didn't have much money and I had other things on my mind (this is going way back to the late 70's).
Well his investment never panned out (yuk yuk) we lost touch as I moved on and he later passed away.
Well I was scouting for some ideas and bingo, my old boss comes to mind and his gold play. This was around "03 when DROOY was nearing its high and I subscribed to IBD and the concept of buying "new highs". (more laughter, as the chart will show, pfftttt I bought at the high)
Needless to say, I had the same results as my boss and mentor, I'm sure he is laughing at me somewhere up in the clouds.
Wait there's more....
So while traveling the message boards (not Drooy, I was done with that hot potato) I came across a knowledgable guy (now the time frame is a few years later maybe 05 or 06) and in passing one day he mentions he made a killing in Blyvores way back in the 70's, hmnnn small comfort in knowing who took my boss's money.
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Oh that's easy ---- the revenge trade. Except I'm not getting revenge at the trade I put on, I'm going to settle an old score for someone else.
A former boss and mentor spent day and night making plans of the big score on Blyvores (now DROOY) the gold stock. My boss tried to get me interested but I wasn't in the investing mode frankly because I was young and didn't have much money and I had other things on my mind (this is going way back to the late 70's).
Well his investment never panned out (yuk yuk) we lost touch as I moved on and he later passed away.
Well I was scouting for some ideas and bingo, my old boss comes to mind and his gold play. This was around "03 when DROOY was nearing its high and I subscribed to IBD and the concept of buying "new highs". (more laughter, as the chart will show, pfftttt I bought at the high)
Needless to say, I had the same results as my boss and mentor, I'm sure he is laughing at me somewhere up in the clouds.
Wait there's more....
So while traveling the message boards (not Drooy, I was done with that hot potato) I came across a knowledgable guy (now the time frame is a few years later maybe 05 or 06) and in passing one day he mentions he made a killing in Blyvores way back in the 70's, hmnnn small comfort in knowing who took my boss's money.
Silliest trade (and interesting related story):
In early December I'd lost money on some POT trades trying to catch a falling knife. My account was with Etrade and I paid $16 round trip on every trade, so scaling in and out of trades was cost prohibitive commission-wise. As a result I always traded 1000 shares, and did so with POT as it continued its eternal fall from grace.
Frustrated with trying to time the stock's bounce, I decided to buy 5 POT $55 calls late in the day on 12/4/08 after POT had fallen 5 days in a row to below $50, figuring that was a ridiculous price for a stock which had traded 6 months earlier as high as $240. Surely it had to bounce and options gave me a couple weeks to take advantage of that with a fixed risk in place.
The next day POT not only opened gapped down over a dollar, it continued to drop! I had a moment of irrational fear that it might go to $0, and I remembered that when you have that thought, it's almost always the time to buy.
I had an appointment to go to, but figured I'd add to my option position before I left. So I opened my order entry window, selected the same calls I'd bought 5 of the day before and instinctively entered 1000 in the Qty field (remember I'd been trading 1000 shares of everything for months). Just as I was about to transmit the order I thought it would be wiser to wait until I returned from my appointment to add to the position.
At that moment I saw the 1000 in the Qty field and nearly had a seizure on the spot.
Had I transmitted the order it would've gone through immediately at market, and I've no idea how much slippage 1000 contracts of even a highly liquid option would've incurred, but even if the entire position filled at the offer it would've been $5000 for the spread, plus $760 commission one way. If I'd transmitted the ordered and realized my mistake, I would've panicked, closed the position at market and been sitting on at least a $12K loss.
However, if I HAD transmitted the order, I really doubt I would've noticed the mistake because I was standing up at my desk in a hurry to leave for my appt and likely would've clicked and left, thinking I'd simply added 5 contracts, a very low risk move.
So I return from my appt and see that POT bottomed out around $47, finally bounced a bit, putting my losing call position slightly in the green. Then price stalled and began pulling back. Oh, no, I thought, not another leg down! As the call premium moved back toward my break even point, I closed out the position for a net gain of $30 and decided I just wasn't going to trade POT for a while.
Well, that day POT put in its 52-week low and over the next 2 weeks rallied to $83 a couple days before expiration. The premium on the calls I had went as high as $27, meaning 5 contract position that I paid $1000 for would've been worth over $13,000 had I held it.
Then there's the other "coulda": If I'd transmitted the 1000-contract order, and held it through the rally, it had a potential gain of close to $3 million
How silly can you get? Closing a position so quickly whose MAX RISK was $1000!
In early December I'd lost money on some POT trades trying to catch a falling knife. My account was with Etrade and I paid $16 round trip on every trade, so scaling in and out of trades was cost prohibitive commission-wise. As a result I always traded 1000 shares, and did so with POT as it continued its eternal fall from grace.
Frustrated with trying to time the stock's bounce, I decided to buy 5 POT $55 calls late in the day on 12/4/08 after POT had fallen 5 days in a row to below $50, figuring that was a ridiculous price for a stock which had traded 6 months earlier as high as $240. Surely it had to bounce and options gave me a couple weeks to take advantage of that with a fixed risk in place.
The next day POT not only opened gapped down over a dollar, it continued to drop! I had a moment of irrational fear that it might go to $0, and I remembered that when you have that thought, it's almost always the time to buy.
I had an appointment to go to, but figured I'd add to my option position before I left. So I opened my order entry window, selected the same calls I'd bought 5 of the day before and instinctively entered 1000 in the Qty field (remember I'd been trading 1000 shares of everything for months). Just as I was about to transmit the order I thought it would be wiser to wait until I returned from my appointment to add to the position.
At that moment I saw the 1000 in the Qty field and nearly had a seizure on the spot.
Had I transmitted the order it would've gone through immediately at market, and I've no idea how much slippage 1000 contracts of even a highly liquid option would've incurred, but even if the entire position filled at the offer it would've been $5000 for the spread, plus $760 commission one way. If I'd transmitted the ordered and realized my mistake, I would've panicked, closed the position at market and been sitting on at least a $12K loss.
However, if I HAD transmitted the order, I really doubt I would've noticed the mistake because I was standing up at my desk in a hurry to leave for my appt and likely would've clicked and left, thinking I'd simply added 5 contracts, a very low risk move.
So I return from my appt and see that POT bottomed out around $47, finally bounced a bit, putting my losing call position slightly in the green. Then price stalled and began pulling back. Oh, no, I thought, not another leg down! As the call premium moved back toward my break even point, I closed out the position for a net gain of $30 and decided I just wasn't going to trade POT for a while.
Well, that day POT put in its 52-week low and over the next 2 weeks rallied to $83 a couple days before expiration. The premium on the calls I had went as high as $27, meaning 5 contract position that I paid $1000 for would've been worth over $13,000 had I held it.
Then there's the other "coulda": If I'd transmitted the 1000-contract order, and held it through the rally, it had a potential gain of close to $3 million
How silly can you get? Closing a position so quickly whose MAX RISK was $1000!
MSO. Bought it the day she was indicted and sold it around the time her trial started. I actually did make a little money. But it was a stupid trade to make. I only made it because she annoys me so much that I wanted to have the pleasure of making some money off her demise. In retrospect, I was simply lucky. Anything could have happened to that stock. The worst part is that she came bouncing right back, just like Millken. These criminals are made of Teflon.
Yeah, those suck.....there's a company that trades on the TSX called Ventana Gold.....did an IPO last year at under $1, and promptly fell to about $0.07....a year later, it's around the $12 range....
The tough to swallow part is I first became aware of it and it's potential around the $0.90, but considerg a gain(at the time) of over 1,000% in a few months, I figured it was too expensive...and subsequently re-visited every dollar or so and concluded the same thing. Also tough to swallow is the fact that it hasn't made any miraculous gold discoveris since then...certainly, it's had encouraging holes, but the bulk of the resources it had were all there at the time of it's IPO....jsut waiting to be discovered by somebody.....I saw them, but conlcuded (like an idiot) that there must be something wrong with the company that I just wasn't seeing....after all (according to the Efficient Market Theorists mantra) if the company was truly worth more, the price would already be there.
Reminds me of the old joke....two efficient market thoerists are walking down the street when they see $20 on the ground. As one bends over to pick it up, the other one remarks "don't bother....if it was truly worth $20, it wouldn't be there in the first place"
