Dumb Trading Moments....

[Soultrader 12]

List of dumb moments in my trading career. Today being one of them.

 

1. Ever get pumped up to trade, pour over your charts, create a trading plan, and get all in the focus just to find out that the markets are closed? Well today was one of them. lol

 

2. Triple clicking buy buttons just to find out that you now own 3 times your usual holding size.

 

3. Completely forgetting how many contracts you had on until the close.

 

4. Short selling on a downtick (not allowed in Japan) Ended up writing a full report to the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

 

5. My monitor went blank once and I panicked thinking it was a blackout and had my position liquidated. It turns out my pc went to sleep from inactivity.

 

Anybody have any stupid trading moments?

[Trvlwanderer 10]

Saw a buy signal. Entered to find out I was looking at the wrong chart as opposed to the order window. The chart trade went well...the executed trade however, lol! :doh:

[Sparrow 10]

Saw a buy signal. Entered to find out I was looking at the wrong chart as opposed to the order window. The chart trade went well...the executed trade however, lol! :doh:

 

same thing happened to me today, fortunately I was only looking at the wrong chart after I covered my position at break even.

I was beating myself up about buying at the high of the retracement when I realized it wasn't the same chart :crap:

Edited January 21, 2008 by Sparrow

[brownsfan019 17]

One that comes to mind James is that I trade for a handful accounts - friends, family, etc. - and one day I put a heavy trade on and was supposed to be for just ONE of the accounts. I went into the software to find the one account to place the trade in and I thought I chose the right one...

 

:doh:

 

I put the trade in an account that should never have been that leveraged. The trade was accepted by the broker but the leverage was incredible on that account.

 

The trade delivered so the account made an incredible profit, but I was managing that thing like a hawk. There was no way I was going to lose money on it. One tick was enough for me in that situation!

 

That trade sticks out b/c I have never done it since. I don't do many 'account specific trades' now, and this is probably why. I just use OEC's block trading feature and that's it. No over loading the boat here by accident!

[james_gsx 16]

I had my matrix setup for ESH08 and went to buy, saw the chart moving up and thought I was making money. I looked at my P&L and realized I was losing money. Confused I looked at my chart again, realized it was a chart of CL :o

[Bam-Bam 10]

A list of my dumb trading moments could go on for awhile.

 

One good lesson to remember: Understand how your execution software works.

 

I was watching a stock with okay liquidity. It looked like it was moving up nicely, so I hurriedly clicked to get into it before it got away. I couldn't figure out what all these trade confirmations were that kept popping up on my screen. Why wouldn't the trade just go through? It took my a few seconds to realize I sent an order to buy at the offer size not at my default size. So I ended up buying 1300 shares instead of 100, ~$83,000 instead of ~$6,400. I immediately exited but took a bit of a bath in the process.

 

As carpenters say: measure twice, cut once.

 

Trader's Maxim: Check twice, click once.

 

Enjoy the vacation day,

 

Bam-Bam

[MrPaul 10]

1. Clicking sell instead of buy vice versa

 

2. Having the chart scrolled back and glancing over a few minutes later thinking the data feed had frozen.

 

3. Forgetting what day it was and "not trading" ahead of an economic report that wasn't do out until the next day around that time.

 

 

Good thread :o

[mister ed 10]

I am sitting here laughing and cringing at the same time - unfortunately from recognition.

 

Also -entering the wrong side/price at which to deal, the software asks you to check it - stupid software, of course its right, hurry up ....... ohhh ...... not so stupid software.

[torero 10]

Yeah, it sucks in the beginning when I have to start trading with a new software. You think you learn to get around to execute the trades, but once you do it, you scramble to find if the trade was executed or not, almost losing your cool and execute again, duh! 2x the size, and twice the stress!

[james_gsx 16]

I got confused one time with the TS matrix. I thought I was long, turned out to be short, then when I thought I had covered, I was actually long. Then I found the cancel button.

[torero 10]

I got confused one time with the TS matrix. I thought I was long, turned out to be short, then when I thought I had covered, I was actually long. Then I found the cancel button.

 

:o Yeah, the CANCEL button. It's probably the most useful of all buttons! Gotta have it! I wish there was a TOO LATE or TOO EARLY buttons to help us time better.

[Sparrow 10]

I checked my account statement today and to my surprise I found out that I had a trade on. So I thought wtf is going on here and tried to find out what is happeninig.

Looks like I forgot to cancel a stop and was filled one day ago!

 

Luck was on my side this time, closed the position at +100 pips .

I'm trading very small right now so it wouldn't have threatened my account even if the trade was without a stop, but would have beaten myself up about it, which is the right thing to do.

Edited February 26, 2008 by Sparrow

[Trvlwanderer 10]

You'd think I would learn (or at least be a carpenter and measure twice). AAPL setup very strong. Short in the order window for 1000 shares. Executed and lord have mercy....a buck in a hurry, then another, then the third. Absolutely perfect setup and trade Well, the limit order was set for 10 cents higher than it should have been (.10 below support) and never filled. 3k gained and lost in my mind. Getting pretty damned good at "not" watching the P&L screen, LOL!!!!! Maybe I can program code that will allow a wav file to let me know I actually entered the trade. Something like "hey dumbass, you're up".

[torero 10]

I recently had ooppsy daisy. It was a good trade, got my profits for the day. I was in a hurry happy to end the day and shutdown my computer. Well, a few hours later I opened up to check my mail, guess what, I was in position!!!!! I had forgotten to cancel my stops from positions earlier! Damn! At least it wasn't blown open, I still ended the day in black, but still, could have been worse. Duh for me! Is there a book called "Cancel your stops for dummies" out there?!!!!

[Neopolitan 10]

Added a new 19 flat panel to my trading computer and forgot to disable my execution software. When I looked up, I was short 9 contracts ES that was starting a strong bull rally :crap: . Almost as much fun as having your stops gapped over.

[torero 10]

Added a new 19 flat panel to my trading computer and forgot to disable my execution software. When I looked up, I was short 9 contracts ES that was starting a strong bull rally :crap: . Almost as much fun as having your stops gapped over.

 

Ouch! Strong rallies (bull or bear) are hard to swallow when you're on the wrong side.

[BlowFish 10]

I had a dumb trading moment yesterday.

 

I keep the DOM open and on top down the right hand edge of my laptop. I size other window in the remaining space. Well I'm using firefox engrossed in some fascinating article and I hear "Doyyng - Order Filled". I look at the DOM and my mouse has slipped off the firefox scrol bar and into the DOM - I am now 2 ES points in the red on a new position. <DOH>

 

Have done it on the odd occasion before but not done that much damage before. New rule, minimise DOM when surfing.

[Neopolitan 10]

That 19" flat panel cost me more than my 65 hd set.:doh:

[mister ed 10]

Note to self: Never look at this thread before bedtime ... too much nightmare material...

[Sparrow 10]

Tested my system tweak today, I was upbeat and felt very smug before the start of the session. The session starts I put on my trades and the market pulls one crazy ivan after another busting all my positions. Thanks for that mr. market, trading is such a humbling experience. Despite all of this I stuck to my system and started cheering on the market to hit my stops on, I know it doesn't matter what I think but oddly it doesn't make me feel bad when my position is suck. Almost lost the trade by 1 tick but finally my profit target was hit. At least Mr. Santana & Everlast kept me in a good mood .

Ended the day with a loss, but still believe the system is sound, just misinterpreted market conditions.

 

One other dumb thing happened to me too: the mbt navigator is kinda clumsy when it comes to execution, so I sometimes put in a stop order when I'd wanted it to be a limit order and vice versa. I end up exiting when I wanted to add to my position and doubling size instead of taking profits, don't you just love it:doh:. The only thing that helps is double checking.

[Obsidian 10]

I had my matrix setup for ESH08 and went to buy, saw the chart moving up and thought I was making money. I looked at my P&L and realized I was losing money. Confused I looked at my chart again, realized it was a chart of CL :o

 

done something similar some mins ago...bought gbp/usd instead of selling...guess it is time to take a nap