Hi Paul, I had talked about doing a Q&A with you. However, I realized I am not much of a journo, so not sure how good it will be. Anyhow here's a couple of questions which require a story rather than a technical discussion and might be interesting ... you do not need to talk specific numbers, if that comes in the way.
#1. What has been the biggest oops, trading wise?
I'll give a 2 of them, because I think they are relevant and will alert different ones with similar ideas.
1. This will also show why I highly discourage strictly emanating my trades, or anyone else's. Why I say if you trade other people's signals, you even need a methodology to go with it.
Throughout 2006 I was seriously considering open a signals service, along with being an account manager and trading for others. During this year I was being given all kinds of referrals for people to follow my signals for one free month. Eventually, I had a list of over 500 people that took advantage of that free offer. One of them was someone I developed a friendship with on the internet and on the phone. He lives in the UK, and I live in the USA. He had an internet service, and he was going great guns to advertise for me about my service and the future developments that were involved with it. That was at a time that I practically welcomed the attention and the practical cult following I had at the time. The guy was not a good trader over the years, and we both just knew I would be his panacea.
Finally, the time came, I opened a short on the EUR/NZD (With my conservative margining principles.) at 2.0356, and he bet the house in that circa area. The trade went in our favor. He was delighted when it got to 2.0190. He was up 8,300 GBP's overnight, and I'm thinking either he has a big roll, in his account or something is wrong.
The next day it turned against us, but not a big margin. I still knew it was headed to 1.8500, so it did not matter to me.
Time went on, and the trade kept going in arrears. I added around 2.0500, and he did too, and it did reverse....for awhile. He was happy allover again, and the total was in the positive for us.
It went against us again, and I added again around 1.0800. By this time I got the terrible news--worse than I could imagine. (This fiasco is of my own doing, so keep reading.)The guy took the last 25,000 GBP's to his name and bet (Correct word there.) it on that trade hoping to make hospital payments for his very sick wife. Also, he convinced several of the followers on his blog to follow those same trades, and they lost big.
What did I lose? A friend, and lots of integrity. Sure it was hit fault for betting the house, but I developed this cult-like following, and I was responsible. Those were the days I was posting all my trades and showing 3,000 pips per month.
As far as I was concerned I added another position in there somewhere, and the market peaked at 2.1176. On the reversal, it made it back to my original entry point, and in my embarrassment, I took the trade out, rather than let it run. With the add ons, when I reported 1,400 pips I expected no one to believe me.
2. Here's another point, folks. SJD wanted to know my all-time biggest oops. I'm writing this, so it serves as a warning, especailly for newbies. I will also say there are a lot of things I have to cut to the chase about. It is an effort to protect certain entities, but the relevant details will still be there.
In <> April 2007, I entered a new facet of my career, and that was being an account manager. My idea was I was doing well, personally, and I thought others would to, and I would be paid wonderfully. Little did I know about all the regulation that was involved, along with lots of logistical problems.
The first problem I ran into was being paid less than 1/8th of the total money earned in my first month.
Because of many internal problems and the pressure of trading for others, I started letting things get to me. The mental part of trading was severely getting the best of me. My clients' accounts started to suffer horridly. It got to the point I closed everyone's accounts down with some huge losses.
#2. What has been the biggest unexpected gain? How did that transpire?
This is easy. I entered a long on the AUD/USD. I am really clam when it comes to entering and exiting trades, so I never think much of it, so I just walk away, go do other things, but I don't spend a lot of time thinking about a trade after I am in. This time I was in the middle of a big session in my chat room. I left the platform up, because we were in the middle of a discussion. I got up to pour a drink, and then came back. I was shocked over the dollar gain up to that point. I checked the chart, and the gain on the chart nowhere near matched the dollar gain on the trade. I checked the current price on the trade and it was right. I kept asking, "How did I make so much money in this short period of time?" I found the answer. Some how I hit the position size by adding a zero on to the quantity of lots, so I had 10 times the amount on the dollar gains. After +12 pips <> I took the trade out, but it was actually the equivalent of a 120-pip gain
