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Gold/Mining/Energy : Day trading in Canada

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To: keith massey who wrote (2654)3/27/1999 6:38:00 PM
From: keith massey   of 4467
 
Thought I would give the group a stop-loss horror story. Sucks to be this guy.

In The New Market Wizards by Jack Schwager, respected money manager Monroe Trout describes his ordeal: "January 9, 1991 was the day that Secretary of State James Baker met with the Iraqi ambassador in an effort to avert the Gulf War. At the time there was a reasonable degree of optimism going in to the meeting. Addressing the press after the meeting, Baker began his statement with the word 'Regrettably.' A wave of selling hit the stock and bond markets. I lost about $9,500,000, most of it in about ten seconds." Trout was holding 700 S&P futures contracts at the time.

One of the trading systems I was using during that period was a day trading system for the S&P. Although on most days that system didn't trade at all, it was unlucky enough to be in a long position that morning. I remember watching Baker's news conference and the S&P price action at the same time in my office. Even though I had a $500 stop-loss in the market, my system lost $5,500 per contract on that day's trade because the market's liquidity evaporated so rapidly.


KEITH
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