2008

Idu

With the year almost over I thought I'd look back and share with you my favourite trading moments of 2008. Feel free to add your own or anything that caught your attention in this crazy year gone by.

To give some clarification to my choices you should know that I am a prop trader by profession so some of my choices may seem weird in the context of overall market trends.(I'm not putting any monetary figures down, just moments of the year that were memorable for me)

Jan 2008 - Jérôme Kerviel. The single most exciting day in my trading life was when Kerviel's trading escapades were revealed to the market. Swinging for the DAX like a mad man is something I'll never forget.

Mar 2008 - an absolutely horrid day for the stocks on St Patricks Day. Besides how busy it was my abiding memory is a colleague of mine slamming his desk in frustration and when I llooked over at the commotion all I could see was a giant green leprechaun hat peering out above his trading screens. I had to laugh

Sep 6th 2008 - The worst day of my life. This is the day that news of the Fannie and Freddie Bailout hit the market place. It was a sunday. I held a posiition over the weekend. I knew I was screwed. I was in work the next day 3 hours before my I could have possibly saved my position. As all around me made a fortune I had my worst P&L day ever without even making a trade. Sickening stuff

Oct 2008 - The House of Representatives vote no to the bank bailout bill. The greatest missed opportunity of my trading career. Watching dumbstruck as the greatest prop trade of the last 5 years passes before me. I have 1000 in my Eurostoxx clipper, I do nothing. It goes into volatility auction and opens 250 ticks lower. Do the math. Sick

Other notables:

Cant remember the exac date but for 3 days this year I was the only man to sell front month crude oil at its all time record high which was 105.45. Market spiked up and filled my order for 5 contracts at the price and took 3 days to get back there. Sadly the rights to my book "I sold the all-time high in oil" never got picked up.

Bank of America buying out Merrill Lynch. A kick in the crotch for the asshole investment bankers everywhere

The Obama rally - Sell Sell Sell!!! ha ha ha

woodseb

it's been a crazy year alright, the intraday volatility was mental, go home in the evening and return in the morning with Wall St having swung by 5+%

the highlight (or lowlight) was the VOW squeeze, just a crazy thing to watch the stock tick to infinity and be glad i was out of the way of it

Baird

Madhoff and the greatest swindle of all time.

ixus

Global rate cuts and the reaction on the Schatz/Bund.

Since October, trying to 2nd guess the money flows and what's leading what (treasuries, currency, or stocks).

daveirl

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silverharp

the dollar bears getting creamed this year, even clever investors like Jimmy Rogers were caught out by this, this was one for the history buffs as the senior currency tended to go up in value at the start of a deleveraging process