Millionaire TradersQ: What was your best trade ever?
A: On December 4, 2003, I bought the euro/U.S. dollar at 1.2150,
and I held on for 300 points. Every 25 or 50 pips, I added to the
position. The euro was a rocket ship at that time, and I held on for
dear life because I kept adding to the trade, and it moved so fast,
I didn’t have to hold it for long. This was one of the big lessons for
me to realize that if I got the trade idea right, I needed to capitalize
on it and instead of taking money off the table during the trade, I
needed to move my stops up with the move, and then add more
to the position. The key was to be aggressive when I was right. In
this particular trade, I was very fortunate to seize the moment and
pounce on the trade because we don’t get long trends every day
or every week in Forex—but when we do get a trend, it’s really
important that we get the most out of it.
I should have held that trade a lot longer if you look at it from
a historical perspective, but there were not a lot of us back then
that thought 1.3000 itself was a reachable goal.
Q: What was your worst trade ever?
A: My first account, it was that first trade that lost 90 percent
in 72 hours. I had bought the euro, and I was enjoying a 10 or 20
pip gain on the trade, when I read some commentary online from
some guy that said that euro was going to fall. I trusted someone
else’s convictions without testing anything for myself. Trusting in
the analysis of a person I’d never met, I shorted the ever-loving
heck out of the euro/U.S. dollar, and I held on because I was sure
that he would never be handing out advice that was not top-notch.
He would surely never be wrong and he positively knew what he
was talking about.
Of course, his idea was garbage and I had done no testing to
prove that he knew what he was doing. Of course, I took double
the size of my regular trade. Of course, as the trade went against
me I added more. Of course, as it really started to go against me, I
sunk away and acted like it wasn’t happening. It was a demoralizing
experience to say the least. My friend who invested in the account