Friday Feature: The Story of my First Trade (Part 2) – I am a Pro!
June 14, 2019
Last update: August 2021
The luckiest and most awesome day of my life could’ve turned into my last day. But it didn’t, so I continued my journey towards a pro trader status.
Slawek J —
Traders,
I’ll continue telling my story about how I was taking the first steps in the financial world. If you didn’t read the first part, please, visit this link here.
I felt like a king after closing my Ford trade. It felt so good that for the rest of that day I could only remember that fact when the lifeguard was hauling me out of the ocean. It is no joke, I nearly drowned that day. Right after my work day was over I went to the beach and jumped into the ocean, completely ignoring the signs of a riptide. Laying on on my back in the ocean I started dreaming about my trading office, starting the firm, etc. Before I knew it I was way far and out in the ocean and trying to swim back in rip current was not an option. So what do I do? SCREAM for help!!
Luckily for me, off-duty lifeguards were hanging out on the boardwalk and immediately rushed into the water to get me out. I was saved. The luckiest and most awesome day of my life could’ve turned into my last day. But it didn’t, so I continued my journey towards a pro trader status.
I wasn’t ready to quit my job just yet so I had to find an alternative solution to running into the accounting office to check on my next trades. One day after work I went to a Verizon store and updated my service and phone. Got me a Blackberry phone with an internet connection. “I am set.” I thought to myself. “This should be good for now. I need a few more trades like that first one and I will get me an office big computer a few screens. But for now, Blackberry will do.”
Not for one second, I thought about getting a financial education. Instead, I’ve set Yahoo Finance as my starting page on my phone. I was looking at those headlines, not understanding it at all. Finally, one of them stood out. AIG is going belly up. I looked them up in my Scottrade account and AIG was trading around $0,30 per share.
“Oh wow cheaper than Ford!” I thought to myself. “How many shares could I get at that price using my entire buying power?” Order › Buy › Click › yesss, I was in my second trade!
Not thinking too much about it I went back home after work. A couple of days later the FED decided to bail AIG out. The news was released after market hours. AIG goes to about $4 per share. “Okay, now I am making serious money!!” I locked way over $200,000 and started thinking to myself that I would run this account to 1 million and quit my job.
I was not aware of how incredibly lucky I was. I was just thinking that this is how Wall Street people are making their money. For some reason, I didn’t ask myself why people work in America, why isn’t everyone a Pro Trader like myself?
Well, the answers to my questions came right after I placed my third trade.
It was a Ford trade again. I placed my trade in the parts department. I was waiting for the parts guy to come to the counter and decided right there to buy into Ford again. No analysis needed. Didn’t look at the chart either. I had no clue such a thing as a chart exists.
I remember the price pretty well. My fill price was $4.60 per share and that was a high price for a long long time. On this very same morning, I was down about $60,000 and got sick to my stomach. I didn’t know what was going on with me. Anger, fear, hate, not fully understanding what was happening. Those were the emotions that were running through my head.
So, can I lose money trading?
How much will I lose?
Will Ford go to zero?
Those were the dark days of my life. I was praying to the Market Gods: no answer.
Alcohol was not helping, either.
Yahoo finance on my Blackberry didn’t have a clear answer for me either.
Ford bottomed at about $1.00. All of my profits evaporated as well as part of my initial deposit.
I never sold that stock back. I wasn’t able to understand what would’ve happened to my money if I had sold it back for a loss. I was losing my mind trying to find answers to all of my questions.
Searching online, one little ad from Robert Kiyosaki about financial education caught my attention. I signed up…..
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