More of a survey than a poll, but who here feels they have "blown their account up" in the course of learning to trade? Many of us have said so anecdotally in various threads.

Definition or severity of "blown up" is at your discretion. If you feel it blew up, then it blew up.

<---- Sheepishly clicks yes.

2007 Nov. AUD/USD. That was before we came across the "Come to Jesus" and crossed the rubicon from being an investor to trader (much more shennenigans). No turning back -- once you learn to trade, you never forget (just like bicycling eh?)

Yup - twice, 2nd time not as badly. Both times on overnight surprises. Beware of margin!

2 x's (so far) have learned AND come back - not proud..

blown = 1/3rd +/- loss in a very short period.

never had a 12mo loss to date (20 yrs).

No - but I've come closer than I liked.

Blown to me = less than half. Hard to recover from.

Yep, August 17th, 2007. Ben Bernanke better never find himself in a room alone with me.

$500 Forex account. EUR/JPY dduring Bear Sterns Sunday Night/Monday Morning. Thanks for the stick save!

Not yet. But up till today it was only paper. If I can do 1/10th as good with real money as I did with paper, I'll be happy as hell.

my bigger mistake was being scared out of the market sitting in cash for years, eventually decided to jump back w/ both feet but will always regret my cowardice..

I used to trade stocks that depended on management not ****ing up... let's just say I was swiftly disabused of that strategy after getting my face ripped off.

I've had a love/hate relationship with forex...usually I'll put a few K into the account and swear to trade it until it's gone of I've got a big gain. Inevitably it will end up gone. Then I swear I'll never trade forex again. Once that wears off I'll start over again.

I'm the creator and I'll play. Jumped into options WAY too fast and WAY too big and my account blew up (majorly) while I was on a plane to Italy. Reaction to an earnings release went the wrong way, and I was done.

Since then, my capital input has been MUCH smaller and the account balance is like a big piece of bubble gum. Inflates, deflates, inflates again in a smaller way, and so on. Despite swings larger than the original loss, I don't consider myself as having "blown up" my account a second time. Maybe that's because I've haven't thrown anything or "lost it" since that night in Florence....

No, I've always been too well diversified. That's not to say I haven't experienced stress. But my definition of blowing up an account means you wasted a lot of your principle by taking losses.

The biggest gouging I've taken in the last 1 1/2 years is when both TOS and Ameritrade confiscated my Zales short shares. In other words, forced buyback. I don't want to think about it, it makes me cry. That could have been one of my most lucrative trades. Time to drink now.

You mean lost it all?

Well I have multiple accounts and I blew TWO of them. Each was only a 4k IRA. The core of my account (401k) I have grown.

The worst thing that can happen is to do well at the beginning. I first started trading when I found out a "regular" person could go short as long as they have $25K. This was in the bear market of 2002. I did great until the Fed cut interest rates and the market started screaming up. I couldn't believe the dot com crap I was shorting would go back up but it did, but I kept holding for the day that it would.

Margined short squeezes on tech stocks are VERY unpleasant.

I had to cover most of my stocks at a big loss.

Of course a few months later I would have made a ton.

After suffering through the shenanigans of the recent government intervention in the markets, I don't know if I'm ever going to hold short overnight again except options.

Yes - too much into options. In 2006. Before I run into KD's posts on CFC board.
BTW, the most expensive lesson paid.

No never.

more or less

I'm with Boz, lots of accounts, sometimes not enough in the account to bother with transferring, kinda fun to blow up an account when it doesn't really matter.

Hey Sadler just read your post 20 months should be about right to learn something useful, good luck to you!

let me think. killed by plxt on margin, and destroyed by vtss mismanagement and fraud.

My most expensive lesson - Bre-X.
Anyone remember that one?

Had been trading for about 5 years then blew some major coin with BXMNF long. But still continued to trade the markets ever since.

Yeah.... go ahead and ask me how I feel about investing in some Canadian gold mining stock.....

how do you feel about investing in Canadian gold mining stock?

I had a very nasty experience last year involving a hedge fund or two, a biotech, and an FDA approval that went against me unexpectedly. I had way more position than I normally would have had because the science was (and still is) sound. Basically I underestimated the depth of regulatory capture, and it cost me.

More here, if you don't believe me. And yes, it involved the devices division.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB12314256....

Following this experience I also wrote an opinion article that got published in Nature Biotech about the FDA 'flip flops' (i.e. corruption) being basically responsible for preventing potentially lifesaving therapies from reaching commercialization. Scientists don't take kindly towards this kind of interference, but it take a while for the truth to come out.

Eventually I made my money back and more on 'no-compromise' 'hedge-kill' plays, like shorting oil. They're no longer in control, so at least this kind of BS will hopefully stop now.

Quote:

how do you feel about investing in Canadian gold mining stock?

Yep, trading those have blown me up. Terrible management, lying *******s, crooks, all of them. I won't touch another with Rubles.