Читать книгу The Guts and Glory of Day Trading - Mark Ingebretsen - Страница 7

Happily, the traders profiled in this book belie that stereotype. And for that reason alone, we can learn a lot from their stories and the strategies they’ve used to succeed. Their record of success is vastly better than the findings of the NASD survey. To secure a place in this book, each trader had to build an account that totalled seven figures or higher. Alternately, over the course of their careers they needed to have taken at least seven figures from the market. The great majority of the 12 traders did far better than that. Some succeeded in earning more than $1 million. One trader, Mary Pugh, in keeping with the book’s subtitle, did sustain losses well in excess of $1 million. But prior to that, she had built her account up by many millions more. And her losses occurred mainly because she chose to place a major portion of her portfolio in a small, highly speculative tech firm.

Far more common were losses of hundreds of thousands of dollars incurred during the tech wreck of spring 2000. But even when factoring in these huge losses, the traders were still left with accounts that were vastly higher than the sums they began with. Their returns of 100 percent to as much as 1,000 percent or more would impress even the most out-on-the-edge hedge fund manager.

The stories of how these traders amassed that money are indeed true tales of guts and glory. Teresa Lo let close to $1 million ride on long index options – one of the most risky trading arenas you’ll find. Over the weeks her profits grew. But she refused to take the funds off the table, even though she knew an unexpected market downturn might render her entire options portfolio worthless. Terry Bruce grew his portfolio from $75,000 to well over half a million in just six months, only to watch it crash back to zero following a series of bad trades. To get back into the trading game, he took out a second mortgage on his house. The $40,000 he amassed would serve as both trading capital and expense money. And he knew if he lost it, he’d find himself practically out on the street. During the turbulent markets that occurred during late ’99 and into 2000, Barbara Hamilton found herself making and losing as much as $100,000 in the course of a single day!