I'm posting this as a learning tool for others.
A few months ago I started using my intraday system (yes, Mr. T does do intraday. I like to trade -- sue me.) on the Hang Seng. I like it because it fits my hours perfectly. It's a nice market to trade before I go to bed while my FX trades are swinging along...
Anyway, one night I was trading, and BOOM, my quotes stop. This was about 15 minutes into the second session. So I look at my feed (I use IB) and the quote panel for HSI was completely blank.
So at this point, I'm panicking, because a) I was short and the market was going against me and my stops for intraday are "emergency" stops, not actual exit triggers, so I knew if this thing took off, I was gonna drop some cash, and b) there had to be something going on big if the whole exchange stopped, which meant that I could lose a ton of money.
So after about 10 minutes of bouncing TWS and everything else, the bulletin flashes and states that the #7 flag was raised because of a typhoon and the exchange was gonna close at 1:45PM HKT. Well... it flashed at 1:46PM HKT, which means IB was... oh... just a tad late.
So now I'm pissed. So I get on the horn with IB and they're like, "Sorry sir. No one is at the exchange."
So... now I'm short... AND it's on a Friday. So you can imagine how my weekend went.
Now, this wouldn't be a big deal in the Forex market -- but for those of you who trade futures, you know how some instruments gap. Well... heh, Hang Seng gaps big almost every day. We're talking 200-600 tick gaps at a minimum of $6 a tick. I was trading two contracts, so I was in at $12 a tick.
Suffice to say, Monday came, and it gapped up and I dropped a few grand. I instantly got out of the market.
Lesson learned: Now, every trading session, I check the current weather. AND, I have the desk ready to go if I have to call.
Always make sure you understand the environment where the desk is...
You just got a $3,000 lesson for free.
A few months ago I started using my intraday system (yes, Mr. T does do intraday. I like to trade -- sue me.) on the Hang Seng. I like it because it fits my hours perfectly. It's a nice market to trade before I go to bed while my FX trades are swinging along...
Anyway, one night I was trading, and BOOM, my quotes stop. This was about 15 minutes into the second session. So I look at my feed (I use IB) and the quote panel for HSI was completely blank.
So at this point, I'm panicking, because a) I was short and the market was going against me and my stops for intraday are "emergency" stops, not actual exit triggers, so I knew if this thing took off, I was gonna drop some cash, and b) there had to be something going on big if the whole exchange stopped, which meant that I could lose a ton of money.
So after about 10 minutes of bouncing TWS and everything else, the bulletin flashes and states that the #7 flag was raised because of a typhoon and the exchange was gonna close at 1:45PM HKT. Well... it flashed at 1:46PM HKT, which means IB was... oh... just a tad late.
So now I'm pissed. So I get on the horn with IB and they're like, "Sorry sir. No one is at the exchange."
So... now I'm short... AND it's on a Friday. So you can imagine how my weekend went.
Now, this wouldn't be a big deal in the Forex market -- but for those of you who trade futures, you know how some instruments gap. Well... heh, Hang Seng gaps big almost every day. We're talking 200-600 tick gaps at a minimum of $6 a tick. I was trading two contracts, so I was in at $12 a tick.
Suffice to say, Monday came, and it gapped up and I dropped a few grand. I instantly got out of the market.
Lesson learned: Now, every trading session, I check the current weather. AND, I have the desk ready to go if I have to call.
Always make sure you understand the environment where the desk is...
You just got a $3,000 lesson for free.
Mr. Trend
