Tomorrow is the start of September. I still remember the crash of '87. I was trading for myself and for a Fund in London. I woke up on what was to be called Black Monday with London in chaos due to a huge storm that flooded streets and knocked down trees. I drove into the office along the Embankment in London, having to drive almost in the middle of the road as the gutters had flooded and there were branches everywhere. I had slept through it all.
I was one of a number of managers of the Fund, the least well known one. As it turned out, I was lucky to be long the T-Bonds coming into the day. All the others were long markets that would wipe out more than 50% of the Fund. The Fund was closed down that week with, I think, over a 40% loss in value. I was forced to close my T-Bond position during the Monday morning in London. Had the position been allowed to continue as I had wanted, the losses in the Fund would have been mitigated. That was the end of my career as a fund manager. I decided that being just a local was all I wanted to do and decided I would never manage money again.
I woke up early, as usual, and saw the ES sitting in the top of the zipper of Profile for 27 August. I immediately sold the market at around 1043.75 and prepared for a 1 to one with one of the guys I'm mentoring. We had a productive conversation, and I then had to wait a while before the market ran down the zipper to 1038.00 where I cashed out. These zipper trades work really well.
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