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The Trader Who Made $34 Million in 24 Little Hours
24 August 2015 is one of those dates that will go down in trading history along with 19 October 1987 and 24 October 1929, so much so that it earned its own moniker – Black Monday and hashtag #blackmonday. In just 24 hours, one trillion dollars was wiped from global exchanges in a vicious wave that began in China and ended in New York.
While thousands of professional traders stood transfixed, unsure which way to turn, one self-taught Japanese trader coolly made $34 million by shorting the Nikkei 225. Known as CIS, he told his story live in a blow-by-blow account to his 40,000 followers on Twitter. This week he sat down with Bloomberg and revealed some of his method.
Back in Mid-August he starting shorting futures on the Nikkei 225 Stock Average with the expectation that it would drop. And when Black Monday came along on the 24th, drop it did indeed. By the close of the Asian session he’s amassed a profit of $13 million but instead of cashing out, he added to the position. His rationale was that when the US market opened New York would be in a panic, bringing down their markets which in turn would put further pressure on the Asian markets. That rationale saw him double his profit. But again, he didn’t walk away from the markets and took a punt that it had reached bottom and traded the rebound by going long. Again his prediction proved correct so that by Tuesday, when he finally closed out of the markets, he’d tripled his profit.
His final tweet says it all,
“That’s the end of my epic rebound trade”
An enigmatic man
Trading the rebound is not new to CIS, a 36 year old video game champion and gambler. 10 years ago he started Day Trading and made billions of yen from his bedroom and becoming a cult figure amongst Japanese Day Traders. With his swaggering comments and online bragging (showing statements for proof), this multimillionaire and father of three is actually highly protective of his identity.
How did he do it?
His winning trade began on 12 August when he noted an unusual move in the equity markets – a weakness in shares amongst the major indices. He began to short Nikkei futures building his stake to the tune of $240 million, quite a punt! He stood to make or lose millions for every 100 yen move in the index.
When the market flattened out for a few days, CIS stood aside patiently, until Friday 21 August when the Nikkei dropped. Then Black Monday came crashing in with the index losing the most in two years when it dropped more than 1,000 points. By Asian close his profit stood at $13 million. But instead of cashing out he tweeted: “I’m adding to my position. Then I’m going to go for a walk and prayer.”
Working on the logic that when the US opened there would be lot of fear, he sold another 200 contracts raising his risk to $275 million. With the Shanghai Composite Index losing 8.5% (it’s worse in 8 years), panic did in fact grip New York seeing major indices like the Dow losing 1,000 points – it’s biggest ever drop in a single day. And true to CIS’ expectation, the Nikkei slipped again that night.
Was it time for CIS to cash up? Instead de decided to take the cream off the rebound. Just as the bottom was about to be hit by the Nikkei he played the other side of the trade and began to buy. By 1:00am Tuesday in Tokyo, he’d amassed 970 contracts valued at $145 million in anticipation of the market rising.
At this point he went to bed and woke up to the Nikkei futures opening higher and beginning a slow recovery. Later that day he finally closed his trade, making millions of dollars in less than 24 hours.
As the song goes
“What a difference a day makes, 24 little hours”.
The secret to success?
One of the most well-known sayings in the trading world is ‘follow the trend’ and that is exactly what CIS says he does, “buy what’s being bought, sell what’s being sold”. However, he still loses 4/10 times, the aim is to get out of losing trades fast and let the winners run and make the most out of using stop losses.
He makes it sound easy doesn’t he?
The post The Trader Who Made $34 Million in 24 Little Hours appeared first on Forex.Info.
