Trading Stories: My first big-winning trade and what I learnt from it

It’s the first week of March 2020. The markets are collapsing due to COVID-19 and its potential disastrous effects. There was a blood bath out there. The Nasdaq was around 7,000 if I remember correctly, and I had just become unemployed in London. With plenty of time on my hands, I relied on my experience as a trader since 2015 and four years of working in a hedge fund. I had a strong sense of the market’s movements. The job market was dead, so I had nothing to lose by going all-in to make some money. In the worst-case scenario, if I lost everything, I would have to move back in with my parents in Athens. So, the following week, I started building long positions, gradually investing most of my savings in Uber, Amazon, Royal Caribbean, and Microsoft. I used no stop loss, no leverage — nothing.

I must admit that when it was announced that the Fed was holding a meeting, it reassured me about my positions. On March 18th, the markets bottomed out, and the rest is history. I held most of my positions until September 2021, gradually liquidating during the summer time. Reflecting on all my losing trades from previous years — the short strategies, the cowboy trades, the excessive leverage — I came to a simple conclusion that I suggest everyone should follow (Not a financial advice) : Don’t use stop losses, don’t use leverage, always go long, never short, and don’t bet against the wealthiest and smartest people in the world. Buy the largest tech stocks that you want in bear markets when the S&P is already down more than 20%, and buy them gradually. If you follow these couple of simple tips….You’ll do fine.