I had re entered the Market in 1974 and ran the Portfolio up 8000 % between “74 and 87” and dropped it all in one day! The trigger was The Treasury Secretary threatened the Germans they would let the Dollar float ! Granted I used Margin to run it up and it was Margin that made it all collapse in one DAY! My first margin call was for $250,000 and then later another for $175,000 ,.I only escaped because I had $10,000 in cash that I could send ,and with all the panic it was used to buy me some time .!
I got a bounce back ,I don’t know if cats had anything to do about that ,but It allowed me to start selling at better prices to lower my margin until it was stable.Buy 1988 I was totally in cash .My profits were so high I still would owe taxes even at after crash prices.I had to be careful not to sell to0 fast.I went short against the BOX to get me into the next year 1988 so as to delay so I could plan better .In the end I survived because of the 10,000 cash on hand ,but my dear friend and broker had died of internal bleeding because of it.Maybe I’ll write a book one day !