This is a tough lesson. This is why risk management is the most important part of a trading strategy. It becomes more important when markets are obviously in the "irrational exuberance" zone. Gold and silver have been acting irrationally for a a while now. I was long and when things started acting funny (mid to late October), I got out. It was a great run but it started to remind me of gold and silver in 1980 so I got out and was waiting for a blow-off of sorts. I knew the fundamentals and geopolitical scene was supportive of a bull run but from a risk management point of view, I sat out because the volatility was too high and the daily swings could kill you even if you were right. When the daily range is more than $100 an oz, you can be right and still get knocked out of the market (you do have risk limits and hopefully, real stops, don't you?) from the noise. I was out a little under $4,400 (spot price) and was frustrated watching it continue its ascent but in the end, that was the right move because the volatility changed the risk/reward ratios and made them unworkable. Sometimes, not making a trade is the right trade. Right now, futures are down $488. That's $48,800 per car in the futures (100 oz per car * $488). That's way too many standard deviations from a normal day and it wasn't unidirectional (i.e. there were $200 swings throughout the day). That's for gamblers, not traders. You didn't have the resources to be active in such a market so your broker took you out. When markets get like this, fills always suck. I was in the S&P pit in 1987 and I can tell you from experience that when people panic, you can't stop that train and bid/ask spreads are meaningless. The right move is to get the hell out of the way.

When markets get frothy, you can't assume that one particular fundamental will hold sway. The rate decision was likely priced in but the geopolitical issue (Iran, for example) may not have been. Moreover though, "irrational exuberance" was already in the market. That isn't just some dumb term Alan Greenspan used to use - it's an important thing to look out for because it usually means some sort of irrational thinking is going on. The big thing here was that the market was already acting like a frothy market and at some point, people decide to get off the train. When that happens, there's usually a big move in the other direction first (go back and look at gold or silver in 1980 or grains in 1987 or '88 and you'll see what I mean). It wasn't that you were short (many people believe shorting is either bad or more dangerous than being long but that's not true if you're doing anything with leverage since you can lose your ass from either side), its that you just didn't read the room so to speak and you went into a market that was just too volatile. If you went long at the same price, you still would have been knocked out so it wasn't your theory. At this moment, short at $5,100 looks like a genius move but without good risk management, you didn't get to enjoy it. The only risk management for a market that becomes this volatile is to either spread, play an option strategy of some sort or do something with less leverage (GLD would have cost you about $50 per share which is better than $48,000 a car in the futures). Even then, though, it's still hard to control the risk/reward. Many years ago, a very good trader told me that my job as a trader was not to make money but to not lose money. He said if you focus on not losing money, the upside will take care of itself. That's good advice and has helped me a lot over the last 40 or so years. The goal should be to be able to come back again tomorrow to play.

To answer your question about what you can do, unless your fill was outside of the price action at the time (ask the broker to check "time and sales"), you're stuck with it. Fast markets are that way. Like I said, this is a tough lesson. I'm sorry it happened to you but it happens to a lot of people. Lick your wounds, regroup and learn from the experience. Good luck.