Trading Through Chaos: Navigating a Global Cloudflare Disruption and Managing Unexpected Outages in the Market – A Lesson Learned

Today was one of those trading days I won’t forget—not because of the profits or losses, but because of what happened in the middle of an otherwise routine session.

I placed two trades today.
The first trade was quick and clean: it hit its stop loss within minutes. No emotions, no hesitation—just a textbook execution and a controlled loss.

The second trade initially looked much better. Price moved in my direction, started behaving well, and then began consolidating. Everything was normal… until it suddenly wasn’t.

When the Unexpected Hits: A Global Outage
In the final hour of the market, out of nowhere, both my broker’s platform and my trading account went offline. I was locked out completely. This has never happened to me before, especially while holding open positions. Only later I learned it was caused by a global Cloudflare disruption, affecting multiple financial platforms worldwide.

Those 20 minutes felt much longer.

Option prices were swinging aggressively, and I had no control—no exits, no modifications, no visibility. For a moment, I genuinely thought my account could be wiped out if the market spiked against me and my stop was skipped.

Regaining Control
After roughly 20 minutes, I finally managed to log back in. To my surprise (and relief), the position was showing a small profit. I didn’t think twice—I closed everything immediately. Once you lose access once, you know it can happen again.

Today’s Lesson
If your platform crashes, or there’s any large-scale outage, you have two choices only:
1. Do not trade, or
2. Exit immediately if you’re already in a position.

These events are rare, but when they happen, they can destroy accounts—especially in options where prices move violently and stops may not trigger.

End-of-Day Reflection
– One loss booked.
– Second position exited due to the Cloudflare outage.
– Most importantly: every single one of my trading rules was followed.

A turbulent day in the markets, but a disciplined one nevertheless.