I found this site around 2006 or 2007 time frame. And I've been silently reading for so many years, and very grateful for the experience I got from some of the posts here. Just want to tell my own story here, i guess part of the reason is that this is season of sharing? so I feel i need to do something useful now.
I1. loss years: 2005 - 20015, for this 10 years, I traded/gambled away all the ESPP and options gains I got from company work. I did all the mistakes you can possibly think of. I traded all the markets, stocks, options, commodities (CL, GC SI, zw/zc/zo/zs etc, NG....) and of course AUD/EUR/GBP..... whatever you can think of. During this 10 years, I only had one year that was positive gain with less than 2K dollars. It was so painful, and every April tax season, I felt so guilty and shameful in front of my wife. I still kept the account balance slip with less than 300 dollars in my IB account. That was the lowest point (it actually can go lower, but I kept sending in checks.)
some of the vivid failures I still remember: shorted AMZN in the 80s, shorted SBUX at the low right after 2008/9 meltdown. I would categorize myself as perma-bear, that's why like to short.
and the fatal root cause is: overtrading and really addicted to the market. I was literally depressed during Saturday. and I was like coming back to life around 2:15PM PST when FX market opens. I just want to be attached.
2.And then, the break through came when I switched to another job. In that job, I couldn't login to my IB accounts from company network., I was forced to keep distance from the market. But all these years addiction to the markets, the gazing of the quotes almost 8 hours a day somehow I have a very accurate reading of the direction of the stocks. I quit daytrading, focused mainly on options within 1-2 weeks to 1-2 months away. And the patterns I am mostly fond of is the triangle breakup/breakdown. And I trade big if I see that opportunity. This cuts down my trading activity a lot, i used to trade everyday, but now I trade like 2-3 time/week in average. But i still daytrade GC/AUD/EUR, but keep lot small just for fun if I am really bored waiting for GOOG/AMZN to spike up. I am more flexible during this period. and I don't panic, I don't show much emotion if I win or loss. I guess some of the reason is that I have lost so much, the loss of couple K really doesn't depress me as before.
Another major change is that I became more balanced in my view of the world. Partly thanks to the CEO of GS, I watched his graduation speech for some college and in there, he mentioned that people need to keep balanced view, not too optimistic and not too pessimistic. It's been a bull market for so long, you know. Anyway, I started to buy as well as sell.
3. recovering the loss and then some more. For the past two years, i got back all my losses and earned some. You might think this is such a crazy bull market, so anyone can do it.. I have doubts too, but I can feel after so many years, with family growing, went through so much pain and sleepless nights. indeed there's something has changed for good inside me or how I trade the markets.
4. I recalled a few useful posts here: one was from a guy in Texas, he used to trade Ags mainly, and he called out the super Sugar bull long ago, I piggy backed and won some. And most importantly I learned how a trader should wait for the right moment sitting on the hands for 3 months. And of course few others, thanks from an anonymous. I am very grateful.
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I1. loss years: 2005 - 20015, for this 10 years, I traded/gambled away all the ESPP and options gains I got from company work. I did all the mistakes you can possibly think of. I traded all the markets, stocks, options, commodities (CL, GC SI, zw/zc/zo/zs etc, NG....) and of course AUD/EUR/GBP..... whatever you can think of. During this 10 years, I only had one year that was positive gain with less than 2K dollars. It was so painful, and every April tax season, I felt so guilty and shameful in front of my wife. I still kept the account balance slip with less than 300 dollars in my IB account. That was the lowest point (it actually can go lower, but I kept sending in checks.)
some of the vivid failures I still remember: shorted AMZN in the 80s, shorted SBUX at the low right after 2008/9 meltdown. I would categorize myself as perma-bear, that's why like to short.
and the fatal root cause is: overtrading and really addicted to the market. I was literally depressed during Saturday. and I was like coming back to life around 2:15PM PST when FX market opens. I just want to be attached.
2.And then, the break through came when I switched to another job. In that job, I couldn't login to my IB accounts from company network., I was forced to keep distance from the market. But all these years addiction to the markets, the gazing of the quotes almost 8 hours a day somehow I have a very accurate reading of the direction of the stocks. I quit daytrading, focused mainly on options within 1-2 weeks to 1-2 months away. And the patterns I am mostly fond of is the triangle breakup/breakdown. And I trade big if I see that opportunity. This cuts down my trading activity a lot, i used to trade everyday, but now I trade like 2-3 time/week in average. But i still daytrade GC/AUD/EUR, but keep lot small just for fun if I am really bored waiting for GOOG/AMZN to spike up. I am more flexible during this period. and I don't panic, I don't show much emotion if I win or loss. I guess some of the reason is that I have lost so much, the loss of couple K really doesn't depress me as before.
Another major change is that I became more balanced in my view of the world. Partly thanks to the CEO of GS, I watched his graduation speech for some college and in there, he mentioned that people need to keep balanced view, not too optimistic and not too pessimistic. It's been a bull market for so long, you know. Anyway, I started to buy as well as sell.
3. recovering the loss and then some more. For the past two years, i got back all my losses and earned some. You might think this is such a crazy bull market, so anyone can do it.. I have doubts too, but I can feel after so many years, with family growing, went through so much pain and sleepless nights. indeed there's something has changed for good inside me or how I trade the markets.
4. I recalled a few useful posts here: one was from a guy in Texas, he used to trade Ags mainly, and he called out the super Sugar bull long ago, I piggy backed and won some. And most importantly I learned how a trader should wait for the right moment sitting on the hands for 3 months. And of course few others, thanks from an anonymous. I am very grateful.
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