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Blow up two, maybe three small accounts and you may find relief from the compulsion to gamble
Can't trade small
- Thread starter rangetrader2012
- Start date
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Blow up two, maybe three small accounts and you may find relief from the compulsion to gamble
You're not disciplined.
Destined to fail.
Destined to fail.
I see no problem on trading 10% of your account per trade as long as you have an edge. The issue becomes a problem if you start to lose, and then revenge trade without looking for real setups.
% per trade is really meanings less since it does not measure real risk.
Other risk factors (many of these did happen):
1) You were trading small %, but your broker transferred all of your funds into his account to go long with 10 times margins on European bonds.
2) You put your funds into a company by Oliver even though you warned against it here on ET since you believed he was going to fund you for life.
3) You paid for training but the training was fake, and it caused you to lose even more money.
4) You read something on ET where the trader said he believed the market was going to fall or go up, and you believed him since he or she had a high post count, so you placed your trade in that direction instead of following your own system.
5) You traded one of Surf's price driver calls with no stop or target since he does not believe in stops, and blew up your account.
% per trade is really meanings less since it does not measure real risk.
Other risk factors (many of these did happen):
1) You were trading small %, but your broker transferred all of your funds into his account to go long with 10 times margins on European bonds.
2) You put your funds into a company by Oliver even though you warned against it here on ET since you believed he was going to fund you for life.
3) You paid for training but the training was fake, and it caused you to lose even more money.
4) You read something on ET where the trader said he believed the market was going to fall or go up, and you believed him since he or she had a high post count, so you placed your trade in that direction instead of following your own system.
5) You traded one of Surf's price driver calls with no stop or target since he does not believe in stops, and blew up your account.
It's not that you can't trade small, your problem is that you won't trade small. Start thinking in terms of risk/reward for all of your trading (or even life) decisions. What do you have to gain by trading too much size? Sure you can win more, but by the sounds of it you are an inconsistent trader. Since people on here seem to love 'playing quant', I'll put it like this: shitty trader+too much size=broke trader. Do you want to go broke? Didn't think so, and if that isn't enough motivation to trade smaller I'm not sure you have the correct mentality to be trading live right now.
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That will do it for sure;
especially do it long enough
Make sure to keep paper records;
like the black box that IS useful on crash/burned aircraft
Money is the smallest of all your risks. When it's your only risk you will be able to do 2% with no effort every time.
I think most of the losing traders who post on here don't even know there is more on the table than just money. but there is.
Imagine you're trading and I'm sitting behind you watching over your shoulder. Your trade goes down 1.8% and I say, " Oh, man, I knew it. Another losing trade. What a loser." and you say back "Shut up! This is NOT a losing trade. It's still within range of my risk."
But then it goes to 2.1% and you're like "Man, if I close it now, I just prove him right. It has to come back. It just HAS to."
Then 5% and I say, "Holy smokes! You're such an idiot. You should have put that money towards a vacation cause either way you'll never see it again. Whoa!"
And the dialogue goes on. Once I insulted your intelligence and your ego, money became the smallest risk. You'd risk 10% of your account easily in hopes that this trade would become a winner and you could rub it in my face.
The truth, however, is that I don't have to be behind you talking smack. You have plenty of people inside of your own mind that you have to show up. Or who would hero worship you if you could become rich in the market. As soon as you can get them out of your head by realizing the truth about them in real life - which is that they don't give one crap about you or your trading - then you'll be all alone in your mind and free to make decisions without their scrutinization.
Maybe that sounds wierd, but if you think about it I'm sure you'll find people besides yourself that you "have to win" for. Until you have nothing on the line but money, it will always take an ocean of discipline to overcome the temptation to stay in and hope.
And all of these guys, by the way, who are recommending using more self discipline, are losing traders who also can't follow their own rules.