End of the road...

C

CartelTrader

I have decided not to trade anymore for the time being. I have found that the risk reward ratio sucks.

I have had the bad trades outnumber the good trades for over a month now. So it is time to regroup and decide what my next endeavor will be.

I might be back or I might not. Thanks to all you guys for sharing your knowledge on this board.

Peace,
CartelTrader
 
CartelTrader,

Sorry to hear about the string of down-days. I, too, hit a rough patch (mine was back in mid-May to mid-June). The people here at ET really helped me in both getting my head back on straighter (its still not totally straight :) ) and forced me to really think about my trading methods. Regrouping is a really good idea. Journalling and reviewing old trades might also help you debug your trading style. You might want to try paper-trading until you can resynchronize yourself with the markets (then shift to trading small position size til you gain confidence).

And, if you ultimately decide that the trading life is not for you, then I wish you good luck in your next life.

-Traden4Alpha
 
CartelTrader,

I can sympathize with how you feel, however you need to understand that you are not a failure at this. Those string of bad trades will give you the perfect opportunity to take a hard look at what is going on.

With each trade you make, write down why you traded, what the goal of your trade is, how you were feeling during the trade (happy, sad, anxious, depressed, angry, etc).

If you consistently make trades that are going against you, figure out what your problem is and fix it.

Are your stops to tight? Are they too lose? Are you trading using different systems each time?

Your success as a trader will be much easier than you realize once you learn to control the most fundamental part of trading -- yourself.

Keep a detailed trading log. Jump back into some paper-trading if you need to.

If you are persistant and work hard, you will eventually be more consistent. Don't give up now. Once a trader, always a trader at heart.

aphie
 
Oh one other thing:

Your ability to trade is no reflection of your self-worth, intelligence or ability to succeed. Don't take poor results as an indication that you aren't any good at trading.

The best traders in the world experienced the hardest lessons. Believe me, I have made mistakes in my past that were horrendous at the time, but with experience, you learn to dodge these sort of "fatal mistakes" and get on with your trading life.

Remember the kid in the Never Ending Story who had to save the princess but he didn't know how -- yet she kept telling him that he had the power but just didn't know it. Trading is a lot like the never-ending story. Eventually when your mind embraces all the parameters you just suddenly start seeing markets for what they are -- waves of greed and fear on various trends and cycles.

If you need some time off, take a vacation, get a cash-advance on one of your credit cards and fly to Amsterdam (flights are real cheap, and if you fly Delta give me your name and I'll hook you up with first class) and smoke some pot and have a wild time with some cute European women. They don't care about money like many American women -- they just want a good time. ;-)

The markets will always be here for you buddy.

aphie
 
If its any consolation, the past six weeks have basically been one big screwball turning point of low liquidity, low gameability, high schizophrenia and vicious elbow swinging- basically a time for surviving rather than thriving. If there was ever a market period dedicated to hammering home the dangers of indiscriminate selection and overtrading, this one was it. Got to know when to press and when to hang back.
 
If for some reason you don't make it a s a trader, you sure as hell would as a travel agent! :D I set a reminder to speak with you when I am planning my next getaway!
 
"fly to Amsterdam ...and have a wild time with some cute European women. They don't care about money like many American women -- they just want a good time. "

my last lover was a cutie from amsterdam ...

she did not care that at the time I was struggling
as a trader ... just wanted my company in and out
of bed

:)
 
I think that most would be traders will look back and say that this is one thing in life they wished they had not done. That said, for those who make it, they will look at it as the best, but most don't.

Its very easy to get caught up in a drawdown and let this cause uncertainty and fear in your trading. Its important that you don't. If I told you I had a system that is right 50% of the time and wrong 50% of the time and it produced 13 stops in a row, would you think it was broken? Most people would, but what if this system was a coin toss, you know that can't be broken. But, statistically speaking with a 50/50 system you will experience a cluster of 16 losses in a row. Not only that, the odds suggest that in 20,000 trials you could see 16 losses in a row, one win, followed by 16 losses in a row again, and this would mean absolutly nothing at all about your system. if you have an extraordinary system that hits at 80% you should expect to see 9 losses in a row, and this could again be followed by one win and 9losses in a row again. Not comfortable for sure, but thats the Mathematics of trading laid out for you.

I tend to not do very well in a topping or bottoming market with a lot of volatility. As a result over the last month and a half I am down about 9%, and again this is pretty much meaningless no matter how frustrating it might be.

Brandon
 
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