Experienced Traders' Bloopers

NoDoji

NoDoji

I remember believing for the longest time that certain traders must be superhuman to produce those big fat P/L’s you often see or hear about. They obviously had obtained the Holy Grail and had the Trader’s Mindset so fully mastered that every trade, whether winner or loser, was executed perfectly day in, day out.

I discovered later that there is no such thing, and no matter how much experience you get, how comfortable trading becomes, or how Holy your Grail is, the market has a way of disrupting your objectivity at times.

I thought it would be fun to start a Bloopers thread for experienced traders to post their favorite “DOH!” trade of the day or the week or the month, so the beginners out there realize that you no matter how much you believe you finally "got it", you have to remain vigilant at all times, or the market will be ready to pounce on your moments of weakness!

My last blooper was Tuesday, when I was ready to position myself for a breakout long trade off a pullback deep into the channel that found a ready supply of buyers. I knew the price at which I should enter to give me enough room to escape at or near break even if the push back up failed to have follow through.

I hesitated and hemmed and hawed and before I knew it, price was a-movin' without me! I chased the entry and accomplished the feat of buying 1 tick from the pivot high of the move, then sat on it until the full stop was hit.

DOH!

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Yesterday I tried to enter TF long and missed the fill by three ticks

When the tape rolled over, I got short at 811.50

When price moved roughly 2pts lower, I pondered leaving the initial stop at -1pt or trail to entry = stop at par. mostly due to serious focus on CL, I lowered the stop to crowded at par so I could turn full attention back to CL action

TF popped back up thru the stop at entry, then promptly turned and dropped 10pts from there.

My targeted exit was 803.50 for +8pts forecast by measured price itself. The market did exactly that, and it did so exactly without me along for the ride.

Plodding markets like eminis need relaxed stops, while volatile markets like CL require aggressive stops. Eminis give scant few entry points per day, while CL offers up tons of entry signals. Trying to balance both logics in live fire is a challenge, sometimes

fwiw: the only veteran traders who don't make numerous mistakes each week are the pretenders and bald-face liars. Hopefully that is some comfort to the rest of us out there :)
 

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That's a blooper ? You just described my 'edge' ! :D

Maybe that's why I'm still a beginner.

Sounds like a fun thread. Thanks for starting.


Quote from NoDoji:

My last blooper was Tuesday, when I was ready to position myself for a breakout long trade off a pullback deep into the channel that found a ready supply of buyers. I knew the price at which I should enter to give me enough room to escape at or near break even if the push back up failed to have follow through.

I hesitated and hemmed and hawed and before I knew it, price was a-movin' without me! I chased the entry and accomplished the feat of buying 1 tick from the pivot high of the move, then sat on it until the full stop was hit.

DOH!
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My most common blooper is an unforced error. I lose focus and start to enter trades "automatically" and only find that I messed up when I enter the trade in my journal.
 
Quote from jas_in_hbca:

That's a blooper ? You just described my 'edge' ! :D
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Oh, it IS an edge, as long as you're not chasing the momentum inside and near the top of a pullback channel :p
 
Interesting (I been thinking on this a bit)

To me, it appears you’re still trying to assign a value to your trading (good or bad…. blooper or correct decision.. right or wrong….)


Like you should have known better when you did it….

Else you are arm chair quarterbacking it (passing judgment after the fact)

:confused:
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Trading is never perfect… AND anything less than perfect will always have bloopers/ fuck ups/ bad decisions/ mistakes/ losing trades/ missed trades/ what ever….


I strive to do the best I can – with what I have – at that given moment

Let come what may after that…… and roll with it


iow;

It matters not what happens to me – only how I respond…. (even if what is happening is of my own doing)



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I could be interpreting you post/ thinking wrong NOD… but…..


It is never good we hold our self to a standard impossible to attain


Your thoughts Ma’am

RN
 
Quote from Redneck:

I could be interpreting you post/ thinking wrong NOD… but…..


It is never good we hold our self to a standard impossible to attain


Your thoughts Ma’am

RN
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That's the point of this thread. No matter how experienced, we make mistakes, and I think it's defeating for beginners to think that experienced traders are perfect and never take losses or make mistakes.

It's important not to allow mistakes to sabotage the rest of a trading day/week/month.

Turns out my blooper preceded a full point gain when I centered myself and took the signal properly on the next setup :)
 
Quote from NoDoji:

That's the point of this thread. No matter how experienced, we make mistakes, and I think it's defeating for beginners to think that experienced traders are perfect and never take losses or make mistakes.
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Got it, makes sense now

No perfectness here – just a bunch of dumbass traders


Sorry bout the misinterpretation


I'll gladly share my losers / f'ups with whoever wants em :p


RN
 
I'm not qualified to post here - yet - but still want to sneak this one in 'cause it's a real blooper.

I place my stop automatically when my trade is placed. I was using a 3 point stop in NQ until i realized that on my winning trades my MAE was RARELY more than 2 points. So i decided moving my automatic stop to 2.25 points would be a good idea.

After i added the new stop set up in Ninja I soon put on a trade. There's my fill on the chart and "what's my stop doing there !?" Before i could figure it out , like 2 seconds later , i'm stopped out for a 2 TICK loss.

Ah, ticks vs. points, got it.

Does that count ? :)
 
Adding an extra 0 to my sharesize. 150,000 shares later I realize my mistake (typed in 50,000 instead of 5,000). Got out of that one for a profit.

Being in 150,000 shares of a stock after hours when I thought I was only in 15,000. Got out of that one (after hours) for a small loss but my P&L was fluxuating widely.

When I was new I had a key mapped to send an order that got physically stuck down. I maxed out my BP and I made like $100.
 
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