How many times did you lose your capital before becoming profitable?
- Thread starter ronin266
- Start date
Quote from ronin266:
Reading trading books, one can find that almost everyone who became profitable in trading, has lost his trading capital at least once.
How many times had you lost it before becoming profitable (by profitable, I mean living from it, not earning 20$/week without losses )
How do I count those tiny $50 forex accounts I started with??
Burned through 4 of them. Some of you guys start with 10s of thousands. Must take quite a bit longer to burn through that.I am not sure how to score this. My capital has steadily grown since trading well was always the objective, never having the most capital or making it quickly. Of course, I started very small - hardly enough to live on, trading part time while I worked in the day.
I have never had a drawdown of more than 20% (in any calendar year) since that was the point that I stopped trading and began re-studying. Keeping my capital was very important to me and I gave up bigger returns for smaller drawdowns. I have studied dozens and dozens of books, traders, and methodologies though.
No trading pause has been more than 10 months and I have had approximately one per decade of trading pauses (3 decades) The worst one was two years after I left work for good, and began full time trading. I am still not clear on the precise psychological trigger other than looking down, losing confidence very suddenly, and falling off the tightrope wire. When I returned I had changed and let go of the trading results more. Each stoppage helped my trading get better somehow.
One time I had to rub my own nose in my trading, when I knowing held a gold index trade through a mental stop loss. Because I knew it was wrong, I forced myself to hold it through a horrendous paper loss (I thought one month, and it turned out to be 6 months or so). Each day, looking at the value of that stock index investment, I asked myself how I would feel now if I had gotten out when I had originally decided to.
When I got out of that one trade, forcing myself to look at it every day and continue to hold it, reminding myself that I could have sold and re-entered later; I never had a problem with taking my losses again. I still shudder when I think of that trade. Now every single time that I hesitate at taking a loss, I ask myself if I am prepared to hold it that long again. Works like a charm.
I have never had a drawdown of more than 20% (in any calendar year) since that was the point that I stopped trading and began re-studying. Keeping my capital was very important to me and I gave up bigger returns for smaller drawdowns. I have studied dozens and dozens of books, traders, and methodologies though.
No trading pause has been more than 10 months and I have had approximately one per decade of trading pauses (3 decades) The worst one was two years after I left work for good, and began full time trading. I am still not clear on the precise psychological trigger other than looking down, losing confidence very suddenly, and falling off the tightrope wire. When I returned I had changed and let go of the trading results more. Each stoppage helped my trading get better somehow.
One time I had to rub my own nose in my trading, when I knowing held a gold index trade through a mental stop loss. Because I knew it was wrong, I forced myself to hold it through a horrendous paper loss (I thought one month, and it turned out to be 6 months or so). Each day, looking at the value of that stock index investment, I asked myself how I would feel now if I had gotten out when I had originally decided to.
When I got out of that one trade, forcing myself to look at it every day and continue to hold it, reminding myself that I could have sold and re-entered later; I never had a problem with taking my losses again. I still shudder when I think of that trade. Now every single time that I hesitate at taking a loss, I ask myself if I am prepared to hold it that long again. Works like a charm.
At least over 50 times i lost my deposit.
But my deposit was always 100,- to 200,- Euros.
Never saw any reason to deposit more than that, if i cant make it up from that little money..............
Its pretty hard work, to grow that little money until it becomes easy to make a good profit to be proud of it, lets say 10k a week, from what i can make a good living. The best is not to miss a big move trade, but before it starts make short term trades, but be ready to switch correctly before the big move starts, so you can grow your account, with more volume on every new trade....
Dont make even one mistake, or you are not ready yet.....
To grow 100,- Euros into 1k to 2k to 5k to 10k to 20k to 50k to 100k... and so on....you must be always correct, not even one mistake is acceptable, ok one or two will not kill you, but it will kick you back a little, while you are trading always on the highest leverage level, just so that your stop point in the chart for your current trade is you margin call level........thats the only way to make big money from very few money.....once you have 50k its much more easier to make 10% a week............
Most important after all, is to Safe Money you have made, and put in on your savings account and never touch it for trading - thats why it is called saved money.
Doesnt matter how much you win or lose on your gambling accounts, your saved money is save, and that is your life essence..... Trading money must be just a tool, if you lose big you will make it big back........it just needs time and some big moves....
But my deposit was always 100,- to 200,- Euros.
Never saw any reason to deposit more than that, if i cant make it up from that little money..............
Its pretty hard work, to grow that little money until it becomes easy to make a good profit to be proud of it, lets say 10k a week, from what i can make a good living. The best is not to miss a big move trade, but before it starts make short term trades, but be ready to switch correctly before the big move starts, so you can grow your account, with more volume on every new trade....
Dont make even one mistake, or you are not ready yet.....
To grow 100,- Euros into 1k to 2k to 5k to 10k to 20k to 50k to 100k... and so on....you must be always correct, not even one mistake is acceptable, ok one or two will not kill you, but it will kick you back a little, while you are trading always on the highest leverage level, just so that your stop point in the chart for your current trade is you margin call level........thats the only way to make big money from very few money.....once you have 50k its much more easier to make 10% a week............
Most important after all, is to Safe Money you have made, and put in on your savings account and never touch it for trading - thats why it is called saved money.
Doesnt matter how much you win or lose on your gambling accounts, your saved money is save, and that is your life essence..... Trading money must be just a tool, if you lose big you will make it big back........it just needs time and some big moves....
I started with less than 1k and raised a whole family, by the time I blew up they were all in college. I think the most I ever had in my account was 160k, but it could have been 15k the next month. Up and down, who cared as long as I could pay the bills (and with 3 kids and a wife who never had enough that can be a lot.)
The blowup was so classic. I just kept taking profits from my winners to fund my one loser, until all I had left was one big loser.
The only consolation was, about 28 days after I blew up the broker also went broke.
At first I was really humiliated and demoralized and felt like a real failure. When I heard the broker went under I felt kind of lucky.
I still had a lot of former clients with that broker, so I just laid low for a while.
Second time I started with 28k and about a year or two's worth of living expenses in the bank or retirement accounts, and that time it worked pretty good until I lost 50% of my net worth due to an unhappy wife who found someone who was better than me.
And that's when I began trading REALLY crazy and got lucky. And then I just travelled all over everywhere with my new girlfriend and turned off the TV and the computer and never even read a newspaper except the sports page.
I didn't even know the market crashed (and I was still long the S&P.)
so this is my third account, but I don't need it to make a living anymore, just trying to beat the long bond
the pathetic thing is, I just sweep and that pays all the bills, but the bills don't amount to much anymore
The blowup was so classic. I just kept taking profits from my winners to fund my one loser, until all I had left was one big loser.
The only consolation was, about 28 days after I blew up the broker also went broke.
At first I was really humiliated and demoralized and felt like a real failure. When I heard the broker went under I felt kind of lucky.
I still had a lot of former clients with that broker, so I just laid low for a while.
Second time I started with 28k and about a year or two's worth of living expenses in the bank or retirement accounts, and that time it worked pretty good until I lost 50% of my net worth due to an unhappy wife who found someone who was better than me.
And that's when I began trading REALLY crazy and got lucky. And then I just travelled all over everywhere with my new girlfriend and turned off the TV and the computer and never even read a newspaper except the sports page.
I didn't even know the market crashed (and I was still long the S&P.)
so this is my third account, but I don't need it to make a living anymore, just trying to beat the long bond
the pathetic thing is, I just sweep and that pays all the bills, but the bills don't amount to much anymore
Yes, I am playing the same game as you. Getting from $100 to $1000 is pretty easy. Going $1000 to $2k and beyond seems a lot harder. However, I don't max the leverage as you do. I grind it out over a period of a few weeks.
nope, i am played it already.
Just told you how i did it.
It needs perfect trading setups and 100% discipline.
No mistakes, otherwhise you will die before you do at least have 100k to call your own. Maximum leverage herefore is necessary.
once you have 100k you can play slower and make 10-30% a week as goal.
The more money you have to trade, the easier it becomes to make the same amount of money, like you did before.
Be much more disciplined, and bet all you have and enjoy the ride.
Close your feelings away and just imagin you are already a multi millionair, and you just make it again from a little bit to much.
From 100,- $ to over 1.000.000,- $ is possible and its not difficult if you are a hard working smart guy. Just imagine, if you have done this, you can do everything you can think about.....
Also to make 1M to 100M seems then to be possible, in the next 10-30 years....
PEACE
Never give up.
@bhardy307
I know its hard to make it. But you must, there is no other way.
You must absolutely not being attached to your money, just give a fuck for your trading money.
Most important: Always regulary safe some % of your profits to your bank account and never touch it again for trading.
So its the only way, to trade in the full battle modus, with maximum leverage all the time, to push your account to the next levels.
If you should lose, just relax, think about the money you have saved. And start refreshed again, choose the best setups, where it is just so easy to make money, as picking it up from the floor - and trade it with the maximum volume what your broker allows you....
Kick it right every time, and you will very soon, be out of this shit of a poor lifestyle.
It needs big balls to do this, so be once a man and do it, its just once in your life.
Remember trading is always the same, on every trade, the only thing what you can make to be different is the leverage.
So dont be attached to your money and save as much you can to your bank account and never touch it for trading.
PEACE
i am off......
I know its hard to make it. But you must, there is no other way.
You must absolutely not being attached to your money, just give a fuck for your trading money.
Most important: Always regulary safe some % of your profits to your bank account and never touch it again for trading.
So its the only way, to trade in the full battle modus, with maximum leverage all the time, to push your account to the next levels.
If you should lose, just relax, think about the money you have saved. And start refreshed again, choose the best setups, where it is just so easy to make money, as picking it up from the floor - and trade it with the maximum volume what your broker allows you....
Kick it right every time, and you will very soon, be out of this shit of a poor lifestyle.
It needs big balls to do this, so be once a man and do it, its just once in your life.
Remember trading is always the same, on every trade, the only thing what you can make to be different is the leverage.
So dont be attached to your money and save as much you can to your bank account and never touch it for trading.
PEACE
i am off......
Thanks for the advice, HateTheRisk.
