How much $$$ did you lose before you began making $$$ trading?

Quote from mem:
thanks and wow..do you tade the DAX or FTSE or ???..these are great contracts to trade...thanks
5 months and 10k to make consistent profits scalping European index futures in the evening after work.
 
wow .great replie..what were your trading problems early on...my were:
not focusing on one contract..over trading..trading without a strategy..and revenge trading as they say..meaning..take loss and try to get back RIGHT NOW!..thanks again
 
Quote from increasenow:

wow .great replie..what were your trading problems early on...my were:
not focusing on one contract..over trading..trading without a strategy..and revenge trading as they say..meaning..take loss and try to get back RIGHT NOW!..thanks again

All of the above for me. I was trading NQ, ES and YM futures, stocks and stock options.

The #1 biggest culprit for me was over trading - feeling the absolute need to always be in a position - huge killer for just about everyone imo.

The other thing about trading for a living that was my eventual killer, was I could never let profits build in my acount.

At the end of the week or day - or whatever, I would wire any profits into my checking account for bills.....eventually, the wire transfers out of my account won, and poof!, no more account.



Steve
 
Quote from mem:

5 months and 10k to make consistent profits scalping European index futures in the evening after work.

wow registered in sept of 07 as this is your first post
 
The most I was down was 3000 net, 1000 gross. 1000 of that was due to a system error so you could say 0 gross.

When you're first learning, you need the lowest commissions possible. I stayed a 100 share piker until I found any consistency.
 
Quote from NoProblem:

All of the above for me. I was trading NQ, ES and YM futures, stocks and stock options.

The #1 biggest culprit for me was over trading - feeling the absolute need to always be in a position - huge killer for just about everyone imo.

The other thing about trading for a living that was my eventual killer, was I could never let profits build in my acount.

At the end of the week or day - or whatever, I would wire any profits into my checking account for bills.....eventually, the wire transfers out of my account won, and poof!, no more account.



Steve
thanks steve for the honest answer...are you back trading again?futures only?ym,es etc?
 
Increasenow,
interesting discutions you make!
How much you will lose depends only on you.
I think more greedy you are more losses you make. lol
Trade just the bare minimun till you "get it".
This way your losses will not exceed a couple of hundred dollars. Why to pay more to learn trading?
Once you a confortable with your approach increase slowly the trading account.
This is it.
Good luck.
Persist and you will succeed.
:)
 
blew $6000 before realizing that I should start trading the YM Futures instead of the ER2 LOL.....young and and stupid....I'm having more success with the YM now . Haven't touch any other instrument since:)
 
I still have a small equity acct for long term trades but when I do trade, I trade just the ES.

I have a great job now so I have a lot less time and zero pressure to trade.

When I do trade, I only trade the highest probability set ups.

And I agree with epetrov! Start small, very small. Stay that way till you THINK you know what the H you are doing - then stay small a while longer lol.

Steve
 
I started actively managing my money in january 2000 and in 3 months buying mostly tech stocks turned $55k into $90k. I thought I was a stock market genius... even though a monkey could have picked 10 random nasdaq stocks in that period and had the exact same results.

Then from 2000-2002 I turned that $90k into $20k by continuing to hold my march 2000 portfolio, thinking that I now owned incredible values that would bounce at any minute. (I still can't believe I allowed one $25k position drop to $3k and another $25k position go literally to $0)

Then I got really discouraged until 2006 when I started researching breakout/swing trades. In january 07, I put my research to the test and lost $5k or about 10% of my account in the first 3 months. (I think my max drawdown was about 20% during that late february china selloff.)

At that point I refined my buy rules and focused more on my emotions and trade management. Since then I am up about 15% in a pretty poor market environment. I still have a long way to go- especially with developing trade exit rules- but I'm cautiously optimistic that the "tuition" period is mostly behind me.
 
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