How much $$$ did you lose before you began making $$$ trading?...forgive me if this thread was started somewhere else...I looked for it but could not find it...this seems to be the "thought" when learing to trade...meaning..."you will lose money before you become profitable in your trading"...so, was this true for you...if yes...how much $$$ did you lose before you started making money in your trading?...or did you not lose money when you started trading?...this thread could help beginning traders have a more realistic view on the possibilites/potential as the start out trading etc...thanks in advance...
How much $$$ did you lose before you began making $$$ trading?
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Quote from Cheese:
Why do most traders lose?
Very amusing .. a poll without the obvious category.
Failure to undertake and complete the the extensive study, research and preparation to know your market sufficiently.
The amateur either can't or won't do that. He prefers death by firing squad .. that means here, the market firing moving numbers at him until he is shot dead in the heart and forehead.
Quote from Cheese:
My suggestion is, if you are not making any real progress and if you do not have a reliable methodology, that you stop trading until you do.
Daytrading, you should take away a net profit daily. Net losses on any one day tell you only one thing; you are no way successful enough. You must have a sound methodology to exploit the daily price gyrations in a liquid futures market of your choice (eg ES, YM, CL). You will likely need an indicator. You aim is to buy the upmoves and sell the downmoves and thereby you harvest daily a substantial net profit from the huge number of points the market makes available each day.
Quote from Cheese:
Focus on one market ONLY.
You must get know to everything about that market's price behavior to an expert degree.
Only when prepared and once professional, play in it as a daily winner.
An accurate methodology for one market will be transferable to other markets. This is where you can move to 'machine drive' to be inexorably piling up really serious money.
Quote from Cheese:
Knowing what you are doing will mean no stress whatsoever.
Very relaxing to be in front of the screen.
But is 'stress' just the contemporary western world rationale for endless forms of human weakness?
Quote from Cheese:
If you close a trade at a loss, all you need to know is that a loss is wrong enough not to repeat. But there is no need to get into an emotional turmoil over being wrong and to start beating up on
yourself.
One key element is huge preparation and intense study of your chosen
market. Obvious? Yet it seems that often players pull the trigger or press the button without sufficient forethought and planning.
tremendous post EHorn...got to, pause and think about this...great stuff...thanks!
There was definitely a "learning curve" for me. Market School tuition was about 5K during a two and a half yr period. 20% of that loss was the result of a real nasty execution mistake with a stk trade- i will NEVER forget that event - never. In June 2006 i began to trade the YM and stopped stk trading except for a few
swing trades. During the last nine months ive averaged about
+1200/mo net, piker trading. That includes losses in two of those months.
Cheers ...
rj
swing trades. During the last nine months ive averaged about
+1200/mo net, piker trading. That includes losses in two of those months.
Cheers ...
rj
burned through about 20K before I became even some what good at it. I believe it really is just a learning curve thing. Most traders run out of cash before they know what the hell they are doing.
Takes at least a year. Probably more like three, to get skilled at this. There are exceptions of course. Some people just "get it" quick, and some are trained by Goldy!
Takes at least a year. Probably more like three, to get skilled at this. There are exceptions of course. Some people just "get it" quick, and some are trained by Goldy!
Don't think I ever lost more than $7 or $8k, at a penny per share... all commissions, my first month was gross negative like $400, net negative $2000, second month gross positive $500, net negative $2000... from then on out it was all just inflated comisions that I lost, and so my biggest drawdowns came out of that... if I were at the rate I'm paying now I'd say maybe $2500 was the most I lost before being green.
Edit: since being green, I've had multiple $5-10k drawdowns which have taught me the lessons of discipline.
Edit: since being green, I've had multiple $5-10k drawdowns which have taught me the lessons of discipline.