How to Stay Calm & Collected when trading for real?

tommcginnis said:
Wrong. The foundation of any beneficial simulation/practice, is taking it seriously. Try farting around as a pilot or LEO or Special Forces or ER care or ......, and see what happens: your ass will be fried, *because*, when others need to depend on you in real time, your training will be crap, and you perform as you train. End of story.

If the OP paper-traded for the last 5 years, but never took it seriously, they will certainly perform like crap. End. Of. Story.

:cool:

Oh -- but blaming "Sim"???? Laughable. Jeeez.:rolleyes:
Just to chime in of what's above:
PLAN THE TRADE.
TRADE THE PLAN.
(and)
TRAIN AS YOU TRADE.
TRADE AS YOU TRAIN.
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Your post is laughable.

Comparing Trading Sim to literally life or death specialized knowledge and skills. pleeze.
That's silly and stupid.

The OP stated...
>> "When I am not trading real money I almost have this ability to see into the close future of a stock."

>> "As soon as I start trading real money my emotions take over. I am no longer calm and make the stupidest trades that always goes against me."

The OP clearly discerned the difference of sim vs real. And specifically noted a missing component of sim... emotion. Sim trading, taken "seriously" or not does not "train" for real-time real money on the line emotions. The OPs problem is psychological. Sim trading does not fix that issue.
 
tiddlywinks said:
Your post is laughable.

Comparing Trading Sim to literally life or death specialized knowledge and skills. pleeze.
That's silly and stupid.

The OP stated...
>> "When I am not trading real money I almost have this ability to see into the close future of a stock."

>> "As soon as I start trading real money my emotions take over. I am no longer calm and make the stupidest trades that always goes against me."

The OP clearly discerned the difference of sim vs real. And specifically noted a missing component of sim... emotion. Sim trading, taken "seriously" or not does not "train" for real-time real money on the line emotions. The OPs problem is psychological. Sim trading does not fix that issue.
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(Totally worth the YouTube Shawshank tour...)

Oh well. :rolleyes:
 
LS1Z28 said:
If I remember correctly, you blew up a $1K account in less than a week maxing out your buying power on penny stocks. You're never going to be able to control your emotions trading like that. Try risking no more than 1% of your account value in every trade.
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To be precise, they weren't penny stocks but low float stocks under $10. Penny stocks are between 0.01-$.99c. I tend to stay away from those.

I know my problem is sizing but $1000 of 1% is $10. If my commissions are $2 a trade I've to be making 20% just to break even.
 
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GotherL said:
To be precise, they weren't penny stocks but lowfloat stocks under $10. Penny stocks are between 0.01-$.99c. I tend to stay away from those.

I know my problem is trading too big but $1000 of 1% is $10. If my commissions are 2$ a ticker I've to be making 20% just to break even.
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A lot of people refer to sub $5 stocks as penny stocks as well. I probably should've just said micro-cap stocks to avoid confusion.

When I say risk 1% in a trade, I don't mean to invest 1% of your account in a position. For instance, you mentioned trading CLDC in your original post. That's a low float stock that can easily drop 10% instantly. My advice would be to take a position size that only allows you to lose 1% of your account value if you get caught in a 10% drop.

The main thing you should avoid is going deep into your buying power on a volatile stock like this. ALT was trading at $10 yesterday during the premarket. They announced a secondary offering and the stock price dropped 50% within 2 minutes! If you were maxed out at 6:1 buying power on a $1K account, you would instantly owe your broker $2K.

Your best bet is probably to add money to your account. It's going to be tough for you to control risk and overcome commissions in an account that small. Good luck to you. ;)
 
GotherL said:
To be precise, they weren't penny stocks but low float stocks under $10.
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You can't sim trade low float stocks. You must trade them live. Unless you write your own simulator and account for latency you will experience in live trading. I am assuming you're taking liquidity of course.
 
GotherL said:
As soon as I start trading real money my emotions take over.
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Your math sucks and internally u know this truth. This isn't a psychology problem. It's ALWAYS a math issue. If the risk reward were indeed favorable u would know this deep inside and not have a single concern.
 
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