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Huge Losses
- Thread starter Ripley
- Start date
I have moments when I feel like the trading is a machine designed to take my stops.
Hi Ripley
I just read your charts. Here are my suggestions:
You said 270 was a key support so you took a long. That's ok. There's nothing wrong with acting on your instinct. (Although personally I would look for a break in that situation)
But as soon as 270 broke, you should have admitted that you were wrong and gotten out.
Especially when you took the second long and the bounce was stopped at 270. You should have known (from all the books you said you have read) that 270 have became a minor resistance because all those people who were caught long at 280 and 270 were trying to get out.
Think about it. How much you could have made if you had admitted that you were wrong, taken your $70 profit and reversed your position.
So admit you are wrong and take a small loss. Next trade is just a keystroke away.
I just read your charts. Here are my suggestions:
You said 270 was a key support so you took a long. That's ok. There's nothing wrong with acting on your instinct. (Although personally I would look for a break in that situation)
But as soon as 270 broke, you should have admitted that you were wrong and gotten out.
Especially when you took the second long and the bounce was stopped at 270. You should have known (from all the books you said you have read) that 270 have became a minor resistance because all those people who were caught long at 280 and 270 were trying to get out.
Think about it. How much you could have made if you had admitted that you were wrong, taken your $70 profit and reversed your position.
So admit you are wrong and take a small loss. Next trade is just a keystroke away.
You made the mistake of letting a winning trade turn into a loser. You really need to learn to use trailing stops so that this will never happen on a winner. Have you ever read the book The disciplined trader ? If not get it.
I think everyone has to deal with letting losses get away from them from time to time. Unfortunately, it is an account killer.
Alex Elder, author, psychiatrist and trading educator, analogizes it to someone with a drinking problem. Most people can have a couple of drinks and that's that. Others end up face down in the gutter. Letting winners turn into losers or blowing stops is the trading equivalent of waking up in a pile of vomit in the gutter. Elder suggests repeating everytime you sit down at the computer something along the lines of " I am a loser and I have it within me to destroy my account." (I forget the exact quote but it is something like that.)
Typically, suffering huge losses is the result of one of two problems. One is trading too large for your account size. Losses are so significant that you find it diificult to accept them, so you hang on, hoping for the trade to turn in your favor. The other issue concerns a need to be right. If your ego is in control of your trading, your need to be right can overwhelm your discipline. You have to understand that the object of this game is to make money, not be right. Even great traders take plenty of losses, but they are small losses.
Looking at your trades, I see a lot of iffy set-ups. With a micro-sized account, you simply must take only the best trades. Typically, I think those come within the first 15 minutes of RTH trading. You seem to be getting in trouble in late day trades. Why not just stop after the first hour? You can watch and paper trade the rest of the day. I think taking more than one or two trades a day is just asking for trouble.
Alex Elder, author, psychiatrist and trading educator, analogizes it to someone with a drinking problem. Most people can have a couple of drinks and that's that. Others end up face down in the gutter. Letting winners turn into losers or blowing stops is the trading equivalent of waking up in a pile of vomit in the gutter. Elder suggests repeating everytime you sit down at the computer something along the lines of " I am a loser and I have it within me to destroy my account." (I forget the exact quote but it is something like that.)
Typically, suffering huge losses is the result of one of two problems. One is trading too large for your account size. Losses are so significant that you find it diificult to accept them, so you hang on, hoping for the trade to turn in your favor. The other issue concerns a need to be right. If your ego is in control of your trading, your need to be right can overwhelm your discipline. You have to understand that the object of this game is to make money, not be right. Even great traders take plenty of losses, but they are small losses.
Looking at your trades, I see a lot of iffy set-ups. With a micro-sized account, you simply must take only the best trades. Typically, I think those come within the first 15 minutes of RTH trading. You seem to be getting in trouble in late day trades. Why not just stop after the first hour? You can watch and paper trade the rest of the day. I think taking more than one or two trades a day is just asking for trouble.