There you go - you have a Moving Away from orientation. But no Moving Toward orientation. You move away from losing when you have the imminent pain of losing. You do not move towards (emotionally) making more money. Personally, when I have "breathing room" I am in the zone and milk the money with happiness.
Huge Losses
- Thread starter Ripley
- Start date
There you go - you have a Moving Away from orientation. But no Moving Toward orientation. You move away from losing when you have the imminent pain of losing. You do not move towards (emotionally) making more money. Personally, when I have "breathing room" I am in the zone and milk the money with happiness.
In absolute dollar terms the losses can be "huge", and sometimes things just happen and you will have one that is in terms of a % of equity as well. But, as you go in this business one of the things you learn to do is control losses, if you dont do that you are not here long.
It seems to me the way to weight your stops and targets is to envelope price based on current tick volatility...
Oh never mind...no PM's please
Michael B.
Oh never mind...no PM's please
Michael B.
What went wrong: When I took cash advance on my credit card, I did it because I knew I was going to make enough money to pay it back and have my own account within a week. But that didn't happen.
I actually made some money. Everyday I am ahead from the day and I seem to lose all that and more towards the end of the day.
Why was I profitable in the early part of the day, and I was losing huge after that?
I had some time for myself this weekend, and I really thought hard about this and finally figured out what was happening.
Most of the losses resulted in the afternoon, or after I was ahead for the day. Those losses primarily resulted because I wasn't strictly following my entry criterias. I usually read the time and sales to get in on momentum and front run those sure fire places. Some times, there are those so and so entries that I shouldn't be taking and I end up taking it because I was ahead for the day. Usually, these trades go against me right off the entry. Also because I was ahead for the day, sometimes I end up trading 2 contracts.
Since I am ahead for the day, and I am willing to lose everything I made for the day, I tell myself when I am about to get stopped out for a -$50 loss (or -$100 if 2 cars), see.. I am ahead +$300 for the day, lets give it a little bit more room. If I do this, most likely I won't be losing money. What am I going to lose? and most likely it is going to come back.
Before you know it, you're -$300 down on the trade and negative for the day. Then I tell myself, umm.. -$300 is too large a loss to take on a trade and no way this trade could go against me this much. Lets give it my max drawdown (-$200) for the day on this trade and see what happens, and , I am looking at -$500 loss. Then I tell myself... This is my whole freaking account, and I cannot under any circumstance liquidate it now. Lets see if it comes back around, and I usually end up blowing my accounts out.
This is so exciting. I know what I am doing wrong now. Oh man, I just can't wait for Monday!!!.. Thanks a lot for all of you that helped. Each and every comment made me think a lot about myself and what I was doing wrong.
I actually made some money. Everyday I am ahead from the day and I seem to lose all that and more towards the end of the day.
Why was I profitable in the early part of the day, and I was losing huge after that?
I had some time for myself this weekend, and I really thought hard about this and finally figured out what was happening.
Most of the losses resulted in the afternoon, or after I was ahead for the day. Those losses primarily resulted because I wasn't strictly following my entry criterias. I usually read the time and sales to get in on momentum and front run those sure fire places. Some times, there are those so and so entries that I shouldn't be taking and I end up taking it because I was ahead for the day. Usually, these trades go against me right off the entry. Also because I was ahead for the day, sometimes I end up trading 2 contracts.
Since I am ahead for the day, and I am willing to lose everything I made for the day, I tell myself when I am about to get stopped out for a -$50 loss (or -$100 if 2 cars), see.. I am ahead +$300 for the day, lets give it a little bit more room. If I do this, most likely I won't be losing money. What am I going to lose? and most likely it is going to come back.
Before you know it, you're -$300 down on the trade and negative for the day. Then I tell myself, umm.. -$300 is too large a loss to take on a trade and no way this trade could go against me this much. Lets give it my max drawdown (-$200) for the day on this trade and see what happens, and , I am looking at -$500 loss. Then I tell myself... This is my whole freaking account, and I cannot under any circumstance liquidate it now. Lets see if it comes back around, and I usually end up blowing my accounts out.
This is so exciting. I know what I am doing wrong now. Oh man, I just can't wait for Monday!!!.. Thanks a lot for all of you that helped. Each and every comment made me think a lot about myself and what I was doing wrong.
Ripley,
Since you obvious suck at trading afternoons, Why not just trade the mornings ? I personally have a way higher win rate from just trading mornings and the majority of the time my day is done by 11:00 A.M. Some of my biggest losses have come from trading in the afternoons.
Since you obvious suck at trading afternoons, Why not just trade the mornings ? I personally have a way higher win rate from just trading mornings and the majority of the time my day is done by 11:00 A.M. Some of my biggest losses have come from trading in the afternoons.
I'm not even sure if this thread is real or not. I'll just assume it is.
Ripley, be careful, you may be unconsciously trading untill an account blowout tells you to stop.
Ex. You know your day has ended unsuccessfully when you've had a blowout....but what is your signal your day is successful? Don't just trade straight to blowout. You've had days up 200-500 on a 1000 account.
Create some signal to stop trading that isn't blowing up. Get used to doing something right, then stopping, instead of this crash course.
Hate to say it, but this is the problem w/ many gambers too....they never stop till the money's gone, they can't bear to pass up a chance to win (or lose) more. Trading each day is full steam ahead to millions or broke...base hits my friend.
I have a daily loss cutoff, and for awhile, I was trying to convince myself not too. I'm gonna have to trade again, what makes it different whether I trade again that day, or wait untill the next. But....Losing can through off your focus, make you emotional...you lose the 'eye of the tiger'. I'd be willing to bet when you were watching your account take those massive hits you didn't have the 'eye of the tiger'...prolly more like the 'dull stare of the dairy cow'.
Ripley, be careful, you may be unconsciously trading untill an account blowout tells you to stop.
Ex. You know your day has ended unsuccessfully when you've had a blowout....but what is your signal your day is successful? Don't just trade straight to blowout. You've had days up 200-500 on a 1000 account.
Create some signal to stop trading that isn't blowing up. Get used to doing something right, then stopping, instead of this crash course.
Hate to say it, but this is the problem w/ many gambers too....they never stop till the money's gone, they can't bear to pass up a chance to win (or lose) more. Trading each day is full steam ahead to millions or broke...base hits my friend.
I have a daily loss cutoff, and for awhile, I was trying to convince myself not too. I'm gonna have to trade again, what makes it different whether I trade again that day, or wait untill the next. But....Losing can through off your focus, make you emotional...you lose the 'eye of the tiger'. I'd be willing to bet when you were watching your account take those massive hits you didn't have the 'eye of the tiger'...prolly more like the 'dull stare of the dairy cow'.
Thats the game plan. Only trade in the mornings or till I reach the +$200 (my daily target where I quit trading) or -$200.
After the huge scare on Friday, my goal is to slowly but surely build this account where I could keep some money for myself and pay this loan back ASAP.
On friday while holding onto a potential account blowing trade and thinking of all the possible ways to pay back my mounting debt, I wished it wasn't real.
Yeah, the new daily target for the day is +$ 200 and hopefully I could stick to it.
So how did you do on Monday ?