Is my career over?

[JMowery1987]

You haven't done or said ANYTHING, to convince me that you are nothing but a failure like so many of the other threads I read.

You are actually looking to be the worst case, because it's frankly.... just obvious at what you want, you want big bucks, you want them now.

You are lying to yourself.

I think any good trader here on ET will state that in order to be successful that they need to be honest with themselves. Yet, you don't even look at the issue. I can tell this about you just from all your responses.

You simply stating that you still want to trade 6 lots is enough of the story to solve the puzzle, but you just give so much more to make a whole novel about your failure.

You painted the picture before you even watered your brush.

I'm telling you man, give up trading, give up gambling *because that is all your really doing*, save your future family *or if you already have one* much stress and anxiety over your need to gamble.

If you ignore this advice, you are making a bigger mistake than you even blowing that 30k, and I'm serious.

Accept the fact that this is not the game for you, go out get a nice job, save up your money, put it in some long term investments and live a great life.

Don't ruin your life man, you already chucked 30k of it down the drain which you could have lived off for a year or so. Don't screw it up.

Because in the end... all you are doing is making real Traders rich that mess with the 30 year bonds.

You think your better than the market to take it all back? I bet you do. That is your issue.

 

[traderdragon]

Here is the final result of todays crappy trading.
IB shows your final net at the end of the day. I included a pic of this forum as time snapshot evidence.
Today was really bad, because making 2 grand off of 32 trades is pretty pathetic for my systems. Lots of tiny winners and losers. Over all I have a 60% win rate and a 2.0+ profit factor.

Maybe ill show you a 10K day soon

You will not see days like this with your current approach. You will se -2000, -5000, -1000, and one day BOOM, there goes another account.

 

[JMowery1987]

Quote from traderdragon:

Here is the final result of todays crappy trading.
IB shows your final net at the end of the day. I included a pic of this forum as time snapshot evidence.
Today was really bad, because making 2 grand off of 32 trades is pretty pathetic for my systems. Lots of tiny winners and losers. Over all I have a 60% win rate and a 2.0+ profit factor.

[PIC]

Maybe ill show you a 10K day soon

You will not see days like this with your current approach. You will se -2000, -5000, -1000, and one day BOOM, there goes another account.

You just motivated him to compete with you... therefore blowing out his account even faster... shame on you

I bet that is what you average consistently as well? He doesn't understand what consistency is, and he never will.

It's a sad truth... I think he is going to have lifelong problems because of it, and it is sad.

 

[traderdragon]

Quote from TruthSeeker247:

Only time will tell whether you are right or wrong on this. I may fail but I will die trying. All of my losses have been due to revenge trading.

No, all your losses have been due to trading without an edge against people with an edge.

I don't think it is unreasonable for me to plan to get my money back over months. If I were expecting to get it all back in a single week or, worse, a single trade, then you might be on to something here.

Actually, its very very very very very unreasonable to think you will get it back at this point.

The only thing you can do right now is make sure you dont throw more away. That money is gone. You are not getting it back.
Accept that fact now before its too late.

 

[traderdragon]

That is not an edge.

Quote from TruthSeeker247:

My edge is my tendency to ride profits for a long time. I am extremely patient as a trader. If I can learn to also keep my losses small, then I will do fine, one day.

 

[traderdragon]

You dont have to be a pro football player to immediately recognize that someone who decided he wants to play pro football yesterday, with no football experience at all, doesnt belong in a pro football game

Quote from TruthSeeker247:

For you to say "you had no business being there" is to assume that you speak from a position of someone who does belong there. Is this true? Just curious

 

[jj90]

Somebody take the opposite side of the OP's trades.

 

[traderdragon]

This reminds me of the really bad american idol singers who are delusional, refuse to give up, think they are great, but its obvious to everyone around them that they are terrible singers who will never ever make it.

However, I am not saying you are one of these people. You may have what it takes to become a trader, but currently, you do share the same type of delusion.

Its your approach that is just horrible right now. Only time will tell if you can pull this off. But your current approach virtually guarantee's failure.

Quote from TruthSeeker247:
Trading is what I was truly meant to do; I am convinced of this.

So, I will move on, but I will not give up on trading. Whether I lose what little I have left or not, I will always be a trader at heart and any job I take will be a temporary one to build up a new trading stake. These are facts of the matter.

here's my motto: NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER EVER GIVE UP! [/B]

 

[TruthSeeker247]

Quote from FaderTrader:

Of course you can. In fact, I'd argue that being in for small size all the time is important - never allowing yourself to get shaken off. Then, when you're right pyramid your position and make everything (and then some) back.

Read Reminiscenes of a Stock Operator. The main lesson is that pyramiding is key.

In the interest of full disclosure, I've just really begun doing this myself and, frankly, I feel kinda dumb for taking so long to figure it out.

Yes. That's what I was talking about when I mentioned "wiggle room" I've found that small size lets you still make money even if the original entry point wasn't the best place to get long or short (i.e. if you sell 2 at 105 evens and it goes up to 105 1/32, then you can decide if whether to exit hte position or sell another two up there). With large size you HAVE TO BE RIGHT 100% of the time because you want to cut your loss at 1/2 tick or even 1 tick at worst. trading smaller size and pyramiding gives you wiggle room so you don't have to get out right away. Your initial small size position lets you test the market. I've read Reminiscences and also "how to trade in stocks" by livermore himself. Both were great. Livermore was a big fan of pyramiding winners and a big opponent of pyramiding losers.

Thanks for your post. It's good to see other people on here who have come to similar conclusions as I have.

 

[FaderTrader]

I don't know anything about how the treasury market moves with regard to quoting conventions, but I know that decimilization in the equity markets, while certainly limiting profits for professional traders, has also reduced the barriers to entry for new traders and, I'd argue, led to the current boom in prop trading.

With that said, prior to decimilization, even 30k might not have been enough because the swings (up and down) were just bigger as a function of the quoting conventions.

Today, one can scale one's risk tolerance pretty close to perfect - getting out within mere pennies.

TruthSeeker: Do you think part of your problem is that you are trading in a market where the quoting conventions necessitate bigger swings and that you're simply not well-enough capitalized to sustain a single large loss let alone a string of bad days?

If so, why continue trading it?

If your answer is "Yes" to the former, I'm concerned that your answer to the latter will tend to agree with JMowery's point, which is that you are chasing a dream of getting rich quick.