Is my career over?

I'll assume the OP isn't a troll. Trading 40-lots with $30k and a $1250 negative expectancy[buy offer/sell bid]. Few locals would entertain the idea of flipping 40lots with a 30k account. One handle and you're done.
 
No your not done. Try losing over > 1 Million (CDN) and making a comeback. I was (like you) terrible at managing risk and it cost me a great deal. I learned the hard way.

You have to know when and when not to put size on. Otherwise your toast.
 
Indeed, how else does anyone learn but the hard way.. for most of us it is only pain and loss that hammer into us the critical importance of risk management...and different people require different amounts of pain to learn that...welcome to the club
 
Quote from riskarb:

I'll assume the OP isn't a troll. Trading 40-lots with $30k and a $1250 negative expectancy[buy offer/sell bid]. Few locals would entertain the idea of flipping 40lots with a 30k account. One handle and you're done.

yup, not even a handle, brokers need 1200 per contract overnite margin... If I was doing size I'd be sweating EVERY single TICK, you absolutely don't think right in those situations... the 30s fall 2 points, and short cover a couple ticks, you tell yourself it's a reversal... trading scared makes you do stupid shit... Now granted, you hold onto your winners and get a LOT lucky, you'll be retired by 25...
 
Quote from ozzy:

No your not done. Try losing over > 1 Million (CDN) and making a comeback. I was (like you) terrible at managing risk and it cost me a great deal. I learned the hard way.

You have to know when and when not to put size on. Otherwise your toast.


Ha. Wife lost $4.2mil US in her Dreyfus account before we met. :p
 
Quote from mschey:

I know this has been rough on you, but let me say this.....it is only over if you give up and quit. Every successful trader has taken a few losses in their day.

If you can only make a couple grand a month, you can't lose 2 or 3 times that in any week, and certainly not in any one day. That was your first mistake. When you lose you have to reduce position size and/or standdown for a day or two to reevaluate what you are doing.

Second, trading size is ok....if you manage risk. You did a terrible job of managing risk and that is what put you out of the game.

You need to have a business plan....a strategy for trading the markets, and a plan for managing your money. Start first with your losing days, reveiw each day, what happened, how you managed what happened, and action you could have taken to protect your account. Was there anything to clue you in to trouble before things got really bad? Then revisit your trading strategy, is it a viable strategy? Can it be improved? etc.

Start trading small when you do start trading again. Make sure you have an edge before you start to increase your size. If you are day trading, you should be making money nearly every day, if you are, it is safe to assume you have an edge.

This is just a short "cliff notes" summary here, but this should give you an idea of what needs to be done.

I don't plan on ever giving up. the bad thing is that as i lost more money, I traded bigger size. Very stupid. Thanks for you message
 
Quote from steve46:

Just a quick note:

I am retired but I did hire traders. I wouldn't consider you as you have displayed particularly bad judgement as regards risk management. To me, this means that you MIGHT be the kind of trader who would hold a loser without keeping me informed. On a daily basis that wouldn't concern me too much as I used to review each trader's book nightly. On an intraday basis however you represent a danger to me, so I would be shaking your hand and telling you "We'll call you".

You can remedy this deficit by going back and showing you have learned your lesson. That is what I would do before approaching an office for a job.

Good luck,
Steve

I am more of a position day trader. I will hold positions for hours. The problem is that I tend to hold my losers for as long as I hold my winners.
 
Truthseeker.... You said this in a previous post:


"Sometimes....but in such cases we call it GAMBLING (especially when a single trade makes a positive number into a negative one). If you trade like that then you are a gambler not a trader. Please note that I never said Traders could not possibly reduce Trading to Gambling.....I just said that traders who do so {{{can not make a living at it. I stand by my claim.}}}"


I'm just going to post that.. I need not give any explination.

Do you still stand by that claim?

Why did you put on so much size and gamble with your money then?

You need to ask yourself questions, no ask us questions. Only you can solve these problems, but you have to admit you have them first. So if you are seeking the truth...... well you already wrote it.
 
Thanks a lot you all. The one thing I've learned from my own pitiful experience is that trading size is not the answer when you are losing money. I found myself wanting to trade bigger size the more I lost. That was until my last refunding of my account. I woke up to the fact that size is not hte way to go. I am now scared shitless to trade size. I learned a lesson but a quite expensive one.

Another question: how do you deal with losing every single day for two weeks in a row? This is hard. I recently came back from a two week decline. I made money three days in a row after losing for 11 days in a row. i made half of what i lost in those two weeks in those three days.

Also, at what point do you wake up and feel confident in your ability as a trader? When do you say to yourself: I have made it.

Thanks
 
Holy Crap Batman, you are one lucky mofo. If I traded 40 big ones my sphincter tone would be so tight that my eyes would be brown!
You made 5000 in ONE MONTH? With 40 lots?
OMG, you might try limiting your loss to your highest intraday gain from the previous week- or average loss, or anything that was a real number.
5000/22 trading days is $227 per day. A $3000 loss represents 13 trading days ahead of you. Who are you, Sisyphus? Just keep pushing the rock, baby.
Albert
 
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