Lesson #1 for Futures Traders

Quote from gangof4:

either way you're fucked. just how fucked depends on how far out of whack the position was relative to your acct and/or net worth.
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That's a "blunt way" of pointing out one of the many obvious problems that exist at deeper level if he or other people just myopically focus on the surface of the problem such as stop loss, and fail to realize that the lesson actually should be about first understanding what trading is actually about . :)

In my previous post I chose a "very subtle way" to let him know that there is much more to it than first meets the eye. Hopefully he'll start looking at risk from a more objective perspective and and realize that instant blow ups have nothing to do with the way he perceive things fromhis current level in trader's development. (We've all been there and done that.)
 
Quote from Mav88:

If you don't believe me just look at market action in ZB on 3/18 and NG on 3/19 - a $7,000 move per contract in seconds.

That was some move on ZB, I was watching. A 'mental' stop would have been absolutely crushing both financially and emotionally. I wonder what slippage was though, could have been really bad.
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Actual rate was within expectations, why then the spike ?
 
Quote from bronks:

You have absolutely no clue of what you're talking about... but be my guest, find out the hard way.
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I would like to hear more about this .
 
You can't trade out of fear. What about surprise fed announcements? You'll never be able to trade well if you're always worrying instead of calm.

If the above had happened and wiped out your account, you know what you do?.......walk yourself into the nearest attorney's office and file for bankruptcy :D
 
Quote from Hombre:

I would like to hear more about this .
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Hombre, this subject has been discussed ad-nauseum so I don't think I have anything ground breaking to say about it.

All I have to say that stops are always on the top of the to do list for retail traders on their way to the pot of gold.

Now there's a key word in the above sentence that just screams for attention.
 
I personally believe in at least an emergency stop order so that for example, you lose internet access or some surprise news story hits the market and it start trending down fast, by having the order waiting rather being in a deer in the headlights mode, you will most likely get out and be able to look for an opportunity again when the market settles down.

In a related subject, I was wondering about trade management. I am working on reducing number of trades I take so I switched back to sim today after taking a good trade in my real account, but I noticed in sim and with some other traders, all the trades were working today.

Would it be better to continue trading on days where 90% of trades are wins and then if you a day where the starting trade or trades are going bad, to stop trading for that day since I think the problem is on good days, traders trade less, and on bad days, traders revenge trade.
 
i normally use a stop loss but recently since im only trading intraday im in and out quick so i set a predefined stop loss in my mind and when the price comes close i put in the stop loss. however yesterday i didn't even have a chance when gold started to blow up. i lost 30 cents in silver in less than 10 minutes. This was a reminder why i put in hard stops everytime. Everyday u have to remind yourself that the market can make major moves in seconds and you ABSOLUTELY need a stop Loss. My stupid mistake. After a loss like that i normally have to take 3-4 days off and remind myself why i use stops every time. RISK MANAGEMENT is the name of the game. there is nothing more important Than this and if you don't use stops just stop trading. My recommendation is to mentally see what the chart should do and if it deviates from your mental image, get out. plain and simple. live to trade another day.
 
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