Recovering from a bad trade

Originally posted by birddog
I just dropped $3,000 on a bad trade - should have cut my loss sooner.
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Don't feel bad, we all do it. Several years ago I was
into selling naked combos. In case someone doesn't
know, that's selling a put and a call at the same time.

Anyway, I put on the combo and put in my stop with the
broker like you're supposed to do.

Well, the next day the stock surges and I'm already down
$1000, just $200 away from my $1200 stop.

But, I can't bare the thought of losing a grand in 1 day and
I know the price is gonna come back, right?

So, I call my broker and pull the stop (I can already hear
a lot of you laughing) and, well, to make a long story
short. When all the dust settled, I wound up losing
almost $6000.00 on that trade...lol

Moral of the story..."DON'T PULL YOUR STOPS"!!:D
 
Always painful to wipe out weeks of profits with one trade. You know you violated all the rules, you can't believe you did it. It's as if the devil was let loose inside you.

Know what's worse?

When you do the very same thing....AGAIN. I've made ALL of my mistakes more than once. LOL. You know that saying "Fool me once...."??? Well "....shame on me."

I would suggest giving your trading some careful thought. Did this loss result from practice the techniques that you used to make all the profits? If it did, then you need to rethink your strategies. Otherwise, the same situation will occur periodically, taking all your profits with them.

If it was an abberation, then shake it off. But make sure you carefully examine your record.

I like the guy's statement that losing is part of winning. Said differently, you can't know how to win unless you know how to lose.

I've made many mistakes over my 35 years of trading.

What has given me great confidence that I have proven I can come back....my account goes to new highs. I've done it time after time.

Just acknowledge the situation, focus on what the problem was, how it occurred. Figure out whether it's a flaw with your basic trading strategy. Once you've done this, you're able to adjust.

Good luck to you. It's all part of the game.

OldTrader
 
When I loose on a trade especially a large one I have to force my self to realize that I am now smarter than I was before the trade. This experience that you just came through will make you wiser. Its funny How we tend to learn more from loosers than winners. You also have to realize that the next trade you make has nothing to do with the last one. One of my employees in a business I had burned up a snowmobile beyond hope because he was pulling the thing over with the key turned on and the spark plug out. It was flooded really bad and the whole thing caught fire. My partner looked at me and said you are going to fire him aren't you! My reply was ...hell no he is way more valuable as an employee now than he was before the incident. He is unlikely to ever do that again. He had heard of fires caused by this but had no idea how fast the situation can turn ugly. From then on he always kept a fire extinguisher near by. Think of your stop as this fire extinguisher.
You will no doubt get in trouble many more times just cut your loss fast and get back to work. I quite often add to loosing positions but this new added trade must be positive from the start. If this added position even goes against me $10. I am out. By lowering my average I get to break-even faster. Once at or near break even I close the trade and review my thinking. It is very hard to stick to mental stops so use hard stops. One must realize that this technique is a rope with a noose on the end and it must managed very carefully. I will never do this in over night positions, the trade must be closed the same day. :)
 
Well I am not going to answer: "you should not have done it," or "don't do it again" ... You already know this.

Since you already know this, do what any great trader will do. Forget about it; as if it never happened (I do not claim that this is easy).


Look below \/ (I've been there).
 
Originally posted by daniel_m
man, i love hearing "i held a loser" stories...un-freakin-believable what some people will do...
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This is the DEFINING comment on what daniel(I got a tiny tim)m
is all about....this is what a loser in LIFE is all about folks. This is human garbage
 
daniel_m doesn't have tact -- his social skills (online at least) are just unbelievable. He has no compassion for anyone, is full of himself and thinks the world revolves around him.

He comes off like he's some expert trader that has never made any of these mistakes.

Yeah, right!!!
 
Originally posted by nasdaqmadness
I quite often add to loosing positions but this new added trade must be positive from the start. If this added position even goes against me $10. I am out. By lowering my average I get to break-even faster. Once at or near break even I close the trade and review my thinking. It is very hard to stick to mental stops so use hard stops. One must realize that this technique is a rope with a noose on the end and it must managed very carefully. I will never do this in over night positions, the trade must be closed the same day. :)
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I was gonna ask this question a while ago, and now seems like a perfect time. I assume some of you guys have overnight positions open. How do you go about your stops and the afterhours trading? Or do you largely ignore what happens there? The reason I'm asking is that quite often some of the fluctuations in afterhours are totally bizarre and very shortlived. I've often gotten into a position right before the close only to see it in the red by 2 or 3% in 30 minutes, and then up again in the next hour or so (or before/after the open). Sticking to my strategy, I tend to close most of them the next day and in most cases they are back up :D
So my question is, do you just shrug those afterhours shocks that go against you as some weird flukes or do you treat them the same way as regular hours' moves with the same stops etc.
Thanks in advance.
V.
 
Originally posted by aphexcoil
daniel_m comes off like he's some expert trader that has never made any of these mistakes.

Yeah, right!!!
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How do you know whether or not? aphie
 
Originally posted by aphexcoil
daniel_m doesn't have tact -- his social skills (online at least) are just unbelievable.
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As opposed to you aphie. Postin' away your garbage. Just trade em.
 
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