Risk Management is the answer

[Handle123]

I suppose it depends on how you manage risk. The way I understand hedge is that you have an asset or instrument that will move in the opposite direction of what you are hedging. One goes up the other goes down. Kind of guarantees that the portfolio goes nowhere.

I manage risk by getting out of the market when it's not doing what I expect it to do. No insurance.

Making profits on losing trades is beyond my comprehension. Offsetting a loss by putting on a different trade would take me out of my comfort level. I just accept the loss, try and keep it as small as possible and move on.

Took me a year in 1990s to backtest and trade then automate eventually, then starting in 2010 few years to get it "down", thousands of hours, bought historical amount of option data on stocks and futures. I had developed turning patterns so learned how to hedge so lose less on pullbacks. Also learned how to profit options using directionally.

Where most traders think I keep hedge on all the time is incorrect, beginnings of new trade has most risk, when instrument goes a percentage, I lift hedge, if underlying hits stop loss I keep hedge open till recovers loss plus more if chart reads continuation.

There are times I lose, when one side is lifted and goes other way but even there I lose less then whatever full lose would have been if I not hedged at all.

Man, I have been doing this a long time....amazing what you can do if you keep at it.

 

[deaddog]

Man, I have been doing this a long time....amazing what you can do if you keep at it.

I've probably got a few years on you and I'm not half as talented. Just found something that seemed reasonable to me and stuck with it. Like a timex it just keeps ticking.

 

[Wide Tailz]

Did he mention why?

Smart people have trouble considering they may be wrong. He would not accept his losses.

Speculating is the only career when admitting a mistake as quickly as possible is an advantage.

 

[Handle123]

Smart people have trouble considering they may be wrong. He would not accept his losses.

Speculating is the only career when admitting a mistake as quickly as possible is an advantage.

I find many male humans in USA born unable to admit they made a mistake and younger males often rather lie than say they every make mistakes. Seems many rather say it was some other persons error. I think many many traders lie to themselves, especially when they hit roadblocks.
"If you do what you’ve always done you’ll get what you’ve always gotten."
People do not like change or adapting, trading have to be open to it IMHO.

I see failures as opportunities to do again a different way, but thank goodness born in the 1950s. Whoever said life is short...I disagree, it is so flipping long.

 

[themickey002]

Risk management gives you an edge on the Forex Market. Traders are willing to take in more risk to earn higher returns, so it is essential to manage your money correctly and reduce the chances of loss.

 

[florinavintage]

A well-built risk management strategy can help you get through losses easily without giving a major setback to your account. But it should be done before you actually start to trade. Get an understanding of leverage and use stops and limits whenever you are opening a trading position. Do everything on a demo or micro account before you put your money at risk.

 

[Wide Tailz]

Thank you everyone for weighing in. I enjoy sampling the psychology of my competitors, even the profane.

As a final quote, I will paraphrase Jessie Livermore in his famous book. A sales guy enters his office and talks for a few minutes, then asks him to sign a sheet of paper. He does, then realizes his mistake - it was a purchase agreement for a set of books. Livermore immediately begins negotiating a bribe to have the contract tore up, but the sales guy lets him off if he takes him to his broker's office.

Months later he sees the guy on the train and learns he sold his broker two or three sets of the same useless encyclopedias. How did he do it?

"I know his kind", the salesman replies. "They never admit mistakes. In their business this would be suicide. Your kind are first rate losers", he says to Livermore.

If only Livermore would have followed this approach when he plunged (long) at the first dead cat bounce after the crash of '29......

 

[SunTrader]

" .... your edge based on low risk ideas."

Ahhh no.

The key to trading consistently, successfully ... for a long time is to take what the market offers.

Now once again most mistake what risk actually is. It is of a particular event happening or not. (J.Powell does/does not get reappointed FedHead- market rockets higher/market tanks as such an example). It is not the $100 or $1000 or whatever amount that trade may win/lose effected by such news. So throw R/R formulas out the window - worse than useless they are an unnecessary bogus crutch. Market doesn't care if my trade is a 2/1, 3/1 or a gazillion/1 trade and neither do I.

"Greed {ie higher risk) is good" sometimes which makes up for the other times when is caution {lower risk) is wiser.

Only way the numbers work looong term.

 

[dorcaslugo]

Every trader needs to know that forex trading is not just about making money but also about saving money. And for that, you will have to use a proper risk management strategy. You should never risk more than you can afford to lose. You must also never open trading positions when you are not sure about the market.

 

[robindude]

Risking more than you can afford to lose is utter foolishness. If you can’t follow a proper risk management strategy, you will have a hard time in the live market. Prepare yourself well before you take the plunge.