"The blackest day in my career as a trader."

[raik07]

Good detailed post.
The best risk management is useless with the'' banana peel of pride'''
''Make a fool out of Warren Buffet ??'' Good thing about being young /may have time to learn and avoid arrogance. I had great parents also; but seldom borrowed anything from them but books............................................................................................................Congrats on bank job, my dad was a banker.

You can already imagine what was going through my mind totally clouded and full of arrogance.

 

[murray t turtle]

You can already imagine what was going through my mind totally clouded and full of arrogance.

%%
Good points.
I never could figure out why Warren Buffet took so long to buy tech/LOL.After all these years i finally read a book about him, someone threw it away in the free library box !![The clown that wrote it explained why tech stocks were so ''overvalued LOL'']

 

[raik07]

.

Hi raik,

You story reminded me strongly of the one below.

There is considerable evidence that the prefrontal cortex of our brain doesn't become fully developed until we're in our mid-20's. This region is very important for decision-making and for impulse control. Was thinking about that too...

Glad you overcame the early setback; hope that others learn from your example.

https://www.elitetrader.com/et/thre...to-full-time-trading-now-27-years-old.337749/

Thanks!

You are definitely right, at that age we make decisions based on impulses, without any type of risk control and without evaluating the possible negative scenarios that we could have.

 

[Bandiginn]

That is one of toughest situation that I can imagine.
You've made two unforgivable mistakes which everyone should remember as if this whole story happened to them. The first one is taking a loan. The funniest thing here is that there are still many people who take a loan for trading after they heard some commercial or a friend of a frined who made a fortune in trading following some 'simple steps'. Such scammers are really good at affecting people's decisions and they get the money from naive idiots. I believe that quite the same thing happened to the author of this story and he/she definetely learned a lesson out of this. The loan should be taken for some adequate and well-calculated decision, like making a business with certain strickt and sensible business plan. The loans are suitable for those people who feel financially safe and who cn pay out their debts, but who don't want to invest their own money in order to remain safe with their budget.
The second mistake is the absense of money and risk management. Perhaps, this is the most important thing in trading because judging by author, it worked sometimes. if they calculated risks and the amount of the deal, they would probably even make the profits. If the strategy worked in 50%of cases with the risk ratio 1:2, the trading would be profitable. However, the guy became overconfident which led him to the total loss.
Don't repeat such mistakes!

 

[raik07]

That is one of toughest situation that I can imagine.
You've made two unforgivable mistakes which everyone should remember as if this whole story happened to them. The first one is taking a loan. The funniest thing here is that there are still many people who take a loan for trading after they heard some commercial or a friend of a frined who made a fortune in trading following some 'simple steps'. Such scammers are really good at affecting people's decisions and they get the money from naive idiots. I believe that quite the same thing happened to the author of this story and he/she definetely learned a lesson out of this. The loan should be taken for some adequate and well-calculated decision, like making a business with certain strickt and sensible business plan. The loans are suitable for those people who feel financially safe and who cn pay out their debts, but who don't want to invest their own money in order to remain safe with their budget.
The second mistake is the absense of money and risk management. Perhaps, this is the most important thing in trading because judging by author, it worked sometimes. if they calculated risks and the amount of the deal, they would probably even make the profits. If the strategy worked in 50%of cases with the risk ratio 1:2, the trading would be profitable. However, the guy became overconfident which led him to the total loss.
Don't repeat such mistakes!

that's how it is.

I agree with you.

Taking out a loan to trade as a novice trader is a fatal decision that can lead to bankruptcy.

Believe me I learned the lesson very well and I am a totally different trader after that life experience.

 

[tomas262]

I also made the same "mistake" of taking a loan to trade. Took 3000 bucks from my card and turned into 45k in years trading futures spreads. Systematically not by hitting a homerun... So I knew I had a good strategy, some years of trading experience, knew my mistakes and weaknesses, learnt from them... I knew I can follow my plan and manage risk properly. I knew If I screw up I can pay 3k back quite easily. No disaster. It is not that wise I agree but it was not an impulsive decision