Took out a loan to transition to full-time trading. 24 years old.

[wabu27]

Day 24
-14.0%
Hm… where to begin. Started the day off great, calling accurate reversals and making easy 6% profit. There was a surprise jump that caught me off guard, and while I thought it would be a complete down day today, oil refused to go down. Kept my positions open and went to work, periodically checking the charts. Was down probably around -15% but managed to get it to around -5%. I saw the chart and still thought it would go down, so I re-entered. Oil just would not go down and budged its way up, leading me to finally give up and exit. I think today was a good example of following “it’s okay to be wrong” and “cutting losses short when wrong”, which were two things I refused to do. Still think it’s a reversal to downplay… man I’m so disappointed. Shoulda called it quits when I exited with -5%.

 

[Overnight]

...Shoulda called it quits when I exited with -5%.

Never get caught in the "coulda' woulda' shoulda'" trap. It will eat at you forever.

 

[algofy]

Never get caught in the "coulda' woulda' shoulda'" trap. It will eat at you forever.

yep been there done that, got that t-shirt.

 

[Sprout]

and the hat,..

 

[lawrence-lugar]

and the hat,..

...the Hat is Everything...it's like a cake w/o frosting,

I love girls who wear hats. a hat is like lingerie to me.

 

[wabu27]

Day 25
+17.43%
Woke up around 2:30am and started trading. I think I did a good job reading the direction of the chart, not exiting when fake outbreaks occurred. Oil just would not drop as I had expected, so exited while I was ahead instead of giving back profits. Lucky to have made good moves today. Made back all the loss from yesterday and about $60 more. Today was the first time I hit a 4 digit profit.

 

[algofy]

Day 25
+17.43%
Woke up around 2:30am and started trading. I think I did a good job reading the direction of the chart, not exiting when fake outbreaks occurred. Oil just would not drop as I had expected, so exited while I was ahead instead of giving back profits. Lucky to have made good moves today. Made back all the loss from yesterday and about $60 more. Today was the first time I hit a 4 digit profit.

nice day !

 

[wabu27]

Day 26
-40.7%
Outplayed, outmatched, outclassed... all the wrong things ive been doing wrong finally coming to bite me. Played the day really fighting and ending flat. Before leaving for work, put on 2 positions, thinking ill either make $150 or lose $150. Well the spike made me -$400 and out of impulse added in 2 more positions. Had to go to work. At work, busy as hell and literally had no time to look at chart... really didnt think it would be this bad. Lost 2.7K in one day. Man.. going to take 2-3weeks to make this loss back... if i follow my rules that is.
I dont know whats worse. The huge loss or me going "eh, shit here we go again" after history of blowing up accounts...

 

[wrbtrader]

Day 26
-40.7%
Outplayed, outmatched, outclassed... all the wrong things ive been doing wrong finally coming to bite me. Played the day really fighting and ending flat. Before leaving for work, put on 2 positions, thinking ill either make $150 or lose $150. Well the spike made me -$400 and out of impulse added in 2 more positions. Had to go to work. At work, busy as hell and literally had no time to look at chart... really didnt think it would be this bad. Lost 2.7K in one day. Man.. going to take 2-3weeks to make this loss back... if i follow my rules that is.
I dont know whats worse. The huge loss or me going "eh, shit here we go again" after history of blowing up accounts...

I understand you don't use stops when trading although I don't agree.

In contrast, I don't understand why you don't use stops when you leave your computer and trade positions unattended.

Doesn't your broker have a mobile app for you to use for your cell phone so that you can get a price alert on your trade positions while you're at work ?

If not, why leave your positions unattended when you have to go to work instead of just closing the position ?

I've never met any "daytrader" that can trade successfully like that although I've met many that have tried and then they either play the blame game or keep doing it when the same situation occurs again. There's just too much psychological (cognitive) stuff going on from work that impacts the trade decisions.

I'm sure others will just say if you can watch your open daytrade position...close it.

 

[algofy]

Have to stop following this thread, just too painful to read. Best of luck wabu.