What were your lowest moments?

O

orbit23

Speaking from experience, trading for beginners is an emotional rollercoaster. The (mood)swings between the highs and lows are horrific(or perhaps; lows and even lower lows).

Just wondering if anyone would be willing to share some of their psychological lows caused by trading. What were the events leading to the crash? What did it feel like? How long did it last? How did you overcome? How did it affect you and people close to you?
Were the symptoms mental, or also physical?


I would say one of the mandatory things for successful trading is to "forgive" quickly, but learn from your mistakes, NEVER repeat the same mistake again, get up and move on. For doing so, rules are mandatory and rigid risk management being one of them. But as a beginner, you just know better and then you get the privilege of learning this common lesson the hard way. If you know what i mean...

Feel free to share your experience(s).
 
I'll give you a simple story. Saved up $10,000 and started trading FX. This was a series of compromises due to the usual suspects (underfunded, time constraints, not enough knowledge). In other words, I didn't want to trade FX but decided that I had no choice because I needed leverage to make any money (I prefer scalping/very short term trading).

I have a math degree. I have an ability to anticipate immediate volatility and direction due to massive amounts of screen time and knowing the reasons why indicators will work or won't work.

I ended up suffering a string of losses and the account drew down 5% and I closed it out.

Fast forward 4 years later I've got ten times that in capital and massive edge now.

It probably was the worst feeling though losing over and over. Nothing like hard earned money just vanishing right in front of your face in seconds :D. I remember I even pounded my fist on the table.

Takeaways,

Be smart enough to admit when you are wrong. And If you're underfunded and forcing trades then you have already lost. Get an EDGE.
 
Blew a 6K USD ( all I had ) account, 100% puts, market gapped up all worthless over night, made about 12K and spent, so still +10K but never traded options again.
 
Real Money said:
I ended up suffering a string of losses and the account drew down 5% and I closed it out.
More...
Drew down TO 5% of starting capital or drew down 5% OF starting capital (i.e. You had $500 or $9500 remaining)?
 
I'm writing this half drunk on vacation in Barcelona ...
Read a few TA books ... Thought I would be great at trading as my discipline is rock solid!
I take voluntary lay off with half a year salary package to keep me afloat.
Well, I quickly learned that I have no discipline. The market wasn't very good for swing trading, so how more difficult can day trading be, right?
So now I am day trading with my TOS and volatility is through the roof.
So I am plowing through my package, loosing daily ... Why the @$# this is not working out as described in all those books!?
What I learned from all of this, before I got back to work for the man, is I got no skill and no discipline. But I did get a taste of what it feels to trade on the tilt ... It was an experience I will never forget and I will not repeat. Get an edge, no get multiple edges. Trade different market environments before making life changing decisions, unless you like living la vida loco ;)
 
Lowest moment was like 'trading places' in reverse. Thought I was set for life, than I blew up & had to start all over owing the IRS $185k for capital gains. The life style change was extreme. I no longer regret this, I was able to channel it into becoming a much better trader/risk mgr.

Making a lot of $ is the easier than keeping it. Today I have an overlay of risk mgmt rules I always follow. Seems like all of the legendary traders blew up a time or two in their earlier years. Not implying its mandatory, what matters is learning from the many mistakes big & small we make.
 
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fan27 said:
Drew down TO 5% of starting capital or drew down 5% OF starting capital (i.e. You had $500 or $9500 remaining)?
More...

I stopped trading after I lost ~600 dollars in one stretch. I was scalping EUR/USD and GBP/USD with OANDA.

At the time there was a lot of volatility happening in the Swiss Franc. The action in the frank was affecting every pair in unpredictable ways.

I decided that there was just too much risk in currencies for me. I started thinking that it was time to trade something with more controllable risks like stocks or bonds.

I saved most of the money and then started saving up more working jobs. At the time I had about $14,000 total.
 
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In December 2009, I decided to shut down my BD where I was an independent Option Market Maker. The end of Feb 2010, was my last day. Since I was looking to leave the floor for about 2 years, my monthly earnings very low as I was interviewing to leave and not paying much attention to trading. Most trading desk we not just not hiring, they were still cutting staff. I said good by to my home away from home for the last 28 years and all my friends there at the AMEX. I was unemployed with little direction. On or about March 1, there was a bad ice storm in the NY area. Power was out, my house had trees falling on my roof and my house got down to 37 degrees. I had to move into a hotel for about 6 days, which insurance did not cover. Insurance did pay for the damage to my house. It was very hard to pay for a hotel and meals out, deal with the storm damage while I had no income coming in. Then, just to give me a little more of a challenge, on or about the last day of March, it happened again. Another ice storm, power out for about 5 days, tree falling on my house. Had to go to a hotel again and deal with everything all over again.

Health problems are worse than these types of stressful events. No young kids at home and no one was hurt. Metally, a very low moment for me. Dealing with trading losses was easier. That was part of the business of trading. I was accustom to uncertainly.

Cheers,
Bob
 
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