Worst trade

[wjk]

One other thought on this issue:

I read that this is not an uncommon issue that some traders have to overcome. Apparently there are traders who do this once in a year, wiping out the whole year. And traders who do it every week.

My goal is overcome it now so as not to deal with it on a yearly
basis. That would be too much. I'm too old to give up a whole year at a time.

It would seem so simple to just walk away from the computer
at those times, before putting on the revenge trade, wouldn't it?
That's the difference between paper trading and the real deal.
(or the difference betweent pro and amateur)

It will be the biggest victory in my trading history to complete one full month without a crash and burn. I'll post it here when (and if) that happens.

 

[Brandonf]

Quote from innovest_11:

Yesterday, I have done some trades that wipe out half of my month March profit, just in a single day, main reason is over leverage of 4 times my capital.

I'm now in a state of shock and loss, though i know the reason for losing this amount, I just cannot believe it has happened.

Any of you ever been through what i've been through and how you recovered from it?

I've made a number of terrible trades over the course of my career, none worse though than ENTU which I bought sometime before July 4th 2000 and sold on July 5th 2000. http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/attachment.php?s=&postid=33314

I can remember turning my computer on that morning and seeing the quotes and thinking, nahhh that cant be correct. So I restarted my computer and it still was. I called MBTrading to have them confirm for me if I was fucked or not. I was. I puked three times that morning, but did the right thing as far as the trade went. I actually traded the rest of the day and did ok and learned a valuable lesson on share consentration from the trade that has by now saved me a lot more than the $40,000 I lost that morning.

Brandon

 

[ammo]

Quote from wjk:

One other thought on this issue:very common in all walks of life,peter principal ,rise to your level of incompetence

I read that this is not an uncommon issue that some traders have to overcome. Apparently there are traders who do this once in a year, wiping out the whole year. And traders who do it every week.

My goal is overcome it now so as not to deal with it on a yearly
basis. That would be too much. I'm too old to give up a whole year at a time.

It would seem so simple to just walk away from the computer
at those times, before putting on the revenge trade, wouldn't it?
That's the difference between paper trading and the real deal.
(or the difference betweent pro and amateur)

It will be the biggest victory in my trading history to complete one full month without a crash and burn. I'll post it here when (and if) that happens.

there is always the peter principal, rise to your level of incompetence,i solve that by trading with a small acct,never leave anymore than your comfortable losing in there,i dont care about becoming a gazillionaire,just more money than i need

 

[wjk]

Quote from ammo:

there is always the peter principal, rise to your level of incompetence,i solve that by trading with a small acct,never leave anymore than your comfortable losing in there,i dont care about becoming a gazillionaire,just more money than i need

I think you're on to something, ammo. Next time I get angry at a loss, I'll ask myself:
"am I going to now rise to the level of my incompetence"?

My next question after that will be:
"if so, how much will this incompetence cost me"?

I only hope I can rationally ask myself that in my irrational moment!

Think I'll print and tape these two questions to my monitor. Can't hurt.

thx

 

[pipboy]

I think you should keep trading. The only way to learn is by making mistakes

 

[aklishta]

Quote from innovest_11:

Yesterday, I have done some trades that wipe out half of my month March profit, just in a single day, main reason is over leverage of 4 times my capital.

I'm now in a state of shock and loss, though i know the reason for losing this amount, I just cannot believe it has happened.

Any of you ever been through what i've been through and how you recovered from it?

Let me guess:


You don't go sky dying or bungee jumping.

You don't fuck a different prostitute every day.

You don't snort cocaine.

You don't go to Vegas and bet everything on black.

You don't drive 120mph on the highway.

You don't try to surf tidal waves.

You don't try to tame lions.



But we all have urges to gamble one way or another, to take an insane risks, to seek dangerous adventures, or to self sabotage ourselves right when victory is nearest.

So for a typical trader, after making money very conservatively and consistently for many weeks - one morning puts himself in a position where he's essentially risking weeks and months worth of effort on one dangerous trade. He's not in the position for the money. He's in it for the action, for the feeling of being alive, for having adrenaline and cortisone flowing throughout the body. The bad traders are the ones that get addicted to this "high" and blowout eventually.



You have to watch Al Pacino's speech to a gamblers anonymous meeting in the movie Two For the Money. He says this:

"You're a Lemon. Like a bad car there is something, there is something inherently defective and you, and you, and you, and me, and all of us. We're all Lemons. We look like everyone else, but what makes us different is our defect. See, most gamblers, when they go to gamble, they go to win. When we go to gamble, we go to lose. Subconsciously. Me, I never feel better than when they're raking the chips away; not bringing them in. And everyone here knows what I'm talking about. Hell, even when we win it's just a matter of time before we give it all back. But when we lose, that's another story. When we lose, and I'm talking about the kind of loss that makes your asshole pucker to the size of a decimal point - you know what I mean - You've just recreated the worst possible nightmare this side of malignant cancer, for the twentieth goddamn time; and you're standing there and you suddenly realize, Hey, I'm still... here. I'm still breathing. I'm still alive. Us Lemons, we fuck shit up all the time on purpose. Because we constantly need to remind ourselves we're alive. Gambling's not your problem. It's this fucked up need to feel something. To convince yourself you exist. That's the problem."

So basically innovest_11, you're a lemon. But don't beat yourself up because everyone is a lemon one way or another. Until a person achieves equanimity of mind, he will constantly fall short of his full potential in everything he does.

 

[pipboy]

everyone makes mistakes. just keep trading. you will learn from it. If it this bothers you that much maybe trading is not for you.

 

[magicdust]

You need to identify if your blow-up days are really psychological in origin, or just the lack of a genuine edge. Many strategies will consistently score small wins yet inevitably lead to large losses taking everything back. If you lose perspective or are semi-discretionary it can feel like it is your fault, yet it is only the natural consequence of your methodology.

 

[JSSPMK]

Quote from innovest_11:

Yesterday, I have done some trades that wipe out half of my month March profit, just in a single day, main reason is over leverage of 4 times my capital.

I'm now in a state of shock and loss, though i know the reason for losing this amount, I just cannot believe it has happened.

Any of you ever been through what i've been through and how you recovered from it?

Yes mate, know exactly what's going inside your mind, lost all my trading money once, doesn't matter how much, it was a lot to me.

What you have to do is learn from your mistakes, life is about adjusting, only a fool steps twice into same pile of shite. It's an expensive lesson, but you will be OK as long as you stay positive, a correct state of mind is essential.

All the best!