I blew my account.
Yep, that's right, I got greedy and burned through my whole budget.
I felt so sick, so foolish and so humbled that I didn't even want to look at a trading screen. I was angry with myself, actually DISGUSTED with myself.
But that's all in the past!
It would be a terrible shame to waste all those man hours spent educating myself only to turn my back on what I still believe can be a very good way to earn money.
I'm recording my thoughts this evening so I can learn from my mistake. I lost it all by playing £60+ a point on the dow. £15'000 gone, kaput, vanished, squandered, thrown into a dirty great black hole. Over £7000 lost in just 2 days.
So how can I even think about going back into this if I've lost so much?
It's simple.
I recognise I lost perspective and became greedy. Also I was so focused on my trading I lost every other area of my life.
So my new approach to trading is to TRADE LESS, WIN MORE.
I have to excercise patience and trade only around support and resistance levels and satisfy myself with scalping at those points. Also I'm ashamed when I look back at some of my daily successes such as £100-£300 profitable days and thought I was only small fry.
I would be delighted to scalp £50-£100 a day for trading just a few minutes.
Today I made two tiny trades just to ease myself back in. A £5 win on the ftse and £1 on EUR/$.
I must be content harvesting money for very little effort and I must also keep into context that it's just a small part of my daily life. I'm fortunate to earn money from my day job, I'm a Father, a husband, a son, I like to read, write and even watch a little telly.
Stike a good balance and I'll be a happy bunny, after all if I'd been content with £50-£100 a day I'd have £3-£6000 extra in my account these last 3 months for very little effort.
Long term plan is still to gain 10 points a day at £50 a point but to do that I must have a big enough account to play at that level, also the discipline to execute maybe just one trade that day.
It's good to be back.
I am sorry to hear about your losses but I am glad you have been brave enough not to quit.
ReplyDeleteI think the fundamental error you made was to expect that you could become a profitable trader straight away.
Trading is like any profession. You need to learn the ropes first before jumping in. It takes a lot of experience to become a consistently profitable trader. You are competing against some very clever and experienced people who are all trying to take money from your account.
My advice is as follows:
1. Lower your trade size (say £5 per point maximum on FTSE and £3 per point maximum on the Dow). Once you have become consistently profitable week in week out you can then concentrate on gradually raising your stakes. This may take you 6 months, a few years or maybe never.
2. Use a stop loss automatically each time you enter a trade. You do not have the will power to exit trades manually at the moment. Losing trades are part of trading (it is o.k. to be wrong). Trading is about probabilities and you need to be aware of the traders equation.
3. I suggest you swing and not scalp. Scalping is more difficult than most people think and best for more experienced traders. Concentrate on small swings ( lasting typically one to several hours). You must also practice cutting short your losses (stop loss) and running your profits/winning trades.
4. Be patient and concentrate on only taking the best setups when the odds are in your favour (positive traders equation !).
5. Forget about the £15k that you have lost. If you focus on trying to win this back you will loose more. You must now focus and work hard to become a disciplined and profitable trader.
Good luck,
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