Best Way To Deal With A Large Drawdown

Discussion in 'Risk Management' started by Fundlord, May 9, 2015.

Best Way To Deal With Drawdowns

  1. Step back from trading, re-evaluate and change strategy

    30.6%
  2. Continue strategy but reduce size

    51.0%
  3. Take a break from trading all together for a while

    12.2%
  4. Try win it all back on one or two well timed trades

    6.1%
  1. Redneck

    Redneck


    And it the very reason you will continue to lose

    We've all had to face it - some get past it..., some don't

    RN
     
    #161     May 21, 2015
  2. Fundlord

    Fundlord

    Im not afraid of risking 1% to gain 3%+.

    I was risking 5-10% to gain 10-20%+
     
    #162     May 21, 2015
  3. Redneck

    Redneck

    Then why did I read where your losers were equal to / double your winners

    And oh by the way - internal issues just don't mysteriously fix themselves

    Mask their self - all the time..., resolve - no

    Resolving takes work


    Nevertheless


    You win; you're right..., I'm wrong

    One thing for certain though; time..., and the ole PnL will tell - PnL never lies

    Successful Journey Sir

    RN
     
    #163     May 21, 2015
    Fundlord likes this.
  4. Fundlord

    Fundlord

    The plan was to have winners equal or double my losses but internal conflict caused me to cut winners short so they would always end up a fraction of my losses. But the plan was to have winners 2X my losers.

    I will keep updating this thread if anyone wants to see if I make it through the storm.
     
    #164     May 21, 2015
    murray t turtle likes this.
  5. Fundlord

    Fundlord

    UPDATE: CURRENTLY IN THE GREEN 1% ON OPEN TRADES. I SEEM TO HAVE GOTTEN MY GROOVE BACK
     
    #165     May 21, 2015
  6. loyek590

    loyek590

    goddamned bracket traders, oh how I detest them, if they only knew the kind of drawdowns we have endure before we finally catch a trend
     
    #166     May 21, 2015
  7. "It was over a 30 or so trades losing 20 trades at 2 percent each and winning 10 at 1-2 percent each. Usually my win rate is much higher"

    This is from earlier in the thread. It seems to me that this is not a sign of bad trading at all. What I recall from my reading is that traders should limit their losses to about 2% per trade. So if you're over trading back then, it wasn't by much.

    More recently I see that you're down 40%. This is not a problem unless it's giving you pretty solid evidence that you've lost your edge. When you've lost money, your account is smaller and this means that your bets should also be lower. If you are down 10% you should reduce your size by 10% and when you're down 40% you should reduce your size by 40%. If you do this, and you're unlucky (but still have an edge) you can eventually come back.

    I wish I knew how to not be afraid of trading. It seems to me that eventually you become enured to losing and it doesn't bother you so much.

    When a trading company hires a fresh graduate to train as a trader, they like to hire athletes. I don't think this has anything to do with physical strength or finger speed, etc. I think it has to do with the attitude towards losing. To succeed as an athlete you have to bring your top game every time you show up at the court. You need to throw away all the psychological garbage associated with what happened yesterday or what happened earlier in the game. You are there to fight and you must fight to the best of your ability. And what you are being honored for is not the results of the contest! The military does not have an award for people who are successful in combat. What it gives are awards for people who fight despite their fear. It is a "medal of honor" not a "medal of glory", and what you should be seeking when you trade is honor not glory. That is enough. Like an athlete, just look at one trade at a time. By the way, the reason I think Ichiro did so well is that he brought exactly this attitude to his batting. Traders must do the same thing. If you bat differently each time you show up at the plate it will be impossible to collect good statistics to show you what works and what does not. The same thing applies to trading.

    So keep trading and don't worry so much about losing. What you are doing is learning and learning can be painful.
     
    #167     May 27, 2015
    HungryMind1200 likes this.
  8. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
    10% is quite aggressive, especially when [NOT IF] but when trend changes;
    less than 10 times + you are out[slippage, commissions].But then, that IS why the old timers say cut back when losing; you can get an education with an increase size when losing .But wisdom says don't try this @ home.
     
    #168     May 29, 2015
  9. Fundlord

    Fundlord

    I am an agressive trader by nature, I have recovered from most of my drawdown currently at 22% by betting big with tight stops on high probability trades.
     
    #169     May 29, 2015
  10. magestic

    magestic

    Trade with your natural money management, you don't get any draw down which will be big enough to worry about. Large draw downs are the result of bad money management and when you start managing your trades from very start, you won't be getting in such a position to see and worry about a large draw down.
     
    #170     Oct 5, 2015