Sad to report, I blew up again. The story began a few days ago. I shorted QM somewhere around 107.50, it went against me. I learned my lesson from previous losses and didn't use stop. It went against me a long way, up to 109+, unrealized loss went above $1000, but I held on. Then it came down to 106.50 and I exited with a profit. Today, I went short at 106.80 in the morning, hoping that there would be a second leg down. It went against me to 107.80 when I added another contract. I didn't use any stop, I held on, hoping it would come down. I was prepared to hold for the weekend, just like last time. But it went against so much (alll the way to above 110) that my account didn't have enough money to cover the margin requirement. My broker liquidated my position and I lost $2500. I don't understand why oil went so crazy today. But it is not important anymore, because my money is gone.
A mentor told me to persevere, to stick to trading, no matter what. So I wired some more money into my account, made it just above 4,000. I learned that I may have to hold overnight, so I made sure the accout balance covers overnight margin. My mentor told me I had to trade with the overall trend. So I waited for oil to go down on the daily chart (it started to go down on March 2) I entered a short position on March 6, at around 105. I held it overnight, it went down first on March 7, I wanted to take the profit, but my mentor told me to hold for more profit. But it turned up at the end of the day and went up yesterday. I thought it would go down today in the morning when it dipped into red. But somehow it went up again. I am down about $1,500 at this moment (it's close to 108 now). I will continue to hold, Wish me luck.
close the position and sim trade til you can make profitable decisions on your own,the usual route to achieve this is several 5k accts,you can lose monopoly money just as easily and you can gain wisdom for free,your choice,free education or very expensive education..problem with the 2nd scenario is that by the time you have an edge,you won't have any money to trade it
Oil is in a downtrend? Now THAT's news to me. Look at the daily. Your "mentor" might want to get his eyes fixed.
I have held it for nearly 3 weeks. Very painful. I am still down $1,000. I thought I would go into profit last week, but the Iran export rumor kept me in the red. Do you think I have a compulsive gambling problem? I know I should quit trading, but I cannot. I may need professional help.
2steps, you may or may not have a problem. one way i have been dealing with mental aspect of trading is to code my plan and then to automate it. this has kept me on the side for a very long time now forcing screen time only and clarifying concepts through coding. i am getting a bit impatient and want to jump back in without finishing automation, but at least it would be close to mechanical trading as most of context, entry/exit rules have been coded. anyways i think i may have mentioned this before, so hopefully you will take heed this time. take care, tihfa
Thanks for the post, tihfa. The prerequisite for coding is a psychological readiness, in my opinion. I don't have this psychological readiness. If I have it, I probably won't code my method, for the following reason: All those algorithms are trading in the market. If trading is a zero-sum game and most participants lose money, that means most algorithms don't make money. So I am not sure automating the method is the way to go.
I got rid of my short position at a loss yesterday, fearing a spike today associated with the inventory. But the oil price dropped overnight. Hindsight is that it was a mistake, should have held it. It's just one of those many "should haves."
2 possible problems,1 is you need to be right,trading with that normal human weakness that is only moderately punished in most professions will be fatal in this one,recognizing when you are wrong early rather than late is a must, and taking a loss, being wrong, in trading is actually being right,preserving capital is on the top of the successful trader skill chain, 2nd..needing to hit a homerun, that mindset is also fatal,they will come occasionally and very few in your career,and it will most likely be as much luck as it is skill,you can't force them,you have to take what the market gives you,you have to ask yourself why this is so important and then deal with the why,where it comes from ,and how little it has to do with the markets or your acct ,and learn to put it in a drawer somewhere while you are trading. .... if you compare nascar to trading would you start a race with no brakes and loose lug nuts, you would surely crash and possibly die..your mind has to be ready, just like that car
I thought technical analysis would help me. I though price action would help me. I thought chart reading would help me. I was wrong. I got up early and looked at the oil chart in the first hour after the market opened. It indicated a slow upward move. So I went long, at above 105.30. It went up a little more.... I was anticipating 107 tomorrow. But suddenly the sky collapsed. It was the big players who knew something that we small traders didn't know. They started selling. My account was destroyed again, went down in a free fall, from $3000 to $1500. http://news.yahoo.com/israelis-susp...rike-iran-172438650--abc-news-topstories.html I guess small traders have no chance trading against the big players. They have all the information......