Well I don't really know how much is my max risk ahead of time. I just tell myself the risk is unlimited, and proceed from that assumption. I do options to tamp it down, which works, but doesn't avoid the occasional shellacking. The biggest ones invariably come when I forget to put on the hedge or for some stupid reason decide I don't really need to make it as tight or as large as I normally do. Somehow, the market always knows when you're exposed and punishes you accordingly. But I've always managed to keep the losses to the single digits, percentagewise.
I once tried to get in an order so fast that I accidentally put in a market order for a very illiquid outer month. I was raped to the tune of $4K just off the shitty fill. $4K gone instantly because I could not type and click a mouse, there, does that make you feel better?
You obviously don't realise that good trading isn't about making money. Maybe that's why you can't follow your system. pneuma
I hate to say it, but you may never completely sell out to your system. Been doing this for nearly a decade, and still making the same mistakes. Tried to find every answer, still looking. The best was a few years ago when three of us all pitched in cash into a common account, with the theory that nobody would go outside of the system with other people's cash. It worked for a while, then two of the three went on vacation, leaving the one left unsupervised. Well, he played outside the system once and lost, then was chasing the rest of the weekend. Good luck.