For the sake of a 2% loss, I then watched one stock drop 97% following the high profile arrest of a CEO in Japan (it was the time of the Horimon scandal in Japan (I'm trading Japanese equities). Totally unpredictable. That was around five years ago so the stock is virtually worthless now and will probably never "rebound" considering its fundamentals. I've still held it as I consider it "tuition fees".
Blown up many paper trading accounts Learned an early lesson after blowing it up and losing it all... Money and Position Management are paramount.... Unless your a professional trading someone elses money It's a hand on a hot stove lesson you have to experience. Screws with your head you learn, shake it off and move on.
if it is any comfort gents I lost 40-50K in a few hours a few yrs ago in futures that was my quickest and largest drawdown ever I have since then made many times that heck I almost made that in the last month alone I do realize that having said that I can still have a smaller drawdown that when it occurs I must really concentrate hard and if necc. "stick it to da man" until he decides it is better to give me back my money lost in the market than for me to give him a taste of his own medicine
over the past 18 months, I took about half a dozen 30% + losses on stocks, some of them I still own them and am down 60% + on them. Each position was less than 3% of account and that's part of the reason I extended my stay way beyond what I used to consider reasonable. But had the positions been larger I would have been annihilated even by getting out much earlier that is when I could have done it because most of them lost 30 % or more in one day. There were MTL, Smith&Wesson, MELI, GNA, and others I don't even remember. Most of the stocks had top IBD fundamental ratings and were bought for technical reasons with larger stops to account for the new volatility (not with the IBD method which doesn't really work IMO ). Then I made the mistake on some to wait for a double down entry to get out even, it never happened as I couldn't double dow except for one or two and it made the loss even larger of course. The real mistake was to get into stocks in the first place at this point of the cycle but then again there were so many huge moves as well. I will never touch an individual stock again if not part of a basket that in itself is no more than 5-10% of portfolio. I have come to the conclusion that there is no money to be made in picking stocks outside of a very large portfolio which is impossible to monitor for short term technical moves (that is you have to be a fundamentals guy). You make some you give some and spend an awful lot of time looking for stocks. Any meaningful position such as recommended by the IBD or the Darvas method puts you at risk of an instant blowup. It is gambling. So if you are good gambler perhaps you can try to be the next Darvas or Zanger otherwise it is best to do something else.
The equity market is rigged, while CFO's, CEO's and analysts LIE. I believe nothing in those conf calls and made the best decision to move to futures when the pennies came out. The futures and commodity markets are the only way to go if you would like to spend your day trading price action and swinging both sides and never have to worry about a locate or reg SHO. Life is juicy in these future products as the equity world is being run by rumors, funds ganging up on a few stocks and all this CDS OTC crap that has never been regulated. CFTC is covering the futures world and allows us individuals to trade and make a living, Just my input....trade well and make some $$$$
How do you stay disciplined and not let what may happen after you sold bother you? I could have saved myself $6k if I hold the bank stock I sold yesterday for 1 day longer. The stock literally thumbed its nose and said "f-you" when I checked the quote.
That is why it is important to have trading plan. Then it doesn't matter what the stock do after you sold it because you have followed your plan and you know in the long run, your plan works more often than not and that is why you follow it. If you have a solid plan, then for every time a stock goes up after you sell it, there will be numerous examples of a stock continueing going down after you sell it.
man if you can't cut your losses then I doubt you wil lmake it trading/investing. Seriously. I got caught on thr wrong side of CROX last October. Al lin as well. Lost $50,000 overnight. I got out on the open no questions asked. It was awful. But it taught me a big lesson. Crox is now trading down at about $3. Imagine if I had have stayed in? WIPE OUT. I lived to fight another day and lesson learned. No crying, blaming, calling., my fault. If you can't cut your losses then you simply are not a good trader. Taking profits too ealry is nearly as bad. That's why good trading cannot be taught. You either do it or you don't.
man this is pure gambling. Why exactly did you do this? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I assume you were long financials or anything for that matter today... All I can say is don't attempt to pick bottoms. If you like Livermore, follow his advice about not going against the trend or fighting the line of least resistance. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Do oyu know what great traders do? They takthe "almost sure thing" as opposed to the long shot. This trade is about as long of shot as I've ever known. May as well have gone to vegas on the crpa tables. At least you could have had a great time losing your money.
I lost more than $35K this yr...alot of money to me.....as I kept repeating the mistake over and over again...even i know that the market is goin against me...i kept holding it. I just dunno why...I guess i'm just not good in trading.....gud luck to all.