Any one else have this problem when they went from simulation/paper trading to trading live? I paper traded a system for over 6 months and I had no more then a 4 day stretch of down days. I just started on the 1st and the last 3 trading days have been losers. I looked over my trades and they are loosing trades but I was taken out by my stops so technically my "system" worked by getting me out of a trade that didn't work for me. My problem now is that my mind is playing tricks on me and i'm second guessing if my system really works. I keep telling myself to think in longer time frames and see how I end up after a week/month because over time, my system has shown to work and I might have just started in crappy time. I'm following my trading plan as I did when I paper traded and i'm not having problem trading knowing there money behind my decisions now. I'm trying not to over analyze this but does any one have any advice for me?
it is great that you are following your plan exactly. i mean what else can you do. you just started and the WORST thing you could do is change right now. you made a commitment to this plan and you have to stick with it no matter what your fear inside of your brain is telling you. the next thing is to really do your best to detach yourself from the money you have set aside for this commitment. think of it as a video game that you have paid the money to play the whole game. so play the game according to your plan be only be concerned about one thing. that you are playing the game according to your plan and not the money you are losing. don't CHANGE YOUR PLAN NOW. you just started. if you start changing your plan in the middle of the game now, just because of fear emotion, you will always do it. pat
just be sure you are trading the smallest that you can. one of the hardest things to do is to detach yourself from the p / l window and your win rate. if at the end of the day, you lost money, ask yourself IF you executed your method correclty? IF so, then believe in your paper trading results, and it just might be you started at the wrong time, or that the summer market is playing out. have an amount of money (i.e. 1-3K) that right now you are willing to lose, and keep at your trading until that amount is hit, if so, then stop trading and rethink your strategy, and start back on paper trading. patrick
every time i start trading a new system it goes into drawdown. i think because most of the time after paper trading/simulation you start to trade live after a good period of trades, and then comes the bad period with real money on the line(murphys law i guess). but if your method is profitable over time i recommend you stick with it and dont deviate no matter how tempting.
I feel your pain. Me, I traded on demos for 6 months. When I first started I lost every trade. I blew up so many demo accts I should have been arrested. However, after 6 months, I had managed to develop several (read more than one) successful trade set-ups and structures. I went live. Opening that first trade was like putting a gun to my head and pulling the trigger. I held my breath until I closed it... in a win. After that, the market wasted no time in eating my systems. I modified them to survive. And have been surviving ever since by adapting them as needed. I do the best now I have ever done. But it's been a slow, painful progression. Not an overnight success. Even up to my last major system re-wire, the market almost killed me. I trade currencies so it was a little easier for me to trade in the beginning due to being able to make ultra-small trades with no commission fees. I'd suggest you do a few things. No harm going back on a demo, as each person has their own unique developing period. If you want to trade live make the smallest trades you can. Realize that when you first begin that is the time you will trade at your worst. So have patience with yourself. Be a student of the market. I learn about the market daily. If you are not learning and advancing you are dead in the water - you're living on borrowed time. Even now, although I trade a live forex account, I still have a number of demos running in the background to test various strategies I may someday bring to the market. Kindest regards, and keep trading! Saham
good point. in addition our memory might be distorted towards the emotionally more touching experience ... immediate draw down. we might forget those systems that started flat or moderately up.
stay cool. looks like you did your homework. if it is too painful, go back into paper for two weeks. then get live again. after all you should not stop sleeping due to fear ... though you might already be at this point ...