Answer: you don't know what the sh*t you're doing. Why would you expect to make money? I had to laugh out loud. You've got that wonderfully right combination of panic action and paralysis. Outlook: more suffering.
This is where you can mirror moves and make money. This has documented track record as it happens, no empty talk, and no question marks to ponder: www.collective2.com
Each ET member should get a max of 10 'I'm an idiot' posts like this one and then be banned. A total waste of everyone's time. Your username says it all. Cheese. Of course - cheese. Might as well be 'I'm a moron who's so weak minded that the mechanism that functions to prevent most people from acting like 7 year olds just can't stop me from spouting playground crap'.
If you can follow just this one principle, you will have a great trading career: *** Before entering any trade, think of how much you're willing to lose on that trade. As soon as you hit that magic number, bail out ASAP because the trade is not working. *** Because you have already predefined your risk tolerance (this is what all the other guys on this thread refer to as RISK), you have already made peace with the possibility of losing the X dollars in order to see if you could gain Y dollars should yo win. There will be little or no emotion involved when pulling the trigger to bail because clearly your setup has been invalidated. You determine the share size based on this magic X dollars, together with the share price and the support level. Eg. Risk tolerance = $40 on next trade Stock trades at $20 Support is 3 pennies below so you'll punch out at 4 cent loss ** This means you should trade 500 shares !! Contrast this with the common thinking of only how much you can gain with a trade. If and when the trade does go against you, you end up thinking on the fly how much pain you can take - which is too late because the "pain" keeps moving and your tolerance also fluctuates with it until your maximum pain threshold is reached then you punch out. By then, you end up with a big loss. And of course, looking back had you known you could actually lose THIS much, you wouldn't have gone into the trade to begin with considering the possible reward for this trade. Without this understanding of risk, even if you hold a losing trade and it reverses - this is bad reinforcement. All it takes is that one trade that goes against you, and you keep averaging down, and it may never come back - think NWAC over the past couple of days. That will be the end of your career. Think about it, just one trade. On the contrary, if you follow the principle above, you will never have to face that "one trade" because you will be out long time ago. Besides, there is a huge opportunity cost to holding a loser - if you just punch out and take a small loss, you'd be free to do another trade and make $$. You hold the trade, time is awasting and you're sweating bullets the whole time. And most people just end up punching out anyway when the stock hits their entry point to break even, invariably missing out on the true reversal because they are so mentally exhausted from the fight! Hope this helps.
TraderNik, do you know for sure that the truth or realism I've given will be other than ultimately beneficial?
A trader with no discipline or method needs to hit rock bottom before they are willing to change for the better. As blunt as Cheese may be, it is the truth.
thanx Futures, good advice and I will defenately have to look at my risk parameters .......Ozzy man, good to hear from you, I have missed your posts...Have you been on holidays?..thanx for the encouragment.... Turtle....How was my MSFT an excellent long at 26.13 when it proceeded to drop 16 cents before coming back?........I dont just enter random and was long in this trade for the reasons you outlined....It was below many of the sma's while the market was going up and was relativly strong.....How much do you let a stock go against you before you bail out? Rilpey....when I do trade defensively, I close out my trades to fast and miss the subsequent run.....
js I am not commenting on the value of a harsh, truthful evaluation of this trader's mistakes. He made a bunch of typical errors. We need look no further than this bit, from his post above. Obviously this person has no plan and a complete misunderstanding of position size vs. risk. If he asked me privately what I thought I would tell him in no uncertain terms what his mistakes were and I would tell him that his chances of making it are slim to none without a completely new plan. I disagree with those who say he should trade tomorrow. You can't change in 24 hours the mindset that produces the kind decisions he made. You have to stop, reflect, get a new plan, write it down, examine your losing trades, etc. This is my opinion. My objection is to the moronic way in which this weakling cheese chose to speak to the original poster, someone who he does not know. For all we know, the original poster is a stand up person who has done well in other aspects of life, maybe a great family person or a credit to his community, not someone who deserves to be spoken to in a demeaning manner by some wanna-be 19 year old who trades hockey cards badly. I believe in speaking to other people in a respectful manner unless and until I have a good reason to do otherwise. Like I do with this punk. What value was there in this response? There was nothing that the original poster could use to improve his trading. I understand that there are some on here who will be tempted to say to me, 'awwww, pooor boo-boo, are you okay?'. I don't give a f**k. People like this die alone. I won't clog the thread any further. I see so much of this - just had to say something this time.
Not looking for sympathy on here....Nor was the thread inteaded for that purpose.....Trying to make sense of how I let my emotions get the best of me and why I made the mistakes I made....I know that I made numerous ones.....I appreciate everyones comments on here, and I am just trying to make sense of all this.....I'd like to think that most of the time I do in fact know what I am doing....This is the first time I have "blown" up , and my account was really peanuts....Money isnt the issue, I have plenty.......I want to carry on and NOT blow up subsequent accounts.....
Hey giannos well i am a newbie and planning to start my career as daytrading i read you pst and sorry for what happened Can you tell me how much very u making before u started blowing up were u removing $4k a month atleast or what kind of profit target u have or planned or were banking you experience is very useful for newbies like me who want to start a career in which %95 people fail hhehee your information is always appreciated