stop trading and preserve your capital, paper trade and only let yourself trade 3-5 a day,if u have 2 loseres in arow, your done for the day, u might be an action junkie,trading can do that, be a profit junkie,if it doesn.t have a really hi probability dont take the trade, go to bigcharts every night and play with the interactive charts, start drawing lines connecting tops and tops, botttoms and bottoms,you will see a lot of stuff thats real simple, when u dont know what your doing and u feel like an idjut,u dont trade well, even the best of traders will stop trading because he's not making money and doesnt like playing a game he can't win, get your head out of the trade for awhile,u will see things more clearly, if you make the same mistakes p trading that you are making now, u wont have to have the mentality of a loss fogging up your thoughts, and u will see where your mistakes are and come back with a small amount of sense and trade better,and stop trading nite and day, that will mess u up,wait for a good tradde, take it and then wait for 2 days and take another one, u have to learn to wait for a setup,sorry to beat on u but it shouldn't hurt half as bad as u will after blwoin thru that wad of cash, u have to stay in business if u want to b a trader
Acct: $6764 / 10,000 Week5: -2136 Week4: -250 Week3: -801 Week2: +942 Week1: -926 5th week of trading: Alright, this week was pretty bad... down right horrible is more like it. No discipline for some reason- I'm on vacation this week visiting my Dad, and god dam trecherous choppy ES/Dow and Gold all week. Jesus, this is horrible trading. I'm trying my best to see this as a learning exercise, it was bound to happen that I had a really bad week, was just hoping it would've been later than sooner. At this rate I'm gonna vaporize the account in another month or so, unless it changes. It's gotten to the point now where I feel confused, fustrated, and actually _scared_ to make a trade, I'm getting burned so often. The only brightside is now I'm forced to be ultra-conservative, to really pick my spots, and grind my way back up, a nickel at a time if I have to. When I first started playing poker online, my first real money account went from $100 to 16 in a matter of a week, but something in my mind snapped and I didn't look back from that day, never, ever busting my bankroll. I know I can do this, but I need my rules to be set in stone. Game plan for next week: Okay, fed day on Tuesday, I'm guessing another choppy Monday and Tuesday. I'm going to probably do only a couple of trades on Mon/Tues unless it's a trendy day. My strategy is always changing right now, as I'm trying to find what works and what doesn't. The setup is going to be: 1min/3min Gold and ES charts. Using euro/usd, vix, crude, as barometers, as well as 14-sma crosses and slow stochs for both. Using HA-candlesticks and trading with the trend, waiting for pullbacks and then getting in after 2-3 minutes of the trend-color to show before entering. Stops are 1.00 for gold, and 2pts for the ES, which so far seem pretty tight, but have worked before. Insta-market-exits on big spikes, otherwise limit-exits when price starts reversing. Going to avoid trading during lunch, and no counter-trend trading. Going to paper trade all the signals I see, but only going to trade the 100% gut feeling ones with cash. So far, the only strategy that has made money for me consistently is base-hitting. Or small-profit taking. This week and last I tried to go for home-runs, and let profits ride, and it is not working at all, the reversals are f**n too quick. I'm going to give each trade time to move where it wants, but if it hesitates, especially on profit, I'm going to take it. And if i trade stalls when I enter, I try to get out asap close to b/e. Let's see what happens next week... never a dull day in the markets so far. Also, thx for the advice ammo, i'm going to take it. Going to paper-trade all my impulse crap, and take only the ones i deem worthy with cash. And I've heard so much that this is a bad market for a newbie to start-off in, but I'm not going to use that as an excse at all. I've had up days, and I've had lack-of-discipline days. And the latter have really taken over this week.
I guess were you reading my journal, same thing with mine down 35%. I stoped trading and switched to paper trading,w hich I am still doing. Until I reorg my trading and get my plan back on track. Please do the same - stop trading before you do anymore demage. You are down 35%. Market will always be there but your money may not. Paper trade for the rest of March and revisit your plan in April. You don't have to take my advice just don't want you to lose your money. Best of luck
Did a trade tonight in gold. Waited for gold to top out, it dropped for abt 10minutes straight and i got in and shorted it. Got out with abt 3.2 or $320, and got out. Basehits seem to be working..
Todays balance: 5793 / 10,000 Down abt 42% now. Not going to give up yet. Today was a great trading day, was up +800 including yesterdays trade. Made a stupid... very stupid rookie mistake. I saw soybean open limit-down, and thought i'd long it to capture a few cents if it came back up. Had no idea the thing locked and you couldn't get out. It closed, and i was locked in with 1 long. It opened again, down limit , but luckily came up a little bit. Ended up -985 today. Not going to let this deter me, a technical mistake that doesn't affect my trading abilities, nor my account all that much. Still just going to gain it back, 100 bucks at a time. Just looked at my commissions, now at just above $2000 bucks total. I was basically at breakeven up until today then.
acct balance today: 2.4k / 10k Got burned today, shorted the fed news without a stop, it came back up n bit me hard. Very stupid trading these last couple of days, but they teach me how unforgiving these markets are. I'm going to continue trading, if I dip below 2.4K i still have reserves left. But if it hits 0, I'm going to sit on the sidelines awhile and paper trade my confidence back before continuing.
at this rate you'll be there tommorrw,stop trading at least for a couple of days,you have to get your head straight,right now you are in a negative mental spiral ,sort of feel like a punching bag,but you keep stickin your chin out there,you are not in good shape mentally,stop ,if you want to trade you have to take yourself out of the game for awhile, all traders so this, its a necessary discipline , www.nytimes.com/2008/02/07/business/worldbusiness/07trader.html?-r=1&ref=business&oref=slogan
1. Stop trading 2. Develop an Edge 3. Begin trading again *** Just count your 7.6k as (a rather high) tuition and come back in six months. See ya
As much as I dislike paper trading, it is the most profitable thing you could be doing at this point. Remember - it can get worse. Good luck.
Please Please Please do yourself a favor and learn to trade 1 market only. There will be plenty of time to trade other markets, but you have to get the feel for the market you are trading. You are totally spinning your wheels. Well actually not, you are driving in reverse while looking out the front windshield.