As hockey great Bobby Hull once said: "My wife has made me a millionaire, I used to be a multi-millionaire" On a smaller scale daytrading has done that for me, but hope spring eternal. Anybody else lost money?
Don't be a poster that throws out little tidbits saying that you will post everything later, just post all the details unless it is not the truth.
OK if you must know, I lost 300K in 1999, my first year, and I've been making it back but I'm still down about 150K. Yesterday I traded 30K stocks and made a measly $300, so you see its going to take another year or two to get even.
I hope your message serves as a warning to others. What people who are learning to trade should do, is trade no more than a tiny fraction of their money on any one trade. 100 shares or less. Then set up stops and see what happens. Learning to trade is about not losing much money. If you can not make money on a hundred shares you cant make it on a thousand. Over the last year, we backed four traders in my office. One made a little bit of money early and never got in much of a hole. Now he is starting to make a living, trading some size and making good money lately. One other guy never lost much. He spent months learning at one hundred shares at a time. Even though after four months he was not making money, we kept him on because we figured he was spending more in his time than he was losing for us. Now he is doing well. One guy traded too much size, lost our money and we let him go. The fourth guy did not lose much and was willing to put up his own money but we told he should not bother until the market changes. (He came from a market making background and was not really adapting to what he was seeing). So if you really want to trade--- trade very small and put in the time. I do not know of any other way. It helps to learn what other people are doing but ttaking a lot of small trades is the key.
"I lost 300K in 1999, my first year, and I've been making it back but I'm still down about 150K. Yesterday I traded 30K stocks and made a measly $300, so you see its going to take another year or two to get even." .. It's easy to lose(spend) money and hard work to make it. That's a fact.
Based on private messages I will just answer here with more details for all to see. In 1999 I took a course at Broadway Trading in NYC and got caught up in the hype. Quit my job, traded on their Watcher system. I paid 2 cent per share commission, made 10K one day and lost 25K the next. I was using a 100K account. I kept getting margin calls and kept feeding it. After 1 year I was near broke and quit trading. At Broadway they taught you how to trade fast, but little else. A few guys were making money, and quite a few guys were marginally positive. These we generally people with previous experience in the markets. I was a gold medal winner at college so I couldn't figure out why these dummies were making money and I was losing. They knew jack about Shakespeare or math, but they had something more valuable in the markets, experience. I would say at Broadway they developed a culture that said if Serge can make it, you can make it. I believed that. In 2001 I came back into the market, this time as an IB account and 1 cent commissions. I had learned alot from Active Trader mag and a few books, and boards like this. I now trade with a 40K account, and often only make a net 1 cent a share like yesterday, but I have learned how not to blow up. My goal is to net 3 cents a share and trade about 40K or 50k per day. My style is to run like hell at the first sign of trouble so I have a ton of wash trades. Typically it goes like this, make 5 cents, lose 10 cents, make 15 cents, wash, wash, wash, make 5 cents etc. I trade third tier techs where there is good action but I'm not up against most of you, because I have learned that alot of guys are better than me. A good month for me is up 15K, a bad month is up 5K. I rarely have a losing day, and rarely have a great day. I also have a job which pays the bills. I would like to trade exclusively but after what I've been through, I still hedge by working.
That is a great post Jem and I could not agree more with the main theme... PEACE and good trading, Commisso
I agree. Jem great post! You newbies out there need to listen to the senior members, it might just save your asses someday. If you really listen to these guys and take what they say to heart, you don't need to learn the hard way. If you don't listen, you will learn the hard way.