I have been up 60k in a day, and down almost that in a day. This endeavor isn't measured by what your portfolio looks like on any given 'day,' but when you are in a position of being able to choose to book profits (or losses). Margin is a dangerous game that I don't play. I'm not as big a fish as many on here, but I'm no piker, and this is no game - every dollar is real. More real than plastic casino chips. One thing is for sure, unless you're born into absolute wealth, you'll never build it without skin in the game. Just make sure you know what you are doing before you step into the ring.
Thanks BH, all in a days work. Mostly pissed because I lost money because my thesis was faulty, the amount itself was not great and well within money management parameters.
After living with a bitch of an equity curve that looked more like a rollercoatser than a curve for 8 years I finally learnt to be consistent and mostly it had to do with reducing size. Most of the time when a trade doesn't pan out it doesn't matter much as long as the reasoning was good but when I lose money because my reasoning was at fault it is irritating.
True enough ByLo and no one who has read your often insightful posts would mistake you for a piker (I have all of them on ignore ). As far as account size goes everything is relative. Some are comfortable trading a huge % of their net worth such that a large daily % increase or decline in their trading account materially impacts them, been there and have been exhausted by doing just that. Others treat their trading account as a sort of hedge fund proxy, in otherwords place the small speculative portion of their net worth that some might allocate to a hedge fund in an account and trade it themselves. This is what works for me and my returns have been greater under this model than they were when a much higher % of my net worth was committed to trading. It may be a character flaw of mine that exceeding my money managment parameters usually results in very poor trade management but the few successful taders I have met have also confirmed that their most consistent trading has been the result of less leverage not more. Legendary trader Ed Thorp characterized it as getting rich slow. I have found that it is easier to trade without too much skin in the game, the rewards may not be as great in the very short term but I will trade that for longevity (and have) any day, outsized returns are still possible nevertheless. Leverage is dangerous when money mangement and discipline are not rock solid, but has its uses in a well defined trading plan. Continued good trading to all.
LOL, like she's going to learn something from your blotter journal SusanaDT is caught up in a dream world where trading is perfection and traders execute every trade perfectly and they all make money. What the nicer traders here are doing is trying to show her that trading is, by definition, and imperfect process. If she really wants to learn something insteading running around whinning and crying all the time, she needs to checkout the PnL 2008 thread (note to allenhobbs, not your self-important journal) ... where she can see traders hashing it out every day with the good / bad / and ugly. ... sigh, I don't know why I bother. :eek:
Yeah, and if you say anything you don't like you get the moderators to delete it. I noticed my trading zoo post got deleted. My only post in the thread. Did it blow your cover and you got upset?
This is absolutely THE BEST article related to career success I have read! I agree with every word there.
Just as long as it's positive feedback otherwise you'll start crying to the moderators. I think everyone should check out your blotter (can't really call it a journal) if they can stomach watching some camp queen dickswinging, it's a classic example of what not to do if they want a smooth equity curve and longevity.