i know a gentleman in a town near me.....he claims he blew up 16 times...first 6 times with his own money & the borrowed from everyone he knew & lost that too no matter what the sum.....claims to have burned thru 2.3m over his 40 yr career. i see him every couple of days as i walk my dog near his residence in the Ramapo mountains as i drop off a value meal & a bottle of booze.i sit & speak with him while he eats,to make sure he & the dog eat,rather than just boozing......i often think of him on really cold nights,wondering if that newspaper lined box is keeping him warm enough thru those sub zero wind chills.
I can't answer the poll because I have never blown up but I am not making good money now. Last year I made a tiny profit (6% for the year) trading futures only and the 4 years before that I lost money trading various things.
Nice thread Sal.... 2 blow outs here... 04 in stocks and last year at the hands of ES.. I get the feeling blow ups are not gradual events but gambles..
Great thread I blew up once in 01 when I thought internet stocks couldn't go down anymore and again in 07-08 when I shouldnt have traded after a family tragedy one of my friends lent me money to open an account now I'm making less money but no more wild equity swings. Phil
he`s a very interesting man to speak with as he is well educated & expresses himself intelligently on any & all topics......he`s actually a very fascinating & kind individual as i find myself seeking him out for an "education" on perhaps what not to do but can`t help but feel he intentionally holds back when our discussions reach a certain level or the common denominator. however,i feel fortunate to know him & i have a tendency to get upset when a passerby scoffs at him or make snide comments & it is he that reminds me that "people" can`t resist human nature to judge him prematurely on appearance rather than substance. he refuses when i offer him a hotel room for a few nights during that wicked cold snap here in the north east or for me to care for his dog & adopt him. the one thing that always confuses the hell out of me is when we are parting company i feel he has a sense of pity for me rather than vise versa....as if the wise owl knows of something i do not or perhaps he knows of the pain involved in the craft....a pain that is to come for me.....i also can`t help but feel he got exactly what he wanted & is where he wants to be....as unusual as it sounds. one thing i do know is that i am proud to have a friend ....& his name is Thomas.......judge not,least ye be judged.
"Win or lose, everybody gets what they want out of the market." Once you understand the psychology and biology of partial reinforcement, addiction and depression this statement becomes self-obvious.
You belong with the traders in the third category: NO, I have yet to blow up my trading account but I am steadily losing money. If you have more than one trading account (eg, stock, futures, forex), please lump them together as one universal account representative of your net worth. For example, suppose I bankrolled two separate accounts: one for futures and one for equity, each worth $50,000. Hence, my net worth is $100,000. Further suppose that I blew up my equity account within the first six months. Futures account, on the other hand, is still relatively healthy. Even though my equity account is at zero, my entire net worth is still above zero. In this regard, my entire trading account is still above water and should not be considered as blown-up. There's one exception. Say you opened a margin account with a deposit of $20,000. Within a short period of time, you crashed the account down to $2,000. You then scrambled together another $5,000 and added to your account, which now stands at $7,000. The next day you lost $3,000. All in all, you lost $21,000 since the inception of trading, losing more than the initial deposit. Since you can never technically blow up as long as you keep adding funds into your account, I would treat this scenario as a blow-up. Hope that clarifies any ambiguities.
You need another option: Never blew up an account and quit trading. I started with $3000 and after 18 months of having an account open it stands at $2200ish. I knew I was gonna lose all my money so I stopped. After watching the markets a bunch more I'm almost ready to give it another go.