My suggestion would be to educate yourself about the psychological side of trading. The first book that I would recommend reading would be "Reminiscences of a Stock Operator" by Edwin Lefevre. I think that this is an excellent book to start with because it primarily deals with psychology, with many valuable lessons in this regards. For example, attempting to pick tops and bottoms in advance is very risky, since you are likely to usually be wrong. I am by no means some sort of trading guru, but I see a few key errors in your thinking: - failure to cut your losses. Sometimes you will be right, sometimes you will be wrong, you will only be successful if you cut your losses ASAP. - wishful thinking. You spent the entire day looking at the chart and vainly hoping that it would reach a certain desired point so that you would break even. This is a very bad thing to do. - pyramiding your losses. Instead of closing your short position on the first position (taking your loss), you further compounded your difficulties by adding to a losing position (in the same incorrect direction). Adding to losing positions generally = bad thing to do, no matter what you are trading. - chart reading. I was pretty shocked to see that you shorted a contract in the middle of a violent upswing, my own inclination would have been either to briefly go long or to wait it out a bit to see where things would consolidate. Generally a bad idea to take a position that directly opposes a trend.
Today: Late bears got crushed. Simple as that. Looked scary, but bulls took over after noon. Trading can be simple, but getting out of losing positions: takes discipline.
Just read what you wrote - you say you were just going to trade 1 contract. From further posts it looks like you stuck with that until you thought had enough to trade more. You violated your rule/trading plan. I agree with other posters - don't trade with borrowed money. But look at what you did to yourself mentally - you tripled your exposure (the markets are not the place to get rich quick) and greatly increased your anxiety/fear. This negatively affected your ability to trade (or as another poster said - your luck ran out). I'd get out now. Build up some capital and then come back to trade. It is much easier to take a loss when taking a loss doesn't mean not being able to eat.
Too bad I can't buy an option on this, but 99.3 % of the time, whenever someone posts about losing, its always matched by a miracle comeback, and a testimony to thier trading greatness.
Agreed !! Not to be mistaken for the critic Simon on American Idol, , but this has to be some of the worst trading I have seen. You need to cash in your account, pay off that credit card, and do some real studying of the markets. Todays trades were absolutely terrible, and obviously without any real thought or plan. Continued trading is a loss -guaranteed. Don't take this post the wrong way, I'm just trying to help. Best Regards, Dave
Hahahaha. I had a good day, I was happy. Gimme a break. Honestly I was on fire today and no I'm not on fire everday. ozzy edit: P.S I'm the first to let people know that I have lost. I accept defeat and victory equally.
Ripley, I looked at your chart. You do lack discipline. You can either admit that by looking at what you did or keeping beating your head against the wall to find out. You committed the following critical mistakes: you not only pulled your stop (which is clearly outside of your trading/risk plan-lack of discipline) you threw fuel to the fire by doubling down on a loser (by far the worst thing u can do when u r just starting out and on a very tight account). you didn't respond to what the market was saying loud and clear and decided to hold for the "breakeven point". Don't "wish trade". Do as the market dictates to you because it is the only master in this game. you added another contract in the "hope" that you can make a come back. So you tripled down on a losing trade. It just blows my mind. your psychology is not prepared for the risk of trading. You have given ZERO consideration for the risk of trading futures. Just as everyone else who hasn't done enough homework, you came into the market with your focus on making money and little to no attention to the higher probability of losing your shirt. This is a losing game. To win, you have to put 80% of your effort on protecting your risk not on making money. Once you become a master at protecting your risk, then you can start figuring out how to take money out. The worst thing that happens to new traders (including myself when I first started) is to have one or more days where you make money right at the start. Like I said, you can STOP TRADING now and re-assess what happened and decide if you are well funded and have a plan or you can just give your money away. It is your call. I can save you a concussion by telling you that you will bang your head against the wall until you take the time to understand your emotions, the reasons why you went outside of your risk parameters and why you think you can make it in this business..... it is a business and not a toy or hobby. So treat it as such. Good luck. PS: Sorry about the bluntness. I deal with new traders all the time and hate to see this happen to someone.
I disagree. This is far too late. As soon as you passed your risk limit, you should have covered immediately at any cost. Furthermore, as soon as you saw bigger prints on the offer, you should have covered before your 10 ticks were up if possible. Don't let your mind force you to be set on what you should get or lose. Let your eyes and hands respond to what the market is ACTUALLY doing. Waiting for the news to tell you that everything is ok now might be 50 ticks later before you hear it.