Came late to this thread but here it goes. It is ok to be wrong, not just in trading but in life, in fact it's how we get better, by making mistakes; they say our last mistake is our best teacher, I tend to think it's true if we take a good attitude approach to this. In fact, it's easy to spot the bad traders in this site, those hiding losses, or having a hard time accepting small losses. Hell, being a good loser is an imperative quality of great winners. Now, as far as trading, how is it ok to be wrong, well.... via money management. We need to protect capital in order to accommodate several losses in a row, in my case I usually accommodate up to 10-12 without affecting capital too much. Get greedy and you will find yourself dancing with the devil, and that's fine too, just don't do it again. Cheers.
First off, I want to say thank you for all of the kind responses. I have been away for a couple weeks after this happened. Now I want to teach people how this happens. Ive been trading for 15 years, so its not like its some rookie mistake where i just averaged down into oblivion and the market got me. It is a lot more complex than that. I have been making a good living for many years as a trader, and piling it into real estate so that i always had a back up plan if i eventually fucked up. It was always real easy for me to get through swings like this when i could just cash out some other asset if it really went wrong, so i simply adjusted and kept trading. I recently cashed out all of the housing because I had been doing well in the market,. (turning over 100% annually on a six figure account)I wanted to expand on that side of things, rather than use housing as a crutch. I did really well at first.... numbers I hadn't seen before, but I hadn't prepared myself for the scenario I listed above..... where I average into oblivion, with no out..... this time there was no housing backing me, it was a quarter of my fucking net worth...... and I paid the price... I thought i could just expand on what I had been doing for years, but mentally, it changed everything cause there was no out anymore. Ive taken some time off since this happened, but I'm wondering, if I'm caught now in an impossible position where I cant be aggressive like i used to be, because now every dollar I have is on the line in every single trade..... It has drastically changed things for me mentally. Anyways I wanted to tell people my mindset so hopefully it helps someone, I REALLY REALLY appreciate all the kind responses in this thread.
I know (on what figure) you started 2019 so you have no choice but to reduce size by something approaching 75-80%.
Im going back to what i knew to begin with, just grinding it out a thousand or two thousand bucks a day.....Hoping to hit the high water mark again a year from now....... Its definitely going to be a process. This one humbled me.
I've been doing this 31 yrs full time and i've taught many people to trade . One thing i always say till you get your ass destroyed by the utter power of the mkt you can never be a great trader . Till it takes you to your knees and makes you cry you haven't arrived . I tell people i have have eyes in the back of my head .lol
I will not weep for you. I weep for your loss, but I do not weep for your ability to make 1-2 thousand bucks per day. Most people would kill for that level of income. So it just shows to go...Don't over-extend, don't trade outside your means, and lose the speedboats until you can afford them. And here I am trading for Kraft Mac-n-Cheese boxes on sale for the week, nickel-and-diming. I hope for your sake, MaxE, you will be able to afford to live on the measly 1-2K per day. Don't get a hernia trying to double that shit!
Thank you for sharing. I was down more than 35% in mid March so I know the feeling. In April I am getting back a lot of the losses by aggressively trading the reversals. Also, interesting I got killed betting long at ATH and you for betting short against ATH? Good luck and best wishes.