Been there and done that. Depends on how big 15k is in % to your account. Can remember being up 30% in the account only to finish up 30% down. Hard thing is to get back (mentally) from there. PS one thing is sure: when you have a big down day like that it surely makes you rethink your approach and discpline. Take a breather and then get back at it. I know of another trader who would take a weeks holiday somewhere when he got too many losses in a row. "If I manage to have this amount of losses (very rare) then I deserve a break, must have lost focus by making too much money" was his motto. Maria
I would, in a heartbeat, pick being able to make money on days with normal and low volatility over being able to kill it on high volatility days. High volatility days are few and far between. Steady results are key to building size and confidence.
Having almost got my head handed to me yesterday by not sticking to my own plan - and wisely choosing a day with a 600 point trading range to experiment with pivots.... at any rate I thought long and hard about it last night got back on my plan and made 300 bucks on one trade I'll tell ya though - I was seriously gun shy this time yesterday afternoon Incidentally -- TOS shows my running account balance in the upper left corner of the screen --- I have decided to never look at that number while I have an open position
Lost about 1K on two stoopid YM trades. I think i hit the self destruct button. 1) Broke 1st rule - never open trade in the first 10 mins of market open. Went short about 6 mins into the open. Guess what - mother of all rallies to 12400. 2) Rage trade Went short again even though i could see market had hammered out 3 bottoms on the 5 mins chart. It never looked like a short today and i was in them twice. As an aside i could see a nice FX trade on the GBP/USD - never took it. Would have made me a nice 60 pips. WHY OH WHY OH WHY
your first rule should be " No Loss, defense first", not be tough about yourself " I just made measly $110". when I saw the huge gap up today, I felt it is way down, so I shorted the market, covered it at yesterday's closing. I feel happy about this, though if I continue to hold, I may cash out double profit. stay happy, whether making money or losing money, stay happy, be positive, actually I bought it around 2~3:00pm, and sold it around 3:40, made another tiny profit. your attitude is very important. do not think about the "should be money", think about technically and fundamentally what you should do!
We are impressed Super Trader David! http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=115247&perpage=6&pagenumber=1