I started actively trading about 10 years ago, I lost money consistently for the first several years later becoming a break-even trader, eventually I started taking money from the money. Since you asked - specifically with futures - it's a zero sum game, no dividends, no new products for impact security's intrinsic value, for every dollar you make ... somebody has to lose.
Be sure to listen to this chick and also DBPhoenix. Masters of the one-lot and Monday morning quarterbacking.
Maynot be main reason but certainly might have contributed. Any trader knows that...it was general comment
Don't underestimate the difficulty of trading a single futures contract profitably. Many are called, but few are chosen.
I know a guy (retired broker, huge gold bug) who calls them "take losses"...... I learned a lot from his approach, which involved pyramids of small limit orders on an up trending security. You get to sit thru some "paper losses" but profits get booked. There is money to be made in buying the up trending security when it hits the stops of some leveraged price chaser :eek:
some souls know. when someones are busy about their charts and lots of reasons analysis, I loaded dips. here we go. be practical. charts? everyone can see it, why so many souls lost I know they glue their eyes almost 24/7/30/365, regiously backtest,paper trading, but what happens, they are still losers! should be chap, nit chick. wall street is perfectly named. STREET, STREET, that means practical, street smart! not MIT, Harward,Yale, they are called IVY,.... idealized places
if you want to stop loss. the first thing is: stop trading no matter you have a position or not, just stop. if the position is red and no margin involved, hold and wait, maybe days,or weeks, or even months, even years. when it becomes green,lock it. use option to lock or trail stop(stop does not work overnight, so should not apply, just simply end your trade profitablely) if margin involved, dump the positin immedaitely stop trading. margins are killers. my IRA generate more profits than my margin account with less trading activities . those losers in 2009/2008, all become winners in my IRA,ride it out! forget about technical anysysis, fundemental anaylsis,... the market has no logic most time. so you do not need think or overanalysis, let it be. the market often overreacts because of herd mentility, that is why bottom/top is hard to predict. do nothing is the best deadly weapon toward consistent profit, and stop your loss streak immediately happy trading