Here is the #1 reason why it was nuts to go short on the YM today after it started taking those previous highs. That's a classic symmetric triangle breakout 75% from APEX on no other than the DAILY chart.
i know a lot of people who lost money today shorting the YM especially at 2 a clock and then 3 a clock and then 3.30 what happend they all lost money including my self Today the market was just crazy not looking back at all i mean at all I mean who knew the last minute the ym would jump 50 points in a matter of nothing and then come back mean while a lot of stop,s have been hit and pll who suddenly saw their pl go to - $500 got the fuck out cause what f it goes up another 50 point u never know My broker told me a lot of margin call have been made today cause every one expected a pull back a little at least and keep averaging down at some point thinking that the market is just tooo high We all got screwed
Happy Birthday. Shake it off, and make a comeback at your NORMAL pace and you will be fine. We've all made low success probability trades that we knew were mistakes the minute we pressed the buy or sell key. Sometimes it takes a loss like that to insure you stay disciplined the next time in the same situation. The problem many people have including myself, is actually profiting from a trade like that. It could have hurt you much more at a later time if you ended up breaking even today. I guess that is the bright side.
Quote from flipflopper: Oh yeah... did I mention it's my birthday today? Yay!! flipflopper: Just wanted to say "thank you" for your post. You are certainly more of a "trader" than 75% of those who post on this board. The fact that you could be so honest about such a stupid mistake is evidence of your aptitude to trade. ALL Traders face the occasional "cranial vapour-lock" and have to live with the consequences. I suffered the same fate today. Coming off a 9-day, green streak and up nicely MTD... I held a QID short all afternoon just because I could not accept a $150 loss. Ended up losing $1,166.00. Certainly not fatal, but a painful lesson just the same. And so I wish you... Happy Birthday! Accept your loss and lesson as a gift. If you do this... it will pay many times more in dividends as you continue your trading career.
as gloomy as this post was,it was very insightful as it shows that even the most experienced traders take big hits even on strong days. as i said yesterday,i was only up about 40 bucks after commissions and was sick over the fact that the dow was up 280 points. for some reason,i don't do very well when markets explode at the open;it causes me to chase and get shaken out.
Got back on the horse today and really glad I did. Woke up late this morning started watching the market an hour after the open and made 5 winning trades and two losers with 2-3 cars for net gain of $985. Today was a zen like day. Even after the depression and crippling loss yesterday I came into the day with no hard feeling. No urge to get the money back quickly. No strong desire to even trade. I just started watching. Things just developed and I was thinking clearly and trading again. No fear of loss no anxiety to win just pure relaxed trading. I will be honest that I have always had a tendency to gamble a bit and if yesterday was the lesson I needed to eliminate that handicap I will gladly pay the price. I freely accept the fact that each trade has an uncertain outcome and could therefore be seen as gambling but I know this isn't true. Anyone who trades and is somewhat consistent knows that real opportunity from a high probability trade is much different then an "ah what the hell lets see what happens" trade. The more I do the former and the less I do the latter the better off I'll be. I feel like these past few weeks have led to a real turning point for me. I had become consistent and disciplined for quite some time. I thought I never had to worry about myself gambling and over leveraging since I was making good money almost every day. Then out the blue a chain of events led to a blowup. Not wanting to lose caused me to slip into crazy risk taking. Then I got away with it. Guess what... I did it again the very next day?!?! In trying to save $150 loss which would have still made me +$750 for the day I with blinding speed turned a $17,000 loss. Now I will always know I have done and could easily do it again. Hopefully this realization will lead to my success. I know there are skeptics and cynics out there who want nothing more then absolute failure for all who try. To those I say, "not today friend, not today."