You have $4500 to lose, which does not sound like an insignificant amount to you now. Reviewing your charts will do you little good if you keep repeating the same habit. You have an addiction problem, not a discipline problem. Seek help. You are in over your head and have virtually zero chance of turning it around until you solve the issues at the root of your problem.
<i>"here is the recap of my trades on thursday 15 feb 1st trade: short ym at 9.40 @12766 target 12756 ,stop 12775,trade weng againt me and to 12773 so i put ordr to exit12770 and get out for -4 ,normley i would have gone to hope mode and let the stop hit so good save. next 2 signles i dident take because it was nere 10.00am news,both would have been winners next trade i took went 6 ticks in my faver then it just going side way for 10 min so i took 5 tick profit,now i was up $5 but- $9.50 commision next trade:this is how i get in trouble it was 2.20pm and es had gone to new high of 12461 then quickley fallen 3 ticks so i put order to go short 12460.5 and target of 12459.5 and hard stop of 12461.5(2 tick above high) ,es traded at 12460 few times and after 10 min wait i dident want to get stopted so i took 1 tick profit, 10 more min later it went to my target of 12459.5.why i took that trade was to end green for day,but i was short nere high of day and i new i was wrong soon as i enter the trade,this is how i pick tops,i had the candle lit in the morning but it had gone off by 2.00 pm,soon as i exit for +1 tick i closed my computer for day,so i made about $4 net in 3 trades"</i> === Based on what you shared above, you have absolutely no method = system for taking / managing trades except blind, wild-a** guesswork. With all due & utmost respect, you are light years away from being a methodical, consistently successful daytrader. On a scale of 0-10 complete newbie to savvy veteran, you are at -8. The bad habits you've self taught will take a ton of work to unlearn, placing you back at point 0 on the scale. From there it's a long process to reach +8. By all means I do not wish to sound harsh... but I am being realistic and blunt. I've worked with literally hundreds of aspiring traders just like you... you're not alone. I do hope this wakes you & shakes you more than a little bit, at least more than the loss of -$3mil has accomplished to date. Very Best Wishes
From the posts that I have seen from you, I would say -10. The chances of you being a profitable trader is slim to none. But, I have been surprised before.
That's one of the best ET posts I have seen in awhile I couldn't agree more. The pain isn't great enough otherwise you would change. The human brain is ruled by pain and pleasure. When your pain from trading stupidly, no offense I have done it too, becomes great enough you will stop. It is that simple. Until then you will repeat and struggle over and over again. I hope for your sake it's sooner rather than later.
Great post too Austin!. The truth hurts, but sometimes we need a verbal smack from a good friend,otherwise the market will give us a prompt smack down on our account equity.
Yes, agreed, Lescor's and AustinP's posts are spot on in recognizing the problem and the level of the problem. The issue of trading as a gambling addiction is also important. rasl, thank you for sharing what you have gone through. Fortunately the internet is pretty anonymous so that must make it easier but it still takes courage. I think you need to really think about what Austin and Lescor have said. You might also consider that Woodie's strategy seems to have more long term losers attached to it than anything else I've heard of ---- and I think thats not a bad comment about Woodie but about a chat room with no strong discipline of mentorship. So what thoughts can I offer on moving forward. 1. You need to stop trading for now. Really. Break the addiction - give really serious thought and analysis to the problems that show in your record. Figure out how to break your patterns (see my earlier post). 2. You need to either take the very best trades from your current strategy and define them clearly then back and forward test them until you are very confident about them or find a new strongly mentored strategy (try austin maybe). But limit youself to something very very clearly defined. And really invest in testing it and building confidence. 3. You need to paper trade them until you have that confidence in real time. Use this time to attack the old bad habits that make you a -8 rather than a +4. Really use dr Brett's stuff. You must do this or you will just be gambling the rest of your money away -- You must not pass this step until you have at least 3 really profitable weeks behind you 4. Now go to live (small as possible) trading probably with EY or something trendy not with ES. Find out if what you did on paper works live. If not, can you fix that in yourself. 5. Cycle through days of live and days of paper to get rid of enough faults to be consistently profitable. {don't be impatient - make sure you repeatedly do the rehearsals and the cognitive and behavioural work on your bad habits. You have years of bad habits to overcome and that won't happen in days - you might try a hypnotist if you can identify something they can clearly help you with, maybe one with a good reputation for helping smokers quit} 6. Finally, start to build up. Getting rid of the behaviours even at the paper level could take months so don't expect that this will happen quickly. Take the advice you've had about diarizing and documenting all the trades including getting in touch with your feelings and beliefs at every stage. The very best of luck. PS I think cashmoney could actually be at a 1 or 2 not negative but he's going to have to watch his ego like a hawk. Its amusing here at ET but could kill him as a trader. PPS. I would add - get a night job to support yourself through this initial phase because it could take a while. I'm not saying give up but you need to make it sustainable for a year or so to get out of your current predicament.
Lescor: i cant lose $4500,ib wont let me trade if my account go below$2000. and my tradestation account is $1464.so they will not let me trade if i lose any more, so i can lose $1500 max,after all the losses and having no life out side of trading in last 6 years i want to at least try to turn around. i will be very carefull in any more trades and read all the posts in this thread again and again. i want to say thanks to all traders for posting there advice