hey Spy, Everyone's made good points but I'm curious why you were inclined to increase your risk. I've traded since '96 and I've said from a short while after that if your risk is so that you can't reverse your thinking it's too much. Could be position size but risk reward in my opinion is the worse. If you've ever lost 2x the daily range you can relate. Anyway it's ego that will have us doing stupid stuff and whether our environment and/or methods change or not risk is probably the one thing we can positively define day in and day out. Increasing your risk sent you into a spiral and not too many people could trade their way out of a spiral as everything becomes ass backwards. I'm a GA pilot and getting out of an aircraft spiral has it's similarities as it's about knowledge, perception will get you killed.
i was doing shitty on stocks. this yr i switched to futs and now i am on a riot. i find er2 much easier to trade and most of my trades are now winners.
i was doing shitty on stocks. this yr i switched to futs and now i am on a riot. i find er2 much easier to trade and most of my trades are now winners. try the pork belly market next then . very low risk and honest folks who love to help you out all they can in the pits :eek:
It was about ego. I was looking at some of my old sheets and I wasn't making what I used to, so I decided to increase size and holding period. However, I did not define my risk parameters when I changed what I was doing. Got into a downward spiral and became paralyzed. Couldn't get out of it. In the end, perhaps what I did might be the best thing for me. It has forced me to think seriously about being in this business or getting out and doing something else.
My trading started to slow in late 03. I started a business with my wife. This year I started to trade full time again while managing the business during slow periods. Making this move was difficult but did the following: Gave me a break from the business Established a solid monthly cash flow source Shed light on a new industry that has helped me adapt to new trading vehicles. The break allowed me to "recharge the batteries" Good luck
Not to disagree but you're just scraping bottom, it's normal and I figure most traders have been there including myself. On the other hand being a trader isn't about easy money and the people making good money aren't your average joe's so you're right some soul searching is in order. But none of us know when lady luck is going to kick us in the ass and that's normal if that's the way it goes. What you did wasn't normal so if you kiss 7 years off because of a non-trading personal issue you had that had you disregarding risk assessment that doesn't make sense. Has nothing to do with trading or the business. I just think I could have figured out in less than 7 years if my personal chemistry wasn't suited for trading and I didn't find it fullfilling. It just bugs me. I've done what you did but no way would I have quit on that note, I had to fix it. It was a character issue and the money was not the matter at hand.
I understand the character issue aspect and the desire for personal reasons to want to fix it. However, I want to move on and do something else. I hope I am not throwing away what I had done the past 7 years, I hope that I can use it and learn and transfer what I have learned into some other aspect of the financial markets