ok..i was a disciplined day trader. story 1 --- i'm watching AAPL and see that it established a pattern. i waited patiently until it formed an obvious pattern. i notice it formed a channel of solid support and resistance. i will buy the bottom of the channel and sell near the top..i buy the bottom with a stop and then bamm!!! it drops under the channel so i stop my self out--DISCIPLINE. but then it goes right back into the channel so i again buy at the bottom; just another head fake(i love that term). its starts moving up and then again it falls under the channel and DISCIPLINE stops me out. Damn, back into the channel but this time it moves up..i make money but damn, i am still down due to my disciplined stop losses. i even widened my stop but to no avail..those damn candlestick tails! story 2--i am in a good stock as it formed a nice consolidation pattern,i think its about to make a sharp move higher but i have in a tight stop in case it moves the other way..DISCIPLINE...WTF ! the volume has stopped,it ai'nt moving.. whats going on. shit, the stock is halted..someone leaked out earnings and it looks like its bad. i have 1200 shares of a $65 stock and its scheduled to re open in a half hour. ok,they are bidding at 53, down 12 points. i am disciplined,how could this happen??? story 3---i am watching a stock and its in a daily uptrend and everytime it hits the daily high it reverses slightly and hugs that resistance. i know its gonna break but DISCIPLINE says to wait til it actually does..thats what i do..i wait patiently in the utmost DISCIPLINED fashion and there it goes,,breaks right through 71 and i am in but as soon as i buy,it falls right back to 70.84..WTF !@!! now i'm down 400 and the same thing happens again so i assume the first false breakout was to fool all the amateurs( i love that kind of talk as if the market has a brain and a soul). i then buy the breakout again which is on high volume and the same thing happens again and of course my DISCIPLINE stops me out. 400 bucks there, 100 bucks here and it adds up to a loss. ya think this kind of discipline pays the mortgage?? story 4--my FAVORITE... i exercise disciplined stop losses and even short..the market drops 400 points for the day and i am up 200 bucks..everyone else got killed and i am one of the only chosen few disciplined traders that actually made money on a blood bath of a day,..i am a good daytrader..who else made 200 bucks today ??? wait,i know..the guy that pumps gas,the guy at dunkin donuts, and last but not least,the guy at Walmart..but guess what, they knew they were going to make 200,they did'nt go through the rollercoaster i did..did they reach stress levels few men have ever experienced for a measly 200 bucks...
Disciplined trading also means: "When losing get smaller." You should have been trading 100 share lots when you were in the hole, even 10 share lots if it was an expensive stock. No reason to have lost that much money.. only your lack of discipline with position sizing made you lose that much.
Brother hood, you are fighting a losing battle against the deluded souls who compare day trading with businesses and preach discipline as a cure all. Hopefully, one or more will get your meaning. surf
Maybe discipline kept you in the game for more years than you should have been.....halted stock scenario aside, it sounds like the market was telling you years ago to stop trading, you didn't have the right temperament and/or strategy to make this a long term thing. By the way, how can you be so sure your new business venture will work out.....you thought you'd be a trading success and years later came to the realization that it wasn't meant to be...same thing could happen in your new venture that you are so sure you are successful in right now.
so if you had a few hundred k saved up you must have been making some good coin before that. why did u even get into trading?
Once again, trading has absolutely no simulaties to business or how success is gained in other areas of life. for example: In business, the more calls you make the closer you are to success, the harder you work the closer to success--- are you closer to success by making more trades or working harder in trading? anyone who equates the two has ZERO knowledge of either--
NYHOOD, no need to beat a dead horse, move on with your life and forget about it. It's only money, and i'd suggest trying to keep what you do have left at this point. (family, new ventures ect.) no need to focus on the negative things that happened in the past but look towards the positive things in the future. Regards ZR1