thanks fs, that has been the real problem here. making $500-1k early on is not hard, the problem is when i start giving some back and the compulsion to keep making it back makes me take stupid risks and before i know it, i am down 5k making it is easy, keeping it is the hard part then the days where i start off red are the worst as i will get back up in profits eventually but want more and then get even worse i guess you have to get burned enough times to realize this thanks for your insight
There's some truth in this, but also some naivety. What about the days when you start down 500, 1000, etc.. and maybe fail to keep going and take the trade that makes you net profitable? My point is that with a good system even that question should be moot -- P&L does not matter if you take every trade and stick to a plan (unless of course your system is designed around P&L and not evaluating probability of success of all net possible entrances and exits which conform to your trade triggers). In other words, most trade without a system (or good enough system) or don't trade it purely. Not even factoring in other possible discretionary aspects and emotional weaknesses, probability of success becomes more and more of a statistical crapshoot. And without a firm system, you can still make a ton of money; just as easily you can lose a ton for any host of reasons. Thats all there is to it.
i don't think there is a guy on here who hasn,t foolishly gambled away his morning profit,i think up until 930 ten oclock is the easiest trade and if this guy quits after that ,then thats his system,i think its BRILLIANT!
It doesn't matter if you blow up once as long as you learn from it and don't repeat the same mistakes.
IMO those who blow up accounts, are people who previously had profits, but couldn't manage their success, and ended up using too much leverage. Losing some 10-20% of accounts, may happen from time to time, but isn't "blowing up" to me.
"can you guys post links or share stories of traders who blew out their accounts many times before they eventually became top traders? this should be inspirational to a lot of traders. people aren't born traders but are forged through pain and experience." No, that's not inspirational? That just make you more addictive
blowing up is losing 75% or more of your account. hand in hand with this is how fast your trading system recovers from this drawdown (which is a marker of how good the system is, recovery from drawdowns). I read that in some trading book somewhere, and it makes sense to me.
This thread is like asking a lottery winner if they ever bought any losing tickets before winning the big one with the premise being that if you just keep buying more tickets, eventually you too will hit the jackpot. Yeah, keep dreaming.
I wake up at 5 am and am done by 10 am I dont care if I could have made 10k that day, I also could have lost that if I stayed. And another thing I would like to point out is that I didnt say it was easy, you might laugh at me when I tell you this but I actually have a 100 dollar bill taped on my monitor to remind me that its real money Im trading with, and to remind of friends that I have who work construction for 200.00 a day. I take this very seriously because I know how it feels to be down and out I have been there. Im not naive Im very careful and very appreciative of what I get.
Here's the Mark Cook story of his greatest losses and recovery. 3 posts altogether. 2 and then one last one after someone else's post. Read down. http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=1116566&highlight=Mark+Cook#post1116566