there u go,positive reinforcement,listen to this jasperyyou have tried a dozen of these strategies,they only work with sharp trade management,that's what u need to put on the top of your list,if it it doesn't look like free money ,don't take the trade,it' a big carnival,3 tries for a quarter,don't be a fool'be wise,trade sparingly for money,not the trade,,get your balls back where they belong and move forward,
8 years is a long time, wanted to ask you if you ever took time off to really learn trading and money management, or has it been trial and error all these years. It seems your goal of $200/day is very small, and if you can not achieve this small level of income over 8 years, only 2 problems come to mind, not having a trading plan, or not having discipline to follow it. If you care to write me with some details of your approach to trading, I may be able to steer you in the right direction. You can e-mail me at "simon.fx@hotmail.com" Good Luck. Simon.
Thanks for this bit to you and Spectre 2007 after the beautiful contribution from SH_DW which needs no reply. They who can, Do. The ones who can not, manufacture Gas from both ends. Have a Profitable Day ! Vilas
http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=83772&perpage=40&pagenumber=1 You had a million dollars and now it's down to $75K? I don't even know what to say to that. It's too late now anyway. You need to find some way to cover your living expenses other than from trading. Stop the bleeding. Only then can you even think about trading again. Get a job, or a bunch of part time jobs, do some freelance work, whatever. Just something that adds up to enough to stop the bleeding. If you can keep the morning hours open, so much the better. You can paper trade until you get your confidence back, and find a profitable method, and then you can start off with the one lots again.
It is the combination of the above. Please have a look at Gyles post here: http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=1911753#post1911753
Yes, it is difficult to overemphasize the importance of kicking someone when he's down. All in the name of "tough love," eh? Yeah, that's the ticket. When someone candidly admits that he is having serious trouble and asks for advice, it is essential to first judge him and decide his fate forevermore. A well-placed kick or a sucker punch only adds to the glory of it all and makes your day that much sweeter, doesn't it, Champignon?
Jasper6, trading is the individual game; no amount of hand holding can make you a winning trader. With a little nudging from some trade acquaintances will sooth the pain but eventually youâll have to try to figure things out by yourself; if the strategy hasnât work then perhaps you should throw it away and start a new one; do some research instead. The important aspect of trading is to take a step back after every trade to let your emotion calms down and to avoid any silly mistakes. As for you, I think you should walk a way and not thinking about trading until you are fresh and ready to go. Trading is a tough business so brace yourself up man as they say. Good luck. sg20
Watching your stock slide from $2 million to $1 million to trading away almost another million...requires deep thought and reality. Reality. Stop trading now. You've got plenty of time to get back to it some other time. What you are doing is not working. You'll be out of cash before you have a system that works, and or before you can work the system. Get a job as soon as possible. The misery of being employed should help motivate you to be totally prepared for another attempt at trading, or you might get lucky and actually like having a job and predictable income. I'm guessing your system yields potentially well, looks like it unless you second guess, hesitate, trade inconsistently, take some trades while not others depending upon the moment's courage level. About your stops, 1 pt stop was it? Does your basic system yield well or better without stops, maybe let the trades play out without stops or profit targets? It will be painful to take larger losses but may actually yield more if you are capable of following the rules 100%. From what I can tell, let the system do the work and do what it tells you, which requires faith, trust, consistency, the most difficult part. No second guessing, purely mechanical. If you can't trade to get the real time yield to match some 95 percent of the day's potential yield or loss, you are not ready yet.
if you can't make money on first week of trading full time or do something different, quit! if it ain't working for you, why keep doing it. paper trade before using real money.