Not necessarily true. This is only if you have a net loss. If you make +50k next year for example that will be offset against the existing carried over loss. Still a shitty feeling in general of course.
Steven W, Congratulations on what you have done! The reason I'm posting this is that I have had almost the same results as you (just multiplied by a factor of 2). Here's my daily total NAV for the time since the US presidential election, which is when I started doing this: 2016-Nov-08 53,207.93 2016-Nov-09 89,054.65 2016-Nov-10 99,006.30 2016-Nov-11 107,388.65 2016-Nov-14 122,711.32 2016-Nov-15 128,570.64 2016-Nov-16 135,887.10 2016-Nov-17 142,962.25 2016-Nov-18 153,030.17 2016-Nov-21 166,248.24 2016-Nov-22 174,831.18 2016-Nov-23 160,708.89 2016-Nov-24 160,708.89 2016-Nov-25 126,914.02 2016-Nov-28 125,076.67 2016-Nov-29 117,411.60 2016-Nov-30 159,656.58 2016-Dec-01 140,948.22 2016-Dec-02 167,541.28 2016-Dec-05 153,307.38 2016-Dec-06 159,025.89 2016-Dec-07 171,632.58 2016-Dec-08 173,988.62 2016-Dec-09 171,100.64 2016-Dec-12 181,553.39 2016-Dec-13 161,571.03 2016-Dec-14 175,112.57 2016-Dec-15 181,753.71 2016-Dec-16 189,788.18 2016-Dec-19 197,936.51 2016-Dec-20 199,541.77 2016-Dec-21 200,774.46 2016-Dec-22 211,707.77 2016-Dec-23 205,904.61 2016-Dec-26 205,904.61 2016-Dec-27 210,480.47 2016-Dec-28 213,382.96 2016-Dec-29 221,790.94 2016-Dec-30 231,829.27 2017-Jan-02 231,829.27 2017-Jan-03 237,232.42 2017-Jan-04 245,886.75 2017-Jan-05 223,379.63 2017-Jan-06 229,960.46 2017-Jan-09 234,868.50 2017-Jan-10 240,150.66 2017-Jan-11 239,501.22 2017-Jan-12 224,171.87 2017-Jan-13 244,830.05 2017-Jan-16 244,830.05 2017-Jan-17 254,513.90 2017-Jan-18 262,608.64 2017-Jan-19 269,798.10 2017-Jan-20 266,037.59 2017-Jan-23 265,635.71 2017-Jan-24 270,262.76 2017-Jan-25 218,904.13 2017-Jan-26 229,999.77 2017-Jan-27 215,699.01 2017-Jan-30 231,136.43 2017-Jan-31 237,551.82 2017-Feb-01 237,086.13 2017-Feb-02 250,071.18 2017-Feb-03 265,681.74 2017-Feb-06 275,294.38 2017-Feb-07 280,263.97 2017-Feb-08 291,705.61 2017-Feb-09 299,785.37 2017-Feb-10 294,060.27 2017-Feb-13 289,488.74 2017-Feb-14 265,549.91 2017-Feb-15 249,539.68 2017-Feb-16 264,575.46 2017-Feb-17 251,376.98 2017-Feb-20 251,376.98 2017-Feb-21 258,452.35 2017-Feb-22 280,028.31 2017-Feb-23 224,512.55 2017-Feb-24 279,765.36 2017-Feb-27 288,394.40 2017-Feb-28 266,684.88 2017-Mar-01 276,840.80 2017-Mar-02 310,389.71 2017-Mar-03 322,280.69 2017-Mar-06 325,145.73 2017-Mar-07 334,748.06 2017-Mar-08 242,401.32 2017-Mar-09 208,321.05 2017-Mar-10 232,213.56 2017-Mar-13 249,679.73 [I withdrew $28,000 in December and $30,000 in January, so I'm actually up more than a quarter million as of right now. ] Anyway, at some point on March 9, my NAV was down in the 170s. I never felt like it was a big problem, to the point where I would question whether I should quit, but I have been thinking on how to possibly avoid those huge losses in the future. Interestingly enough, my answer so far has just been to take more entries (rather than fewer). In case you're wondering, I trade futures, hundreds of transactions a day. I don't have a system. I input all my orders manually, and my decisions are based 100% on intuition. (I spent over a decade looking at the markets, sometimes more than full time, and losing small amounts of money almost every year until I finally started going for it right after the election.) With my kind of reckless trading style, I know full well I have to expect to blow out my account once every couple of years, maybe even more frequently, but does that really mean I should quit now? It does feel weird to lose about as much as one would need to pay cash for a house, within a few minutes, just because I haven't figured out how to better control my risk. Then again, just like you, I've made a lot more than I've lost, so it's not totally unreasonable to continue, is it?
We have many traders here on et that do this regularly. There's a support group for them too, when they only make 100% every quarter, to combat the depression.
Obviously late to post this and I meant to the other day, but if you feel like the above, it's pretty much a guarantee you need to take your money out or just not touch any trading until you level out. I've never felt like that and had good come from it or seen/heard of anybody else have anything good come from it either. Emotions have no benefit in trading.
Damn, >2016-Nov-08 53,207.93 2016-Nov-09 89,054.65 >2017-Mar-07 334,748.06 2017-Mar-08 242,401.32 Take whatever's left and RUN!!! This is not trading. This type of gains can ruin your life for years. Absolutely no risk management whatsoever. Amazing. And you probably think you are Larry Williams #2. Damn. It will be hard, pal... You will spend 1000s on booze and valium alone in the years to come You obviously think you know what you are doing when in reality you have no clue Hope this is a paper trading account if not... It's as if you are a passenger in a plane and you think it's alright when there are no pilots in a cabin. It ALWAYS ends the same. Without pilots. Always. 100% percent sharp. The only question that remains - how much fuel is left in tanks? We can't say for sure but it's obviously less than for 20 hours flying. Amazing.
Thank you for the advice. Even though it was never my intention to make a few hundred thousand and run, I have actually considered it, since it's sort of like having won the lottery, granted a very small lottery. That said, it's not like I'm unaware of the fact that professionals don't trade this way. If someone gave me a million dollars of their money to manage, do you think I would trade the way I'm trading my own account? I don't have an expectation of turning this into a business that makes triple-digit returns on a regular basis. It's something I do for fun. It's interesting, what you are saying to me here is very similar to what I think when I see people smoking cigarettes. "You probably think you look cool and you know what you're doing …" We all live our little lives and do some things and not others. This was obviously not a thread on sound risk management, but on "insane" gains and losses, so I decided to chime in. On a more serious note, do you think someone like me could somehow learn risk management, add it to what I'm doing, and become consistently profitable, or is it your opinion that my personality is going to prevent me from growing beyond the "gambler" stage?
Well, if 300K USD is play money for you - maybe you can keep playing. I once saw someone named "Lady Marmelade" who had lost 8 million USD a year being the biggest loser there was on Pokerstars. Was wondering who could that be maybe Paris Hilton who knows. Everybody can learn risk management but it's next to impossible to do some sound risk management strategy after gains like this. At least for me. Any sound strategy will just have another rhythm - way waaaay slower.