the market has beaten me up the past 3 or 4 months. I was a pretty consistent trader, now I cannot make a dime. I am not losing money, but I cannot make any. Everything I touch is immediately out of the money, so I am constantly running up hill. Has this market had the same effect on anyone else? I am running out of ideas to break out of the slump. Please help!
You need to take a break for few weeks,than review your method.See if anything change in your life.I went through this took one year off,now making $$$$ again.
3-4 months of non-productivity can be serious. Take a break, get back to paper trading/backtesting/minimal size or whatever. I had trouble in first 2 weeks of january(http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=2253041#post2253041) and took a break. Now it's back to green.
These guys have it right. Take a few weeks off, back up and analyze what you're doing. Spend more time studying charts, see if there's something you're missing. Do the paper trading for a month, but make it realistic, with stops and everything. Look around you, see what other traders are doing. So many ways to trade. Playing off moving averages, horizontal resistance, diagonal trend lines, fib retracements, candle formations. I don't know what you use, or how successful you've been. Only the fact that you say it's not working and you're looking for help. But this I do know. There is NO trading method that will succeed if you lack the confidence to implement it. Lack of confidence leads to hesitation and forced/bad entries. Spend the time studying charts and methods, and paper trading. I promise you, if you look hard enough, you'll find that missing puzzle piece. You have to rebuild confidence, and that missing piece will do it. Been there, done that. Good luck !!
SethArb wrote: 02-21-09 02:44 PM its simple ... buy low - sell high ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ....or sell high - buy low
lose your opinion,trade with the trend, if you havent the ability to change from short to long and vice versa during the chop,sit on your hands
The 3 poster who suggested taking time off is absolutely the best advice. After a slump, either take some time off to watch the markets and try to realize some of your mistakes or paper trade to get some confidence back. Good luck