Neke, That's not a fun week or feeling. I certainly have been there and worse. I'm not going to tell you you suck, this was inevitable etc. All I will say is that you still have more than 4/5 of your money. You're still in the driver' seat. It is much harder getting those bigger numbers to grow like the smaller ones did. You're method is not in question; your self control/risk management is. So, take 30-50K and do what you did before. It will relieve the pressure of having so much on the line and you'll probably surprise yourself with how much actual cash you're able to pull in, and how those earnings compare to what you would have made if you were using it all to reach your goal of 3.5 mil. Wilt
Like those who wrote before. Taking 300 to 3000 is a totally different ball game. The more money is at stake the more one loses his ability to think straight. The emotional dynamics are skewed against you when big numbers come to play. Re think, re focus and after careful analysis, re load. Good Luck! BTW the word around the campfire is that you are able to pull off trading and working full time as well. How do you do it? I am in a similar situation and find the two incompatible. What is your remedy?
Impressive. Why, you're almost back to breakeven from a year ago, and the OP only managed a measly 450% return in 2008.
I work on the computer all day (excluding meetings), so it is not tough to have a few web sites (including my broker's) open in the background where I can check quotes / other information and place trades from time to time. I average 4-5 trades a day. So that's not really time consuming. Of course I do other types of stock research and prepare for the market day off-hours (home), like having a watchlist.
I very much enjoy your thread and appreciate your honesty and willingness to share. You are one of the very few guys on this board brave and honest enough to post your results for last week. I know just how tough a week like that can be... and can easily spoil one's weekend. For what it's worth... I have found the last 3-4 weeks especially perplexing. My system gave very poor signals that often reversed quickly. I usually like to hold positions for 30 minutes to a couple of hours throughout the day... somewhere between "day-trading" and "swing-trading". But these past few weeks my win-loss ratio has dropped from 68% to 45% and this has pushed p&l results into the red. I'm working this weekend trying to pin down what needs to change. But #1... I will cut my size in half next week; all 5 days. I will look for hitting singles, will scale into positions... NEVER down only up. And focus on getting my mind into an objective, zero-emotion, market-neutral ZONE that Mark Douglas writes about. We all experience these periods of drawdown. It is how we respond to these situations that separate the successful traders from the not so. Cheers, Joe
I'm just saying the same comments were made last year (ad nauseum) when the same risks were taken. I don't endorse his methods, but he's aiming for a 10-bagger and double-digit daily swings (as crazy as that is) are going to be par for the course. That being said, he's got a 447% gain on the books in '08, so let his numbers do the talking.
Don't feel so bad man. Look at it this way, you still have four 18%'ers before you blow out, and last week was your 1st. Try to keep a smile on your face next week
Collective2 is not real trading. It is hypothetical, no real money on the line trading. http://www.collective2.com/content/how_hypo_technical.htm (key phrase: Hypothetical results can be vastly different than the real-life results you can achieve in your trading account, almost always for the worse.) You are not risking anything by having an account there. Which may explain why he has 6 different "systems" but chose to only boast about the hypothetical returns he has amassed this month already. At the end of the month, he is able to go to the hypothetical mall and purchase some hypothetical extravagance for his hard work this month. neke puts his money on the line and bleeds his losses here on the board. I asked you (bwolinsky) to post your real results in a real account like neke does and instead you post "hypothetical results".