The reason why some people blow up their trading accounts.

Discussion in 'Psychology' started by Golden Retriever Trading, Dec 19, 2016.

  1. Simply they have no skills, that's the only reason
     
    #11     Dec 20, 2016
    lawrence-lugar likes this.
  2. It does become quite a bit more difficult when you're forced to become a market maker
     
    #12     Dec 20, 2016
  3. JackRab

    JackRab

    o_O? Who gets forced to be a MM?
     
    #13     Dec 20, 2016
  4. d08

    d08

    What pro traders make 100% in a few days? Sounds more like pro gamblers to me. I understand 20-30% in a few days with very high volatility but 100% and over means the position sizes are outrageous.

    Cutting your losses quick is another silly idea sold to neophytes. What will happen is, the noise will force you to exit, then the main direction will resume and you feel like an idiot. Stops are very useful in many scenarios but they're not mandatory in every scenario nor do they have to be tight.
     
    #14     Dec 20, 2016
    Pekelo and profitlocker like this.
  5. Didn't your man Soros make a billion dollars shorting the Pound Sterling? I don't know what the size of his account was 25 years go, but it was a big gain. A lot of people made astronomical money shorting subprime. Jesse Livermore doubled his account quite often. And the guy that was on that show Wall Street Warriors, Timothy Sykes I believe doubled his account every now and then shorting penny stocks.

    If all of these accounts in fact fell short of the 100% return mark, then I guess it is an exaggeration, but perhaps junior/amateur traders could find wisdom in the overall message rather than cherry picking the semantics that may be a tad factually incorrect.

    As far as cutting losses quickly - it is not a silly idea. You may have found a system that works in not cutting losses quickly, and if that is the case, more power to you, and whatever works, works. It doesn't matter what the "conventional" wisdom of trading says.. as long as you can profit, thats all that matters. However, from my research, it does seem to indicate that people trade more successfully when cutting their losses quickly. Although I do know of a number of traders who don't do that and succeed - and to them, that is more power to them.
     
    #15     Dec 20, 2016
  6. Overnight

    Overnight

    Only problem I find with the OP's video is that you are compounding your profit each day/month and using that to increase your "position" for the next session. Real traders don't do that, if I had to take a wild stab at guessing common sense...

    You are assuming that those next-day/month trades are making 5% of the previous days/month account total. So when one is at a billion, they are somehow going to make 50 million in a day? What on earth are you trading to make that in a day?
     
    #16     Dec 20, 2016
  7. This is very misleading example and another reason why people blow out their account. If George soros did it, I can do it too. I am not trying to be negative but not everyone can do what soros did and even himself cannot repeat it again, simply, the market system doesnot allow it anymore.
     
    #17     Dec 20, 2016
  8. I wouldn't say the market system doesn't allow it. Currency pegs will be lifted in the future. Some stocks will go down 50% in a day and if you happened to have a few out of the money puts, you might be lucky to double. Yes this thinking does put people in the poor house but that is not the point of the video. It's semantics
     
    #18     Dec 20, 2016
  9. d08

    d08

    Why wouldn't you compound returns? I have always done this, otherwise what's the point? Trading a 25k account forever? you might as well get a day job.

    Of course liquidity will set limits but you still do this as much as the liquidity allows.
     
    #19     Dec 21, 2016
    lawrence-lugar likes this.
  10. Pekelo

    Pekelo

    I did and felt the same. :)

    Anyhow, GRT, did you cover your Tesla short below 190? (just to be offtopic)
     
    #20     Dec 21, 2016