You may need to accept a 5 minute time-out as part of your system. During those 5 minutes, you can try to examine what went wrong. Certainly that should take at least 5 minutes to do right. Also, if you've gotten out of sync with the market for the moment, chances are that market will still be out of sync with you during the next 5 minutes, and the best thing to do is stay out of it. Or else, step away from it for 5 minutes, redirect your attention to something else, so that you can come back to it fresh, having let off a bit of steam if that's what you need to do. Otherwise, you just need to be able to accept a loss as part of your system. Try playing with a simulation account making as many losing trades as you can, until you've accustomed yourself to watching a losing trade with complete detachment and disinterest. Then maybe that will help you when watching your real money account.
Nothing. If, as is normal just recently, I have bad trades all day (anything from 3-60) then I break things and swear a lot. I thought it was me, but I now think that I am very patient to go 20 bad trades in a row before losing it. Is there honestly anyone here that can take that without losing their rag ? The market is definatly there as a tool for major players to f@@@ as many people as possible. Poker is easy by comparison !
Why do you say that? I think one just needs to be able to read what's going on with whatever they're trading. You may not always be right but I think you can get the probabilities in your favor.
Losses are normal? Oh man, I'm trying to remember which wannabe trader told me that. Nice speech though. The next time you have a losing streak, see if you're upset and get back to me.
Dave, No disrespect, but I first used to have your positive attitude some years ago. Yes, little old me sitting here with my pot can regularly take a little money off the wall street giants sitting at the centre of the curve both in information and speed just by following a few choice "high probability" set ups that I had thoroughly back tested etc. Now I realise the truth of the markets: If you have some kind of edge no one else can get (speed, lower commissions, inside info) then you have a positive expectancy. Anything else is random. In fact, whille a pit is in any way related to your chosen market the expectancy is worse than random, to pay for the edge the pit traders have. So if you have spent a great deal of time coming out ahead with your indicators/patterns that any joe can follow you had better know that you are gambling and when to quit, just like roulette. This is just like a business that has a low barrier to entry. You have got to expect decent profits to be eroded away by the high competition caused because it is easy to get into. Don't forget the basic laws of probablity boil down to just this: being right between 30% and 70% of the time is tantamount to nothing more than random returns. It makes me laugh, therefore, when someone says "I have this pattern and it is right 50% of the time !" Just toss a coin for the same result. I used to think money management was the key. However, a more recent theory I have (which I admit is a little "out there") is that this whole concept is a Wall Street conspiracy, from specialists to brokers. After all if they want to be kept in a job every day it is far better for them to trickle feed on your money bit by bit rather than take it all in one go. Oh, and I forgot the biggest winners in all of this on a risk adjusted basis. The exchanges. And the CME is just about the greediest one in the world ! And yes, I have had a bad day. My highly accurate patterns (up to 50% ) decided to fail on me several times in a row ! On the plus side I haven't broken anything.
Funster, You are a humble man and have more knowledge than most on this board. You let the markets trade versus you trading the markets. Keep up the good work. comp
Thanks for your kind words. However I must admit that I am only trading now out of general boredom because I am waiting for the next big business opportunity to knock on my door, that is before the corporations get into it and ruin it for the rest of us. The last one I heard of (too late of course) was the whole concept of mobile phone ring tones a couple of years ago. Here in the UK the Corporations didnt think people would pay to have these. It allowed a handful of individuals to make small fortunes until the big boys realised they were behind the curve and killed the market. Also lots of similies to trading in that story IMHO !
spoken like a true loser Those of us who make our living at this, enjoy hearing this type of nonsense from the masses. In trading, as in any other profession on the face of the earth, there are "good traders" and "bad traders." It's really very simple -- the "good traders" make money and the bad ones don't. You can hypothesize all you want about Wall Street conspiracies, but many of us enjoy very comfortable lifestyles via trading. ... and as to your "waiting around for the next business opportunity" -- man, get a grip! No one ever made any $$ by waiting around for opportunity to knock!! dog