Yesterday, I have done some trades that wipe out half of my month March profit, just in a single day, main reason is over leverage of 4 times my capital. I'm now in a state of shock and loss, though i know the reason for losing this amount, I just cannot believe it has happened. Any of you ever been through what i've been through and how you recovered from it?
write down a list of rules that u do and dont do to be successful,keep a log of how many times a day you applied a do and a dont.plus one is a do and minus one is a don't, add em up at the end of the day and compare them to your p/l
5000 MF 17.00. Got out after a nasty beating around 11. You just hang in there. If you work in a mine field occasionally you're gonna run into one. I've said it before and I'll say it again. Losers are a part of the business. Deal with them and the winners take care of themselves.
Just keep cool that was an emotional play obviously. I think it happens eventually, no matter how advanced ones skills are. I would not trade on Monday in your case and close the book for march. You are still in green since you said it wiped only half of your profits. That might be a psychological support. New month, new job, cheers.
Thanks for all the replies and advice, lucky it happens on Friday, give me some time to think over, analyse and some rest, i will try to get back to the state I'm in before Friday, meaning go back to my original trading size and stay focused. I'll still trade on monday, to stay in tune with the market, i need to get a list of rules with me all the time. Thanks again
About once a month I have a day like that, sometimes two. Have reached a point that I can recover from them, but still sucks to lose a week or two of singles on a bad play. 99% of the time I take my losses and don't think twice. But once in a while, I get really pissed about a loss. All rules regarding risk, stops, etc. go out the window. I know it's not pro, but it is the obstacle that I now consider the barrier between success and failure. The only reason I wasn't profitable last year. 1 to 2 days a month this happens. The damage is usually 1 to 2 weeks of gains. I am trying to identify why I have this mindset one or two days a month, and when I have it. Mainly want to identify that day, and get the hell out of the market (or stay out that day). There is always tomorrow. There is nothing worse than throwing a 60% to 80% win to loss ratio out the window with one bad day. I remember something I read in a book. The trader who succeeds is the trader who's tolerance for his bad habits runs out before his money does. I'm really getting fucking tired of this bad habit.
i have a friend with this same problem,he's a contrarian and that works great most days,but the 2-3 trending days a month he gets killed,he'll buy on a pullback;stay long add on the next pullback and so on,he gets stubborn because this works most of the time,but not on trend days, he gets killed once a month doing this,so now he doesn't trade the trend days because he can't stop himself from fighting the tape,it's working so far unless he goes into relpse,he's been at it for more than 30 yrs,its hard to change
The worst thing about it is, I get in trouble because after the loss that triggers this event, I size up (10x my normal). That's the end game. It takes one stop loss and that's it. Yet, I have proven to myself time and again, I don't need to change my risk to make back a loss. I play diff market strategies, so it's not that type of issue. I have decided that if I don't overcome it, I will end my trading end of this year (this has been going on for couple of years). Only plus is I am managing to get net profitable at the end of the months after I "crash and burn". I remember an old episode of the Simpson's where a couple of new restaurant owners where sittng at the counter of the empty store. One was saying to the other "sometimes I think you want to fail". Hope I don't have a subconscious desire. Maybe something in the genes. Didn't help trading from a fema camper after my house was destroyed by a hurricane few years back, either. External anger is one of the issues I'm exploring. I'm trying to examine every aspect of the days this occurs. I don't believe trading should be attempted if there is the slightest hint of anger about anything.