don't be upset, just treat the failure as an opportunity to learn, trading is a process and a business, don't be too attached to any single success or failure, yesterday's trade has nothing to do with today's trade, just focus on the long term view and cheer up, bro
disagree. i haven't, been doing it full time for 8 years and before that, traded from work for 4 years. i've taken some serious hits because i was stubborn / put on too much size / ignored my stops / ignored my rules, and do that a couple times a year. you'd think i'd learn, and maybe eventually i will.
I blew up an acct in 2000, had to find a job. I learned some things, mostly about ME. It gets better. I'm now back in the mkt, learning a lot about not just me, but the mkts, and the technology to trade the mkt. Just tried a tick chart for the first time today, found it pretty easy to pick direction, but I got a little ways to go before I'm consistently profitable. Make yourself comfy as you can in your current situation, go easy on yourself man. Read a little, relax a lot, surround yourself with supportive people. Come back to the mkts when you're rested and ready. And speaking of technology, make sure you look around and get exactly what you think you need to get the job done. Remember, you're going bear hunting, you need a gun that fits you, is comfy, and one that you'll stake your life on with perfect faith.
i was always taught that rule#1 in trading is to never use money you cant afford to lose. if you cant afford to lose anymore you must get a job ...any job ....2 jobs if needed. as stated by someone in an earlier post get some training in a technical skill if possible . if the above is not the case you need to discover whether your lack of trading success is due to a lack of knowledge ....poor managemant... slow fills ....lack of discipline behavioral issues ....any or all of the above. just my humble opinion . good luck. i wish you well.
This is solid advice. Please consider taking it. Everyone's path to trading success is not the same, but here are some of the things I've learned about how I should trade that I think many people would benefit from adopting. Develop a system that: - Maximizes your amount of time in a trade - Minimizes the number of transactions - Minimizes the amount of leverage - Minimize the decision making you need to do while the market is actually open The way I currently trade holds non-leveraged stock positions for 1 to 3 weeks (occassionally up to 2 months, but that is pretty rare). I decide all my position changes over the weekend then execute them all at the open on Monday. Mostly I enter with market positions, boom boom boom, I'm out old positions and into new ones. I then don't touch anything until the next Monday. Working this strategy I am up about 60% this year, and it is super low stress. I am actually going to start up some contract work to keep myself occupied and to build up more savings so I don't have to touch my trading account. The first thing I would recommend is to take a month or two away from trading, even if that means you need to get a regular job immediately. Don't even think about trading in a specific sense. Then when you come back to it, develop as low a stress system as you can come up with. If you push your leverage and have 500% return per year expectations, you have VERY LITTLE chance of succeeding. Shoot for something more reasonable like 50 to maybe 100% and you will increase your chances for success and lower your stress level, plus have more time for everything else in life. Good luck.
OP, Would you feel better if you were able to immediately start building up your income and improving your trading at the same time? Get a job that will cover your living expenses and get to work with a Demo account (MetaTrader is highly recommended). Having some regular income coming in will take off much of the pressure. You can trade demo as much as you want (you can't lose any money afterall) until you are sure beyond a shadow of a doubt that you can be profitable. Then start as small as possible.
There is a Ton of psychological guidance I could give you that they are ALL 100% true and correct and that I have not followed over the years and have paid for them with pain and sorrow, but none of them will help you at this stage. Nobody can tell, what's best for you right now including yourself but, the silver lining is that you will eventually be forced to make the right decision. Remember, there's the brightness of the day awaiting you once the night is over.
this is what is making my decision so tough;whether to leave trading or not. i am actually pretty good.i make good calls and feel i have a certain ability to tell where a stock will go.these are usually stocks with news or stocks that are moving/breaking out of consolidationj on volume. now to my problem;its discipline. i never hold overnight but last night i bought CAE on an earnings release. they beat the numbers and i bought after hours at 77.68 when i saw the stock moving and i read the report. everything looked good and it went over 78 but i decided to hold and sell pre-mkt on an upgrade. looking at the chart i figured the 80 level would be a shoe in,ignoring the fact that the most important jobs report was due out this morning. anyway,CAE actually gets downgraded and it opens at 76. i actually sold at 75.40 pre-mkt because the job number scared the heck out of me combined with the down grade. luckily i sold because it went down another 5 points anyway,its always the same problem,i will have a good couple days or even weeks and then bamm! i make a dumb decision and hold overnight. i actually made 900 yeaterday and then gave back 400 so what did i do? i wanted to get back that 400 even though i walked away with 500 by making an after hours trade. i had 800 shares and figured i could sell at 78.50. it only went to 78.10 so i decided to hold over night and sell near 79. well,the rest is history. now that i am down so much at the open,i start to over trade to compensate for the big loss i took before the market ever opened and over trade and take a bunmch of small losses that add up on top of the big one i hit. when you have a day like this it takes all the wind from your sails and drians you completely to the point of exhaustion. i was shaken out of CRM, IDCC,and NYX(short) and a few others. bottom line,i was'nt trading with a clear head. had i not held over night,i would have started the morning off fresh with a clear head and made a good trade. its almost as if i keep asking myself; "how many lessons to i need to learn before i go broke,especially when iys the same lessons".
goals are good, but trading to pay your bills seems like too much pressure which eventually will lead to bad decisions