Anek, Ouch! Merely thinking of squeezing my balls hurts! I know one day I have to impose physical pain on myself for breaking trading rules. Thanks for opening my eyes about the possibilities of physical punishment.
<i>"I have always been an expert, it's the discipline that I lack"</i> There is a huge diff between an experienced trader and a successful trader. You need to look long and hard at your two titles, that one only needs 5,000 to make a living, and the fact that you claim you had to give up. If you cannot make money from your method, than you do not have one. If you think $5000 is sufficient to make a living, then you likely have not done so for any length of time, and decided to suddenly say something you do not understand.. As to methods, one of us posted that they were giving up. I am quite content with mine. And frankly have no interest in yours. I trade from home, and no longer need to work. Neither do I need to give up out of frustration, as apparently do you.
Osorico, Actually, my 4 mistakes are similar to your 4 fears. I have already sent PMs to some posters about the 4 mistakes. They involve fear and greed, entry and exit. So 2 times 2 is 4. In my opinion, every single trading mistake is covered by the 4 types of mistakes.
I can make 500 dollars a week (living high off the hog, I know) off of 2000 principal on forex. I can only achieve this with pretty strict discipline though.. anyway here's my 4 mistakes: 1) trading without reading the news 2) misreading the news 3) betting a double top/bottom will hold 4) not being patient with my strategy All my losers in the past 3 weeks have been one of these four mistakes. I'd be making a lot more than 500 if it weren't for these.. cheers
That's funny. I've blown 2 accts over the years. First was cause I didn't know shit. death by a thousand cuts. second was 10 years later. got cocky and over confident. Ka Boom! that was ten years ago. no probs since. I trade way smaller than i could.
This is probably one of the more confusing threads. I am thinking if I continue to read I will understand the point.. now is the point here....that all one need is $5000 Or All you need is $5000 once you have control over the 4 mistakes made Hmm ? then again...the two should go hand and hand anyway. but why the secret ?
don't forget the hidden fixed costs: platform fees software fees membership and licensing fees ISP (internet service provider) fees telecomm (telephone, cell phone, DSL) fees commission and broker fees MDV (market data vendor) fees (and one of the most elusive) exchange fees charged within (commodity) commissions office, electricity, HVAC, cleaning fees commutation expenses / fees ------ you need these just to be ready to trade, over and above the amount of principal at risk, which is what you focused upon
Here are the real 4 mistakes that will make you lose money. 1) Learning a system from someone or some organization who actually does not know how to trade, but makes money or gets some other benefit by teaching you something that does not work. I am sure to some of you here this will sound very familiar. 2) Revenge trading. No matter how good or experienced of a trader you are, when you take some losses, you are going to revenge trade. There is no way to avoid this totally, but you can try to decrease it, by making sure you are trading with your plan, have a plan for losses, and let your emotions cool down before trading with size. 3) Not understanding the concept of risk vs reward for the instrument that you are trading. For example, if you end up being wrong, how bad off are you going to be if the position goes against you. For example, will 1 bad trade wipe out your trading account? 4) Fear of pulling the trigger. This may actually happen at least to me after having a bunch of winners in a row, and you start to fear about having a losing trade, so you trade less. Whereas, if you have some losses, you will trade more to try to get back to even.
(hope you don't mind me adding to these too) 5) Not learning your own temperment and style for both risk and speed of trades. Certain vehicles have their own speed. Options for example are both fast and very slow and ultra-long term slow. Commodities are lightening fast and also slow as longer term investments (read 60mins long). Stocks and Baskets (etfs, etc.) are both fast, and extremely slow as both investments (read: long term holdings) and trading vehicles (read: intraday high frequency trading / scalping). Learn which chart patterns one is most comfortable taking, such as the slow longterm simple moving average crossover on high volume / low volume hours / days / weeks, and stick with those until you produce regular success. Not quantifying and then knowing and them practicing which pattern of trader you are (not aspire to be, actually are at present) is anothr reason for failure.