I read threads here about people blowing up their accounts on a pretty regular basis in some way or another. I know in the "market wizards" books, many of these guys tell stories of losing everything while they are amateurs...and then having big setbacks while they are professionals. I would like to comment that it seems many people think that this is some type of right of passage....it almost seems to be self fulfilling that if people think it has happened to many big traders...then they have to do it too before they learn their lesson...which i find unhealthy. regardless... I lost about 22% in my "lesson" over about a month of overtrading, leverage and being convinced i was right. But after that....i really learned my lesson...i will never do that again. I plan on ending my year in the black. Do people really lose it all more than once????? or when you say you "blew up" do you mean small set backs of 10%, 20%, 30% like mine? it would be hard for me to understand the psyche of someone truly losing all their money multiple times.
It depends on how much money a trader starts with and who it belongs to. In general, a blowup is a loss that 'forces' the trader to stop trading. Some traders are able to borrow more capital and get right back into the game, but most have to get a regular job. I don't consider a 30% setback to be a blowup, but a 50% loss might be if the trader cannot continue.
I lost close to 80% of my account when I was younger. It was a small account compared to what I have now but back then it really hurt bad. I wasn't even day trading then, I just didn't want to take losses no matter what. Seven some years later and losses still suck but I have no problem with them. That was my first "blow-up". I had a day earlier this year where I lost about 12% of my account in one day - that was blow up number 2 for as far as my definition. Stopped trading for about a week and got over it. Had some other days where I lost like 4%-5% in one day last year. Those are the ones I remember because I knew I was being self-destructive and I just didn't stop.