How good are you at trading - just be honest

[Nowler]

Overall I am

Absolutely bloody useless if June is anything to go by. I’ve drowned in a sea of red.

I feel your pain...
I was doing just "OK", but then I got distracted one Friday when in a position and it went against me.
My fundamentals were still there, so I was happy to keep it open over the weekend, but Monday came and it went against me a tiny bit more, but fundamentals were still there, so I held. Tuesday came, same thing, but I was OK with holding. Then Wednesday morning came and I woke up on the wrong side of the bed... foul mood... 8am London time came and it jumped a little in the wrong direction and I just got pissed and closed the position.

Looked at it 3 hours later and it had come right back to what would have been break even.
Moral of the story... don't make trading decisions when in diva mode

I lost the 4% profit I had this year plus another 9%... taking my drawdown from the 4% I was OK with to 9%...
I was fuming that I made such a decision

Fundamentals were still there though so I made most of it back this week.
But when I think that this could have been 9% added on to my realised 4% profit this year, I weep.
Now sitting on .6% profit this year, realized (1.5% including the unrealized)

We live and learn!

 

[Pat494]

Feel 4 ya. Really gutting.

 

[cantagril]

....... I just got pissed and closed the position.

Looked at it 3 hours later and it had come right back to what would have been break even.
Moral of the story... don't make trading decisions when in diva mode
................
We live and learn!

Nice turn of phrase there

I have to say that I don't entirely agree with your reasoning and resumé of what went wrong. To my mind, whilst you closed in Diva Mode, it was when you closed that was wrong and not the closure itself. ....so if you want to kick yourself, do it for not protecting your position or allowing enough room - as well as the cardinal sin of trading whilst deranged. The emotional state of mind is something that I recognise in myself only too well only I call it the urge to press the Fuck-It button rather than Diva Mode....I really really like Diva Mode though🙂

 

[Nowler]

Nice turn of phrase there

I have to say that I don't entirely agree with your reasoning and resumé of what went wrong. To my mind, whilst you closed in Diva Mode, it was when you closed that was wrong and not the closure itself. ....so if you want to kick yourself, do it for not protecting your position or allowing enough room - as well as the cardinal sin of trading whilst deranged. The emotional state of mind is something that I recognise in myself only too well only I call it the urge to press the Fuck-It button rather than Diva Mode....I really really like Diva Mode though🙂

Fair point.
That was definitely the first mistake.
I should have adjusted for being away from the screen.

Thankfully it wasn't a brutal blow.

 

[nnash]

My first trade was right before Hurricane Katrina so it has been almost 14 years now. I feel like it has taken this long for me to not feel clueless. Long ago though I stopped viewing trading as some kind of contest with other people. I could not possibly care less what is in another man's wallet or what returns other people are getting. Everyone has different risk preferences and goals. I am really good at managing my personal risk preference and getting a good risk/reward under that framework on my capital and that is good enough for me.

 

[Nowler]

Fair point.
That was definitely the first mistake.
I should have adjusted for being away from the screen.

Thankfully it wasn't a brutal blow.

Managed to claw back enough to sit me at 4.5% profit this year (2% overall account growth).
A fortunate escape from what could have been a nasty outcome.
It could have been about 15% profit this year if I didn't falter - which is very good for me considering I'd be chuffed if my managed stocks & shares portfolio achieved that - but it could have very easily been a 8.5% deficit either...

I've closed out my positions for the weekend... I'll reevaluate on Monday.

 

[HeavLeighGill]

Definitely not the best trader out there and I only have 2 years of experience but I do a lot better than I did in the beginning so consider that a personal win. I make enough to pay some of the bills I have each month so it helps out a lot but I’m a stay at home mom and we actually count on my husband’s income as our main financial source. Hoping to improve over the next few years and start bringing in a lot more money.

 

[Nowler]

I believe, I'm on the right path to become a successful trader one day.

What makes you believe that?

 

[Atilla]

What makes you believe that?

Hope n Soap!

 

[Nowler]

Coz I am making every possible effort to excel in this market.

Good for you buddy - I hope you make a fortune!

Though I doubt you are making "every possible effort".
That would be inhuman

There's definitely known and unknown factors slowing you down.

Good luck with figuring out what they are and mitigating them. That's the real hard part about this game 😀

 

[peto]

I'm dreadful.
I suspect I could make a fortune selling my new ebook " 100 Mistakes in Trading".
Any takers for subscribing to my live feed, (simply buy whenever I sell, sell when I buy), practically free money?

 

[pathsofglory]

I won’t call myself a very good trader or something. On some days I make good profits but then there are bad days when I struggle to minimise my loss to whatever extent I can. Nevertheless I’m satisfied with my earnings and looking for ways to improve myself. I know it will take time and I’m not at all expecting any miracle.

 

[dusktrader]

I think as a trader I'm not that good. I can follow directions to make a dinner casserole, and I can follow rules to trade a strategy. But I think with constant distractions neither of those would be successful.

So this time I'm trying to make a bot. I am teaching it everything I know about how it should handle trade situations. My goal is that it will be able to follow rules more consistently than I'm able to do. Plus it never sleeps so that makes every morning exciting!

 

[dusktrader]

Honestly I can’t even rate myself on the “how-good- a-trader-i-am” scale because I seriously think I am bad. But thankfully I earn enough to refund my account with my trading profits and that’s enough for me right now. I am still a learner and I try not to let these numbers lose my confidence.

It sounds like you are able to "tread water" ... you are exercising the trading muscles, but it feels like you're on a treadmill because after all that effort you are still landing right where you started (balance wise).

That is a growth stage, so you are on the right track. You just have to be persistent and continue looking for 1% improvements in your methodologies. For example, study everything very carefully. Look for seemingly-insignificant improvements anywhere you can find them. The laws of compound interest will pay you back... before you know it, you will be operating like a well-oiled machine. But all of the cylinders need to be firing perfectly.

 

[Gracy2]

The abilities needed for successful trading typically entail a lot of hard work. Many day traders start out with some unique skills, but they will need to keep on practicing to refine .
I call myself an average learning new trader.

 

[Jorg@33]

Honestly, when I started, I did trading with small amounts but now when I look back to my trade history I can see that I was just in the loss trap but now I have started earning pretty good gradually. Quite happy with my growth.

 

[nunrgguy]

I’m absolute crap. I don’t do anything books and forums tell you to do. Everyone on forums disagree with me and calls me a fool. They draw lines and point why i am wrong and true I’m wrong a lot, an awful lot….and yet I make money so, I don’t know. Maybe it takes a fool to tell the emporer hes wearing no clothes, everyone laughs but what do I care. See my pic. Yes, it is that BIG.

 

[Arnav Deshmukh]

My trading proficiency is continuously evolving with dedicated practice and ongoing learning in the markets.

 

[breakingbad1]

No idea yet as I'm new but been reading a lot and believe that investor would be a better term for me than trader. Certainly at this stage.

Edit-After writing the above I have since noted that the site is called trade2win.