reminiscence of(yet) a (novice)trader

It's that most wonderful time of the year.....
That can turn to $hit if your trading the markets.
Every ANALyst and his dog will be quoting reams of statistics predicting a Santa Rally yet for the last few years the fker seems only to have shown when I've been on the sidelines or when I've been short but never when I've been long.
But this year there is a change in the air,in my trading.
Ho ho ho I no longer feel compelled to be trading and if I do I will be cutting any losers quickly and not holding on to positions in moves which can remain exuberantly over extended in either direction

errr, how do you expect to make any money if not in the moves ?

 
anatomy of what usually ends up a double disaster,getting into a hole and then missing out on the reward but today it didnt go much either way.trades taken-
11.50 short 7155.4
11.50 short 7156.4
12.40 short 7157
12.44 close out 7156 net +0.8!

firstly i took the first two trades on mobile! because i felt the need to be immersed in the markets but didnt want to go down sit at my desk and prepare properly(thinking i can get away with it and that i would be more careful with a stop,5 with 1st,4 with 2nd.the stop came and went and now the mindset had shifted not wanting to accept it but digging in deeper,taking me to -10 and then almost giving me a fraction of a point for a split second before heading back -10...-12...-15
then i added a 3rd sitting at my desk.with a combined stop of -13(if i were to stick to rules!)
it started going my way giving me +5 at best before it started to take that back too.finally after nearly an hour i thought fk it and got out +0.8.
i was still on the right side of the trade but didnt want to assume risk of now about 8 points.
as it happened,it didnt turn out to be a double disaster(watching it continue my way after closing out).if i had held i would have been taken out for about -3(which id be pi$$ed off with too)
 
digging myself out of a number of holes once again because i repeated the same mistakes which put me there in the first place.....(in bed,on mobile,no preparation and then not wanting to accept stop!)
18 trades today to end about -7 for the day
but these are the ones you perhaps may like to analyse
10.18 short 7111.6
10.19 short 7113.2
10.30 short 7117.6
10.34 short 7122.6
10.56 short 7134.6 closed11.05 7131.6 +3
11.50 closed all others 7125.2 net -32.8
not bad considering i ran it to -90 odd.got out 10mins before a 20 point drop due to news i was totally oblivious to as i had not prepped
so got out of that hole and put myself back into another shortly after
12.33 short 7146.8
12.35 short 7150
12.40 short 7153.2
13.37 short 7161.2
closing out 13.48 7150.8 +8 net having run it to about -50

need to drop these bad HABITS which get me into these holes and forego the immersion i feel i am giving myself in the markets.
 
Started shorting ftse half 8 this morning.running it to -90.7hrs and 14 trades later getting out bet -fking0.7.it just wouldn't go down.wave after wave after wave it just kept finding support.about the 9th wave and when I got the chance to get out around break even the mofo dropped 30(I had just closed 3 positions,fking infuriating)
Been same scenario past 2wks.having to come back from losses.
3 times last Friday.0nly one getting away,costing me -50.
But I have still to bring my A game
 
I had tons more to right and that should have been wrote better alas time
 
i would say i am tired of all the negative £unt$ on here with nothing to offer, who just want to pounce on someone elses losing trades but that might be seen as i just might give £uck.this site would be a whole lot smaller without them.
so traders keep trading and improving yourselves and let these negative £unt$ implode themselves.leave them to their woes of how theyre retired without having lost anything to the markets.
 
i would say i am tired of all the negative £unt$ on here with nothing to offer, who just want to pounce on someone elses losing trades but that might be seen as i just might give £uck.this site would be a whole lot smaller without them.
so traders keep trading and improving yourselves and let these negative £unt$ implode themselves.leave them to their woes of how theyre retired without having lost anything to the markets.

Well it's your money, you can take whatever view suits, right or wrong.
 
Started shorting ftse half 8 this morning.running it to -90.7hrs and 14 trades later getting out bet -fking0.7.it just wouldn't go down.wave after wave after wave it just kept finding support.about the 9th wave and when I got the chance to get out around break even the mofo dropped 30(I had just closed 3 positions,fking infuriating)
Been same scenario past 2wks.having to come back from losses.
3 times last Friday.0nly one getting away,costing me -50.
But I have still to bring my A game

A great exercise to find where your real stop should be is to ask yourself this question: ' I am short the market. Where would I be looking to buy to open a long position .' And reverse for when you are long In the market. That is where your stop should be (well, just beyond it).
 
i would say i am tired of all the negative £unt$ on here with nothing to offer, who just want to pounce on someone elses losing trades but that might be seen as i just might give £uck.this site would be a whole lot smaller without them.
so traders keep trading and improving yourselves and let these negative £unt$ implode themselves.leave them to their woes of how theyre retired without having lost anything to the markets.


Well the industry says that 90% of traders lose money. I suppose that means that 90% of total clients registered eventually de-register with lower account vales than when they started.

In the meantime, none of these people with shrinking accounts will have thought or could have known they were in the 90%. But it is depressing to hear from people who've decided the market's a casino or worse that its a con trick. The 90% loser stat actually proves these ideas to be wrong.

The many many people currently in the game losing money and having a negative attitude might as well get out now.
 
It's the nature of the game, the culture of most forums is negative when it comes to the technical aspects, trading is no exception.

Where forums win is with the sharing of ideas and ensuing discussion, they also win with being able to provide social interaction, especially for mostly solo activities such as trading, there are some unique views on the world you get on trading forums that you don't find anywhere else, of course there are lots of similarities with other forum cultures also, and negativity is high on the list in the case of the latter.
 
A great exercise to find where your real stop should be is to ask yourself this question: ' I am short the market. Where would I be looking to buy to open a long position .' And reverse for when you are long In the market. That is where your stop should be (well, just beyond it).

if that question could be answered then you would never find yourself in that situation.
believe it or not,i now know exactly where my stop is but accepting it is now the next battle.
where i cant see my stop,should mean i have no trade set up
where i can see a stop but the risk is 20+ points,means thats too much risk for my appetite and should mean i should stay out
now a risk of 2-5 points is more acceptable but yet i cant seem to accept it!
i find the (mental)stop hit and now being on the wrong side of the trade,wanting to fight my way out of it
 
BLOWOUT

i had my last blowout about 6 months ago,in around august last year.about -300 points(not my worst!)
and i new i had to change things.
and i have(sometimes had!)
having taken a licking i got back in the saddle still confident that if i followed my plan i should not get into such massive losses,that these blowouts only result from my inability to follow rules.
so in the last six months,about a thousand trades later,having chased back numerous losing positions from -50-200 sometimes a few times a day(fking exhausting!) i began to get over confident and dropped from the 2min time frame to 1min.thinking if im only scalping the odd point or 2,may aswell get in and out quicker on a shorter time frame.
then 2 weeks ago i lost my mind(for lack of better word) or discipline and started shorting the ftse building up 9 positions.started off pretty rational.
first trade had a (mental)stop of 5 points(soon hit) added a second position,(mental)stop 3 points.so i should not have lost more than 8 points.these were hit and i should have closed up and walked away.instead i held.and it came back to less than -1(but im on the wrong side of the trade with no stop) and now anticipating to get out with a win but it just turns around and keeps going up and i just keep adding(even though im on the wrong side of the trade)
each position i add comes in to profit by odd point i have numerous chances to get out with a small loss but i want a win!
run up 9 positions to -300 after holding hours.it then comes back to -70,now thinking i only need a few points,i might get out BE but it whips right back to -200.cursing myself for not getting out at -70 i finally get out -160.
today i did it again 6 positions running to -80 but getting out before US open +3 and now its gone up another 30 which would have been my way!
more work needed on mental game.
also taking trades on 3min time frame.
1min running around like a headless chicken
2min almost as much work as 1min
5min slow and boring
3min could be the happy medium.
another thing i want to add-
the bigger the time frame,less the noise
smaller the TF,the more you get shaken out of a position(assuming you accept your stops!)
the closer you can get in to your stop on a bigger TF better the reward!
happy trading,enjoy your weekend
 
BLOWOUT

i had my last blowout about 6 months ago,in around august last year.about -300 points(not my worst!)
and i new i had to change things.
and i have(sometimes had!)
having taken a licking i got back in the saddle still confident that if i followed my plan i should not get into such massive losses,that these blowouts only result from my inability to follow rules.
so in the last six months,about a thousand trades later,having chased back numerous losing positions from -50-200 sometimes a few times a day(fking exhausting!) i began to get over confident and dropped from the 2min time frame to 1min.thinking if im only scalping the odd point or 2,may aswell get in and out quicker on a shorter time frame.
then 2 weeks ago i lost my mind(for lack of better word) or discipline and started shorting the ftse building up 9 positions.started off pretty rational.
first trade had a (mental)stop of 5 points(soon hit) added a second position,(mental)stop 3 points.so i should not have lost more than 8 points.these were hit and i should have closed up and walked away.instead i held.and it came back to less than -1(but im on the wrong side of the trade with no stop) and now anticipating to get out with a win but it just turns around and keeps going up and i just keep adding(even though im on the wrong side of the trade)
each position i add comes in to profit by odd point i have numerous chances to get out with a small loss but i want a win!
run up 9 positions to -300 after holding hours.it then comes back to -70,now thinking i only need a few points,i might get out BE but it whips right back to -200.cursing myself for not getting out at -70 i finally get out -160.
today i did it again 6 positions running to -80 but getting out before US open +3 and now its gone up another 30 which would have been my way!
more work needed on mental game.
also taking trades on 3min time frame.
1min running around like a headless chicken
2min almost as much work as 1min
5min slow and boring
3min could be the happy medium.
another thing i want to add-
the bigger the time frame,less the noise
smaller the TF,the more you get shaken out of a position(assuming you accept your stops!)
the closer you can get in to your stop on a bigger TF better the reward!
happy trading,enjoy your weekend

Post 478.


Quote:


Originally Posted by counter_violent View Post

OP missing in action. Or maybe the mrs dragged him off shopping !

Anyway, there's lots of stuff here to work with.

1) OP likes to be right.
2) OP hates the fact that his stop is never in the right place.
3) OP understands that the market can do anything at any time and frequently confirms his view.
4) OP accepts that there will be very few home runs.
5) OP trades all kinds of time of day, when the urge overcomes him.
6) OP doubles down frequently and sometimes gets away with it.

If there's anything else, add it to the list.

The challenge then, is to devise a way of trading that fits the OP's modus operandi .

1)damn right but realise it neednt be the case with trading
2)never had a stop.now i know where to place them,in the right place but just not accepting of them being hit.
3)market it cannot do anything it wants unless it rewrites the laws of physics.it behaves within those laws and our job is to strategise for it.
4)never know when a home run might occur but im happy to take one base at a time
5)i used to trade all times of day and night and all markets but now just focus on ftse during uk open hours but actually only putting in about 3 constructive hours at the moment.
6)used to more than double down.octupled once! and gotten away with it on nearly 80% of occasions.but now limit it to doubling or tripling down.

So nothing has changed and you are comfortable most of the time trading this way.

The only thing you need to get your head around is hedging the other side in another closely correlated instrument. You can do whatever you like in relation to One sided trading, but unless you have a plan to deal with the other side, (when it's a one way train). Then eventually, the market will catch up with you.

My golden rule: You can do whatever you like on One side, but only if you are prepared to do the same, or more, on the other side.

:arrowu:

This will allow you to trade whatever way you like, biasing either side of the equation. More importantly, it keeps you in the game !
 
Post 478.


Quote:


Originally Posted by counter_violent View Post

OP missing in action. Or maybe the mrs dragged him off shopping !

Anyway, there's lots of stuff here to work with.

1) OP likes to be right.
2) OP hates the fact that his stop is never in the right place.
3) OP understands that the market can do anything at any time and frequently confirms his view.
4) OP accepts that there will be very few home runs.
5) OP trades all kinds of time of day, when the urge overcomes him.
6) OP doubles down frequently and sometimes gets away with it.

If there's anything else, add it to the list.

The challenge then, is to devise a way of trading that fits the OP's modus operandi .

1)damn right but realise it neednt be the case with trading
2)never had a stop.now i know where to place them,in the right place but just not accepting of them being hit.
3)market it cannot do anything it wants unless it rewrites the laws of physics.it behaves within those laws and our job is to strategise for it.
4)never know when a home run might occur but im happy to take one base at a time
5)i used to trade all times of day and night and all markets but now just focus on ftse during uk open hours but actually only putting in about 3 constructive hours at the moment.
6)used to more than double down.octupled once! and gotten away with it on nearly 80% of occasions.but now limit it to doubling or tripling down.

So nothing has changed and you are comfortable most of the time trading this way.

The only thing you need to get your head around is hedging the other side in another closely correlated instrument. You can do whatever you like in relation to One sided trading, but unless you have a plan to deal with the other side, (when it's a one way train). Then eventually, the market will catch up with you.

My golden rule: You can do whatever you like on One side, but only if you are prepared to do the same, or more, on the other side.

:arrowu:

This will allow you to trade whatever way you like, biasing either side of the equation. More importantly, it keeps you in the game !

this is not the end.not even the beginning of the end but the end of the beginning and now to take what ive learned and make the way ahead easier.
 
gamcare_wording.gif
 
this is not the end.not even the beginning of the end but the end of the beginning and now to take what ive learned and make the way ahead easier.


A trader must learn, for if he doesn't, then truths can never be known

-Anon-
 
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