Friday, October 22, 2010

Weekend Thought

I am disgusted with myself. Clearly I need to take a break from trading. The only mistakes I make is: I didn't want to have red day and it kept getting worse. Sometimes it worked, but if it isn't worked, it's very ugly. It's not like my setup was bad. It's decent for today. I just didn't want to lose. That's make me a loser.

I am so desperate right now and thinking to end my career in trading. This is probably the deepest pit I have ever entered. :(

I thought if I kept trading and trading, taking every signal, at least I'll have a green-day. But it's so wrong. My red day far surpassed my green-day. My loss was mounted. I was afraid to keep losing and losing.

Some of my downfall are:
- I am not fully disciplined on exiting the backtested strategy. Profit taking too early most of the time. Sometimes not taking profit but it's rare occasion.
- Can't stop trading if I was deeply in red. That's make me more red most of the time. Like today, I overtrade :(

- Not disciplined = Disaster
- Disciplined = Sometimes also loss
- Disciplined and still loss = Tend to overtrade

Desperately need advice here, almost broken down :(

9 comments:

  1. You are afraid of being wrong. Stop now...because this pit is bottomless. Either change yourself or follow someone that will prevent this sort of spiral.
    Start reading a real traders forum....like bigmiketrading.com

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  2. Hi Sandy,
    Tq for ur advice. I was wrong all the time. I just hate a red-day. U're right about changing myself.
    What do you mean about follow someone? And I definitely read real traders forum from now on.

    Tq for ur advice. Appreciate it a lot :)

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  3. We've all been there, where you are now. It's part of the journey I'm afraid. Sandy is right - if you are afraid of loss, you cannot be a trader. It is part of trading. Let me ask you, are you trading with money you will need sometime in the next few years? If the answer is yes, you have extra added pressure on yourself which makes this job much much harder. Being well capitalized is extremely important. It allows you to survive the drought and drawdowns that do happen.

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  4. Hi MBA,
    Yes, actually I need the money, but just small amount of it. I mean I just need $1000 per month which is small compared to my Capital. But u're right about it. I can't believe I was in this drought state too deep.

    Tq for the advice. Do you think I just get back when I was profitable trader? I used to be more a scalper. Quit when I had around $200 or so. I jsut changed my way when I got greedy with Crude Oil, wanting to take more than 50cent. Hell, when I was in good state, I didn't even look at crude oil when I already make decent profit on currency.

    I just greedy, regret when not taking the big movement from CL, and vengeance come at the next day.

    I slowly see the mistakes all I made so far. Not satisfied with small profit, want a big shot but not dare to take bigger risk. I just took small risk aka small cut loss which is become big after mounted.

    Sorry for talking too long. Maybe I just get back to $200 trader like I used to be. Dumped all my greediness and back to basic.

    Most important thing is limiting my loss. Must do that but dunno the right things to do :(

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  5. Hi de I have been there except I have trouble pulling trigger instead of overtrading.
    With CL/QM have u ever looked at trading Qm but w/ a 1.5 point(15 cent CL) stop. I trade similar to u with b/o and used to use 10cent on Cl. Just too close it seems. Because of my account size I trade qm using wider stop until handle Cl with same stop. Keeps me in trades longer and less whipsaw. Could help with your multiple Cl stop out before good run.

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  6. I think your stop-losses in $ are just fine. But in recent times you just have them too many of them in a very short period of the trading day. I was a scalper, I still am. When two or maybe three small stop-losses gets hit,I just say chiao baby, because maybe there is something I don't see. At the end of the day, when I check charts again, I usually find it was a good decision to leave. For me the biggest change came after 1 month of no trading. I even didn't look at the charts, and then I took 1 month of demo and analyzing. It was the hardest decision after 3years of constant trading, but priceless. I use totally the same tools as I did before, but now I am a scalper who can earn big pips aswell(600pips was max.) Before, it was very hard for me to earn even 50 pips with one move.
    You just need pause from trading. You won't forget how to trade (this I was affraid off), and you won't get money/pay (I took job for 1 month, so busy that I counld't think about anything other than that 1month job)
    I belive you know everything you need to know (look at your previous results).I also belive in a trading day there are really just a few signals worth taking(even for scalper). Maybe just look for areas where you should, and where you should't take your signals. The same signal, different area. But I think you allready know that.
    Pause you need.
    Excellent blog your is!!!

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  7. My advice or anyone else's for that matter is pointless. Advice and opinions are all like a**holes. Everyone has one and they all stink. Learn from mistakes and keep plugging on.

    Follow someone (like a accomplished trader) who will either share his methodology or train you. Follow his mental mindset of accepting loss as routine. Get past it - only then any of us have a chance.

    Be ready to pay.....more than you can imagine. But the funny part is we all that tenacity locked inside us.

    You gotta find your key to open it.

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  8. Hi De'Trader, I'm not a very experienced trader but all I can suggest is trade so small that even big losses won't hurt you.

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