First day trading - stressful!

roxyhobby · May 22, 2015

Hi, after months of practicing on a demo account I found my style of trading and had my strategy in place. Today was my first day and I was so nervous, I took it very slowly and was £40 up this morning and that's when I should have called it a day, but instead I didn't and I'm now £200 down

I'm kicking myself. Also if I had traded like I normally do I would have made a few hundred pound but nerves got to me.

Hopefully next week is a better week

alexaherself · May 22, 2015

Wishing you better luck for next week!

You must be starting off with a huge account, to be risking £200 on one day? Have you thought through your position-sizing/staking very carefully? Are you exposing more than 1% of your trading capital to risk on any individual trade? (I wouldn't be, starting off anew with real money, even after successfully verifying/proving my method on a demo for a few months).

roxyhobby · May 22, 2015

No I shouldn't have risked £200, it was stupid...I made the fatal mistake of trying to get back what I lost. I have a good amount in my account but not huge and I shouldn't have allowed a £200 loss. My position sizes were smaller at £1 to start and then some were £2 and £3 (on my demo I used £5) but I got shaky and kept jumping out when I wouldn't have done that on my demo account. Also on my demo I practiced with the same amount of money I was going to deposit to be realistic. I feel mentally drained and so frustrated with myself, I was £44 up with no losses, what an idiot.

alexaherself · May 22, 2015

Most of us have "been there, done that", one way or another, at some point. Sounds like you've already learned from the experience, anyway, which is the main thing, in the long run?

roxyhobby · May 22, 2015

alexaherself said:
Most of us have "been there, done that", one way or another, at some point. Sounds like you've already learned from the experience, anyway, which is the main thing, in the long run?

Thank you Alexa, I like to think i've learned from the experience and have the bank holiday to dust myself off!

Charles Bronson · May 23, 2015

You have your trading plan in place and thats good, another thing you may want to do id to create your goals and objectives as to why you are trading. These should not be money based but more about what you really want the money for. That should be what helps you create your trading plan.

You seem to be on the right track, getting everything in the right order may mean looking at your trading plan again.

Best of luck.

roxyhobby · May 23, 2015

Charles Bronson said:
You have your trading plan in place and thats good, another thing you may want to do id to create your goals and objectives as to why you are trading. These should not be money based but more about what you really want the money for. That should be what helps you create your trading plan.

You seem to be on the right track, getting everything in the right order may mean looking at your trading plan again.

Best of luck.

Thank you for your response

Maybe I am trying to achieve too much? I really enjoy trading, it's not something I thought I could ever get my head around so it's a sense of achievement, but obviously if I lose my money I've failed! I am a full time mum and my motivation is to be able to contribute to the household, have my own pin money if you like instead of the financial pressure always being on my husband. Is this the wrong way to think about trading? First and foremost I enjoy it but this is my only chance, if I lose my money I won't be able to do something I enjoy anymore, which is maybe making me feel too much pressure.

tomorton · May 23, 2015

At this stage (1 day in) its about keeping your money, not making more i.e. controlling losses and risk, not maximising profit (and risk).

Focus on planning and technique. Become very skilled at what works. Base your plan on sound principles and be disciplined in following it. The money will follow.

PS: Trading doesn't have to be intra-day. Making a profit each and every day is a lot of self-imposed pressure.

Splitlink · May 23, 2015

roxyhobby said:
Hi, after months of practicing on a demo account I found my style of trading and had my strategy in place. Today was my first day and I was so nervous, I took it very slowly and was £40 up this morning and that's when I should have called it a day, but instead I didn't and I'm now £200 down

I'm kicking myself. Also if I had traded like I normally do I would have made a few hundred pound but nerves got to me.

Hopefully next week is a better week

After making £40 what did you do to lose the £240 ? Don't tell us--ask yourself. You, probably did (and should have done) the same thing in the afternoon as in the morning. The trick which we all have to learn is to try to end the day flat, or a few points down, at worst. In my case, when I have a good profit I am intolerant of losing more than a few points on subsequent trades for that day. That £40 would have become the maximum that I was prepared to lose that day.

You take care and Good Trading to you!

roxyhobby · May 23, 2015

Good advice from you all, thank you. I have taken it all on board and will start again on Tuesday with a different attitude. Although I may go back to my demo account on Tuesday and see if I can get my confidence back and try a new strategy that I have been thinking about.

lawrence-lugar · May 23, 2015

the first day of anything is always stressful.
you live and learn.

as Gordon Gekko said: everybody's got good luck, everybody's got bad luck...but you keep on playing the game. no one likes a crybaby.

Charles Bronson · May 23, 2015

roxyhobby said:
I am a full time mum and my motivation is to be able to contribute to the household

That's exactly the right way to look at trading. Just define clearer what you mean by 'contribute' the more detail the better.

have my own pin money if you like instead of the financial pressure always being on my husband. Is this the wrong way to think about trading?

Don't think about your husbands pressure, that will cause you to think from a different part of the brain.

The only things in your control are your ACTIONS. The money is a RESULT of those actions. You cannot create money, but you can create for yourself a winning experience.

roxyhobby · May 24, 2015

Charles Bronson said:
That's exactly the right way to look at trading. Just define clearer what you mean by 'contribute' the more detail the better.

Don't think about your husbands pressure, that will cause you to think from a different part of the brain.

The only things in your control are your ACTIONS. The money is a RESULT of those actions. You cannot create money, but you can create for yourself a winning experience.

Brilliant, great way of looking at it, thank you

roxyhobby · May 24, 2015

lawrence-lugar said:
the first day of anything is always stressful.
you live and learn.

as Gordon Gekko said: everybody's got good luck, everybody's got bad luck...but you keep on playing the game. no one likes a crybaby.

But I can be a crybaby on the first day surely?!!

:cheesy::cheesy:

Jack o'Clubs · May 24, 2015

Rather than going in in one leap from demo account to trading the kind of size that 'will make a difference', why not scale up over time? Start with position sizing that is small enough that if you do make mistakes - and you will as you are a beginner - it won't cause palpitations. Then you get the experience of real money / live markets without risking significant losses. And then as experience and confidence grows, you can increase your size. The markets will always be there and there will always be opportunities - you don't have to do it all on day one.

roxyhobby · May 24, 2015

Jack o'Clubs said:
Rather than going in in one leap from demo account to trading the kind of size that 'will make a difference', why not scale up over time? Start with position sizing that is small enough that if you do make mistakes - and you will as you are a beginner - it won't cause palpitations. Then you get the experience of real money / live markets without risking significant losses. And then as experience and confidence grows, you can increase your size. The markets will always be there and there will always be opportunities - you don't have to do it all on day one.

I will stick to £1 trades, which is how I started on Friday and then foolishly after losing money I started doing £2 and £3 trades to try and get my money back...I know not to do this, it was madness and won't be happening again next wk. I think I also need to set a trailing stop instead of a normal stop? I feel calmer now about it all, especially now I've have a lot of common sense answers from you all. Post-it note reminders are going up on the side of my screen on Tuesday.

jamesuk · May 25, 2015

The good part is that you have understand your mistake quick enough. Now you need to cool off and use this experience in your future trades, a good tool to help you with your decisions is also stop loss and take profit try it a bit on your demo account and return to real trading better than before! Good luck

jcgoolsby · May 25, 2015

Hey! I'm no expert, but some of my friends have been trading for a long time and they all say that nothing beats real trading. No demo account will give you the needed environment to solidify your style and emotions. Speaking of which, ideally there should be none.

Good luck on Tuesday, man!

roxyhobby · May 25, 2015

jamesuk said:
The good part is that you have understand your mistake quick enough. Now you need to cool off and use this experience in your future trades, a good tool to help you with your decisions is also stop loss and take profit try it a bit on your demo account and return to real trading better than before! Good luck

I'm going back to my demo account on Tuesday to practice with trailing stops.:smart:

roxyhobby · May 25, 2015

jcgoolsby said:
Hey! I'm no expert, but some of my friends have been trading for a long time and they all say that nothing beats real trading. No demo account will give you the needed environment to solidify your style and emotions. Speaking of which, ideally there should be none.

Good luck on Tuesday, man!

Thank you

First day trading - stressful!

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