Stupid or what!!

Hi

Thought I might just 'fess up and tell you what I did this evening on IG Index - you won't believe it! (Might give you a laugh!)

Bearing in mind that I'm a novice with one month's experience and that I've implemented a whole bunch of draconian rules and regulations to prevent myself from blowing out my account. In fact I was starting to feel smug about how disciplined and patient I've been since setting up my account and how careful I am with everything I do...

Anyway I'm messing about with my account and for some reason I decided to set up a pretend SELL on the FTSE along with a 20 point stop at .50/point (beginner's account). So I'm watching all the pretty blue and red flashes on the FTSE prices and, for a reason I'll never know 'til the day I stop breathing, I PRESSED the SELL box....

Oh MY God what have I done!?*!! So there I am with an open contract on the FTSE with a bunch of red numbers flashing away! PANIC!.. -£2.50, -£3.50, -£3.00 and then + £1.50, +£2.00, what the hell is going on; shall I buy back, do nothing, pretend it didn't happen!! Someone help me, I'm a beginner and I don't know what's happening...
OK when in doubt do nothing (I think!) - Wrong move again!!

Well by the time I thought about it, or attempted to think about it, you guessed it: THE STOP LOSS BANGED IN and I'm £10 lighter for my ineptitude!

There must be a moral in there somewhere; only consolation is that I could have put in a much bigger stop - so I guess I've learnt a lesson!

Has anyone else any sad tales like this to relate - tell me I'm not the only idiot in Spread betting Land!

Big (Little) Al

bigal60 said:

Has anyone else any sad tales like this to relate - tell me I'm not the only idiot in Spread betting Land!

Big (Little) Al

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Don't worry, plenty of idiots post here everyday. Difference is most of them think they are the 8th wonder of the world when it comes to trading.

Don't beat yourself up too bad. You made a mistake, nothing more...but then you panicked and that's what got you in trouble. If you had recorded your reactions and posted it here, now THAT could be funny

Anyway, there's not a trader on here that hasn't hit the wrong button or hot key at some time. The simple rule is immediately exit your trade and never look back-- mistake made, mistake corrected, move on.

Good luck with your trading!

Peter

ADDED: You also learned an important lesson for using a stoploss!

nothing to worry about mate, when you go the pub next, just have a couple of pints less and your even ;-)

In a year's time (if you survive ), you will wonder why you were ever worrying about £10.
(This will be true whether you win big or lose big ).


It might be an idea, at least for the time being, to get into the habit of only ever trading via limit orders or stop orders, rather than market orders.

This will encourage patience and the idea of "waiting for the market to come to you", rather than chasing the market. It should also take away some of the emotion/panic out of the process. And while it's not guaranteed, it might keep you out of a lot of bad trades.

The fact that you used a stop loss in the first place already shows that you did the right thing so don't beat yourself up about it. I remember when I first started trading only a few months back I thought to myself 'I dont need a stop loss because I'll be watching the prices on the screen so I'll just get out when I need to'. Lo and behold I made a big mistake by trading after 2:30pm (when the US market opens) and prices were moving way too fast to keep up. That was an expensive lesson for me *sigh*.

Hi all,

I tried posting on here earlier, but it looks like my post has disappeared.

I am NOT Spamming or selling any sort of service, hear me out.

I run a youtube video blog channel providing videos looking at financial markets (mainly FTSE and Dow) through Elliott Wave Analysis...

Please feel free to subscribe!


Here was my last video on FTSE 100 (posted 23/05/2010):



I would call that a Bullseye!

I traded this today (25/05/2010). Went LONG at 4918 with Stoploss at 4895.


Please let me know what you think and feel free to subscribe to my channel to get future videos as soon as they are posted!

http://www.youtube.com/user/Andronichuk



What do you think?

Max

posting here and assume you dont give up trading in the future is already success in the making..

First time I traded oil on City Index a few years back I got my sums wrong and traded 10 times as much as I thought. Within a couple of minute I was down £4k and started to feel that prickle of panic (this is an emotion you really don't want in trading). The logical brain took over and I cut half the position.. then the market did a complete 180 and within about 10 minutes I was up £2k overall, at which point I closed.

Moral of the story - always make sure you know what you're doing BEFORE you trade.

Pffttt!! The tales of woes I can give would make your eyes bleed...the *pain* at the time still lives with me and I thought I was hard...that over-used phrase; "whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger" is very apt with trading although "if it doesn't kill you, it'll make you poorer" is better..

OK, how about the common mistake of pressing sell when you meant buy, what makes it worse is that the 4 trades you got right at the time stopped out and the one you got wrong turned out to be the only profitable one... Moving your stop up to b/e to then take healthy trades out. Selecting ten quid per pip instead of 1 pip. Trying to get your head around lot size when starting dma...and that's nothing in comparison to the emotions you'll experience when, for example, spikes take you out inside seconds/minutes after taking the trade...

M.M. and psyche...'tis everything...

Stupid or what!

pssonice said:

"There must be a moral in there somewhere" YEP, u r a loser. we need losers.

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pssonice,
Far from being a loser, the OP has shown humility in posting his mistake and generosity in sharing it with us for our amusement. Furthermore, his loss is tiny (in absolute terms) and he'll probably learn from it and not repeat it in the future. In my book, these are all qualities I'd associate with a winner. By contrast, a loser displays none of these qualities, rarely has anything positive or helpful to say to others and appears to delight in posting snide 'twitteresque' one liners - usually at the expense of new and/or inexperienced members. With that in mind, here's a challenge for you - try and post something positive and constructive for a change and make a contribution to the site that other members might value.

Tim.

Tim, that's a lovely and eloquent expression of disapproval, but I suspect you're wasting your time. Maybe put one black mark next to that idiot's name, and when he gets to 3 ban him? Just a thought.

Re: Stupid or what!

timsk said:

pssonice,
Far from being a loser, the OP has shown humility in posting his mistake and generosity in sharing it with us for our amusement. Furthermore, his loss is tiny (in absolute terms) and he'll probably learn from it and not repeat it in the future. In my book, these are all qualities I'd associate with a winner. By contrast, a loser displays none of these qualities, rarely has anything positive or helpful to say to others and appears to delight in posting snide 'twitteresque' one liners - usually at the expense of new and/or inexperienced members. With that in mind, here's a challenge for you - try and post something positive and constructive for a change and make a contribution to the site that other members might value.

Tim.

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In case anyone wonders I'd deleted the post Tim quotes so you won't find it except quoted in Tim's post which I'm letting stand.

Cheers

jon

Re: Stupid or what!

timsk said:

pssonice,
Far from being a loser, the OP has shown humility in posting his mistake and generosity in sharing it with us for our amusement. Furthermore, his loss is tiny (in absolute terms) and he'll probably learn from it and not repeat it in the future. In my book, these are all qualities I'd associate with a winner. By contrast, a loser displays none of these qualities, rarely has anything positive or helpful to say to others and appears to delight in posting snide 'twitteresque' one liners - usually at the expense of new and/or inexperienced members. With that in mind, here's a challenge for you - try and post something positive and constructive for a change and make a contribution to the site that other members might value.

Tim.

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I don't do interweb bullying, I prefer one to one arguments...however, I've gotta say, that pissynotverynice character is a tw@t of the highest order...he takes trolling to a different dimension...

I post two equity curves on my wall. One is my actual account and the other is how my account would look if I hadn't made any mistakes or strayed away from my system trades. It's quite sobering when I see how much money I have thrown away and it does tend to concentrate my mind a bit going forward.

So don't look at it as money lost, look at it as the cost of your trading education (and a small cost at that)

Dont wory about it. Im actually entirely jealous that the £10 loss is your worst horror story!

Despite my join date, I too am a 'beginner'. I've lost much bigger amounts of money.
I lost a thousand pound or so in about 2 hours after freshly funding an account a year or so ago!
I know that people here would have lost alot more, but bare in mind I dont come from a good background and have always been in low paid jobs, and that £1000 represented a good month of saving! Gone! in the blink of an eye. 'Rabbit in the headlights' was never more apt! lol

Overall im probably down about 6k?

I just trade tiny stakes now for fun, because I dont think its possible for me to make money from trading, although I still actually enjoy it. I have friends who blow £50 per weekend on fruitmachines. This is my fruit machine.

So, dont worry about it. Its NOTHING and you might have learnt some stuff from it.

If you're day trading,.always make sure you place a stop when entering a trade, then move onto the next set up, while keeping a cursory glance, at previous trade in order to take required profits ..
The holistic approach will soon sink into your subconscious after a few yrs, (become normalized),.and single trades will seem insignificant (win or loose),..

I got one
my first account, was pretty much break even after a few months when one night the euro started tanking big time, instead of putting on my usual $1/pip i went for the big $10/pip jobby. Well it worked out real nice so I pulled the pin for my biggest ever proffit. The euro however wasn't finished so i thought "**** it" sell order $50/pip. honestly me legs were trembling and i was having heart palpatations! When i came out of the trade my account was double , balance was at just under $9000 usd.:clap:

Did i shut down the computer and call it a night (was now about 3am nz time)- did I heck. We all know that if the euro tanks then so will cable- right?

Well I was into real gambling mode now so iwent short $50/pip put on my automatic trailing stop and crashed into the ol scratcher a very happy chappy.

With the dawn came disaster, - opened the charts and it seams that cable doesn't always follow the euro, not only had all my profits gone but the account as well was in a pretty dark place for while!!!

so what did I learn
1- never ever ever ever ever EVER break mm
2- never ever ever ever ever Ever enter impulse trades
3- always always always always ALWAYS use a stop loss
4- never ever ever ever ever EVER tell yer missus - anything - period

enjoy!

doobs said:

1- never ever ever ever ever EVER break mm
2- never ever ever ever ever Ever enter impulse trades
3- always always always always ALWAYS use a stop loss
4- never ever ever ever ever EVER tell yer missus - anything - period

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Oh dear. Quite agree, but your rule 4 is my rule 1!

montmorencyt2w said:

Oh dear. Quite agree, but your rule 4 is my rule 1!

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doobs said:

4- never ever ever ever ever EVER tell yer missus - anything - period

enjoy!

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If you tell them you've had a bad day, they freak out. If you tell them you've had a good day, a new handbag appears in the hallway the next evening. Upon questioning she will say 'my other handbags are sooo tatty and this one was on sale, only £200'. Go to the shop and you will find out it wasn't on sale, and it was £350.

Rule no. 4 should be rule no. 1, no question.