Thought I knew what I was doing but lost money

[disi]

Yeah fear is a big part of it, and impatience. Gonna work on it some more. Thank you.

I agree with both of you. I have been there. You are good at DEMO and when you switch to LIVE suddenly everything works as it should not!

And yes- that is mostly fear of losing money. On the other hand greed and impatience. the smartest tip I can give you is have three things:

-big enough account
-source of income
-right mental attitude

Those three things will make you feel more secure. Don't try to earn money! Try to be 'good at trading'. That is small difference but makes miracles. Because if you will want to 'earn' first few loses will ruine your psychology. Make it your "excersise" - look for longterm benefits. Results will come by itself. Don't trry to 'invent'/catch them.

 

[Dinos]

I didn't do back testing. Basically I'm just learning as I go along.

STOP TRADING NOW!!!!!!!!!!. dont put money on something your clearly don't have a clue about, you WILL get stung, stop trading, formulate your strategy, back test it over a year, forward test it 3 months and if the results indicate it works do it, by doing your way and the reason you started this thread is clear, it aint working.

 

[simmo303]

Racing: not entirely luck! Statistics. Horseflesh judgement. Patience. Who knows horses best? Bookmakers. See what odds they offer and then wait for a drift. Forex: similar, especially the patience bit.

 

[tafita]

Hi Don't Know

I can only suggest what I did about 5 years ago and demo trade until you find consistency with your chosen strategy. Write down every single trade especially the reason as to why you took it and ensure you write down the outcome, whether it was a winner or a loser. it is also important to write down the reason for the outcome, if it was a loss, write down why. At regular intervals, weekly if daytrading, monthly for higher timeframes, review your trading diary and write down the positive and negative observations regarding your trades as these will then form the basis of your strategy moving forward. Repeat this exercise until you become consistently profitable. Doing this will show you where you are going wrong as well as right and give you confidence that the things you are doing right will become part of the way you trade and the things you are doing wrong will hopefully be abandoned and avoided in the future.

This necessitates that you do not slavishly follow someone ELSE's system, looking to someone else for confirmation that a trade ought to be taken. Avoid threads like potential set ups for example as the originators of this system were recently 'asked to leave' a prop firm because they couldn't make it Why else would you 'leave' a trading firm? This is LAZY trading and shows a not only a lack of skill, but a lack of confidence in one's own abilities which is even more important than skill IMO. Avoid at all costs.

I understand that you are a newbie and the above seems like a lot of hard work but like everything in life, in order to be successful, you need to put in the hours. You may have lost your confidence, but the best way to build you own confidence is to develop you own system with patience and endeavour.

I hope this helps

Tafita

 

[DontKnow]

Dinos. Thanks. I'll get the strategy sorted out.

Tafita. I haven't been using anyone elses system, though I have looked at systems others use. I've just been developing my own, and getting a feel for the market and noticing patterns that form. I have been reading a lot, and still got a lot more to read and learn. I have placed a few silly trades based on what people have said was going to happen, and that has bit me in the butt a few times, so no more blindly following what other people say is going to happen.

I'm willing to put in all the work required to make this work and I'm definitely going to start keeping a diary from now on. Thank you!

 

[tafita]

No worries dontknow.

Following on from my earlier post, I would add that you always keep a diary even when you become successful which I am sure you will. This is to stop you becoming complacent and blowing up your account. I would add that in your reading, try concentrating more on risk management rather than set ups. An excellent read would be new market wizards, especially the chapter on Monroe Trout.

Happy trading

Tafita

 

[jiggly]

I guess the point of demoing for me is just to get more experience and perfect my system. I kinda rushed into live trading/betting, if I'm honest. I just kept making good trades on the demo and thinking this could be real money, but with the demo I had a $5000 balance, so I had room to let it play out.

I'm almost certain that if it wasn't for the constraints of my tiny balance and tight stops I would have made money on most of the trades. I will have to go through all of the trades I made to make sure though.

I'm just wondering do you guys think that it was unwise even trying to trade with such a small starting capital? (£300)

no, starting with £300 is probably the best place to start, it is in most cases money anyone can afford to lose,

find a broker which gives you the most flexibility to trade any size you like, that way you can place your stops logically, based on the underlying markets structure as opposed to having a fixed stop lose distance which is restricted due to the amount you must trade as a minimum.

the balance is not your constraint, your broker is....

 

[Masquerade]

Wow....10 pips and risking 1-2%/trade you've got to be one of the biggest trading suckers around if you're doing that. Unless you're very very good (which i'll bet good money that you're not) it's a sure-fire way to blow up your account very quickly.

Re-evaluate your stop sizes and use of leverage very carefully otherwise you'll continue this path of losing.