Trades going against you: what do you do?

[Bollo57]

Okay, some thoughts on this.
I can't believe I did what i did!
I'm a reasonably experienced trader, like many on here. Doing okay, good days bad days etc.

So, the situationwas this: my method is strict time entry and exit. I was set up for a good trade: all the signals were there, it was. a green light. So I loaded it up.

Three quarters of time into the trade before my close time, majorly against me. I thought ' I can't believe thus, time to close, before I take an even bigger hit'.

At the end time, I looked to see how much worse things would gave been should I have left it. Fir the second time that day, couldn't believe what I saw. Yep, you guessed it....

So, was it poor psychology, was it not believing in my system .(however good/ bad it was), was it fear? Was it all 3?
Instead of a healthy profit, welcome to a day ticket to Looserville!

What's the forums experiences, and how do you cope.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[Shakone]

You have a TIME entry and exit? You mean you enter at say 9am, and exit at 1pm or whatever time?

 

[bnaimy]

A combination of not believing in your method and from the way you talk about this it seems you have not made your due diligence with your method. You need alot more time under the belt with testing, if this was a method you had 100% confidence in, you would not be in a situation were you are second guessing.


Do more testing , be it on sim or paper, until you start to believe in yourself and your method, only then get back to trading it. Overwise this will become a repete scenario for you.

Best best solution when a trade goes against you, take your loss and look for the next trade...simple as that.

WIth kind regards
Bashir Naimy

 

[BTippen]

Okay, some thoughts on this.
I can't believe I did what i did!
I'm a reasonably experienced trader, like many on here. Doing okay, good days bad days etc.

So, the situationwas this: my method is strict time entry and exit. I was set up for a good trade: all the signals were there, it was. a green light. So I loaded it up.

Three quarters of time into the trade before my close time, majorly against me. I thought ' I can't believe thus, time to close, before I take an even bigger hit'.

At the end time, I looked to see how much worse things would gave been should I have left it. Fir the second time that day, couldn't believe what I saw. Yep, you guessed it....

So, was it poor psychology, was it not believing in my system .(however good/ bad it was), was it fear? Was it all 3?
Instead of a healthy profit, welcome to a day ticket to Looserville!

What's the forums experiences, and how do you cope.

Thanks for sharing.

You are not managing your position correctly.

 

[Bollo57]

Thanks for the replies. Appreciate it.
To reply to Shakone, my trade was hourly binaries, hence entry and exit times.
I'm going to re- examine. But in this case my initial thoughts were correct. It was staring at a big loss that I pulled out, only for it to come back in my favour (after I closed).

The thing is, no matter what we use, whatever instrument we trade with, we cannot be 100% correct all the time, can we?...

At some stage, we all have to close a big loss. I guess....

 

[tomorton]

Thanks for the replies. Appreciate it.
To reply to Shakone, my trade was hourly binaries, hence entry and exit times.
I'm going to re- examine. But in this case my initial thoughts were correct. It was staring at a big loss that I pulled out, only for it to come back in my favour (after I closed).

The thing is, no matter what we use, whatever instrument we trade with, we cannot be 100% correct all the time, can we?...

At some stage, we all have to close a big loss. I guess....

No, don't let a loss get very big in the first place.

Take the trades that have a clearly visible level, to which price must move in order to prove they will probably not continue in the direction you had thought they probably would. If the distance is very great, you should either reduce your position size so that when the trigger level is hit, your account is not seriously damaged, or ignore the trade and move on to another.

 

[JDTRADER]

my trade was hourly binaries,

Binaries was my first dabble at trading, my advice get out.

Spread-betting is far better and you don't need tons of ££££

So annoying your trade expires then 30sec later the position goes your way. With spread-betting you'll feel like being let off the lead lol

 

[BTippen]

Binaries was my first dabble at trading, my advice get out.

Spread-betting is far better and you don't need tons of ££££

So annoying your trade expires then 30sec later the position goes your way. With spread-betting you'll feel like being let off the lead lol

sry can i ask what are binaries?

 

[DionysusToast]

Let me get this right...

You got in.
You have some rules for exiting a trade.
You got out early to stop yourself from losing more $$$.
It turns out you were right to get out early.
You now think you have a problem.

sounds to me like you made a good call. Why wait for a stop to be hit if the signs are that the trade is going against you in this way?

It's OK to have stops - time stops & price stops. I don't think you have to be overly anal with them. If the market action is such that you can clearly see you'll be getting stopped out anyway - why let it run to your stop ?

 

[Paulie_5]

Let me get this right...

You got in.
You have some rules for exiting a trade.
You got out early to stop yourself from losing more $$$.
It turns out you were right to get out early.
You now think you have a problem.

sounds to me like you made a good call. Why wait for a stop to be hit if the signs are that the trade is going against you in this way?

It's OK to have stops - time stops & price stops. I don't think you have to be overly anal with them. If the market action is such that you can clearly see you'll be getting stopped out anyway - why let it run to your stop ?

OP says that he cut trade early, only for it to come back in his favour ...

 

[DionysusToast]

OP says that he cut trade early, only for it to come back in his favour ...

I am having comprehension problems ! :clap:

 

[JDTRADER]

sry can i ask what are binaries?

http://www.learnmoney.co.uk/spread-betting/binary-intro.html

 

[Christiaan]

phycology,it is one of those things each trader must master on his own.Veteran traders can blabber on about how important dicipline is but you need to learn it for yourself.I try to minimize the effect by mecanicalizing almost everything I do.

 

[bedsit]

The thing is, no matter what we use, whatever instrument we trade with, we cannot be 100% correct all the time, can we?...

At some stage, we all have to close a big loss. I guess....

There are only two outcomes: a losing or a winning trade. A good system (and the money management) should be there to avoid a big loss: a trader should know before entering a trade how much is at risk. Personally I don't feel comfortable if the loss is more than 2% of my equity, so by knowing where my stop loss is I can calculate what size I can trade - that is the only thing I can control (size of the loss).
Once in a trade I wait either for the stop or the target to get hit. IMO there is no point in looking too much at what happened afterwards (once I'm out of the trade).

So far as the system is statistically viable there is no need to despair. Also if reward risk ratio is a nice one, a system can have less than 50% strike rate and still be profitable. Important thing is to follow the system and be prepared to take losses when they come. It took me some time, but nowadays I'm not that much affected by outcome of a single trade. It's all part of a bigger picture.

 

[DionysusToast]

So bedsit - is it official now that a break even trade is not possible ????

Only losers & winners, eh?

 

[4xpipcounter]

When you say you "loaded it up", it implies you put more lots on your trade that what you would normally put. You overmargined your trade. If I read that right, then that was your first mistake. Greed is what made you overmargin. It is like betting the house, "Man! I know this trade is going to get big pips, so I am going to put twice or 3 imes as much on it as I normally would." Now, the trade start going against you. Proportional to the capital you have in your account, the mental part has gone from greed to fear. This trade is going against you. You see the huge losses. You can't bear seeing all your hard-earned capital go down the tank, so fear makes you bail out maybe earlier than you initially wanted to.
As long as the above scenario was read correctly, then it would indicate you believe in your method of trading. After all, you thought that entry was so hot, you became a betting man instead of a trader. You said you're an experienced trader. I won't necessarily doubt you, but a key question comes to mind. Experienced traders do not make those kinds of errors. They have gotten to the point they are not overcome by that greed principle. That's like the left fielder that has been in the Big Leagues for 10 years throwing the ball to 2nd base, while the runner is headed to 3rd.
In essence, and this is the answer--Be consistent with the percentage of lots you put on each trade. Never, regardless how good the trade looks, deter from that principle. If I read everything right, then you made a rookie error. Let it be a lesson that you paid the price on. Vow to never do it again, and then go on and scale new heights with your trading career.

Okay, some thoughts on this.
I can't believe I did what i did!
I'm a reasonably experienced trader, like many on here. Doing okay, good days bad days etc.

So, the situationwas this: my method is strict time entry and exit. I was set up for a good trade: all the signals were there, it was. a green light. So I loaded it up.

Three quarters of time into the trade before my close time, majorly against me. I thought ' I can't believe thus, time to close, before I take an even bigger hit'.

At the end time, I looked to see how much worse things would gave been should I have left it. Fir the second time that day, couldn't believe what I saw. Yep, you guessed it....

So, was it poor psychology, was it not believing in my system .(however good/ bad it was), was it fear? Was it all 3?
Instead of a healthy profit, welcome to a day ticket to Looserville!

What's the forums experiences, and how do you cope.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[bedsit]

So bedsit - is it official now that a break even trade is not possible ????

Only losers & winners, eh?

I guess it depends on a trader's belief in the system they are using. If there are specific exit points for taking a profit or a loss, then one shouldn't try to second guess them. Break even is something in between - I see it as a failure (Why should a trader risk money to break even?)

Before I would wait to see if price moves in my favour and then move the stop to a break even point. For some time I prefer to move the stop to the initial target and keep what was already given by the market if my target is met - that's my first stop move. Afterwards I use the same system and adjust stops and targets accordingly.

IMO It doesn't matter what system a trader uses. The important thing is to have a clear idea before entering a trade where one should exit (to take a loss or a profit). Only that part of the trade I can control (amount of money risked per trade). So in that sense one can control how big a loss may be. If a trader doesn't like the size of a potential loss, they can either reduce the trade's size or give it a miss.

 

[TheDuder_69]

I use a Stop Loss every time, not just that, I also discovered that I shouldn'nt move a Stop Loss once entered the market and the trade turns out to be nasty.

Stop-Loss is a Saint. Never touch it. Period. Amen.

Okay, some thoughts on this.
I can't believe I did what i did!
I'm a reasonably experienced trader, like many on here. Doing okay, good days bad days etc.

So, the situationwas this: my method is strict time entry and exit. I was set up for a good trade: all the signals were there, it was. a green light. So I loaded it up.

Three quarters of time into the trade before my close time, majorly against me. I thought ' I can't believe thus, time to close, before I take an even bigger hit'.

At the end time, I looked to see how much worse things would gave been should I have left it. Fir the second time that day, couldn't believe what I saw. Yep, you guessed it....

So, was it poor psychology, was it not believing in my system .(however good/ bad it was), was it fear? Was it all 3?
Instead of a healthy profit, welcome to a day ticket to Looserville!

What's the forums experiences, and how do you cope.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[BTippen]

Okay, some thoughts on this.
I can't believe I did what i did!
I'm a reasonably experienced trader, like many on here. Doing okay, good days bad days etc.

So, the situationwas this: my method is strict time entry and exit. I was set up for a good trade: all the signals were there, it was. a green light. So I loaded it up.

Three quarters of time into the trade before my close time, majorly against me. I thought ' I can't believe thus, time to close, before I take an even bigger hit'.

At the end time, I looked to see how much worse things would gave been should I have left it. Fir the second time that day, couldn't believe what I saw. Yep, you guessed it....

So, was it poor psychology, was it not believing in my system .(however good/ bad it was), was it fear? Was it all 3?
Instead of a healthy profit, welcome to a day ticket to Looserville!

What's the forums experiences, and how do you cope.

Thanks for sharing.

You didn't manage your trade correctly.

 

[Vilas]

No need to despair. This experience should bolster your confidence in your system which is the Arsenal you have at your command in this battle for Investment survival ! Obviously your emotion took over and this has more to do with your bank-roll than with your trading acumen: it is a bit natual to think that since the trade has not worked out for such and such time, it might not work-out and then the "purse" kicks in. "why not save some money on a losing game" which turned out to be not a losing game in the end. Better stop analysing too much - too much analysys leads to paralysis.

In other than time-trades, the way to reduce stress is to tighten your stop loss.

Happy Trading and Merry Christmas !

Okay, some thoughts on this.
I can't believe I did what i did!
I'm a reasonably experienced trader, like many on here. Doing okay, good days bad days etc.

So, the situationwas this: my method is strict time entry and exit. I was set up for a good trade: all the signals were there, it was. a green light. So I loaded it up.

Three quarters of time into the trade before my close time, majorly against me. I thought ' I can't believe thus, time to close, before I take an even bigger hit'.

At the end time, I looked to see how much worse things would gave been should I have left it. Fir the second time that day, couldn't believe what I saw. Yep, you guessed it....

So, was it poor psychology, was it not believing in my system .(however good/ bad it was), was it fear? Was it all 3?
Instead of a healthy profit, welcome to a day ticket to Looserville!

What's the forums experiences, and how do you cope.

Thanks for sharing.