Best Thread £10k wipeout

[Mikey75x]

Hello

My first post:

Been wanting to learn for years and went on an Anthony Robbins Options Trading course last year. Walked away feeling I had learnt nothing but after a few months playing with Bull Bearings Fantasy trading the penny has started to drop as to how it all works. Now I want to learn more but cannot find a course or group to learn from. Went to a 'Knowledge to Action' seminar yesterday and it gets bad feedback on-line so decided not to progress.

Specifically I want to know if there are any physical groups that meet up in the real world to swap ideas and while I am waiting to find one I would like to know more about what charting software to use to find Breakout or Channeling stocks - the only two strategies I understand.

I live in Richmond BTW and would welcome any mentoring. I can teach you how to sell in return!

Michael

 

[Masquerade]

Offering sympathy. My biggest losses have come from adding to a loser to "raise my breakeven." Have vowed to never do it again, no matter how great the temptation.

I think you are missing a trick. Averaging is not an evil thing - it's the leverage you must look out for.

 

[blackthursday]

Well looks like I learned the hard way too!

Almost a carbon copy of the OP.

I too started trading Crude Oil futures, and though it was easy money made £2k from an initial investment of £2k in little over a month. I also got greedy and didn't use stops and started pumping funds in. Went long on the FTSE on Wed and again I wasn't willing to take any loss so let the trade run for the last 2 days, my nerve broke yesterday and I'm now £3.5k down, it could have been worse but I never should have tried to ride it out. Big lesson learned.

Things are gonna be tight for a little while but I'm not giving up yet . I'm going to do some reading!

 

[leanhussle]

Where and why did you go Long FTSE on Wednesday? Didn't see any long signals...

 

[blackthursday]

Where and why did you go Long FTSE on Wednesday? Didn't see any long signals...

Because I'm stupid. I 'used' to go long and short throughout the day, no matter the general trend, went long and it dropped, didn't have a stop in place, thought I would ride it out......stupid mistake based on an irrational desire not to lose a few £s.

 

[dealer911]

agree with maybe 111, only dilemma i have is where to put my stop losses at what point???

you should place your stops so that if they are triggered they lose you no more than 10% of your capital - a simple money management method - It will mean the smaller you trade the further away from the current price your stop loss will be - this is no bad thing!

 

[jowhansen]

you should place your stops so that if they are triggered they lose you no more than 10% of your capital - a simple money management method - It will mean the smaller you trade the further away from the current price your stop loss will be - this is no bad thing!

Isnt 10% a little high? I would rather say 1%. Unless you are trading with a very skinny account and need to amp up the trades to get some profit at all.

10 bad trades in a row and you are wiped out. Would be a real pain with a 100 000£ account..

 

[dimsdaletraders]

hi folks, just joined this forum and I'm devouring it avidly! My heart goes out to the OP, glad to see as I've got to the end of this thread that he seems to have gotten over the shock. Hope things go better now he's on the learning curve.

I'm a babytrader, just started five weeks ago, and I'm heartened to see that I'm doing at least some things right. I started with just a thousand, thinking if I lost it then it wouldn't change my life. I'm swing-trading, always with the trend, I keep my risk down to the 1-1.5% level per trade, use TA, pretty much (tho I try and support it with FA research once I see a chart that looks like it will work).

I think I'm over-timid as far as stops are concerned, if anything, and have been stopped out early once or twice, but I'm chalking that up to experience, and have eased them just a little now.

The learning curve is fierce. Hours, and hours, per day. That's something they don't tell you at the "weekend seminars", huh? (Yup, I forked over the three grand, painful, but before it I knew nothing and didn't know it, whereas at least now I know that I don't know anything!)

But I wasn't expecting trading to grab me the way it has. I only do FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 at the moment, and only end-of-day trading, nothing live, I don't have the knowledge or the experience yet, but I am analysing all my trades, successes AND failures, to see if I can figure out how I could have done better.

So far I'm around 7% down on my starting pot, but that's not counting some live trades open (a couple of which have profits locked in) that should bring me back up to around evens again, if all goes well. (and yeah, I know, don't bet my shirt on that, huh?? *G*)

I guess I'm delurking here, to say hello, but also to say that I was heartened by what was said previously...I'm hoping you CAN learn it with small bets, that you don't have to have a "baptism of fire"? But maybe I'm just one of life's tortoises!

This week's homework is Fibonacci retracement...any experienced traders willing to say if they use them and if so how much importance they place on them? Cheers, if so!

regards to all...

 

[timsk]

This thread is a duplicate of the original and has then been culled severely to enable members to focus on the wheat without having to wade through all the chaff. For anyone wanting to view the unedited thread in all its glory and/or post further comment, please do so on the original: £10k wipeout (ORIGINAL THREAD)