Best Thread £10k wipeout

[Black Swan]

Hi Slicker


For example, seeing what has gone on over the weekend in the news etc, my first expectation is that the FTSE will go down on Monday. However, I've learned it can do exactly the opposite of what I think would logically happen. Then when we've been sucked in the slaughter starts and we sit there like a rabbit in the headlights.

and I expect the DOW and Gold to rise quite strongly over the week, particularly tomorrow, but here's the thing, you don't have to be right just profitable - most of the time.

Here's a quote that's worth hard wiring into your grey matter/core being;

When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir? - Keynes.

 

[writeschk]

You will always tell yourself that you can take a loss, but if your money is really tight, and you're trading to make a difference, then you really can't take a loss, or not much of one.

Trading can be so much fun, if you're patient, and paper trade first. Stick to one thing first, learn everything you can about it, chart it, do the numbers backward and forward, then study it some more. Then, stick in your little toe and see how it goes. If you get stopped out, great, you learned something. If you make money, be doubly sure to use your stops the next time. The hardest thing for me to learn was to be happy with winning. Even $1.

 

[ashuk1981]

I lost alot once, fell in love with one stock in my first few months of trading, spent two years waiting for the damn thing, refused to sell, didn't trade at all - eventually lost everything, now i'm trading again, the ftse100 and currencies through a spread betting company - always setting stops, and trading very frequently.

 

[ClimbingMel]

Sad thing is I've now done it 3 times! When I first started, I didn't have a cluse and just jumped in. Then I was doing nicely until last fall and had a couple of stocks that I refused to beleive that they could go any lower... they did and generated a margin call. The brokers were skittish due to everything going down they just sold to cover. I lost my whole account & it was a lot more than 10k (even with the £ to $ conversion)
It took me almost 3 months to get back in and I slowly started growing my account. The last month was doing incredibly well and then RIMM gapped past my stop!!! Instead of dumpping it I kept it thinking it would be fine long term and I would leave it as an "investment". I picked up a number of what I thought were bargains to hold and now they are all way down. Arrgg!
I just can't seem to find a plan and stick to it...
Any ideas on how to break this cycle?

 

[montpro]

I've lost many £000's when I first started and I’ve put it down to margin! (don’t want to say how much but I sold a house so it was alot) Anyway all my technical analysis and research was correct but greed and margin were the main factors of my loss - plus not using a stop loss. I now have no money to speak of but am trading with oanda and by sticking to the 2% rule per trade (and no stop loss which I know some will say is crazy), factoring in the technical analysis etc. I am constantly gaining, slowly but surely. I look at the loss as the start-up expenses associated with setting up a new business. Don't quit - that's they key, just learn from it and move forward.

FXCM do trailing stop loss too

 

[Rossini]

I've lost many £000's when I first started and I’ve put it down to margin! (don’t want to say how much but I sold a house so it was alot) Anyway all my technical analysis and research was correct but greed and margin were the main factors of my loss - plus not using a stop loss. I now have no money to speak of but am trading with oanda and by (and no stop loss which I know some will say is crazy), factoring in the technical analysis etc. I am constantly gaining, slowly but surely. I look at the loss as the start-up expenses associated with setting up a new business. Don't quit - that's they key, just learn from it and move forward.

FXCM do trailing stop loss too

How can you possably be ''sticking to the 2% rule per trade'' if you dont use stop losses?

 

[montpro]

i trade pennies with oanda and so far my pairs have never got to 2% of my capital before bouncing back into profit!

 

[donone]

i trade pennies with oanda and so far my pairs have never got to 2% of my capital before bouncing back into profit!

Then why have so much in your account - why not put the surplus somewhere it earns money ?

You find oanda a good place to trade ? - Some others don't seem so sure

Oanda Reviews | Forex Trading Broker

 

[Rossini]

i trade pennies with oanda and so far my pairs have never got to 2% of my capital before bouncing back into profit!

Just because the pairs you trade haven't taken you more than 2% into loss does not mean they will not!

It is a FACT that if your not prepared to take losses, the loss you do take will wipe out your account small or large.

The way to make money is not to avoid losses its to keep them very small.

 

[montpro]

As they say 'the trend is your friend' and I only place orders that are on the right side of the trend. Should it go against me the inevitable retracment closes the trade at breakeven. so far anyway

 

[Rossini]

As they say 'the trend is your friend' and I only place orders that are on the right side of the trend. Should it go against me the inevitable retracment closes the trade at breakeven. so far anyway

You will loose your account if your not prepared to cut losses, simple. Nothing is 'inevitable'. Nothing is certain, nothing is guaranteed. Remember this when your on the wrong side of a runaway trend desperately waiting for the 'inevitable' retracement!

 

[montpro]

What size stop loss would you recommend? I calculate a 200 pip sl.

 

[Rossini]

Wide enough so you don't get taken out needlessly, narrow enough so you have a positive expectancy overall and you can suffer consecutive losses. Try to place the stop loss at the closest point where if hit, you can assume that your trade idea was wrong.



I don't do it quite this way, I put my stop loss a little further than perhaps I could, then if I don't like the look of the action I can manually exit at a small loss or breakeven. I think of it as a disaster stop and just cut the trades early that don't look right. But I work out my risk/reward using my disaster stop because that is the largest loss I am willing to accept.

 

[Black Swan]

What size stop loss would you recommend? I calculate a 200 pip sl.

madness, IMHO. That's not trading that's pissing in the wind gambling. You're not trying to identify a trend with a 200 pip stop loss you're simply tossing a coin, going on gut feeling. Stop loss 30-50 pip max.

 

[Rossini]

Identifying a trend with a 200pip stop loss on a daily TF would be quite reasonable. There needs to be less blunt and cutting remarks on this forum, and more constructive criticism for people who obviously don't have a clue.

 

[DannyO]

That's a tough one

I'm down, rock bottom.

started trading Crude Oil futures, though it was easy money at first. made a bit. then I got greedy and didn't use stops. went short and I wasn't willing to take any loss so let the trade run for 7 days, the loss got bigger and bigger so then I entered another short hoping to raise my breakeven. then the biggest rise since the gulf war took me out of the game.

I own double what was in my account and my losses are shocking bad probably £10,000 in total. don't think I can come back to trading, I feel emotionally scarred.

my wife found out about my losses and has threatened to leave me. I hate myself

Speaking as one who has spend quite some time living without a roof over my head and owning nothing but what I could carry on my back...I will say that hopefully she stays, regardless, you can and will come back. This is the key to this in my opinion. Start trading a small account and build that account from zip to big. Stick to your rules. Understanding this comes from constant application of what you know on a daily basis. You get good in the trenches not by coming in big. Come back with a small amount and turn it in to a Million. You can do it! Small like fifty bucks.

Dan A

 

[ceydababy]

Identifying a trend with a 200pip stop loss on a daily TF would be quite reasonable. There needs to be less blunt and cutting remarks on this forum, and more constructive criticism for people who obviously don't have a clue.

Sometimes blunt and cutting is the only way to tell some people. That's a fact. Not commenting on anyone specifically but having spent some time on here I can see why SB firms are popping up all over the show. It's easy money. 80% lose and 20% win ? hmmm from reading this forum I would imagine the numbers are 95% lose and 5% win.

 

[jeeba]

safer to long instead of short, and also avoid using margin

I'm down, rock bottom.

started trading Crude Oil futures, though it was easy money at first. made a bit. then I got greedy and didn't use stops. went short and I wasn't willing to take any loss so let the trade run for 7 days, the loss got bigger and bigger so then I entered another short hoping to raise my breakeven. then the biggest rise since the gulf war took me out of the game.

I own double what was in my account and my losses are shocking bad probably £10,000 in total. don't think I can come back to trading, I feel emotionally scarred.

my wife found out about my losses and has threatened to leave me. I hate myself

:idea: Intead of shorting oil futures, it would have been safer to go long on an inverse-oil product, and not use margin (meaning buy no more than what you have in your account).

For example, if you would have bought NYSE ETF symbol DUG, you would not have been forced to cover when the oil price continued up, and would have profited very nicely when the oil eventually came back down.

Some people will probably disagree and argue that even if you had bought DUG, you still should have gotten out of the trade with a stop loss and therefor wouldn't have enjoyed the profits later, but my main point is that *if* you chose not to get out based on your own stop loss, then you would not have been forced out. However, keep in mind that this is true only if you do not buy using margin, which is one of the reasons they always say that margin trading is much riskier.

 

[jackolan]

:idea: Intead of shorting oil futures, it would have been safer to go long on an inverse-oil product

Interesting idea... know of anything inverse to the FTSE100?

 

[arabianights]

Try Exchange Traded Funds db x-trackers