A year in. Lessons Learnt, Fingers Burnt

Could be as near the Holy Grail as we get: the implication being that there is no Holy Grail. If there was a Holy Grail, it would effectively give the user artificial power within / over the market, when maybe what we need less force used, to bend with the market more readily, to embvrace the riskl, not try to eliminate it with layered indicators, not to fight against the market, but to surf its power.

I must say that you have put it beautifully. On lord flash heart thread I just posted a live trade that illustrates what I am talking about. Chart images are included. It seriously is such a liberating feeling when you genuinely have no need to decide if you think markets are going up or down. either way is perfectly acceptable.
 
actually it's not too bad to have some loss experience.
Will you consider forex trading.
I failed in the stock market and finally found my confidence in the forex market.

you had a good background and you can be successful
 
Don't lose heart :) its only a year. While you are out, take the time to learn more, practice more. then come back with a bang if you want
very good point. one year is nothing.
try it for at least about two to ten years. :)
 
Although I have dabbled on the stock market for years, I have recently started full time day trading and feel entries like yours are a massive help. I look forward to hearing more from you. Thanks Sweatyslouch.
 
I think you overeacted with the stops . What do you think now ?? Would you put them in the system as a stop order or have them mentally ???

{quote]I finally entered a trade that I was convinced about which went against me for 5 months. I'd decided to stay long in the stock regardless as I was that sure.[/quote]

Ok you were carried away by strong emotions , you're only human

Anyway 15% was a nice loss - If you opened a small business you could lose all 100K in 6 months .

Stay away for a while but keep an eye on the market an paper trade and see how you react with zero motions .

ps thanks for sharing
 
A great little story and not too different I imagine form most traders here. As has been said -15% is pretty impressive management for a directional trader over a year. All the important lessons come from your losers, not from the winners.

My first Options account (small test account) was blown wide open in 3 months thanks to AAPL and BP, trading directionally and having no real idea about the extent and effects of trading psychology. Many more small accounts fell in the years after that as I found my feet both in system and mental toughness and made the change over from Virtual to Live. Maybe step back into Virtual trading and try trading non-directional trades. I would highly suggest Options over shares any day of the week.

I hope you don't give up on it just yet at 1 year you're still a newbie.
Enjoy the ride.


I've been live trading a year now and though it worth sharing some of the highs and lows of my journey.

I got into trading after my daughter was born. I'd taken 3 months off work and decided I could solely focus on day/swing trading with the 100K I had in savings.
Being in a technical profession (also have a PhD in math) my style was indicator/rule based and to that end I watched every trading seminar, read every blog and learned about all the technical tools I could over the first month.
I went live placing 10K-50K trades on stocks I'd researched and charts I or others had liked. Sometimes I'd stay in the trade a long time (I still hold my first stock bought), but mostly I'd be out before the close not wanted to suffer opening bell shock.

I entered stops until i got level 2 access when on too many occasions saw the action move right in to take my stop before rebounding away. After that paranoia had me write my stops down and then manually exit trades that reached them.

I kept a trading journal and kept account of my P/L, plus did a nightly debrief on how (and why) the day had gone.

On a good day I'd make 500 bucks, on a bad day I'd lose 1000. The nightly tally showed I was slowly getting poorer and over time was not getting better.

It got to a point where I'd spend couple hours researching my picks then enter trades in the opposite direction as I came to understand the market was not behaving to any of the indicators or patterns I'd learned from any of the hundreds of Guru trainings I'd been through.

About 6 months in I came to realize that even with my account size intra-day was too hard to play, so my time frames move to weeks then months. I finally entered a trade that I was convinced about which went against me for 5 months. I'd decided to stay long in the stock regardless as I was that sure. The stock blew through any rational limit I would have set and I decided to wait for it to recover. I eventually sold for a 40% loss through fear that the company would go bankrupt.

At one point in the year I was 15% up. I'm out now (apart from my first stock) for a total loss of 15%.

I've never really failed at anything and have been very humbled by the experience. Learning so much in a short time about trading and then failing to make it work has left me with the feeling that knowledge, a strict trading plan, and the willingness to put in full time hours really offer no guarantee of preserving capital let alone make a healthy living.

Respect to those that make it work. For a time I was one of you but for now I'm poorer and out.
 
All the important lessons come from your losers, not from the winners.

Yeah, that's true. And after all the losers you can finally find out that after a couple of years you're still not a professional.. I mean the whole pack of knowledge and tiny shades just confuses me a lot... like yours blowing up on options...
 
Brrrr.....stories like this put me back.... in even wanting to try out to join thi stock thingies battle! I read this post about couple month ago and I though on this all the time.

I hate things that are not controllable! And looks like stock market is exactly this piece of cake: - even with proper education, funds, passion, time, energy and brains - there is no success!

You saying - there could be success though! But the word could sounds terrible!....Brrrr....for me still ;)

Cheers to all!
 
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I hate things that are not controllable! And looks like stock market is exactly this piece of cake: - even with proper education, funds, passion, time, energy and brains - there is no success!

Cheers to all!

You have it all wrong, your mindset is negative. The markets are controllable if you have enough money you can make them go where YOU want them too, failing to have enough cash YOU maybe not so much can control the markets but you can control your trade and that is what trading is about for the retailer. It's called 'trade management'.

You say "there is no success", that's so wrong it's funny and how can you back that up when it sounds like you have not even traded :D I must mention this to my clients and watch for their humorous reactions especially one of my clients who is currently trading while on his second vacation in China in as many months...

There is just so many products to trade with(FX, CFDs, Shares, Options), each person needs to find something that suits their personality and become competent in it and put as many favours as you can on your side of the trade.

Trading: It's not a game, it's a business.
 
I bookmarked this thread in the hope that I might learn something.

Big mistake.

It reminds me of Comfort Cafè.

I took an apprenticeship and learned enough of my profession in four years to make my living but I was, still, learning to the end. It's called experience. I'm retired, now, and trade as a pastime. I'm not worried about making income from it or losing, paricularly, because I have enough sense to realise that this is a very dangerous occupation to be in, if the stakes are too high. I do not think that I will ever get rich by doing this. All I hope for is to find a trading method that convinces me enough to increase my stake. Then, I might write a book,

It has not happened, yet.

Young people should leave this and learn a trade or profession. Trading one's own capital with a family to bring up only brings an additional worry of trying to pay the mortgage.

After decades of trading, Livermore ended up by shooting himself and, yet, his book is considered to be an "must" for up and coming traders.
 
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