Learn to Love your Losses

[trendie]

I dont such as much as love my losses, nor do I hate them, but I do treat them as visits by a rather unloved cousins I am glad to see the back of when they leave.
I would much rather they didnt visit, but must accomodate them through gritted teeth.

 

[77sigmatrading]

first of all i wanna thank you all to participate in the discussion, and I agree with you, but let me ask you something.. What will write down, if someone will ask you what you think a tick away from your stop (mental or market)?

 

[Cornix]

I agree with "love your losses" motto somewhat, discussed this matter with my trader buddies only yesterday in the sense, that following your trading plan is the key point of success (assuming the plan has a proven positive expectancy of course) and thus a trader must have a goal of following the rules, not the goal of just having winners.

If you follow the plan and have a loss, that's a "good" loss. If you don't follow the plan and have a winning trade, that's a "bad" profit.

 

[77sigmatrading]

I agree with you cornixforex, Sometimes you do not accept the loss to not admit you are wrong and trying to avid them you make them bigger. If in some way as a trader we are able to accept them we will treat each trade as one in a series not just the one trade. I hope this post can help people to understand the value of loss acceptance.

 

[Sandile84]

I'm not an expert, but I don't think one needs to love their loses in order to become a better trader. One just needs to accept the loses fully and not get emotional.

 

[b2b2]

I'm not an expert, but I don't think one needs to love their loses in order to become a better trader. One just needs to accept the loses fully and not get emotional.

I agree...learning to love etc seems like some sort of emotional crutches being used to gloss over losses...

better just accept it and accept as soon as you see them without hoping for a turnaround...much less emotional baggage and you dont have to endure the pain of missing other opportunities since you are stuck in a everincreasing losing position

 

[Cornix]

I'm not an expert, but I don't think one needs to love their loses in order to become a better trader. One just needs to accept the loses fully and not get emotional.

One definitely better love trades which are flawlessly executed with the plan, ideally regardless of if they are winning or losing.

 

[DionysusToast]

I think it was Paul Tudor Jones who said that losses should hurt, and he's probably a better trader than the guy who advised you to love losses.

I don't disagree with the argument, but the holy grail is to achieve indifference, or possibly mild curiosity to the outcome of a trade

Hurt what, though?

Wallet, ego or something else?

To be honest, i think it comes down to your personality and to some extent even your state of mind at the time.

 

[Sandile84]

I agree...learning to love etc seems like some sort of emotional crutches being used to gloss over losses...

better just accept it and accept as soon as you see them without hoping for a turnaround...much less emotional baggage and you dont have to endure the pain of missing other opportunities since you are stuck in a ever increasing losing position

Good point!

 

[the hare]

Hurt what, though?

Wallet, ego or something else?

IIRC I think the comment was that he wouldn't be comfortable with someone managing his money if they didn't feel hurt by losses. I suppose the source of the hurt, either financial, a blow to the ego or even physical pain isn't the issue

I took it to mean that the hurt was simply a sign of someone taking the game seriously.

 

[Cornix]

Hmm... I don't think it's good idea to have every "normal" loss hurt you as a trader. Would harm psyche and emotional stability, would make you try to subconsciously avoid the losing trades which is... well, impossible (sorry for being too obvious here ).

So the wisest attitude should still be IMO: love to do everything right, according to your system rules. And losing/winning trades are just part of the process, losing are not something wrong and winning are not something to celebrate.

 

[77sigmatrading]

Cornixforex made the point, loving your losses as much as your winning trades implied to treat them equally on an emotional stand point.

 

[lynhappytrader]

I can't love my losses.... they make me lose money lol! However, I can learn from them, which is "nice"

 

[Aesop20]

I'm not an expert, but I don't think one needs to love their loses in order to become a better trader. One just needs to accept the loses fully and not get emotional.

Agree completely, I guess the ideal scenario is to get to the point where no emotion is involved, and if anything it becomes a little boring because what you do is mechanical and a process, which works!

 

[angelnish]

Love losses------NEVER
I just hate to lose but I always learn something from my loss.

 

[forever_young]

Of course, all is for the best and experience matters very much, but that is VERY hard to be thankful when you lose... And love losses... That's to much... May be some day or another...

 

[tanyach]

I can't say that I love my losses. But I always try to take as much experience as I can from them. It's important to learn on your fails.

 

[thunderstruck]

I totally believe you should forget the feeling after a loss . But you should not forget what led you to make a bad trade . Its experience .
As Oscar Wilde put it

Experience is merely the name men gave to their mistakes.

 

[MoeD]

I prefer to hate my losses. To become a good trader is like to become a good competitive athlete: you've to practice hard, analyze your mistakes meticulously but always with passion. And if you look at the most successful sportsmen in history like Muhammed Ali, Michael Jordan, Michael Schumacher or Lance Armstorng, they had all one thing in common: they hated to lose. You can say: that's what kept them winning.

 

[jonelle]

I officially announce that today will be the day that I quit FX trading. I hope everyone here can be my witnesses. Good luck to you guys. Bye!