The challenge of becoming a trader - if & when did it become personal?

[JTrader]

Hi

When most people become interested in trading, typically there is a fairly lengthy learning curve, which may or may not incorporate mild-moderate-severe failure along the way.
The trader may initially be successful, as i was myself, before i realised that this was perhaps something of a fluke, and i really hadn't thought it through enough & developed an indepth/well-rounded enough understanding/approach of trading as a whole, as i wouldn't know what to do under adverse conditions etc.

You may have reached a point where you had put so much effort in, yet had had no success, but felt that you were going in the right direction, and were determined not to walk away from trading until you had got some rewards from it ;-

A strong-willed refuse to fail/fear of failure attitude (- which in some cases might turn out to be a good thing, and in other peoples cases might be a bad thing.) which saw you really knuckle down, put in the really hard & often tedious work - that would eventually enable success to follow (though you did not know this for sure at the time) through developing a strong & rounded understanding & methodological approach.
For some people, this point may have been after investing 200 hours, others 2000 hours into trading.....

At what stage did you realise/what made you realise that you had to really dig deep, put in the hours, make the sacrifices & go that extra mile or 2 in order to enable your current & future success?


Cheers.

 

[Profitaker]

At what stage did you realise/what made you realise that you had to really dig deep, put in the hours, make the sacrifices & go that extra mile or 2 in order to enable your current & future success?


Cheers.

I think it would have to be after a period of substantial losses, and the realisation that while trading maybe simple, it ain't easy !

I think this thread would be more suited to the General Trading forum, any objections JT ?

 

[JTrader]

I think it would have to be after a period of substantial losses, and the realisation that while trading maybe simple, it ain't easy !

I think this thread would be more suited to the General Trading forum, any objections JT ?

None .

 

[PKFFW]

Hi

......You may have reached a point where you had put so much effort in, yet had had no success, but felt that you were going in the right direction, and were determined not to walk away from trading until you had got some rewards from it ;-

A strong-willed refuse to fail/fear of failure attitude (- which in some cases might turn out to be a good thing, and in other peoples cases might be a bad thing.) which saw you really knuckle down, put in the really hard & often tedious work - that would eventually enable success to follow (though you did not know this for sure at the time) through developing a strong & rounded understanding & methodological approach.
For some people, this point may have been after investing 200 hours, others 2000 hours into trading.....

At what stage did you realise/what made you realise that you had to really dig deep, put in the hours, make the sacrifices & go that extra mile or 2 in order to enable your current & future success?


Cheers.

The highlighted part is where I'm at now. No "success" as yet in terms of being in the black money wise. I'm breaking even now though and that I think is a "success" over being a losing trader. I know I'm on the right track and I refuse to give up. I will become a consistently profitable trader, it is just a matter of when.

I realised there was more to this game when I had lost 40% of my capital. Again, I count that a "success" over the many many others who blow up at least one account before they realise something is wrong! haha I managed to lose that money very quickly too.....only took me about 2 months. I'm not sure I should boast about that as a success though.

I've always been the type of person who puts in everything I have to whatever I am doing though. I've been at this game now for just on 2 years. Counting the reading, demo trading, live trading, back testing etc I can honestly say I've put in an average of about 2 hours a day just about every day of that 2 years. So there was no real point where I thought I had to "dig deep" as I was already digging deep from the word go. I was just digging down the wrong hole! Now I know I'm digging down the hole that will lead me to my mother lode.

Cheers,
PKFFW

 

[Rhody Trader]

It's been a long time since I got going in this little trading game, but I don't think it was ever taking a big loss that made me get serious about it all - though along the way large hits did reinforce a few lessons.

The Crash of '87 really motivated me to really start trading. I had been aware of and dabbled in the markets in some ways before that, but nothing of any consequence. After the Crash I opened my first personal stock account and I started the process of trying to figure it all out. That's no doubt a function of the researcher/analyst bent to me.

 

[mr_cassandra]

the realization

Hi

When most people become interested in trading, typically there is a fairly lengthy learning curve, which may or may not incorporate mild-moderate-severe failure along the way.
The trader may initially be successful, as i was myself, before i realised that this was perhaps something of a fluke, and i really hadn't thought it through enough & developed an indepth/well-rounded enough understanding/approach of trading as a whole, as i wouldn't know what to do under adverse conditions etc.

You may have reached a point where you had put so much effort in, yet had had no success, but felt that you were going in the right direction, and were determined not to walk away from trading until you had got some rewards from it ;-

A strong-willed refuse to fail/fear of failure attitude (- which in some cases might turn out to be a good thing, and in other peoples cases might be a bad thing.) which saw you really knuckle down, put in the really hard & often tedious work - that would eventually enable success to follow (though you did not know this for sure at the time) through developing a strong & rounded understanding & methodological approach.
For some people, this point may have been after investing 200 hours, others 2000 hours into trading.....

At what stage did you realise/what made you realise that you had to really dig deep, put in the hours, make the sacrifices & go that extra mile or 2 in order to enable your current & future success?


Cheers.

For me it was after I took a huge shellacking as the Nasdaq bear mkt set in in the year 2000. At that point i realized my buy the dips on qqqq had to go. Because I was a programmer and favored ta indicators, I went in that direction. 7 years and 2000 hours later, my work is listed at C2. Time will tell.

 

[Bobsurbull]

Hi

When most people become interested in trading, typically there is a fairly lengthy learning curve, which may or may not incorporate mild-moderate-severe failure along the way.
The trader may initially be successful, as i was myself, before i realised that this was perhaps something of a fluke, and i really hadn't thought it through enough & developed an indepth/well-rounded enough understanding/approach of trading as a whole, as i wouldn't know what to do under adverse conditions etc.

You may have reached a point where you had put so much effort in, yet had had no success, but felt that you were going in the right direction, and were determined not to walk away from trading until you had got some rewards from it ;-

A strong-willed refuse to fail/fear of failure attitude (- which in some cases might turn out to be a good thing, and in other peoples cases might be a bad thing.) which saw you really knuckle down, put in the really hard & often tedious work - that would eventually enable success to follow (though you did not know this for sure at the time) through developing a strong & rounded understanding & methodological approach.
For some people, this point may have been after investing 200 hours, others 2000 hours into trading.....

At what stage did you realise/what made you realise that you had to really dig deep, put in the hours, make the sacrifices & go that extra mile or 2 in order to enable your current & future success?


Cheers.

I learned through a number of factors:

1) I lost money on my own trading when setting out - not a huge amount but enough for me to take notice.

2) I lost a lot of money through a managed account (an expert traded it). I learned invaluable lessons from this about how everything comes down to risk management. My fund manager was a poor risk manager, a very poor risk manager as I discovered.

3) I have learned to never try to back against the trend. I now only ever trade in one direction when it comes to currencies, until such time as I am convinced the trend has turned.

4) I don't use tight stop losses and often don't use stop losses at all, instead opting for a hedging strategy. But one needs to know what they are doing when not using stop losses, so I do not necessarily recommend this for anyone.

5) I usually exit trades prior to major economic releases like Fed Statements, nonfarm payrolls etc. I don't gamble with unreleased news. I prefer to trade with the known facts.

6) I work within a margin ratio of 16%, so max leverage I use is generally 6:1.

7) I will never place a trade unless i believe there is ample room for a rapid 100 point gain (I only trade currencies).

8) I give priority to sentiment, followed by fundamentals. I use technicals for entry validation and determining exit points. I never place trades based on what charts say.

9) I devour as much economic information as I can and as I work fulltime in the industry, that tends to be a lot. I monitor economic calendars closely and know well in advance when major risk events are on the horizon. This helps me avoid certain currencies, if uncertainty is near.

I am currently doing quite well, primarily because I am keeping my discipline and my nerve.

Bobsurbull

 

[black bear]

I lost one bank and was 50% down on the next, dark days indeed

I lost one bank and was 50% down on the next

I decided then and there that was it lose the other 50% and your gone out for good.

I thought about trading for about a week I recall, I stuck to what I new at the time which is not a great deal, its not a great deal now in fact.

I decided one simple truth = If I can not recover from this I am lacking enough of whatever is required to go further and its better for me if I no it now.

The 50% bank was treated exactly like it was all I had, the mental bank was all in. I new there was nothing more. The pressure to trade out resulted in a pressure that I would not want anybody else to go through. I must have bounced off breakeven a dozon times.

When It was done and I had broke even (Jan07)I checked every trade to spot a gamble trade a number larger than the others something that I could say well I cheated, one or two stand out trades that made the difference = pack it in and think yourself lucky to have got your bank back and write the 1st one off as a bad job/life experience or whatever.

There was not one I could pick out that made the difference not one, at a glance I thought I had worked it out wrong, I even went through my statements checking and re-checking, but nothing

So perhaps I can go a little further

sorry forgot = its not personal anymore its nothing, nothing at all

Happy Christmas and New Year

Andy

 

[Steve Trader]

The highlighted part is where I'm at now. No "success" as yet in terms of being in the black money wise. I'm breaking even now though and that I think is a "success" over being a losing trader. I know I'm on the right track and I refuse to give up. I will become a consistently profitable trader, it is just a matter of when.

I realised there was more to this game when I had lost 40% of my capital. Again, I count that a "success" over the many many others who blow up at least one account before they realise something is wrong! haha I managed to lose that money very quickly too.....only took me about 2 months. I'm not sure I should boast about that as a success though.

I've always been the type of person who puts in everything I have to whatever I am doing though. I've been at this game now for just on 2 years. Counting the reading, demo trading, live trading, back testing etc I can honestly say I've put in an average of about 2 hours a day just about every day of that 2 years. So there was no real point where I thought I had to "dig deep" as I was already digging deep from the word go. I was just digging down the wrong hole! Now I know I'm digging down the hole that will lead me to my mother lode.

Cheers,
PKFFW

I can ditto this quite closely, I have been determined not to give up, I have been trying various things these last 2 1/2 years. I now spread bet stocks of less than £5 share price (eod trading) and my maximum risk is <= £20 per trade, typically £10. Its a level I am very comfortable with and can endure quite a number of losing trades in a row without breaking the bank. However I feel I am on the up and I am breaking even or slightly better. I am now giving myself wider stops, I have long and short positions open at the same time and I am allowing my profits to run a bit more. With the low amount risked per trade I can relax a bit more and let my account accumulate (hopefully) slowly but surely.