Took out a loan to transition to full-time trading. 24 years old.

[mpups]

Well done Wabu youre up over 2K you can go buy yourself a second hand car! Youre showing your ability to read mr crude there. if you keep increasing your size so quickly though you might end up losing that 2k in one day. be careful.

I see your getting frustrated with yourself but its partly cos you are sitting at the screen watching every tick i think. why dont you use limit orders/stops and just walk away sometimes? i just wondered

 

[wabu27]

Thanks Kaeso.
I personally don't like to use limit orders/stops and have never been a fan. I like to see each tick and try to feel the market to decide whether it's trying to go up or down. If I used limits/stops and walk away, my mind would probably still be focused on the charts and be looking at it from my phone anyways.

 

[mpups]

I like to see each tick and try to feel the market to decide whether it's trying to go up or down...

ok interesting way of looking at it

 

[wabu27]

Day 18
-19.7%...........
Started the day great. No action in the beginning and after the oil report, played off the chart movements and was up 8%. Not satisfied(?) i went in for what I thought was the top of a reversal. Didn't follow personal rules blah blah blah... thought i'd gamble a little because I had a strong conviction it wouldn't go any further higher per my view from google finance. Well, the day ended horribly. My losses are way too big.
Until yesterday, i was up +75%. I thought it'd be great to end +100% by end of this week, which meant I doubled my capital in a month. That's crazy. Well, greed got the best of me and now I'm up +30%.........
Hm........... Lots of things on my mind right now. Need some time to let today's trading sink in.

 

[mpups]

Day 18
-19.7%...........
Started the day great. No action in the beginning and after the oil report, played off the chart movements and was up 8%. Not satisfied(?) i went in for what I thought was the top of a reversal. Didn't follow personal rules blah blah blah... thought i'd gamble a little because I had a strong conviction it wouldn't go any further higher per my view from google finance. Well, the day ended horribly. My losses are way too big.
Until yesterday, i was up +75%. I thought it'd be great to end +100% by end of this week, which meant I doubled my capital in a month. That's crazy. Well, greed got the best of me and now I'm up +30%.........
Hm........... Lots of things on my mind right now. Need some time to let today's trading sink in.

its hard to take a loss after a good run aint it

 

[wabu27]

a loss is fine but 20% loss is not...

 

[wabu27]

Day 19
+10.9%
Pissed because I didn't make the best judgement this morning, losing potential opportunities and calling the reversal too early, causing me to lose close to 10%. Well, made it all back and some more but exited as I was busy with work, at work. If I stayed in and rode the drop, I could have made close to 25% or maybe even 30% today.
Slowly getting used to using 3 positions and feeling more comfortable than before.
Can't wait till tomorrow.

 

[tokyojoe]

hi Wabu, just curious, how much is your original $38k 'ish starting capital usable available trading funds as of now?

 

[wabu27]

hi Wabu, just curious, how much is your original $38k 'ish starting capital usable available trading funds as of now?

Oh did i not post during my final days of demise?
I lost every single dollar. I had to borrow $700 from a friend to help cover that month's interest payments because i maxed my credit cards and had no savings.
i immediately took on multiple jobs to support myself.
The capital im using now is what ive saved since then.

 

[tokyojoe]

Oh did i not post during my final days of demise?
I lost every single dollar. I had to borrow $700 from a friend to help cover that month's interest payments because i maxed my credit cards and had no savings.
i immediately took on multiple jobs to support myself.
The capital im using now is what ive saved since then.

Sorry I haven't been on the forum too much, apologies if you have posted the answer to my question in previous pages.

You lost the $38k & still paying 25% apr.....Christ !!

So now you are using capital saved, I did strongly advise you to do this in the first place to remove the pressure of trading a borrowed account.

Do you think it would be better to pay off the loan & start again another time with your own saved capital ?

 

[wabu27]

Do you think it would be better to pay off the loan & start again another time with your own saved capital ?

yea i think thatd be better. however at the current rate, it would take anothet two year...

 

[itspossible]

Oh did i not post during my final days of demise?
I lost every single dollar. I had to borrow $700 from a friend to help cover that month's interest payments because i maxed my credit cards and had no savings.
i immediately took on multiple jobs to support myself.
The capital im using now is what ive saved since then.

I dont believe it mate.
why would a novice risk that much ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????
its not logical at all

 

[wabu27]

because i think @itspossible
LOL

 

[Stormy42]

Oh did i not post during my final days of demise?
I lost every single dollar. I had to borrow $700 from a friend to help cover that month's interest payments because i maxed my credit cards and had no savings.
i immediately took on multiple jobs to support myself.
The capital im using now is what ive saved since then.

38K gone?

 

[Dowser]

Wabu, how has your approach to trading changed since the big loss? I ask, because it looks to me like your positions are still way too big for your acc size (IMO)

 

[wabu27]

Day 20
+4.9%
Today's charts were really interesting. While all chart periods were leaning towards going bearish, the monthly chart was actually leaning towards bullish. Didn't do a good job managing the size of my positions but was able to make some money today. Very interesting to see which way oil will move next week. Will it move back into the 50's and stay there or will it drop back to 40's.

 

[wabu27]

@cbrads I think the main reason i lost all my $40k was because i saw results via dollar amounts and not percentages. That and because trading was going well, I got really greedy and really tried to trade until the very last minute of market time available.
Now, while i still keep my size big, i tend to limit my trading times during when there's a lot of activity and also "try" to limit my losses. I'm still having serious trouble limiting my losses though, and a big part of that is the too large positions for my account.

 

[mpups]

@cbrads I think the main reason i lost all my $40k was because i saw results via dollar amounts and not percentages. That and because trading was going well, I got really greedy and really tried to trade until the very last minute of market time available..

wabu ,in the hope that it helps going forward, remember that you lost 40k in that short space of time because you RISKED 40k in that short space of time. you risked money that you couldnt really afford to lose (from what i gather).

 

[wabu27]

Day 21
+12.51%
lots of small winners taken for quick profits that became a big winner at end of day. Traded 1 size most of day, except the last profit which 2 size was used. Trying to stay conservative and safe while trading.

 

[wabu27]

Day 22
+6.67%
Started the day off with -6% from the start because I placed an overnight position as I thought the chart was due for a reversal. Well, it went higher overnight but wasn't too worried as it still looked as if it was going to do a reversal. Only thing not satisfied today was even though I called a reversal and had a target point that was way lower than when I exited, I exited too early to get safe profits as I'm not always right.
Well, I happened to call it very accurately and if I was to capitalize on it, probably would have made over 20% today. Still having trouble cutting losses short and lettings winners run. I think I'm getting the hang of it... yet another fail.