Menu
Sister Sites

Options

Bookmark Thread

First Page First Unread Last Page Last Post

Print Thread

Similar Threads

Your thoughts/experience/advice on trade management? 3 replies

seeking advice for next steps... a bit lost 9 replies

Advice please Forex vs Spread Betting 3 replies

My first live experience - Personal reflections and journey 6 replies

Please advice me a good forex brooker 2 replies

Attachments: My personal experience - Lost 5,000 USD in 4 months Forex. Please advice.
Exit Attachments

My personal experience - Lost 5,000 USD in 4 months Forex. Please advice.

  • Post #1
  • Quote
  • First Post: Jan 4, 2007 8:55am Jan 4, 2007 8:55am
Hi all,

I am an aspiring forex trader want-to-be, and I only started out Forex Trading in July 2006. I've read books and go seminars to learn more about the market. In less than 2 months time, I've know all the basics from the setups to how to read the indicators and I thought it was enough.

As I went into trading with Mini, I was given a 200x1 leverage by Forex.com and I blew out 3 times from August to December in very short time.

When my friends saw my gloomy face, I still managed to hid from them and they thought I was a successful trader who is making money, and then they thought they've found a "holy grail" in me. I lied about my situation and I lied about my overall results. I was a scumb and I was nothing more than just a big fat mouth and an empty shell.

Although I can share about all indicators and explaining simple forex term, I became the "in thing" within my social circle. But deep inside, every day I traded with my life, I wasn't able to make pips consistently. I knew that it already hit the resistance or Fibo level or whatever trendlines and channels you can make, but I always succumbed by my emotions. I was not able to trade with ease. I told myself to trade on the 1-hour time frame, but when there is no entry possible, I switched to 4-hour and ah-ha yes I've found the entry point with all my EMA and MACD cross over each other. I thought trading was that easy, I've decieved even my dad that I am still making profit. That did not become a reality after my last month of trading.

I told them that I've lost 5,000 USD in the process, I've shared with my closest friend that I've lost that amount and close to crying out in the nights when nobody around. I wanted to be a trader really, I want to be financially free but it seems I can't. After 4 months of hardship, and listened to traders and from books that I MUST CONTROL MY EMOTIONS and PROPER MONEY MANAGEMENT, and yet yet all I still can't. Am I stupid or what my inner devil laughing at me, calling me an educated idiot who never wake up. Now I am, I am very much disappointed with myself, my performance, my lies, everything that resulted in that 5,000 dollars loss.

It may not sound much to some of you, but to me, it is a lot and it is painful. Very painful.

My friend asked me if I want to be a whimpee, I don't want. I want to rest and come back again. Blind confidence aside, I really don't know if I can make it. I really really don't know. I'm scare, I've no confidence and I dare not tell anybody about my problem but to share in this forum.

I just hope a kind soul to share with me your experience so I can get some comfort from. Don't console me that trading is not for me, because deepdown my innerself I know trading is for me. It is only about emotions. Please help me by telling me how to control them. I am in a lost, my paragraphs here are not well structured, I just type what I think. I am really really in pain, but definitely not suicidal. Not for 5,000 definitely.

My lifestyle has totally gone upside down due to that loss, I couldn't sleep, I even feel so stressful when I type this out. I'm not going to write further more.

If some of you know what I've went through, please share with me. I need help, psychologically and emotionally. If I can pull off this period, I can become a better trader I believe.
please move my thread to journal. I think it is more appropriate there. thanks.
Good catharsis here for a start.

My Advice: take a couple of months off. then dcide if you want to come back, then only demo trade for 6 months at least. Pick one system and DO NOT DEVIATE FROM IT.

I'm having a similar struggle myself.

And remember that as long as you have your health etc etc.
TRADE FOR SWAP
I had similar story and because I didn't want to disappoint anyone and especially myself. I switch over to Oanda to trade at small micro lot to keep myself in the game. My account was still slowly going down but I was gaining experience. Finding a system that works for you is very important. So keep searching and try it on $0.01/pip before you start and try to go big. Keep gaining pips first before you try to make the big bucks.
I think that you have come to the right place for advice...we've all been there. Becasue there are approximately 23,564,349 books on trading and twice as many 'systems'...information overload is common. It can take people years to become consistantly profitable. I got my feet when in futures and futures options and it took me a couple of years to see correctly. I'm on the FX side of things now. You have to find a system (method) that works for you. People have a tendancy to switch from system to system to system even if the one they are using is profitable. I'm not sure if you have a regular day job but if your trading hours are limited then your trading is limited. If you are a coder then you might want to look at a few EA's or create your own. That should be a last resort though, chart time is very important to see how things work live. Find a method that suits your style and trading time. Don't think about the $, think about the win/loss ratio and % return. Trade a micro account or mini at the most and focus on the method.
Thanks guys for contributing. I'm reading your posts. I'm still lost of words. I am thinking past few days. I'm getting headache, couldn't get up to work and lost of concentration. My MT4 monitor is still on and constant my mind kept telling me "hey idiot, you could have went in now and make that 300 pips drop on GBP/USD past two days!", and my devil laughing at me again calling me, you fcuking idiot who thinks you know it all. and yes, you will never ever fcuking get back that 5,000 USD unless you go in again.

I'm going for a rest now, the loss still fresh in my mind, I will come back and read again.
go and do some exercise, have a long bath, a beer, and preferably a rigorous massage.
TRADE FOR SWAP
Mate,

"Trading in the Zone" by Mark Douglas.
Follow up on what Nitman and Jarret say.

Dont demo trade unless you are learning a new system or a new dealing desk. Use micro pips per Nitman when trading with real money.

Lou
Adding to this all...after I got divorced I didn't have the funds to trade for about two years. But, I still studied and watched the markets and subscribed to forums such as this one on the futures side of things. It's not a magic bullet the way things work. Everyone loses money trading and lots of people have blown out an account or two including myself. Find or create your own path to follow and keep it simple.
Is all about money managment. Even if u get one pip a week u should make wealth.

U should read some about psicology stuffs, Dr. Elder, if u have it check the M.M. techniques.

Forget your 5.000. f**k them, are gone!!!, If you keep think on it U will be gone too. This is about survive nothing less, nothing more.

keep it simple man, this is the golden rule, keep it simple.
FIND YOUR SELF INNER TRADER.

Go slow but steady, You will not get millionare if U dont deserve it.
You Cannot run if You dont how to walk.

Take this lesson from Mark Fisher (big NYMEX trader), about "next technique" and make mention about trading is like go to the club at night and try to get some girls, and you go the bar and u see a cuttie but is not any chemical between and u see it is not going anywhere. What do u do?, u said next and go the following girl. If u want to get some ..... u cannot waste ur time.

Well this a very light idea but I hope u get the point. Take it easy.

Just find the way u feel confindence in your self and whatever the system u use learn from trail and error. I Hope u doing it in a demo.

KEEP NOTES, DIARIES AND A RECORD!!!, LEARN FROM MISTAKES, AND PRACTICE LOOK FOR REASONS.

TAKE CAR, ANYTHING U WANT just email me.
I lost 10 times that before I made the break through!
IMO 2 factors which I feel are absolutely essential trading fulltime.
i) Capital
ii) Experience

Good luck.
Congratulations on blowing your account.

This means you have now joined some of the most successful traders of all time.

Some traders start out winning consistently and then get over-confident and blow their account, some have considerable passion and a desire to win but hit a losing streak right from the start.

Either way, it is an important milestone in the experience of almost every trader you speak to.

That 5,000 has not been "lost" - it has been spent. It has been spent on your trading education. And you will be very lucky if that is all you spend before you become consistently profitable.

People go to university and come out with three times that amount in debt here in the UK and they still can't get a job

Your "University of Trading" fee, has taught you some valuable information. It has illustrated some of the mistakes a trader can make. You have made them. Now you must learn from them.

I would suggest you take some time away from the markets. This is extremely hard to do. The natural urge is to want to "tilt" - to revenge trade to make back what you lost. This rarely works.

Take some time off. Even a week can work wonders. Do not look at the markets at all. In that time, I would advise you to read (and if you have already read, then re-read) the Market Wizards books by Jack Schwager.

These are interviews with some of the best traders in the world. You will learn, be inspired and most importantly, feel much better about the mistakes you have made, by reading them.

I have had a similar situation to the one you describe. I would suggest you get hold of "Stock Market Wizards" (the third book of the three) and start by reading the interview with Mark D. Cook. I have looked on the internet for a particular extract from this interview for you but I cannot find it and it is several pages in the book, making it too long to type out. Find it. I promise you it will change your outlook.

Tom
"After 4 months of hardship..." - that's a funny statement, it would sound a bit more convincing if you said "4 years" instead. Mi amigo, you are about as green as they come at this point. I agree with much of the advice given to you by the veterans, especially reading "Trading in the Zone".

My suggestion would be for you to drop the "I am loser" routine. Not only is it killing your trading, but probably having a negative effect on every aspect of your life. The " I'm a loser" way of thinking feeds that "little devil" inside your head that you keep referring to.

Oh yeah, the trading system is NOT important. You need to fix your mind... it's broken. The money comes to you after that.

P.S.

Step #1: Change that ridiculous user name.


I hope this helps,
MM
I completely get what you are saying. I have this very fear. Especially equalties. I have learned way too much to waste it in not playing the game at any point. I may have to modify how often I participate, but I believe it's a waste to let that information and experience go to waste.
Some pyschology books and such are my favorites. I like the saying smaller losses bigger gains. I'd rather lose 40 dollars and make 100 than anything else. I'd also rather sit here like I'm waiting for a bus to find the perfect trade than to rush it.
I guess the problem is patience and instant gratification. But if I'm sitting here at 3am 3 nights in a row, and only take 2 trades that are winners, I see no reason to ever rush. This isn't real "work" where I have to look busy when there's nothing to do as if I'm getting paid by the hour! Bigger accounts equal bigger leverage. Those 2 trades a week should, in theory, let me make more money everytime I do it just by leverage increases.
I'm also trying to overcome a problem of seeing too many systems and techniques. There's so many! It's hard to test things that may only happen once or a few times in a 24/hour period. I get inpatient for that too. I have one I haven't got to test in over a week!

Thanks for sharing, and letting me use your experience to discuss this type of thing further.
There will always be another 300 pip drop or rise in the GBP/USD. I saw the drop coming but I stayed out because my system said to. I was a bit annoyed but I just told myself it will always happen again. Also you need to find a system, thats proven to work over backtesting or forward testing, write the rules down on paper so they're very concrete, you don't want any subjectiveness at all, and then HAVE DICIPLINE.
Hi Loser...Fellow Trader,

First, you have to change your name from loser to winner, and be positive. I've lost $20,000, four times than you, before finally make it, therefore, I understand your frustation.

Second, you must view the loss as a tuition fee like college fees.

Third, find a good trading strategy. You can find many trading strategies in the tradeology dot com. I also see in this website there are some good startegies such as , bagovino method, Sidus method, and Hans 1-2-3 daily trading breakout, etc are good and profitable. You must remember. there is no holygrail in the trading strategies, the holy grail is the money management and discipline.

Four, trading using demo account until you can make profit for three months in the row.

Good Luck


Quoting loser
Hi all,

I am an aspiring forex trader want-to-be, and I only started out Forex Trading in July 2006. I've read books and go seminars to learn more about the market. In less than 2 months time, I've know all the basics from the setups to how to read the indicators and I thought it was enough.

As I went into trading with Mini, I was given a 200x1 leverage by Forex.com and I blew out 3 times from August to December in very short time.

When my friends saw my gloomy face, I still managed to hid from them and they thought I was a successful trader who is making money, and then they thought they've found a "holy grail" in me. I lied about my situation and I lied about my overall results. I was a scumb and I was nothing more than just a big fat mouth and an empty shell.

Although I can share about all indicators and explaining simple forex term, I became the "in thing" within my social circle. But deep inside, every day I traded with my life, I wasn't able to make pips consistently. I knew that it already hit the resistance or Fibo level or whatever trendlines and channels you can make, but I always succumbed by my emotions. I was not able to trade with ease. I told myself to trade on the 1-hour time frame, but when there is no entry possible, I switched to 4-hour and ah-ha yes I've found the entry point with all my EMA and MACD cross over each other. I thought trading was that easy, I've decieved even my dad that I am still making profit. That did not become a reality after my last month of trading.

I told them that I've lost 5,000 USD in the process, I've shared with my closest friend that I've lost that amount and close to crying out in the nights when nobody around. I wanted to be a trader really, I want to be financially free but it seems I can't. After 4 months of hardship, and listened to traders and from books that I MUST CONTROL MY EMOTIONS and PROPER MONEY MANAGEMENT, and yet yet all I still can't. Am I stupid or what my inner devil laughing at me, calling me an educated idiot who never wake up. Now I am, I am very much disappointed with myself, my performance, my lies, everything that resulted in that 5,000 dollars loss.

It may not sound much to some of you, but to me, it is a lot and it is painful. Very painful.

My friend asked me if I want to be a whimpee, I don't want. I want to rest and come back again. Blind confidence aside, I really don't know if I can make it. I really really don't know. I'm scare, I've no confidence and I dare not tell anybody about my problem but to share in this forum.

I just hope a kind soul to share with me your experience so I can get some comfort from. Don't console me that trading is not for me, because deepdown my innerself I know trading is for me. It is only about emotions. Please help me by telling me how to control them. I am in a lost, my paragraphs here are not well structured, I just type what I think. I am really really in pain, but definitely not suicidal. Not for 5,000 definitely.

My lifestyle has totally gone upside down due to that loss, I couldn't sleep, I even feel so stressful when I type this out. I'm not going to write further more.

If some of you know what I've went through, please share with me. I need help, psychologically and emotionally. If I can pull off this period, I can become a better trader I believe.
You need a system that wins most of the time and stick with it.

This also works for me... If I enter a trade with a 40 pip s/l with say 3 lots, I imediately accept a loss of 120. Once this is accepted by my mind, when it happens it then becomes expected.

Also, place your trades and shut down the computer.

Like now, I got in a sell on eur/usd at 1.3089 because of my system. What did it do? Retraced back some to as high as 1.3117. My old self would've gotten out and took the loss. This is why most newbies lose money.. FEAR. My new self is sticking to my system. If it hits the s/l, it is accepted by me. I'll get the next one.
Quoting llambert3
You need a system that wins most of the time and stick with it.

This also works for me... If I enter a trade with a 40 pip s/l with say 3 lots, I imediately accept a loss of 120. Once this is accepted by my mind, when it happens it then becomes expected.

Also, place your trades and shut down the computer.

Like now, I got in a sell on eur/usd at 1.3089 because of my system. What did it do? Retraced back some to as high as 1.3117. My old self would've gotten out and took the loss. This is why most newbies lose money.. FEAR. My new self is sticking to my system. If it hits the s/l, it is accepted by me. I'll get the next one.
Wise words - also you need to change your username to ex-loser with immediate effect

Kind Regards
Steve
I have had the same experence, turning 5K into f**k all, it was my first act as a trader. 50% of that was all in one trade which I just was not going to bail on, stupid eh?

Anyway this is what I found worked for me, small timeframes are for automated trading (unless you dig stress) so I use a EA for that stuff. For my other trades I threw out all that indicator bulls**t. Now all I do is draw trend & support and resistance lines then I wait for the daily candle to open beyond the line, I check the chart (thats right, just one pair) once a day. Keep it simple, none of that other stuff works.

You just gotta keep trying, that's all there is to it, quitters never win, winners never quit. Good moves come from experence, experence comes from bad moves.
The breaking of a wave cannot explain the whole sea.
0 traders viewing now