What was your lowest point?

I'm mainly creating this thread to archive and talk about the pain endured by traders who really dedicated their lives to this pursuit. It doesn't have to be only those who "made it" so to speak.

So, what was your lowest point and how did you overcome it?

Are there any realization(s) that came out of it?

Or, were you so lucky to have no low point and if so, what do you think helped you prevent the downward spiral? -- What have you done differently than others in your opinion?

When I realize that the strategy that I have been working on for weeks has a problem and it doesn't work, it becomes the worst point in my life. I just close my laptop and sleep for a week. This has happened 11 times so far.

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hey jay..... a question worth answering.....

my lowest point, at least in memory, is the highest point on the gbpusd for over 12 years.... (the ask is always higher than the high shown on the chart)....

i bought..... or to put it more painfully, i closed my shorts..... and at a price that is higher than the highest price shown on the chart....

after a month of adding to, doubling up, trying to average down and all the other tricks we try in vain , that account had no more available margin left.....

so i manually closed all the trades for a loss at the ask.... a second later..... a second..... the price began to fall.....
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the problem was me..... no one can solve my problems but me.....

my solution..... trade small..... trade with the trend.....

things are quite different now.....h
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When i realised no indicator would predict the future, or even 2 or 3. Price action, retrancement, support and resistance is what changed it for me, much more important then the indicators.

What a good idea with this thread. I think many traders can relate to each other on this. I've been interested in financial markets in 15 years and have been trading on/off ever since. It made me think about my journey and what a ride it's been. I will share some experiences here for sure.

Some of my lowest points in my long journey

- When I lost 15.000 dollars in two days with high leverage
- When I realized there might not be a 'holy grail' to find consistent edge in trading (still searching though, will never give up)
- When I tested almost everything about fx and haven't become financial independent yet
- When I've blown my account more than 100 times
- When hard work does not equal profit, it's the hardest 'game' in the world
- When I spent years on a faulty strategy/indicator
- When admitting to be wrong in own analysis
- When I admitted I had become addicted to the markets

were you so lucky to have no low point and if so, what do you think helped you prevent the downward spiral? -- What have you done differently than others in your opinion?


until now I'm still learning , using demo trading ,

I've blown a lot of demo accounts with big ammount and few real account with small money.

If it was all real money, I would have been totally bankrupt

if Losing much money I cannot afford , I think it wil be low point

how low we can go ?

Initially, I was depend on technical tool based trading strategies; as a result I have such a bad experience on trading; I know trading tools are important; but it’s not a good idea to rely on the technical tool only!

My lowest point is when I realise I had to admit I know nothing about this Forex market. It was the most painful moment and very difficult to get past my ego, to tell myself in the face that I know nothing. That's my rock bottom moment many years ago before internet forums. I'll always remember forever this day, since this is also the day I started from ground zero. Cheers

After spending many years trying to crack the markets trough excel/statistical researches/building ea I was really close to leaving forex. Than I understood that in order to build a working ea, or doing proper research, you first need to know what to look for and how to trade profitably by yourself. I'm not quite there yet but it kicked me into being a real trader.

Answers are not on numbers... Answers are on charts, once you find answers on chart you will be able to find better answers in numbers.

I have two big ones and one normal one we all go through I'm sure.

Back in the 2000's when leverage in the US was greater, I was heavy in a trade in eur/usd with a stop far away (just in case) and back then the markets were closed on Thanksgiving, but when it opened, it gapped past my stop and took over $5000 from me and then immediately went back to the normal price. I was furious thinking it was impossible. IBFX assured me it was true. I had made all of that in profit all year, so that's the good news, but it was devastating for me. I think banks were maybe fined in Europe for that kind of stuff, but I just lost the money. Stopped trading for years after that.

My second was I put a lot of money in a penny stock that was 2 cents and went to 32 cents. I had over $32,000. I sold enough to get my cost back and the stock went all the way down to .0001. I was sure it was going to a $1. Good news again I lost nothing..

Finally, the hardest thing in the world is to have a stop in place or a buy/sell limit and price hit it to the pip and reverse.

never been to these part of town , planing to keep it that way , but , kenny delivered it in a song

interesting topic it seems..

my lowest point is to see a vast majority of traders here on FF yet I just step foot into this industry

hopefully, I would be able to catch up

Now this is something that is worth writing about.

A little story about my personal journey.

The Beginnings
It was all about the money, when I first seen a chart I thought to my self holy crap, if I guess the direction correctly I could make money doing so? It felt like it was something that could easily be accomplished until the very first time I clicked Buy. Didn't even know there were demo accounts, the thought never crossed my mind. When folks began talking about them I ignored. It all started then in 2013 when throwing a few hundred dollars in here and there, I tried getting that quick cash. When I figured I wasn't the best and had lost almost $10,000 in the first year I said that's it. Time to educate my self and started looking at courses, as I wanted to read the charts.

Won't name any of the courses as they turned out to be the same recycled courses from a network of traders that just made money off people purchasing these useless pdf's rather than their actual trades. Most of them deleted incorrect positions and only showed profitable ones, making it feel like "wow these guys are the real deal". But after time went on you figured out that "Hey this course looks like this other one I just bought, just different logos on it and charts moved around". Turns out it was.

Then there was one person, who.. crap they really struck a nerve. I was that eager, that hungry to learn as much as I could. I was seeking help on forums and other trading websites, slipping into the dm's of successful looking traders and almost asking them to privately tutor me. One of them replied and said they had a course they were making. I thought "Yes! This is it!" They began building a lot of rapport with me, asking about personal things, how's my life going, family, etc. I thought wow, now this dude seems super genuine. Fast forward a month and he says the course is $5000. Check my bank and I have $4200 but needed to pay rent and utilities. I thought nah, this investment would set me up learning everything there is about trading so I could essentially print money. I skipped paying rent, didn't buy my food for the week and went all in on this course. After sending this bloke the money, he became uncontactable.

This is probably when I went through a huge mental-struggle for the next 6 months as I'd put everything I had in my bank, skipped bills and rent. I wanted to learn what it took to be a successful trader that much I had went ' ALL IN ' on a random person on the internet, I know that was my mistake and accepted complete responsibility. After I think the second month, I opened my laptop and had $135 in my trading account.

The turning point
I was looking at everyone's charts, a month or two later after almost being evicted, I'd managed to borrow the money from family to maintain my living situation. This soothed the mind a little and instead of feeling anxious, itchy to get money, jealous I started sitting back in my chair thinking: Why am I thinking this, It's not helping me. The moment I'd realized that how I was feeling was reflecting in my behaviour, my perspective it was almost like a little lightbulb moment. "If these people can be successful at trading, that means I can too". It might take me some time to learn, it might cost me a bit of money, but what I'll learn throughout my journey will be priceless and I'd already learnt my first valuable lesson: Learn by doing and that's exactly what I began to do. I took that energy, I accepted what had happened and pushed ahead knowing that the end result will be worth all my effort.

1. How can I mark my charts so I understand the market better?
2. How many markets / assets / pairs should I focus on to learn?
3. What is being traded the most?
4. What time does the market open?
5. Where did the term candlesticks come from?
6. Where does this data come from?

Were some of the questions I began to ask myself, I'd write them down and go down the list each day writing new ones and crossing old ones when I'd figured it out. I started learning on free websites about what certain terms meant and journaling my trades, writing down what was a loss and figuring out the 'why' over the weekend. I also was writing the 'why' for profitable trades. I began noticing patterns in my trading, how I traded, what I traded and the style of trading.

It was a learning curve for the next 3 years after starting in 2013 and over $350,000 of profit and loss, mainly losses...

I didn't know how long it'd take, where it'd take me, but I got there and if I can push through... So can you.

Interested to hear about others trading stories or struggles and provide any support through a thread or replies.

Thanks for the great topic.

I stick to conservative approach, carefully manage risk don't let equity drawdowns overwhelm me and prompt to make silly mistakes. In my view most wipeouts is a result of attempts to revenge market or greed, i.e. trading under influence of emotions, not careful risk and money management.

I realize this is an old thread, but...I've been thinking about some areas of trading off and on for the last few weeks that don't seem to be talked about much and wondering if writing about these things I've gone through would help anyone else. Hopefully the two things I write about below will not just entertain, but will help you move more quickly through your successful trading journey.

My lowest point in trading was when I didn't follow the rules of an ea. I had made over $20k the first day using it and I went against the rules and lost the $20,000 plus $140,000...real $. It's on my tax return for 2009. My wife and I had to dip into our home equity line. I mention my wife because she was sitting there with me when this happened...somebody was being a little too cocky.

The second lowest point was believing someone, who I still consider a friend to this day, who told me that I could trust the guy he referred me to on investing in a start up that was using this guy's trading system. Lost $250,000...real $, it's also on my tax returns. I don't know if his trading system worked or not...the money disappeared before we got to that point. Another time we had to dip into the home equity line. (We soon closed the home equity line because we determined it was a danger to our future financial well-being.)

The biggest thing I've been forced to learn is to NEVER let a loss become shame. Stay with me while I explain this.

This realization of what shame did to me was probably my biggest leap in maturity as a person, as a husband, as a father, as a business owner and as a trader...and, not so surprisingly, I'm so stubborn and dense that I only figured this out a few years ago.

When I had losses, not just in trading, but in life/business, I would get so upset about it, so embarrassed (even though no one else even knew I was embarrassed), and then I would get angry which led to feeling ashamed of myself and getting stuck in that mode. Feeling upset is fine for a little while and being embarrassed about it when you're the only one who knows you feel embarrassed is just stupid, but allowing a loss to make you feel ashamed is VERY damaging.

Feeling ashamed shows in your face and controls your actions. It destroys your ability to bounce back. It destroys people around you. It destroys your ability to think straight and makes it difficult to let go of the loss and move on to the next "one good trade" or decision you need to make. It slows your progress and growth. It's debilitating to the point of mental paralysis. It disqualifies you from being a great trader.

NEVER allow a loss to make you feel ashamed.

It took me a long time in life to get to this place.

Now, when I have a loss, I remind myself of a saying I heard: "Don't be angry at or about the game. Just be happy you got to play."

When I heard that the first time and every time I say it to myself, it's like a light switch in my brain that releases the loss and allows me to move on quickly.

Thought 2: The Loneliness of Trading

I think trading is one of the loneliest things to try to do. There's no mom or dad or guru or friend to do it with. Not that people aren't around. My office is in the loft and my wife is typically home with me, but it's still lonely for me as a trader. I mentored someone in the office last year from 2:30am to 11am, five days a week for four months and it was still lonely. (Don't ask, nope, not doing that again.) We can go on a trading forum and "interact" with other traders. There's a lot of that going on. Millions of wanna-be traders and a few successful traders are in forums like this one, in trading rooms, on discord, in prop firm rooms, guru rooms, mentoring rooms, etc, but there's still that trader loneliness. I think loneliness in trading may be that last hurdle causing a lot of people to not make it as a trader.

Trader loneliness is an emotional part of trading that's beyond mental.

Why is this? I don't know all the answers on this one. We all start out running from strategy to strategy and "guru" to "guru" thinking this one didn't work for the week I tried it, but the next one will. This goes on for a while. It was fourteen years of this for me and then there's the "fourteen year sudden" realization that nothing anyone else is doing works...for me. It seems to work great for the guru. Why doesn't it work great for me? During this step in a trader's progress one starts to understand that each of us have things that we can see on a chart or that we can grasp about fundamentals and there are things our minds will never grasp no matter how many times a guy name Ray says, "It's simple." Things on a guru's chart are typically historical after the fact trades that make indicators look like they work great and make you think trading this system is easy, but then we look at a live chart and the brain just freezes and looks at that dark lonely right side of the chart called THE FUTURE and wants to take that leap and suddenly that same brain screams, "NO ONE WILL BE WITH ME INTO THAT UNKNOWN!".

No one does things how I do them, no one sees things how I see them. Therefore no one can do it for me, NO ONE CAN BE IN MY BRAIN DOING THIS ACT that is risky, dangerous, mystifying and so unknown...jumping off the last candle cliff into the right side of the chart. This truly IS the definition of trader loneliness to me. No one gets it. No one can get it. It's just me against the future, that next millisecond!

That realization that NO ONE IS ABLE TO BABYSIT MY BRAIN AND PUSH THE BUTTON FROM IN THERE FOR OR WITH ME is at the same time terrifying and freeing.

It's lonely as a trader. There's nothing you can do to change this. Being in this forum or room won't change it. Having a "guru" won't change it. Having another trader with you won't change it. Your wife being around won't change it. Being alone in a room won't change it (lol).

The closest you can get to making it better is taking everything you yourself can "see", can understand and putting it all on a chart. Trade that stuff on your chart for months. Figure out what doesn't help you. Figure out how to simplify it. Figure out what you're missing and find it and then, again, trade what you can "see" for months until you have your own rendition, your own system, your own written rules of what will help you take that leap off that last candle cliff into the right side of the chart. That truly is the nearest a trader can get to shedding some light on their loneliness of trading into that next millisecond called the future.

Epic post Cashbox. I did it too in the early years, never mentioned it to anyone.

It's almost a guarantee that anything any of us earn in the first few years of trading, especially if it's outsized returns, we'll not only give back to the market but give it back together with our starting capital. I did it, you did it, every single trader I know who trades for a living has done it. Not to say it's a right of passage, or that it's necessary, but this experience is so common as to be normal.

But as you say, it's how you handle that that counts.

Breaking a mouse in pieces on my forehead

punching the screen out of my 5th laptop.

losing the 20k that my mother loaned me to bailed me out of the other 20k I’d lost on credit card and loan

chucking in my job on a dream

losing the 5k profit id made in 6 disciplined months in 3 minutes of undisciplinedness

Losing my entire 20’s, 10 full years … believing

You don’t know pain

how did i overcome it? I doubt I ever will. But imagine spending hours, and days, and months and years believing and trying and doing and testing and losing and doing all that over again 100 times…

then having at some point to give up and quit and submit to all those naysayers who always doubted you?

none of the pain above compares to this… to walk away and take that loss.. thats very hard. There was no plan B… all that time, effort, sacrifice gone like it never mattered or existed..


yeah that was the real pain… took 8 years to rebuild in the real world… but what was lost was lost … and what is, will always be..: thats the risk I took and that’s why it’s called risk and not “fairy tale”.

I know pain, and that’s really all I learned from Forex.


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nKcnnXRCK44

I can literally feel the pain from what you wrote. Thanks for reminding me about the laptop I punched out...nice 17" MSI top of the line gaming computer several years ago. lol.
If you're on here does it mean you're still trying to become successful in trading? PM me if you'd like. I'd be open to listening to where you are now and what you're trying to do.

3 years ago I started a hedge fund trading Forex. I had done well on a personal account and thought I could take other peoples money haha. After almost a year of putting it all together I actually started a hedge fund and raised $75,000.

I lost it all within the first 4 months.

I was in a really dark place, for two of those months no one but myself knew how bad it really was, and having to let the few people who trusted me know was the darkest point in my life. I literally thought there was no light in the tunnel. Just thinking about it gives me ptsd.

I stopped trading completely and went on a whole new life path. I haven't traded for 3 years until about a month ago I picked it back up. I will never trade anyones money but my own personal funds from now on.

One of the biggest mistakes I made when starting a hedge fund was you have to use a US broker, which they don't let you hedge a trade, and you have to follow the First in First out rule. Which I had learned trading on an overseas broker and this changed everything about the way I traded. I should have been smart and stopped right there, but I was too far in the process and I thought I would figure it out.

Well now I am trading again for the last month and I have found my old passion. It is exciting. But I have went through some dark times haha.