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

Quoting loser

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Hi all,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.

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.

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Quoting KissFan

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I agree with you Greg. I would say it this way. To gamble is to venture in a game of chance for stakes. To trade is to exchange a less valuable or desirable item for a more valuable or desirable one. Some of us are better at this than others.

Best regards-

KissFan

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Quoting price

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OK, I think that's a good idea. So let's do it. RickyRudy,... what charts do you look at?? which broker do you like ?? I'm game for this experiment. I'll help you set it up.
And Hey,... "The Artist Formerly Known As loser",... charts?? Broker?? What do you like ??
Nothin' to lose,... so what do you say, MT4?? Oanda??

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Quoting Tiki Trader

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I have only read a little bit of this thread.... but for those who compare trading with gambling... you are the ones who will lose... we all know what gambling is... no reason for it to be rehashed here... but trading is not the same.... when you trade... you wait... sometimes a long time... you wait until you see an opportunity where the chances go more in your favor.... tak a look at this chart... I'd say go long... price bouncing off the bottom of a channel.... there is a GOOD chance of winning here... of coarse it may not work out... you might lose and price might come down instead of going up... but here you can make an educated guess, AND risk only a small amount inorder to perhaps make quite a lot.... it is NOT gambling... it is waiting for the market to show its hand... then you pounce... as long as it is gambling to you... well... we all know what happens to gamblers...

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Quoting acidguy

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at some point i think we are gambling in this game, the thing is how probability you have to win? much are you prepared if things go against you? knowing the fundamentals and knowing how the read the charts helps.

but,
if someone knew the holy grail you could jump to stocks and be the next warren buffet, jim rogers or george soros.

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Quoting Dopey

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Three Pervasive Myths in the Trading World

By Brett N. Steenbarger, Ph.D.


"My work as a trading psychologist has provided me with a fascinating window on the factors that separate successful from unsuccessful traders across a variety of settings, from proprietary firms to investment banks to hedge funds. Having met and worked personally with well over 100 professional traders in the past few years, the main conclusion I’ve come to is that most of the generalizations about trading success are simply not true. In this article, I thought I’d summarize three of the more pervasive myths about trading success out there and offer my own, different perspectives.

Myth #1: Emotions are at the root of trading problems. Yes, emotions can interfere with concentration and performance, but that doesn’t mean that they are a primary cause. Indeed, emotional distress is as often the result of poor trading as the cause. When traders fail to manage risk properly, trading size that is too large for their accounts, they invite outsized emotional responses to their swings in P/L. Similarly, when traders trade untested patterns that possess no objective edge in the marketplace, they are going to lose money over time and experience an understandable degree of emotional frustration. I know many successful traders who are fiercely competitive and highly emotional. I also know many successful traders who are highly analytical and not at all emotional. Trading is a performance field, no less than athletics or the performing arts. Success is a function of talents (inborn abilities) and skills (acquired competencies). No amount of emotional self-control can turn a person into a successful musician, football player, or trader. Once individuals possess the requisite talents and skills for success, however, then psychological factors become important. Psychology dictates how consistent you are with the skills and talents you have; it cannot replace those skills and talents.

Myth #2: Anyone, with dedicated effort, can get to the point of trading for a living. That is nonsense. How many people make their living from acting or musical performance? What proportion of people playing sports can actually make their livelihood from athletics? Many people play chess or poker, but how many can sustain a living from it? Quite simply, to make a living from any performance activity means that you are consistently good at what you do. Not everyone has the talent, skill, or drive to be that successful—in any field. Across the many traders I’ve met in various settings, from home-based, independent traders to professional ones in firms, the best predictors of trading success have been the size of the trader’s accounts and the resources available to the trader. If a person were to make 25% per year on their accounts year after year, they would be among the world’s most successful money managers. Most money managers of mutual funds, hedge funds, and pension funds cannot sustain such performance. If, however, a trader begins with $50,000 of capital, he or she may not be content with $12,500 of profit. This leads the trader to accept huge leverage and court a risk of ruin when an inevitable string of losing trades occurs. Indeed, such excess leverage is a main cause of emotional distress in trading. Take a look at how the Turtles made their money: they learned a trading method, learned to be consistent with that method, and were given enough money by Richard Dennis that they could trade multiple markets with enough size to scale into positions in each. Even with those resources, not all of the Turtle students could succeed. Talent, skill, and opportunity are the ingredients of success, and these are relatively normally distributed in the trading population, just as they are relatively normally distributed in the population at large.

Myth #3: The main cause of trading failure is a loss of discipline. This is a myth perpetuated by “trading coach” and “guru” types that: a) don’t trade themselves and b) have a vested interest in your belief that their services are all that stand between you and success. The main cause of trading failure is a lack of an objective edge in the marketplace, trading random patterns that have never been tested out for success. We would never consider buying a car simply by looking at it. We’d want to research it, test-drive it, and peer under the hood. Amazingly, however, many traders will risk far more money trading patterns that they never research or test-drive. Many times, the reason they stray from those methods is that, intuitively, they realize that those methods are not working. In any performance field, we find a hard-and-fast truth: the great performers spend more time practicing their performances than actually performing. That is just as true for the Broadway actress as for the Olympic athlete. Many traders, however, think that on-the-job training will be enough. Unfortunately, their accounts often don’t survive their learning curves. A well-placed executive within a trading firm confided to me last year that the average time it takes the average trader to blow through their entire account is seven months. That is why brokerage firms are always on the hunt for new customers. It’s not that these traders are all deficient in discipline: they simply haven’t engaged in sufficient practice to figure out the right markets and trading styles for them and to hone their skills. In every other performance field, you can find relatively easy levels of competition: you can join a community theater, play rounds of golf at the par-3 course, or set the challenge level on your chess computer. There is no easy level of competition in trading, however. When you place a trade on a major exchange, you are up against the pros from day one. No wonder it is so difficult to succeed! Discipline is necessary for trading success, but there is much more to success than discipline. It takes concerted practice and the cultivation of skills at reading and acting upon market patterns.

In an ideal world, I wouldn’t have to challenge these myths. You’d be able to obtain very realistic messages about trading success from brokerage firms, vendors, trading gurus, books, and magazines. The reality, however, is that most of these commercial entities have a vested interest in perpetuating a dream that is, in reality, a cruel fantasy: that, without real, sustained effort, anyone can make it big as a trader.

Does that make me a Scrooge during this holiday season, saying “Bah, humbug!” to the aspirations of thousands of traders? I think not. The reason I wrote my most recent book, Enhancing Trader Performance, was to show that there is a common process beneath the development of elite performance in any field. That process involves several components:

* Finding a Niche – Identifying a performance field that takes maximum advantage of your skills, talents, and interests;
* Deliberative Practice – Rehearsing skills in increasingly realistic settings to prepare for the challenges of actual performance;
* Constant Feedback – Intensive review of performance to identify strengths and weaknesses, so that you can capitalize on the former and address the latter.

The successful traders I’ve known have found a market (or set of markets) and a trading style that capitalizes on their abilities. They have been relentless in working on their skills, using videotaping to review markets and performance and using simulators to rehearse under different market conditions. To sustain such effort requires a love of the markets themselves, something not all traders have. Some traders love the action, some love the dream of making money, some love the opportunity to work for themselves—but many don’t love the work itself: the effort of mastering patterns in demand and supply.

Success is possible in trading as it is in any performance field. If anyone tells you, however, that the path to trading success is different than it is for the surgeon or Olympian, you know that you’re hearing a myth. If you choose the path of the elite performer, trading can be wonderfully challenging and rewarding. If trading is not your ideal path for self-development, however, you are far better off finding your passion elsewhere and managing your money prudently. The goal is to develop the best within you, whether that is as a trader or as something else. Your life deserves nothing less."

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Quoting loser

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Hi guys,

I'm back from a break but still in hell, I blew another 500 USD in a Mini, and during the past one year, I blew another 1000 USD. Total amount to date is 6,500 USD and I am still in a lost.

I thought I have found a winning system but everytime I tried to trade, I ALWAYS lose. I wanted to win but it seems I can't. It's been a year since I last posted here.

Guys and gals, please please I really want to trade for a living as I have chosen it to be my life and my career but it is a joke right now and the loss stands at 6,500 USD.

Please help me and tell me a system that you are trading now and how much do I REALLY need to deposit in order to make money.

I am sad, I am in a loss and I did not go to work as consistently as before and I am lucky to be able to stand afloat in that job. If I'm sacked, I would be the Harry Banes of Forex, albeit a losing trader.

I tried to shed away the losing mentality and I've had. I read the "Science of Getting Rich" too, but whenever I login to my account I forgot everything. Can someone out there please help me with your utmost sincere effort? I'm sad not because I lose money, I'm sad because I am not able to bring money in to the field I love most. I am able to talk whole day about trading and know almost every single term in Forex, but it is no point knowing if I do not put it into real action. I need someone, I need to instill something in my mind again.

I don't know how to carry on, I shall stop here.

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Quoting loser

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Thanks everyone. I just had a shower and I thought it would go away everytime as I feel fresh again.

I will start again on a demo, and I don't know which system should I start with? I am not able to trade the london session, I can only trade the US session which should be opening soon.

Can someone tell me what I should do?

I am absorbing every minute right now. Thanks.

One more thing, it seems like EVERYONE here is making lotsa money, and some people even with 300 USD able to make 5 figure then. I am not jealous, I should look forward to how to become them but tell me how.

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Aparsai

I am normally reluctant to post on here because last time I posted I got bombarded with questions that I didn't have to time to answer.

You can make this a living if you want. Alot of people will tell you this system and that , but you have to remember that each persons brain works differently and only you can tell what works for you. The person that originally showed me forex , makes a substantial amount each month from forex , more than a 65 year old guy (my teacher) can spend , but didn't work for me. I ended up using a system that was designed for stocks and overlayed against what I had been taught and the 2 of them together really made serious points. There was a study done in New York about 12 years ago with 20 students, they were given 5 different trading strategies , the amazing thing was that a different 20% exceled in each trading strategy , meaning that each persons brains work slightly differently.

You have to follow the "Bruce Lee" method of learning. His style , was as he said , "All styles and none" , which is to say that he learn't them all but didn't use a lot of it , but understood the thinking behind it and the thought. I know an awful lot about techincal analysis , but for my trading I use very little of what I have learn't , but i still understand everything else.

I would make sure you learn as much about your "traders mind" and the psych as you can , because over time this is 10 times more important than the technical analysis , and also risk management which is what actually makes you money , not the analysis of the charts. For example , I was reading a book called "Trading in the Zone" by Mark Douglas , all the your traders mind , in there he mentions about a "Risk Free Trade" , basically having a trade that you are unable to loose money on and the fact that this totally changes your thinking , you become a lot more objective and a lot clearer and the levels of emotions are reduced considerably. I basically added this on to my strategy of having a zero stop after being profitable by 20 points , I had a greater number of non profitable trades (ie , not making a thing), but the level of successful trades (not loosing anything) went to the 90% level of all my trades , and the average number of points profit per trade increased , even though I was getting a higher proportion of trades being stopped out for a zero.

If you are really serious about doing this and making very decent cash , I would become a Bruce Lee and learn as much as you can , without accepting any "guru" with this system or that , you will go in a circle and feel overloaded from information and then you will simplify your strategy and risk management and get to the next level. The sooner you "be your own man" the sooner you will get to make a decent living out of it. You should be able to do it in 2 years , if you don't look for short cuts and are willing to open your mind to new ideas but at the same time not accepting them as fact. Remember that this system may work now , but eventually it will stop working , but the market's fear and greed mentality will never change. It is the same now as when the Japanese started the first futures market in the world for rice over 500 years ago.....

From my own development and talking to other professional traders over the years , your progression should roughly follow this route-

1) Excitement as finding the pot of gold that will solve all of lifes problems
2) Following a "gurus" strategy without question
3) Becoming disenchanted when you realise that the system has faults
4) Thinking that if you learn more things will make it easier to get trades correct
5) Learning every piece of technical analysis you can looking for something that will give you 100% of correct trades
6) Having technical paralysis , having 6 different things giving conflicting signals and not taking a trade at all and then beating yourself up for not taking it and missing points when your "gut" feeling told you it was going to go there
7) Concentrating on one thing and having it go correct all the times but getting stopped out on them at the bottom of a pullback
8) Lightning bolt ! Realising that the reason you are not successful is not because of your strategy , but your mental state and the willingness to completely accept risk
9) Understanding that the market is not an absolute and that it is a graphical representation of the collective thoughts of in infinate number of traders all thinking indepentantly and that unless you know the reasons why the market reacts to things you will never have any faith in the technical indicators you are using (making a new low in stocks, means EVERY holder is now loosing money , etc etc etc )
10) Accepting the market as a whole and that anything can happen and only your risk management will stop you doing serious damage and that there is always tomorrow and another trade and there is no need to worry if you miss this one.

I am a professional trader and after many years of trading from home , have recently decided to work for a major trading house again as I am going bored and lonely at home. The things that they asked me in the interview were not what my trading strategy was , but all about my mental space and risk management , because to them that was more important than your strategy or your win/loss rate. That should tell you something......

I know this post doesn't tell you the magic formula to press this button or that and make money, but I hope this helps you anyway.

Have a good day !

Bear
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Don't let the fundamentals get in the way of a good trade

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I have been trading for a very long time now and my stop loss strategy is different from most.

I have tried all sort of methods and the one that I have found works best for me is using a 40 point stop (I only trade cable) but the difference is that once I am in front and profitable by 20 points to 30 points I change the stop loss to zero. This is based on Mark Douglas's book "Trading in the zone" and what he talks about a zero risk trade. I have found that once I am in this profitable area I become a lot more objective and calm about the trade.

Everybody on these forum's talk about this strategy and this technical and gann and blah blah blah but have forgotten the people that drive this market , and it is certainly not the traders on here , it is the bank traders who will trade up to $50 Million in a trade (500 contracts), they are working on time zone strategy , ie they have to make money for the bank in the working hours they are there. Have you noticed the market moves at 7am London time and 8.30am New York time ?? They come in a sit down and take a trade. They will not be in it for an hour , they will take the trade and then let it run so long as it is profitable over the course of the next 4-5 hours. These are things that you should be keeping in the back of your mind when you are up 35 points in an hour, ie the move hasn't finished.

By all means use the other details but by using a zero stop and leaving it for a couple of hours and once up 70 - 80 points then take it. Go back and do some calculations on the currency you are trading and take 3 -5 months worth of data on what the maximum move over a day was (Number of points from the low to the high on the day) and then come up with an average over the period in question. Was it 60 points ? Was it 80 points? Was it 100 points ? If it is 80 points and the low was 60 points away from where you are now , then you have a good idea that the move won't be a great deal further. This will not work all the time , but used consistantly it will generate profits for you , and Consistantly being able to make profits is what is all about , not tops or bottoms or this wave or that.

Hope this helps.
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Don't let the fundamentals get in the way of a good trade

Quoting FXCapitalist

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1] Discipline

2] Risk Management

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