String of losers.... | Forex Factory

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String of losers....

  • #1
  • First Post: Edited 6:47am Mar 19, 2007 5:31am | Edited 6:47am
We've all had 'em....

What's the longest drawdown you've experienced with your real trading?

Did you ever have such a bad streak that you had to quit trading?

My worst experience was blowing my first $1,600 mini account.
  • #2
  • Mar 19, 2007 5:42am Mar 19, 2007 5:42am
quit not really, there's always some $10-20 remaining out there..:
then you start over with 0.1 lots

drawdown is bad, you have to keep it low, no matter.
"Everybody needs money. That's why they call it money" - Danny De Vito
  • #3
  • Mar 19, 2007 7:12am Mar 19, 2007 7:12am
Happily trading 5 (0.05) lots on a micro A/C, checked my spreadsheet which said 10 lots would keep me at 1% risk.

So.......next trades I entered 10 lots (or so I thought). What I'd done was have a senior moment and put 1.00 into the trade (100 lots) instead of 0.10. Needless to say the market went against me and as, fortunately, I'd set my stoplosses as normal it closed me out on 2 trades for half my account.

I'm VERY careful now 'cos as I trade daily charts I tend to set and forget. If I'd been around I would have spotted the damage earlier and minimised the losses.
  • #4
  • Mar 19, 2007 7:36am Mar 19, 2007 7:36am
A while back I ran a $300 account at oanda up to around $2700 in the course of a year. I then lost most of it. How it happened was I got a bad case of "gotta make it all back". I lost 300 then scaled up my trades and doubled down on losing trades and lost more. From there it all went down hill. Looking back I can't believe I was so stupid. I traded against all my principles. Hopefully I've learnt that lesson.
  • #5
  • Mar 19, 2007 7:41am Mar 19, 2007 7:41am
Quoting PeterFM
Happily trading 5 (0.05) lots on a micro A/C, checked my spreadsheet which said 10 lots would keep me at 1% risk.

So.......next trades I entered 10 lots (or so I thought). What I'd done was have a senior moment and put 1.00 into the trade (100 lots) instead of 0.10. Needless to say the market went against me and as, fortunately, I'd set my stoplosses as normal it closed me out on 2 trades for half my account.

I'm VERY careful now 'cos as I trade daily charts I tend to set and forget. If I'd been around I would have spotted the damage earlier and minimised the losses.
This sounds like the japanese guy last year who wanted to buy 10 shares @ Y100 000 but put in bid for 100 000 shares @ Y10. He got filled immediately. The bank he worked for wasn't too happy.
  • #6
  • Mar 20, 2007 1:44am Mar 20, 2007 1:44am
well here's my share of the story of winning and losing. i started a 600$ account in january, brought it up to 2400$ by late february and i am now down to 400 $ ....... i'm still a bit bummed out but hey, the piphunt must go on right.....
  • #7
  • Mar 20, 2007 6:28am Mar 20, 2007 6:28am
In my opinion, when trading any system, one should know what to expect in terms of losing trades. If your system yields a 55% win rate (plug in any number you want) you should calculate the odds of consecutive losers.

Once you have those numbers, you build your money management system to them. Let's say for sake of argument your system should see, with some regularity, 4 losers in a row. Now let's say you use a percentage based position size approach. Up to 4 losers in a row, you're doing ok, nothing is out whack. But once you hit that 5th loser you've got a warning sign. You should have written in your plan that after the 5th loser you will cut your position size x amount. If the next one is also a loser, cut it down some more. This should be planned out right up to the point in which you stop trading the system because after the 20th loser or so, it's broken.

By using this approach you will not go broke when your system breaks, which they have been known to do on occasion. Waiting until your money is gone to stop trading is a bit unnecessary. It could be your system is fine, it's you that's broken. Whatever the cause, a proper MM system will prevent you from losing all of your capital. All of this assumes discipline, of course.
  • #8
  • Nov 9, 2008 11:05am Nov 9, 2008 11:05am
I remember using the money to get my new glasses to open a trading account, it was goin well, Started with $400 and went close to $500.

One night i was trading and got greedy, over leveraged lost $100, then i thought to myself, i gotta make this back, so, i doubled up, the position slumped, i removed my stop and added another position which also slumped, so i added another position and went to bed with the hopes the i would wake up to a handsome reward.

When i woke up the next morning, i saw that i was still in the market and made all my money back, So i thought,,Hmm,,nice now i can make alot of money if the market moves 100 pips in my favor, then in the blink of an eye the market shot up 200 pips and i got a margin call leaving $63 in my account.
Plant good seeds and fruits grow.
  • #9
  • Nov 9, 2008 8:49pm Nov 9, 2008 8:49pm
My account is actually up about 2% right now, but it's max drawdown is 68%. I'm happy that I didn't blow it seeing as it is my first account I started off like any newbie trading horrible MM but at about 60% drawdown I started using proper money managment and I'm VERY happy with my +2% for the year because really its more like 62% haha. I just kept at it and stayed positive.
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  • #10
  • Nov 9, 2008 9:18pm Nov 9, 2008 9:18pm
i killed my 5k account in 2months, made about 1000 back cashed out taking a break
  • #11
  • Nov 9, 2008 9:59pm Nov 9, 2008 9:59pm
I suggest u guys shd read Rule No #5 ... from HERE

Sonic
  • #12
  • Nov 10, 2008 1:30am Nov 10, 2008 1:30am
Mine was when I put 1000 in my first mini account and I had been messing around with the 8.00 dollar 6.00 dollar, trade settings getting used to my MT4 platform.

Took a trade later that day thinking I was trading .01 not realizing I left it on 8.00 dollars and set my stop @ 100. Well when I got back I saw I had been stooped out I thought now big deal till I realized my account was at 200.

I was on hold with my broker about to tell him how I was going to sue him for stealing all my money and what a bunch of thieves they were bla blah blah when I realized what I had done, I quickly hung up the phone. Its not my biggest draw down but it was by far my biggest loss...dum stupid i know.

Quoting tdion
We've all had 'em....

What's the longest drawdown you've experienced with your real trading?

Did you ever have such a bad streak that you had to quit trading?

My worst experience was blowing my first $1,600 mini account.
It's me...
  • #13
  • Nov 10, 2008 2:06am Nov 10, 2008 2:06am
MIne was in 23 April 2008, when I just started trading on my standard account, and I left a trade, thinking it is going to turn .... I eventually closed it -80.... LOL- and it did turn to come back...

The biggest loss so far has been the last 2 weeks of october, my stoplosses were to tight, lost -260 in 6 trades, the 1 after the other... this was my salary I was suppose to draw, so no take away for me this month.
  • #14
  • Nov 10, 2008 4:39am Nov 10, 2008 4:39am
Maximum Drawdown for me is i lost 2.8K in just 2 months time. How pain it was and a bad experience.
Now still looking and developing best system to gain back my 2.8K
  • #15
  • Nov 10, 2008 4:56am Nov 10, 2008 4:56am
Quoting tdion
We've all had 'em....

What's the longest drawdown you've experienced with your real trading?

Did you ever have such a bad streak that you had to quit trading?

My worst experience was blowing my first $1,600 mini account.
I started trading options in 04 made 1k into 8k in two weeks that was the nailer.

that mentally set me up to lose non stop till July last year.

I took a 17K account and turned it into 0 from 05 to july 07. of course along the way i had decent wins but i was in one massive down trend.

I had a break studied the Phillip Nell 4 hour MACD and made 450% till Feb 08 spent my account and now started a new account in July I have not had a losing month yet.

the message we can all do it just have to try your ass off!

I have now been trading for three educational and productive years.

Cheers
  • #16
  • Nov 10, 2008 6:10am Nov 10, 2008 6:10am
Quoting >Apocalypto<
I started trading options in 04 made 1k into 8k in two weeks that was the nailer.

that mentally set me up to lose non stop till July last year.

I took a 17K account and turned it into 0 from 05 to july 07. of course along the way i had decent wins but i was in one massive down trend.

I had a break studied the Phillip Nell 4 hour MACD and made 450% till Feb 08 spent my account and now started a new account in July I have not had a losing month yet.

the message we can all do it just have to try your ass off!

I have now been trading for three educational and productive years.

Cheers
Verry nice, but most people just stop trading if they have blown up they're account.
I don't know what I would do, because I'm still in a learning fase.
Lots of trial and error here but someday I'll be ready to trade
  • #17
  • Last Post: Nov 10, 2008 3:58pm Nov 10, 2008 3:58pm
Quoting Jova
Verry nice, but most people just stop trading if they have blown up they're account.
I don't know what I would do, because I'm still in a learning fase.
Lots of trial and error here but someday I'll be ready to trade
Well I can tell you I beat me head into a wall a few times and at one stage when i lost my last dollars I seriously thjought I could not do it.

As I love trading and I keep thinking of the time i made 1K into 8K. I kept telling myself that I could do it agin.

I learned the hard way and I am still learning. I just hope you and other can learn from the miostakes I made in approaching trading.

One tip I can tell u is never fall into the I know it all trap. I did and when I did I always lost. Tip 2 READ READ READ READ READ as much as you can.

cheers
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