how do you start trading again

hello i would like the wise and experience traders to share their wisdom... i have a question.... how do you start trading again especially after taking a huge loss lets say a margin call... let it be from breaking rules or for what ever the reason is... how do you get back the confidence to start trading again...
how do you get rid of the fear of losing again....

The first step is to find something good in what happened.

Hi xscamx,

I’d recommend taking a little time off from trading. If you did major damage to the size of your account, take enough time away to replenish it. While you’re doing that, start a trading journal if you haven’t already. It doesn’t have to be online, and it doesn’t have to be something others will read. It just needs to be honest. During your break from trading write about the reasons why you started trading in the first place. Make it more than just a list. Get your mind and feelings both involved, and write down the core reasons why you want to trade, and why you want to succeed at trading. If it’s a new journal this will make a good introduction section.

After you’ve finished that, give some thought to your recent mistake. Ask yourself about the root cause, and be brutally honest. For instance, was it taking trades that you shouldn’t have? Or risking more of your account than you should have on individual trades? Was this really an isolated occurrence, or was a pattern of behavior forming? Once you’ve got that straight in your mind, record it in the journal. Lots of times just defining a problem well can suggest a solution. If so, record that in your journal also. Otherwise spend some time pondering or researching it, and update the journal with your findings.

Before you start trading again, you should be perfectly clear about why you want to be a trader, where you went wrong last time, and how you plan to avoid making the same mistake(s) in the future. It’s not necessary to completely extinguish the fear of losing, before you start back up. You can regain your confidence through experience, and that will gradually replace the fear. Use reduced lot sizes at first, or even return to demo trading for a while. Change brokers if you think that will help you make a new start. Read through the first part of your journal each trading day, and add new trading experiences and insights as you progress. Remember that for most of us, becoming a good trader is a journey. Along the way we each have our own individual mountains to climb.

Here is a PDF checklist you may or may not find useful.

Analyse and understand what you did wrong and move on, try not to beat yourself up over it or chase the loss, it might have been an expensive lesson so make it a valuable one. If you can't identify why you blew up then you've got a problem! If you can clearly see the cause(s) then.....

Start again slowly and rebuild confidence in your strategy and your ability to trade it.....assuming it's justified of course

An awful lot of successful traders have been through exactly the same experience, some seasoned traders even say it's a necessary part of the learning process!

From a practical perspective, fund your account with just a small amount initially, an insignificant amount you can afford to lose. Trade your strategy as you normally would (assuming it was your mistake which led to the previous loss and not the strategy's!) and then increase your trading capital in stages, ie if you make 5% then add 5%.

I started trading back in 2004 and I busted my trading account--twice in the first year of trading. Both times happened after making 100% each time. I stopped trading and got an extra job to get away from the market and raise money as well. It was only last year when i resumed trading again.

When I got back to trading again, there was still that fear in me. To get over this fear, I traded m1, and using stochastics, I opened and closed a position each time an oversold/overbought signal was given. I'd trade two hours, take a break, then trade again, doing this day in and day out.

What I wanted to accomplish was:
- to get used to trading with a hard stop in place;
- to get over that fear of losing money again.

Even with this 'reckless' trading, the worst that happened was that I got a 91% drawdown on the account. What's good about this experience was that I was able to get over that fear of busting out again.

Good luck to you--just do it. The worst that can happen is that you'd bust your account again. Each time you bust your account you become a better trader.

.... & accepting the fact (instead of denying) that u made a mistake.

Next, learn from/review your mistakes. then re-study, re-practice.
Take it slowly. slowly u will regain your confidence too.

Good luck!

Yeah, in fact you say to yourself "my bad". Then you analyze what happened and what your mistake was. Then you make a tattoo on your forehead saying, e.g. "I will never trade more than 10% of my deposit at a time". And you go on after that.

The most important thing is to realize you made a mistake and have to live with it.

PS. A tattoo is not the only option, writing on a blackboard instead is also ok