How do you survive after negative trades?

If your "system" has a positive long-term expectancy. Even then, there are still buts.

Isn't this at the very heart of the difficulty with trying to eradicate emotion whilst trading?

If you follow a system approach to trading or if you follow a defined set of rules, even if those rules or that system has delivered positive results for the last 20 years of trading data available on the instruments you trade.....how can you really be sure that the pattern will be repeated into the future? You can't and that's why trading is such a challenge to the psychology.

Even trading "price action" or "pure price action" or any other variation on this theme has it's problems. You may have a wonderful feel for the markets, be able to integrate the timeframes brilliantly and be able to spot when price is failing at levels or when a retracement is ending but can you say for sure that how you read those markets now will still be relevant in the future? I do believe, by the way, that this approach gives any trader the best possible chance of long-term success but it cannot be guaranteed. Price behaviour and characteristics could still morph out of all recognition and unless we're able to see it whilst it's happening and adapt "on-the-fly", you could well start to rack up an unexpected number of losses and where will your mind be then?

Dealing with a loss in isolation should not be an issue, it is simply an inevitable part of the process. Dealing with a whole string of losses needs a whole different approach. Everyone should have a termination point, a point that should their equity reach a certain point of reduction then they must cease to trade. It's this trigger which tells you something isn't right and you need to find out exactly what it is, start demo trading again to ensure that you've figured it out and then only when you have got things back on track for a period of time should you think about going back into the live markets.

I don't expect it to ever happen to me but I am still prepared for it. The figure? For me, it's a 20% reduction in equity from any given starting point. The most i've ever had was about 20% in the very early days so 20% now would give me a huge cause for concern that would need immediate and critical attention.

agree with you.i think this is the best thing to do.just dont hit yourself so hard.everyone have lost too.we are all the same hehe

lol

You've made my morning

I will switch over to Demo account, and try to double it, in order to regain confidence ..... and discipline. Treat the Demo trading like an entrance exam or qualification test. If I cannot double it then I cannot go back on Live.

Just accept it as part of the risk, that's why we use money management. To keep survive even after consecutive losing trades. After that, I'll wait for the next trade setup.

I take rest from trading for some days and watch movies to forget that loss.

Funny to see these different coping mechanisms. Punch the screen, work your pains out at the gym or get wasted. And don't forget to psycho analyse yourself, find that you're the problem, probably some hidden self-destructive tendency and a desire to fail, caused by some childhood trauma or something. LOL

My suggestion, calm down, have a nice big cuppa ... my chillout tea mix:
1/3 lavender 1/3 lemonbalm (Melissa) 1/3 St. Johns wort

Tastes total crap but definitely helps. And when you're finished, go out and enjoy the rest of the day with people whose eyes light up when they see you.

Man, that sentiment alone just put a huge smile on my face.

I carve the amount that i lost with razor blade on my wrists then rub it in salt,while drinking listerine with a slice of lemon
(joking)


Normally i would stop trading for couple weeks or months until i save enough funds to start again,as my deposits arent that big that,it does cause anger for few hours maybe a day for wasting money and nerves and getting nothing at the end,but this is the reality in this business,as the rule No.1 for me is if you dont have funds that you can loose never go into forex as eventually you will lose every penny you deposited and gained,thats why only a handful of people survive more than couple of years before giving up on it.

I just move on to the next trade, been doing so for the last +2000 trades.

I find losses more destabilizing than most full time traders I know, particularly if I have 3+ in a single trading session.

So, for me, I simply cancel all my shorter term (intraday) orders if I hit 3 losses, and quit.

I also work extremely hard on finding a sound reason why a trade didn't work out.

I've found it's not the loss I mind, but a particular type of loss that is negative for pretty much the entire duration of the trade, without ever moving positive by more than a few pips.

I've found that on a subconscious level that if I completely miss the mark it causes some self doubt that can and does affect future trading decisions for that day. If I have 1 of these during a trading day I don't sweat it too much...but if I have 2, I know something is probably not "clicking" correctly in my mind.

I will often stop at that point, take a few minutes, and then come back and perform an "on site" trade review, to determine if I can find a compelling reason as to what I overlooked.

If I can't gain some insight or clarity on why the trades lost, or I am unable to concentrate for some reason I can't identify, I just stop trading right there. I go to bed, or eat dinner, watch TV, read a book, whatever. But I get my mind out of the moment. I get some space from the whole thing, and that allows me to relax, which is where I'll be when I start working on the upcoming trading day.

And 3 losses in my intraday trading is my absolute limit. If I hit 3, I know I'm "off", and I now have an emotional as well as analytical battle to fight... and it's neither productive nor gratifying. So, 2 is a warning, 3 is the limit.

The best way I've found to "survive after negative trades" is to never have many "negative trades"... I'll turn the computer off and go shoot pre-school kids with a pellet gun, or hold my hand on a red hot stove, before I allow a "losing trade or 2" to turn into a "losing streak"

X

I hold a funeral.

Those soldiers are dead and need proper burial.

I'll remember them again for a brief moment tomorrow. I only remember them so as not to repeat the tragedy that cost them their lives.


Seriously, you avoid negative thinking and you get back to work. If you concentrate on the negative you will never accomplish much of anything in life. If you can problem solve and be positive in all things, you will go far.

But there is very little time to relax. To relax you get complacent and that doesn't mix well in any trading plan.

Cheers, and Happy Memorial Day.

ps: Thank you to the men and women who have risked so much so that I can have freedom.

i stop trading for some timeframe and strt observing the market

It's funny, in the beginning I felt this way years ago...but more recently... now I find myself feeling a sense of real fear after my winning streaks.

I find this sometimes occurs with traders who trade full time... but it still seems strange to me.

I deal with it by reducing my risk amount... until I realize how silly I'm being (considering I'm winning more than losing), and build back to what I should be risking.

I guess it all comes full circle eventually.

X