Is losing a requirement to be successful?

I just hope that you also believe it with your heart..

I say "YES".
As some philosopher said, "You cannot stand up, without falling down".
Personnaly I think it makes sence!

Definitely YES!

There is a saying in chinese... " Paying School Fees To Go To School "
You have to lose to gain that knowledge.
it a natural process....
Failure is part and parcel of success....

Yes. I lost big and it was necessary to realize I had to be serious about this business. Luckily it was money I easily earned somewhere else, it was "money I could afford to lose" but still big enough to shock me and wake me up. In a sense I'm grateful it happened so soon, if I had too much luck from the start I would probably have wiped out all my savings due to overconfidence and I wouldn't be here now. I'm still in the market, with great dedication and with much more awareness about my emotional weaknesses. I go for 100% dedication and concentration now, nothing less. No more fooling around, no more emotional slavery. Also I only go for the best trades now... have dropped the machinegun and have become a sniper patiently waiting for my chance

my answer is yes.... I had no idea that trading would be so hard ( blew my first mini account) after losing I learned there is so much more to learn to be successful here

i think the yes's have it!

I would also put yes, cause of what many people have written earlier. You simply need to experience a loss, to know how important it is to integrate risk into your trading system.

I once heard that experience is a tough teacher; she gives the test first and the lesson after.

I voted yes...I think you have to learn how to lose before you can learn how to win.

I graduated the D.O.D. Police Academy, Combat Training, Chemical warfare training, ranked expert shooter at the firing range, and then went to the Gulf 2 years later. Ya know what....it was nothing like training.

I don't see trading as any difference at all. OJT is the best experience.

Definately a 'yes' from me also. By losing big time you get that shell shock you sometimes need to realise what's really important to succeed. MM and risk control.

Well, a Yes from me,


Imagine saying 'No' what a dangerous thing to do!

Actually I have taken a break from losing; I have paused my trading to do some reading and listening and look at slightly longer term trading than just the 15 minute chart that I seem to be devoted to.

In a strict absolute sense, I would say the answer has to be "NO". There is no scientific proof available that suggests that losing is a prerequisite to winning.

That being said, I do believe that the overwhelming majority of traders, (including myself) do experience losing at this endeavor for much longer and to a greater degree than what was originally anticipated. Learning what does not work is part of the education process of a trader. It would be very unlikely to find any trader alive today or historically that can boast of never having experienced losing before learning how to win. But again, is there scientific proof to this hypothisys?

Q: Would it be wise for anyone just learning to trade to even consider that they could somehow bypass the losing phase of the education/experience process and move direcltly into profitmaking?

A: Absolutely not.

Statistically, the the answer to the poll question would be a "YES" and since our business as traders deals intamatly with the statistical world, I do believe this to be true.

Below is a passage taken from a very insightful book that I have read and re-read several times entitled: "The Mind Accelerator" by Voilition Thought House.

" The world is our Oyster, but it will only give us pearls if we believe them to be there. Your external reality will always match your internally held beliefs, however falsely based they may be.

By changing your beliefs, you will change your reality. Whatever new belief you may be trying to adopt, if you can believe in it strongly enough, it will become your truth. Once you are able to change the perception you hold of yourself, you will effectively become that new person - for better, or for worse.

This is a universal law, and all humans are incapable of acting against it. The human mind is unequipped to act outside of its internally held beliefs. If you believe that jumping off of a 50-foot cliff may injure you, than you will never jump off a 50-foot cliff unless pain is your intention. If you truly think that staring at the sun will burn your retina, then you will never stare at the sun. If you believe tap water to be unsanitary, you may always drink bottled water and if you believe fooftbal to be dangerous, you may never play the sport. But how do you know for sure that the sun is damaging to your eyes? Because scientific research has proven it. Well, has scientific research proven that you are unable to become an extremely wealthy individual? Has it proven that you cannot become that next great success story?

You opperate in harmony with internal thoughts that you have come to think of as true. By forming personal beliefs about what you are and are not capable of, then you limit your effectiveness. You may never commit to a physical training regimen, if you believe yourself destined for obesity and hopelessly overweight for life. Conversely, you may always work in labour-intensive jobs if you believe yourself to be mentally inadequate for anything else. These simple beliefs about what you excell in and what you are poor at effectively dictate how well you perform. Regardless of your true mental capacity, if you believe you are unsuited for a 'desk job' then your subconcious mind will work to create actions that support this. At the first sign of challenge or difficulty, you simply will not go the extra mile needed to succeed in a mentally-demanding situation. Perhaps you received poor grades in school and, as a result, you formed a powerful belief that you lack mental ability or the discipline to develop your mind, so you simply give up. In the words of Charles F. Kettering, American engineer and inventor, to succeed we must "...believe and act as if it were impossible to fail."


Just my thoughts on the subject.


M

yes, but for a slightly different reason to what people have commented on so far, altho some have alluded to it in terms of respect forthe markets.

you have to lose, not to win, but to look yourself in the mirror and ask yourself some serious questions about who you thought you were when you went live.

you gotta find out if you can get up the next morning after a massive hit, and if you can trade without fear.

losing isnt necessarily a prerequisite to winning, but it is necessary to getting your head on straight if youre gonna last in this business

I trade other markets alongside forex. I do not believe "big" loss is required. The fear or realization of loss that is possible is enough. On just my fourth ever trade I spent 60% of my trading balance on a stock daytrade. Just about 10 minutes after my purchase, as I was down a minimal 1.5%... I realized what could happen to me if I stayed in. I exited the trade.. would have lost about half of my money within 2 weeks. The stock is still trading down at half the price I paid. I have never been so reckless trading since then, stocks, forex, commodities. I always cut my losses and never go into trades heavily. The winning %%% will catch up with you over time.

1%/day keeps the job away.

i voted yes becos i think every loosing trade has also his "good side" (at least in the learning process). every time when i have a loosing trade i try to "analyse" this trade and write down what i did wrong. it helps me to remember my mistakes and then i try to avoid them

A fellow trader once said: "I knew that was going to happen, I just wanted to see if I was right", this was after he encounted a loss because he entered a trade at the end of the trend. If you trade with a negative mindset, you'll have negative results, rather ensure your strategy is successful in the demo environment and that you understand it and are comfortable with the strategy, then apply it in the live environment - you'll have positive results.


With the custom indicators I use, I trade once a day, take 10 pips and that's it. But with this strategy I first needed to teach myself to be disciplined and maintain that discipline. Sometimes the problem is it becomes too easy to make money in forex, then greed takes over and before you know it, you've lost the plot and the trades.


Plan your trade, then trade your plan!

i just posted this on its own thread but think it works well in this one.

keep the losses small


"I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."
Michael Jordan

Good one!

Overall, I would say yes, but with a condition. I do not believe it is necessary to blow your entire account, although that often happens because of a complete lack of awareness of money management. But if a trader recognizes that after he has, say, lost half his account and realizes that something is not right before he goes bust, then things can be corrected.

But losing will no doubt occur. It is the only experience that can humble you enough to decide that you must change your perceptions and beliefs about the market before you can effectively participate. I just don't believe that going completely bust is an absolute prerequisite to making this discovery.

it is not necessary to do that,

once upon a time, i win a bit better than prediction, and wait to loose it.

than i realize, loosing is not a thing that got to be there

Most of the traders I know how wiped out once, and they are now very successful.