99% Winners!!! Wow, what a place!!

[MickMason]

We must be the elite of traders here on Moneytec, everyone's winning, it's great, I feel totally inadequate!

Ok, I'm being sarcastic, but all we ever see are successful strategies and people turning $10 into $10,000,000 in 10 days, don't we have any losers here?

I'm always losing trades, it happens all the time, fortunately my winners pay for them and leave me with some profit at the end of the month. Take this morning (GMT) for example, I went short GBP/USD at 1.8410 and got stopped out on the retrace for a loss of 30pips, I thought it had already retraced! It would have been a good trade as it's now at 1.8365 but I stuck to my plan, ho hum, there'll be others. What I should have done was followed my trading strategy without hesitation even after a loss and re-entered short on the 50% retrace but I was too slow and still recoiling from my morning's loss.

How about a few more 'what not to do' as well as all the 'do this', I'm sure there are a few readers who would find it helpful.

Have a great day y'all

Mick

[FX_Sniper]

Hi Mick,

I am human to, hence some losses now and then. Up until early last year, my trading was out of control to say the least. I did not wipe any accounts though, but I was very unhappy and it felt more like my profits ( although more than the losses ) where only lucky random trades...

I watched a free movie clip on the net of a very exited trader who gave a seminar of his system. I never traded or attempted to trade his system, but surely enough after watching that clip, my trading changed... Until today I do not understand what made me decide to stop messing about with loosing trades and simply cut their cordes when the reason for entering a trade does not exitst anymore. I knew this well before watching the clip, but that day I decided to act it out...it was just the way this fellow was going on and his whole outlook on the markets that somehow just triggered the response...

From then on I still had many loosers, but they have become minute in comparrison to my winners... I have never had any trouble with greed, as I am a very impatient person and thus get out of trades to soon most of the time, I simply do not sit and wonder about if this thing can go any further or not... fear I must say I have gotten under control as well.

I under went a total psycological reform period. I decided that I will meet trading half way and change my lifestyle to that what was neccessary to make consistant profits. I moved to a farm where no one bothers me, I have basically become a hermit as I do not wish to be influenced by outsiders. I worked very hard to supress bad habits etc. I trade very mechanically now using Fibs and divergence systems with great success. Did two scalps on GBP this morning and 2 on Eur, Euro's one went to hell for only 2 point loss... the other winners made 26.5 points in total...

The point I wish to make now is that if I did not undergo this reform and realize the things I did and did not make the changes to my style of trading, I would perhaps have not survived trading to enable me to still be hear and type all of this...

The second point is more a personal one which is that I can honestly now say that I place millions of times more value on my psychological profile and state of mind that I have created than my capital in my accounts...it is of most value to me and I defend and protect it at all cost...

The key to success for me was in the realization that losses simply can not overpower winners...simple as that...

So now here I am trading a simple Fib/Divergence system, sure I take some knocks here and there because of a strong reversal which zooms through all the retracement levels and never looks back to see my splat of blood against the wall, but this is how it is...it is about statistics... cheeting and lying to oneself about trades that has gone bad is almost criminal by forex law.

Since I started trading in general, I have learned to know myself in ways that most people will never know themselves and I count this as a total blessing...

Trading is not difficult, there are pips all over the place...that is a truth, loosing now and then is a truth, but lying and denying losses in all sorts of creative ways does not gell well with truths...

I need to be in the water to catch the waves, how much does it cost me to be in the water is my angle to this... so I will need to hang around on my board drifting arround waiting for the perfect wave as to speak...as long as this leasurly idle time does not cost me a fortune, I will survive...

Losses is a reminder that I am still in the water and in the right place to catch the waves ... denying them is ignoring the message that I am at this spot just before a possible big wave, the end result is I get out of the water to lick my wounds and miss the wave, cause I chose to ignore the message because I denied the truth of loosing...

The END.

Hope I do not boar you to death with this and that it is suitable for this thread.

Good luck and many good trades to you and all other fellow traders.

FX Sniper

[Jhaughey]

I was up 500% in my first three weeks... the next month I was breaking even. I had no real plan at all, coupled with beginners luck, started taking a punt on whatever market was in the news... oil, copper etc and subsequently and inevitably hit the wall. My inclinations about the market direction were more times than not correct, however, I'm now taking no postitions until I figure out some sort of money management, and taking solace in reading everything by Victor Niederhoffer!

PS, I started buggering about with option straddles and stuff like that which just prolonged the misery.

[MickMason]

Originally Posted by FX_Sniper

Hope I do not boar you to death with this and that it is suitable for this thread.

Absolutely suitable, I'm not arguing with that, it's nice to hear what did it for people (besides which I heard you know the business end of a rifle )

I don't know what happened to me this morning, I just sat there staring at a trade that I just knew was profitable but for some reason I froze.....I need more caffeine!

Mick

[MickMason]

Originally Posted by Jhaughey

Victor Niederhoffer!

'The Education of a Speculator'....didn't he lose his shirt and then make a spectacular comeback?

Mick

[FX_Sniper]

Hello Mick,

"...(besides which I heard you know the business end of a rifle )..."



How about this for some honesty to myself, a few minutes ago with the TIC data, my broker did not respond immidiately, so I took the LONG trade and when they came to, I was up +120 points ( trading 5 lots )... Doing this is not uncommon for me as I like to get some "revenge" on them . Anyhow, a few moments later the same thing happened and again I went in, unfortunately when the trade confirmation came through, the price had already spiked the other way round Gone was my +120.

Morral of the story, EASY COME, EASY GO

Cheers

FX Sniper

PS: This morning I woke up to late to catch the GBP kick-off whistle ( it is winter here now and getting more difficult to get up early )...

[Jhaughey]

Yeah he got wiped out in 1997 with the S&P plummet (he had written loads of put options).

The newer book he wrote 'Practical Speculation' was published well after his losses... a very interesting read, and as I said, 'solace providing' if your still keen on trading after your account has just gone tits up.

[q827]

Originally Posted by FX_Sniper

Morral of the story, EASY COME, EASY GO

THat's right, men...