Shrugging off losses

[countrybumpkin]

When I'm up for the day I feel great, but when I lose, obviously it hurts. What are some of your routines for "brushing it off"? i.e take a walk, go outside?

[PipDiddy]

I don't mean to come off insensitive, but losses are inevitable, so you try your best to remain emotionally detached to your trade.

A good way to shrug off losses is to prepare for them before you even trade. That way when you start losing, you're mentally prepared for it.

Losses are simply the cost of doing business or the amount of money you need to spend to make yourself available for the winning trades.

Of course, I assume you're using proper money management.

[vababy]

If i get hit with a major unexpected loss, i'll step away from my computer and may even quit for the day. Even if you're not quite on "tilt" you can save yourself a lot of money by simply taking a break and maybe going back and analyzing your system or just catching up on some Forex reading.

[pristen]

Originally Posted by pipdiddy

I don't mean to come off insensitive, but losses are inevitable, so you try your best to remain emotionally detached to your trade.

A good way to shrug off losses is to prepare for them before you even trade. That way when you start losing, you're mentally prepared for it.

Losses are simply the cost of doing business or the amount of money you need to spend to make yourself available for the winning trades.

Of course, I assume you're using proper money management.

I agree. Not only are you mentally prepared for the loss, but it keeps your emotions in check so that you can have a clear head for the next trade.

[4xfanatic]

I like to trade in a group. That way when I start feeling like I'm losing it, I have others to keep me in check.

[topchess]

I agreed. Losses is the expense of collecting earnings. and you won't make earnings until you spend. This spending comes in a losses form.

[honeb]

im a master of lossing trading. i pretty much learned everything... the hard way. all the lessons ive learned were through losses. and learning from losses does help but its better to learn from the mistakes of others. one thing i do when i want to open a posistion is i place the order (with limits and stops) then walk away and do something i enjoy that has nothing to do with trading. that way when i come back to a bad trade then my day isnt totally ruined cause i at least enjoyed myself doing something else. i dont sit and watch my trades while they bump up and down. thats excrusiating especially if you are new to trading. when i was new to trading i use to let that emotion i get from watching my trades push me to make impulsive moves that i usually end up regretting.
but now if i have a winning trade then thats great but i keep myself in check and preprare for loosing trades. and i study my winning trades to make sure that my predictions came true and it wasnt just luck. always keep yourslef in check with winning trades cause if you get over confident you are bound to make stupid mistakes. ive learned that the hard way over and over again. so trust me.

and now when i do loose then i look for mistakes that i made. i check for clues that i missed or any silly errors like typing in my orders wrong etc... but all in all you just got to accept the loss. hind site is always 20/20 but it doesnt help much after the fact. now one thing that really makes me feel better about losing trades is money management. most new traders dont take it seriousely but its one of the first lessons you learn before you even get a account. new trading students dont care about how to manage their money, thats what banks are there for, they want to know how to make it and make lots of it. so its the greed in people that drives their trading decisions. i had to learn how valuable money management is the hard way. money management gives you room to be wrong and weither you use only 1 simple indicator and trade using only 1 chart timeframe or weither you got this elaborate system. What truely messes up 90% of trader is Money Management and Psycology. if you master both then you are already a winner.

[ramrocket]

I agree with Honeb. When I got started, I thought I knew everything I need to know about forex and jump to live trading and in 4 days lost 5K of my capital. Something different in your learning process when you actually put money on the table and you loss it. All of a sudden your IQ rises to a different level (uptrend - which is good). Every trader has to go through this experience of losing. It's just part of the business but the primary objective of every trader is to preserve the capital. When you loss your capital, your potential to make money is nil. I too focus now just on 1 currency, 2 time frames and place stop loss a must. You never know if the power goes down or you cannot get a hold of your broker quickly, etc. Decide how many pips you can afford to loss and go away from the computer and do something else. This one keeps my sanity and definitely helps avoid becoming a "tick" person.

[alannahforex]

Do you have a group you meet with in person or in a chat room? I think it does help if you have other people to give you motivation. If you have a group in a chatroom, how do other people join?