Inner Circle Trader's Pro Traders Club 2012 - 2013 Series

OK been meaning to post this since the day it happened,
but i was overwhelmed emotionally and didn’t really know what to write. Well one thing that life thought me is that time heals everything. So i wanted to take this opportunity and write up by BIG F@@K UP on this Thursday’s trading that i did. (pardon my French)

I have been posting pretty much all my trades so far and it seems like no one post’s bad trades or mistakes ect, well i must admit its very hard for me to come out and post this, especially it being so bad, but on Thursday i ended up losing little over 13% of my account due to my stupidity going, counter trended and not analysing the market as well as i should have.

Plus completely loosing control of my emotions and getting hit by that train every one talks about. Overtrading, revenge trading you name it :17: i don’t even know what happened to me, i lost complete control of my self!

The week started great for me i caught the large move that we had on Monday @ NYO risked 1% made 2%.
Everything was going fine, i planned the week ahead identified Key S/R levels 1.3120 and 1.3170 and decided that if price reaches them levels most likely it will bounce for 20 pips or so i set double tap orders around them levels risked 2% split in them in to half, first portion TP was set @20 pip profit second was going to be set to Be once price bounced at least 20 pips and let the reminder run.
The day started great everything was going well, but reflecting on all of this back i gambled that day with them 2 limit orders you may ask why, simply reflecting back on it. MS was bullish on daily so that run up was there to get in sync with HTF i was doing exactly opposite!"!!!. Later i learned that a key speech was being given by ECB Mario Dhragi and even though we are technical traders it’s best to avoid key speeches as he could say anything and this could end up adversely affecting the market. 3 Interest rate decision even though i think it’s unlikely they would change it’s paramount to watch out for for them.
So the market started to rally as Mario was giving his speech and we run up in to 1.3120 level true to my theory we got a 20 pip bounce as i anticipated! Did i lock the profit in! No i changed first part of the order and extend my TP tp 1.3080! :56:
Do you think that i moved my stop to BE? NO i did no such thing i extended it and though i will give the market room to breath, oh breath it did! only wiped me out in a process and stopped me out eventually at 1.3150 .Note that if i was to follow my original plan i would be up 1% instead i was minus 3%. It continued to rally did i remove my limit order @1.3170 you might ask? As realistically that’s what i should have done straight after that loss, but NO i watched that order get stopped out too again moving my stop even further in hopes that it will reverse! dam dam! so despaired and minus 6% i decided that i will make it ALL BACK oh yah wild west style!!!so i entered sell market for 3 lots Lucky lol put a SL @ 1.3202… after ALL HOW COULD I BE WRONG me NEVER!(sarcasm) :58: and Market took that as well bringing me to my knees.
Yah i was upset and overwhelmed and maybe cried a little and not ashamed to admit it, not because i lost my money, but because i lost my self that day!
So its not always rosy cosy!
I am happy to say that i am battling that emotion, but its like a parasite feeding on fear, greed excitement hope. Always there waiting.
Sorry for not posting earlier, after all i have been posting when thing’s are good, now they are bad. :frowning:

Wow… What a crappy day!
I’m new to trading with real money, and I find that controlling your emotions is really the hardest thing to learn!! The amount of frustration, impatience, pride, happines, anger, that you can go through in a matter of hours is REALLY hard to cope with when you are new to this!
I’ve never lost control in a way that resembles what you are telling here, but I get where you are comming from!

Get back on the horse, save the post you’ve written here and when you have a bad day, read it, and make sure it never happens again! :slight_smile:

Really Interested in WW concept and whether WW have value at the weekly TF as well. See below for reason behind my question. Could be the position trade of a life time :13:

does anyone have data on probabilities? And when can a WW be dismissed as not valid?


Hey Most - mark it up as a tough lesson learnt the hard way. It (or add sh…) happens sometimes and as you say nearly always down to our own faults in not sticking to the plan. On the plus side - you’ll not do it again - aversion therapy comes in handy!! Its happened to me in the past as I’m sure it has to lots of traders. Best way to look at it is a battle that you probably guessed you’d have to have at some point and now its done, you’ll be fitter and wiser for it. They real key is to take the hit, understand it and get right back to what you know is right (maybe adjusting risk a little in the meantime). Your trades have been pretty spot on in the past - so this is a just a minor slip up.

Great post btw - this type of honesty is rare and its to your credit that you were big enough to write it up for everyone to learn from.

It’s not a great club to be in, but welcome to the club anyway. When you fight your way out of this, you will be a much stronger trader for it.

I applaud you for being truth to yourself and accept that you make a mistake(s). Everyone had the same experience as you do. Nobody… I repeat …Nobody is immune to this…Being truth to yourself and realizing your mistakes is a big step that you can take. Some people won’t admit that they have loses or they think they don’t lose in which they are living on denial and will have a hard time fixing what is broken or what is not working.

Having said that, if you now recognize what went wrong on your trades, what are you now going to do to at least minimize your losses? I said “minimize” because you will have losing streak again but how would you handle this? We can’t win when our mind is so desperate to get back what we lose. We are very very emotional about it. Our ego is hurting (well, maybe not much for a women I guess…lol). I think what you need to do now is just to completely stop for a few days or even weeks before trading again. I think you should give yourself a good amount of time to reflect everything what you did wrong and what you did right.

Focus more on yourself at this point because if your mind is not clear right now, you will have a hard time focusing on looking a good set up. Don’t worry, the market is not going anywhere. You won’t miss anything. There is always a good “opportunity” around when you can see it clearly.

Just my 2 cents base on my own experience :slight_smile:

Hi everyone, sorry but I need to ask for some very basic help.

I have a demo account with FXCM (don’t know what the leverage is). It has just over $1000 in it and I entered a trade yesterday using double tap, 1% each, but from what I can tell my position size was only half what it should of been looking at the $ lost.

I calculated: $1000 account, 1& risk = $10 risk (double tap, 2% = total $20)
30 pip SL = 0.33 USD per pip therefore 0.03 lot size x 2 to total risk. But my loss per entry was only $5.52 (not $10 per entry)

Can anyone see what I’m doing wrong?


it depends on your lot size,
how many lots did you trade, i cant see it in your screenshot

mostwanted, reading your post took me back to memories of that exact same and in a way 'm sorry you went through that pain. In another way, this experience will be your own safeguard against the most terrible risk in this business - our own self. You had it, felt it, know it and now will be aware of what to guard against. it’s like a rite of passage… if that is of any help, your 13% is lookin good compared to what others have achieved in such situations, myself included!

let this be a good lesson, one of growth and experience. Good trading, you rock!

teka, 0.03 lot (3000) x2 separate entries for double tap. One 0.03 lot though resulted in a loss of $5.52, which is not 1% of my account, it’s 0.5%. Sorry the screen shot is so small.

This is the real deal. I remember my first (and only) 10% loss. I was bent out of shape the rest of the week. I’ve had my hand slapped so many times by the market I don’t have the heart to risk more than 2-3% anymore. I’m getting +2-5% per week and that is fine. My sweet spot is 2-3 trades per week. Thanks for this post.

Wondering if todays drop in cable is the set up for a pop up when the news comes out at 2 am, anyone else on this page.

Thanks

i had no idea this appeared on the chart at 3400


Hey mostwantedpip,
Don`t worry,you will recover soon,
but look what eremarket wrote a year ago on “What Every New & Or Aspiring…”. It was very helpful for me:
[B]Infinate Freedom and Self Imposed Limitations[/B]
"Infinate Freedom and Self Imposed Limitations - Why lasting market success is so difficult for most.

You should be better than this. You know how to trade. You should be better than this…
You have a method or system with an edge. It provides a profit over the long run.
You have seen some real growth and meaningful success in your trading. It IS something you know how to do.
You can do it well enough to make money on a regular basis.
You manage your trades well enough, and you risk very little of your account on a per trade basis.

So why are you not driving a ferrari? why are you not trading full time?

Because the market, quite possibly, provides us with a challenge that human beings are ill equipped to handle:

Near Infinate freedom

It is possibly the only place where we can think, decide, and act in any way we desire… and promises us near limitless wealth to do just that.

Almost everywhere else in life, there are authorities outside of ourselves that we are conditioned to respect and follow.
show up late for work - boss is angry
show up late for dinner - wife/family is angry
drive a car too fast - get a speeding ticket
drive a car too slow - get yelled at/cause an accident
eat too much - get sick
eat too little - get sick
mouth off at someone when angry - risk an argument, a fist fight, or worse
express every thought we have as we have them - become a social pariah, a lewd, crude individual that others stay far from

heck, even the uninhibited pleasure mecca of vegas has rules to each game, table limits to bet, and social pressure of others reactions around you, not to mention casino authorities and the law should you push anything further than they will tolerate.

In almost every component of our lives, from the day we are born, to the day we die, to the countless social interactions we have… there are hard, fast rules that govern each of these.

Fall out of line, and someone else will punish us. Either through scorn, anger, hurt feelings, time in court, time in jail, time in the hospital…etc.

In the market… none of these restrictions exist.

Lose a trade - no one knows…no one cares. no one tells you right or wrong, yes or no, good or bad. no one else is even aware that you exist. hold it for as long or as short a time as you want. bet as much as you have in your account, or as little. re-enter it a million times, or never enter at all. go long, go short… anytime, all the time, forever, or never.

Other than the single restriction of a margin call, the market provides infinate freedom. Which requires true, profound and sincere self discipline.

It requires a discipline unlike any other that humans have had to channel throughout our existence.

not too offend or sound elitist, but it is possibly the only place that gives us the power to decide our actions without restrictions as if we were some sort of gods.

And humans make for piss poor gods.

The only way around this is to have some sort of self imposed limits.

A maximum daily loss, either in terms of actual dollars, or percentage

A maximum weekly loss, either in terms of actual dollars, or percentage

a maximum amount of trades taken per day/week/month

a maximum amount of losing trades per day/week/month

I personally have some of these as my own safeguards. They keep my losers small, and quickly recoverable.

For infinate freedom that offers unimaginable wealth is a sirens call too strong for nearly all of us, if we choose not to self regulate our actions.

We, as a race, need rules and structure to exist in a state of positive growth, cooperative interaction, and success.

The market as an entity, is completly devoid of rules and structure.

Then we, as successful traders, need to create our own boundaries, need to be our own policemen, need to be our own jailor if we fall out of line.

For lasting market success…some sort of self imposed restrictions on losses, risk amounts, and or trades per day/week/etc are not just a good idea, the are THE ONLY idea that will matter in the end.

Because we are not gods. we are not perfect, we will have losing trades, mismanaged trades, unexpected market events that make little (if any sense) and we will respond emotionally when this happens.

So who will limit our actions when we start to step out of line?

[B]We will. Or we will never truely succeed. period.[/B]

The market is a giant syphon that takes money from the accounts of those who lack their own self imposed restrictions,
and deposits it in the accounts of those who create and heed their own self imposed restrictions.

It’s as simple as that. The ultimate freedom requires the ultimate responsibility. Without it, we are not free, but simply prisoners of our own emotions.

Jay"

GLGT

I didn’t trade this. Looking at missed opportunities yesterday for my notes.

New York Open Kill Zone (Wave 5 set up)
Wave 5 classic false break out stopped to the pip on reflection as a hammer with stochastic divergence.

56 pips at W4 partial close target which was also the end of the NY session.


At 3400 is the key. These patterns work when they help create a confluence. Find the 3400 at some higher TF fib or gartley pattern and this a very safe place to look for a short.

I had a large drawdown recently. 10-15% idk how big your account is but mine is $300 I was down about $50 at one point. I’ve since made that back. One thing I did that helped me was to take a zoomed out view. Trade the daily and weekly not the 4H or 1H. In my opinion scalping and day trading is foolish even if you have ADHD. The cost of trading like that is to high and I think the probabilities are to low on lower time frames. I think everyone should start with a position trader mindset and mold yourself to that then as you get more experience go down time frames. The major players aren’t looking at 1H charts. They think in weeks and months. The emotional roller coaster you experience on lower timeframes inhibits you also.

I think trading and investing is a game best played by people with a long term mindset. At least to me they seem to be the winners. I know a lot of people will disagree and maybe even Michael, and say you have to find your own inner trader. I don’t believe in stuff like that. I believe if you want something you work hard to accomplish it. Sure some people are born with abilities more suited to the task. But I believe anyone can accomplish anything if they truly want to by putting in the required hours and work.

I also don’t halve my risk. I risk $3 on every trade. For me the problem wasn’t the money (probably because it isn’t very much) its the fact that I lost lol I hated it I hate thinking I can’t do something or that I might fail.

I’m sure you’ll bounce back. The only way you can fail is by giving up. Just some of what I’ve picked up in my 6 months. At least you know you aren’t alone and you didn’t blow your account :-D.

Well said Lazydogs. And remember “Never Give up”.

check this out. these false break outs could express another harmonic, such as this AB=CD


Brilliant!!

My risk is managed to 2% a day, and I keep an hammer next to my keyboard incase I find myself falling down that particular rabbit hole… Again :slight_smile:

Peace and pips :slight_smile:

GLGT