Lost, or never had the nerve

[Skouser]

Hi,

I've been watching these pages for some time for tips and, at the same time, I've been paper trading. I've had some wins and some losses, but overall I appear to be winning more than I lose, thanks to you folks.

After playing at this for nearly six months I decided to go for it for real and last week I took a week off work to test it with real cash. But I froze; I was unable to press the Buy or Sell button. I felt sick to my stomach and lost out on some great trades on the GBPUSD.

Anybody else been there? If so, how did you deal with it.

Tony.

[tonymand]

Originally Posted by Skouser

Hi,

I've been watching these pages for some time for tips and, at the same time, I've been paper trading. I've had some wins and some losses, but overall I appear to be winning more than I lose, thanks to you folks.

After playing at this for nearly six months I decided to go for it for real and last week I took a week off work to test it with real cash. But I froze; I was unable to press the Buy or Sell button. I felt sick to my stomach and lost out on some great trades on the GBPUSD.

Anybody else been there? If so, how did you deal with it.

Tony.

Everybody has been there! Most likely reason is your trade lot is far too big. Reduce it so that its loss is totally irrelevant to you. If you have only got a couple of quid at risk you wont freeze but will have the advantage of it being real money on a real account - go for it and good luck

[daydreamer65]

Reduce it so that its loss is totally irrelevant to you.

Can only re-iterate what Tony has said, only use the account level
you are willing to lose.

Great example for those who ask the question "what's the difference
between demo & live?" Psychology. In demo it ain't yours.

Relax & have fun.

:wishes:

[mastergunner99]

Question.

Are you playing with money you can't afford to lose?

While I am new to forex, I am not new to risk taking and money management. I'm an avid poker player as well as a sports punter. And the only reason I am profitable in both is because I am able to separate my emotions from the money. I've been on incredible win streaks, and I've been on incredible losing streaks. But after awhile, I just see the numbers and make decisions solely because it's the correct decision to make at the time.

My advice. Start with an amount you're not afraid to lose and just make the move. Learn to separate your emotions from the money. This isn't something that you can just do with a flick of a switch. It might take some practice.

Not sure how the following story will relate to forex, but with poker I was afraid to bluff in certain situations. As a result I had a leak in my play that was preventing me from obtaining those needed pot wins. So for a solid week, I played without even looking at my cards. I bet and raised solely on my position on the table as well as my chip advantage over other players left in hands. And here's the kicker, in a 45 man tourney I had placed fourth which pretty much rendered my week a profitable success. And my fear of bluffing was gone. With that negative emotion removed from my game I was good to go foward and have enjoyed profits since.

In a sense, we are all betting blindly. We won't know if the market will turn in our favor, or against us. But like my blind poker game, all we can do is assess what is the best time for us to position ourselves to enter the market. From what it sounds like, you've had such experiences now for a half of a year.

And like poker, not everyone is profitable. Not even 25 percent of the people are profitable. I imagine much the same with forex trading. You win when most of your decisions are correct and the other guys decision was wrong.

You've already shown that yourself that you can make those correct decisions. So go for it. You'll get over that fear. And you'll go through those winning streaks and those losing streaks. As you continue forward and continue to mold yourself through education and practice you'll reap the benefits of your hard work. Just as did I with poker, and as I will with forex.

All the best.

[pangor]

Originally Posted by Skouser

Hi,

I've been watching these pages for some time for tips and, at the same time, I've been paper trading. I've had some wins and some losses, but overall I appear to be winning more than I lose, thanks to you folks.

After playing at this for nearly six months I decided to go for it for real and last week I took a week off work to test it with real cash. But I froze; I was unable to press the Buy or Sell button. I felt sick to my stomach and lost out on some great trades on the GBPUSD.

Anybody else been there? If so, how did you deal with it.

Tony.

I know what you mean. I almost pressed the button countless times and lost out on good trades as a consequence. In the end a trade came along late one night that looked good - all indicators said yes. I had missed out on so many trades that I just said " f**K it, it's now or never " and pressed the button. Set stop loss and modest profit target at 20pips then turned off the computer and went to bed. Woke up at 5 next morning and immediately checked my position - 22pips up.

So my advice ( from another beginner ) is pick a good trade, you already know how to do it, place it and then go and do something else !

I have learnt so much more trading live than ever demoing, so go for it - win/lose you'll still learn.

good luck

peter

[Skouser]

Well first off I'd like to say what a great bunch of people you are. Thank you a million for taking the time to write your messages of advice and support. I really do appreciate them and I will try to act on them, but I'm not sure if I will be able to. I think my inability to trade might be more psychological in nature. I'll explain what I mean in a moment, but first I'd like to say this: I was not over stating how I felt or using an exaggerated figure of speech when I said I felt sick to my stomach when I tried to trade; I did feel as though I was going to throw up. A little melodramatic you might think. Okay, I had not intended to go this far, but as you have taken the time I feel it is only right that I should. I think the rest of this message will begin to make things clearer.

I don't know about the rest of you, but unlike mastergunner99 I don't consider myself to be a gambler (and I'm not about to play with the housekeeping). I don't play fruit machines or buy scratch cards and I don't go to casinos or back racehorses. However, I do know something about Spread Betting.

When I said I'd been paper trading with Forex for six months or so that did not mean that I was new to the concept of Spread Betting. Some years ago I began futures trading on the Dow. As with the Forex, I paper traded before opening my bank with £500. I had made a moderate increase to my initial £500 and had been watching the downward trend when I decided to short the Dow on a December future for £10 a point.

Bloomberg television had just switched from the London office to New York when the first aircraft struck the WTC. I, along with you and the rest of the world, watched in horror as the announcer confirmed what had happened - and I watched in disbelief as the Dow dropped, like a stone, to around 150 points in seconds and then began to creep up again. Then the second plane hit the WTC and the Dow took another dive, not that far this time, but far enough for me to make £800. I panicked at what was happening, I just wanted everything to stop, so I hit the Buy button.

That was what I meant earlier by psychological. I had made a lot of money and a lot of people had died horribly. I spoke to my wife and we both agreed the money was 'dirty' and we could not keep it. We gave it to a Childrens' Hospice that we support.

I never looked at Spread Betting again until somebody sent me a sales pitch for a Forex 'this will make you millions' software system. I knew enough to know that such an animal did not exist, but it got my curiosity up enough to check out what the Forex was all about. And so, here I am.

Once again, thanks.

Tony.

[mastergunner99]

Originally Posted by Skouser

I don't know about the rest of you, but unlike mastergunner99 I don't consider myself to be a gambler (and I'm not about to play with the housekeeping). I don't play fruit machines or buy scratch cards and I don't go to casinos or back racehorses. However, I do know something about Spread Betting.

Ah, but I'm not a gambler either. I only place my money at risk when I know I have an edge. Poker is the only card game I know that provides this for me. Sports is as well. Both rely on skill and knowledge to consistently pull in profits.

My attraction to forex is there are many similarities in money management and physcology that exist in poker and especially with sports punting.

[Teslor]

Originally Posted by daydreamer65

Can only re-iterate what Tony has said, only use the account level
you are willing to lose.

Great example for those who ask the question "what's the difference
between demo & live?" Psychology. In demo it ain't yours.

Relax & have fun.

:wishes:

So would you say tha the principle reason for a dem account is to learn the mechanics?

[daydreamer65]

So would you say tha the principle reason for a dem account is to learn the mechanics?

That's about it. Learn all the in & outs of the platform of
your choice, choose 400:1 leverage, see the problems which
are associated with it.

Have a margin call, test your "system" (I still use my demo accounts
to test various "systems"), try out all the indicators, macd, fibo,
pivot points, et al.

Ask all the questions on the babypips forums.

The idea of a demo is to get a feel for Forex trading without
putting your money on the line.

Then when you are ready to risk your money then go live.

There is a lot of bs discussed about when to go live, 3 months,
6 months, 12 months etc., you get the idea, but IMO you go
live when you are ready, regardless of time limits.

:wishes:

[Teslor]

All very helpful. Thank you. As I read more and more in BP's and outside of BP's, the information seems to indicate that the difference that makes a difference is how one frames the experience of trading real money. That seems to be the cold turkey piece...the part that I haven't been able to read much about how to prepare. I'd appreciate more feedback.