19 Years old, already addicted to "Gambling"

Beginner Questions
1

Hi Guys,

I’m not completely new to BabyPips, but I’ve finally signed up and I hope to participate in these forums a fair amount.

I’ll introduce myself a little bit.

So I’m 19 years old, just got into the LIVE Forex about 3 months ago.

I’ve demo’d about 4 months before going live.

I first heard about the FOREX from a fellow gamer I met online.

Growing up I was always very talented at video games, but now that I’m older I just don’t have that much time to play online games anymore.

So my friend, is trying to recruit me to the latest hyped up game, but I tell him “jeez man, I work full time and stuff now, I don’t think I got time to grind on RPGS anymore”

And I ask him “how the heck do you play games all day man? don’t you need to work too?”

And then he told me about how he makes about 5 figures each month from something magically called forex.

yadda yadda yadda…and thats where I was introduced to babypips and i dove into the world of Forex.

Long story short. I joined the Forex same as anybody else. To make money.
I’ve been working fulltime for about a year now. And I am ready to RETIRE. Work is hard man. I can’t believe Adults, work sleep work sleep work sleep work sleep work sleep, and have TWO days off. WOW. and Church takes up one of those days. JEEEeeez.

This is my short history.

I first tried to apply to MBtrading, because I read on forexbastard they were the top rated. I learned there are two types of brokers, the ones that have comission and low spreads, vs the ones with average 3 spreads on the major pairs.

But MBtrading denied me, because I’m a kid.

I eventually got in with Royal FX.

I started with 2k there.

Started trading…i got close to margin calling, so I threw in another 1000.

My first week…I made 1k. My account was up to 4k.

I got excited, I told myself my weekly goal was 1k.

2nd week…I started trading again, I nearly margin called again. I threw in 2 more thousand.

End of the 2nd week I got up to 8k.

That is 3000 dollars in 2 weeks. Whoa crud, was I excited.

I started having DREAMS of forex. Like I seriously thought I was trading and made money, but when I woke up I was in my bed, and I wasn’t sure if it was real or not. funny stuff…

I got ****y…3rd week I lost 3000, back to 5k.

Okay…I just lost 3000. technically I didn’t lose anything. But I still lost the 3k that I had won.

Okay…no big deal.

Another week goes by. USD gets raped or something I don’t know.

I lose about 2500, bad decisions

Then…I spent about one and a half months trying to win back 2500, so I could feel that I broke even.

I felt trapped. I would win, and the I would lose again.

I just felt trapped, in the 2000 dollar zone. I couldn’t get my account back to 5000.

I decided to wait it out…stop playing with my open positions.

I guess Bush couldn’t find any oil or something.

US dollar seriously got KILLED, or something. My margin reaches 0.

and all of my positions Margin call, and my account is reduced to 50 dollars when I woke up.

Wow…all 5 thousand dollars gone.

Well?..do I quit? or keep going.

Well I’m a gamer, I definitely don’t like losing.

If I quit now, I’ll definitely never get it back.

I throw in another 1000 into my account.

the first hour I’m trading USD/JPY. I lose 200 dollars in 1 hour.

wow…bad decisions bad decisions…

And that is my story :smiley:

There are times when I seriously feel sick when bringing up my forex application. Just looking at the negative positions, and thinking about how much TIME i lost. I basically threw away about 4 months of working :X.

So at the moment, I’m currently trying to win back 5200 dollars with 800 equity.

What do you guys think?

Don’t give up right?

“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.”
~Robert F. Kennedy ’

It seems that I have failed greatly…

2

Wow! You’re only 19? You beat me to it. I’m 20 years old, and first learned about this year by way of Yahoo Answers & Wikipedia. Fortunatly, you heard about it from a friend. I’ve been demoing since summer, but haven’t demoed actively until recently. The only platforms I’ve ever tried were DealBook Web and the MT4 using Alpari UK as my broker. I found out that only institutions can open an Alpari account in the US because the are not licensed or registered, something like that. So I’m thinking about going with Interbank FX, I’m trying to learn more about them, so far I really like their lessons. Right now I’m I full-time student in a 2 year program for Game Design, although I’m not 100% satisified with the quality of the program. This imposes a bit of a limit on my startup capital. Plus I’m sure my family would freak if they found out I opened an account. They are fanatical about all the Identity Theft and things that go on with the Internet. But I come from a programming background, so I come to it with a math & computer science perspective, which I hope will really help free me from “gambling” by allowing me to make more informed technical analysis, and hopefully experiment with evolving stategies genetically(I plan to acutally try to do this in December with my demo). If I ever come up with any good and useful algorithms, I’ll gladly let you know about them! :slight_smile: I wouldn’t recommend running an automated trade, without setting it to notify you first, because sometimes they can close bad positions, and lose you money. They are never a substitute for intelligent and informed decisons. An important thing to remember is you’ll never have complete knowledge or predictability of the market, so you’ll always lose sometimes. Good luck getting everything back in order & happy “gaming”!

3

Wow, TyneeTom, I wish I had that kind of money to just throw around.

It’s good that you’re looking at Forex, as it CAN help you retire – if you do it properly.

I don’t know how much you learned before opening your live account, but I would definitely suggest that you go through Babypip’s school before you make another trade.

School of Pipsology - - Beginner’s Guide to Forex Trading, Free Forex Education, Learn to Trade Forex, Forex Training - BabyPips.com

No offence, but it almost sounds like you were guessing at most of your trades.

Go through the free school and try again. You’ll have a much better understanding of what works and what doesn’t.

Terry

4

all you got to do is lay of the red bull !:smiley:

5

I don’t mean this negatively but it does sound like you’re truly gambling - not trading.

There is a difference. The pros approach this as a profession as a business, not a hobby or a form of entertainment. Were not in Las Vegas, and were sure as hell not getting comped rooms, drinks, and dinners for our losses.

6

I’m 19 to guy, but what you are doing is going to kill you - psychologically…if it hasn’t sunk in alrdy, prepare for it to happen becuz It is NOT realistic to think your going to make your thousands back on just 800$ in your account…safely and sanely.

Sound like you let the sudden windfall of cash get the best of you…euphoria set in and then you thought you were a money “king”…only to find out that you can lose it all just as fast as you make it. Hard lesson to learn, but it is totally unnecessary…you couldv’e gotten out of it what you needed trading just .10-.25 a pip…not full lot moves…specially since your pretty new to this.

You got greedy, and look what happened.

Do you plan every single trade before you pull the trigger?
Do analyze(but don’t over-analyze) carefully every single trade you consider?
Do you have clear cut , easy to follow rules?
Did you read Mark Douglas “Trading in the Zone”?
Are you disciplined? Are you focused? Are you relaxed be4 you open the trade station?
Do you have a system you can confidently and religously follow?

If you answered “NO” to any of those Q’s above, then there is no way in hell you should be dropping that kind of cash on this market…becuase you just don’t have a clue about what your doing.

Sry it sounds mean but you still have TONS of studying to do before you can even consider opening a small micro account…but what should you care, you spent years playing video games succesfully (who doesn’t?) and you, like myself, have PLENTY of time to crack open the books and do well in a relatively short amount of time.

It would serve you best to leave the former videogame junkie mentality where it belongs - the past. This or any financial market is NOT a game…I repeat, this is NOT a game bro…so stop being naive thinking it is so.

Cause it just ain’t…peace

7

hi,
you can get your money back…i can assure you that, but not this year.
you need to take some time and take a deep breath. try and analyse your decisions.
and please, trade micro or mini lots. with that, your losses are reduced. (because, from what you described, i feel you are trading standard lot)
you can increase your lot size as you get a grasp of the market.
this is a multi-trillion dollar industry, its nobody’s playground.

good luck, but don’t give up. just take it easy. :wink:

8

Yeah, I tried for the most part to be calm about it.

I lost money, yeah it hurt. I tried not to get emotional about it. And let it affect my trading.

I spoke to my friend yesterday about what’s happened.

After being called a retard countless times, he pointed me to a Forex Signals site, it’s called AceTrader. I think I will try their one week trial period for 25 dollars, and see how that goes.

I honestly don’t know what to expect from this site, but apparently this site is run by a bunch of chinese guys who do nothing but analyze currency pairs all day and then tell you what you should do?

With sites like these how is it even possible to lose >_>.

Jeez. over a year to make back what I lost. That is pretty darn crazy.

@daedalus, yeah its true. I guess all of my trades were pretty much gambles. But arguably I used my noob’ish technical Analysis. I saw USD/CHF at the lowest ever in history, and im like hey " are they really going to make history, and have USD/CHF at record lows just to see me become poor? "

And whaddya know, USD/CHF dropped a llotttttttt.

How’re you other guys doing with your own forex’ing?

I’ve read somewhere that 95% of all traders lose, and only 5% win.

I find that a bit hard to believe. I think that was just written to scare people.

but yeah, I’ll definitely get back into the game.

Hopefully a year from now I can look back at how newbie I was and have a good laugh.

9

Just a quick question, and maybe i missed it in your post, but how long did u demo trade ?

10

Demo’d about 4 months?

But I didn’t really tryout any “strategies”

I kind of just bought and sold…

12

If you’re going to trade for a living, then you must approach trading like a business. Set up a business plan, devise strategies, and enact them. Never guess, never roll the dice; if you do, you’ll almost always lose in the end.

Make a plan and stick to it. Don’t try to get rich. Try to make a living.

13

Well the best advice I can give you is… GO TO BABYPIPS SCHOOL!!! I’m going to venture a guess and say you haven’t done that yet?

It sounds like a lot of the mistakes you’ve been making are all things that are adressed on this website. Devote some time to read through EVERY page and truly comprehend what is being taught here.

From some of the examples of trades you’ve put on that came out losers, look at why you lost. If you had put a simple MA line on any chart on your USDCHF you would’ve seen the market was decidely bearish. Why look for longs in a bear market? Catching a falling knife is a sure way to lose money time and time again. Its these types of basic ideas that are going to turn you from losing trades to winning trades, but they are concepts you don’t yet grasp. STOP TRADING LIVE MONEY. JUST STOP. As far as that website… it may be good, it may be bad, but i’ve seen more than my fair share of scams that don’t really perform. You willing to trust youre money with someone you have never met?

Basically what i’m saying is you’ve got a lot going for you. You’re young, you’ve got some money, you’re already learning about trading, and you’re at the best forex educational site on the internet. [B]But you need to learn how to trade, and not how to gamble.[/B] Go to baby pips school, come back and tell us if that would’ve changed your outcomes.

Best of luck to you man! I’m sure you can become sucessful, but it starts with dedication to education right now!

Cheers!

14

Ouch guys…I’m holding onto my USD/JPY that i bought at 1.13

but it dropped even lower!!

holy christ its at straight 110 and lower now

Should I keep holding(how much lower can it go really?)

or close it, or stop loss it about 30 pips lower.

15

This is what i’m talking about man… my USD/JPY 240min chart has been 110% bearish since 10/21. I.e. i’ve been doing nothing but selling the damn thing into the hole.

Why you would buy this currency (other than short term counter-trend depending on your methodology) is beyond me. It sounds like you’re holding trades for more than 10-30 minutes so you’ve gotta be some sort of a swing trader.

Can I ask why you put on the position in the first place? I would close that puppy out… who knows where she could end up, but right now there isn’t a reason in the world to make me want to be long in that market. As for “how much lower can it go really?” - do you really want to find out? How has this type of logic worked out for you in the past?

GET A METHOD WITH RULES AND FOLLOW IT. STOP GAMBLING.

16

To Tynee Tom :

Contrary to all the very well meant reply posts to you, I believe that you are [U]not suited [/U]to any kind of finance trading.

I know I am making a judgment call here but I am reading between the lines of your posts. Not everyone is suited to trading. I am seeing this in the spirit.
And as a retired schoolteacher.

I think you are fooling around with an “achilles heel” in your personality.

The very thing you despise…work, sleep, work, sleep appears to me to be something you must face up to. And going to church as well !! :slight_smile: :slight_smile:

In the same way as an alcoholic must keep away from alcohol if he is to face a useful life.

I know it would require a real repentance from you but the only alternative is that you become very conservative like a magistrate in a court of law. Imagine them dishing out verdicts like you trade !!

But I don’t think you are up to it. Dont be fooled - trading is not for everybody.

I would suggest staying away from the trading world and just working until you are much older and, therfore, more mature.

Otherwise, you may well detroy yourself. Trust your parents - they appear to be giving you good advice. :slight_smile:

17

Sorry, I don’t plan on giving up.

I want to keep trying and learning. Messing up could even be the fastest/expensive way for me to learn. :frowning:

Wanting to keep learning is a good thing, right?

18

My counsel to you stands.

I think you are trying to justify yourself - to defend the indefensible.

I am surrounded by drug addicts here, and they all justify their addiction to me. Indeed, they would rather die than give up their addiction.

Wait till you are considerably more mature.

You continue now at your own peril.

19

I broadly agree with Tymen, you are vastly underestimating the psychological (not to mention financial) damage that you may do to yourself which may never be repaired

20

One thing I’ve noticed, Tom, is that, while you appear to be seeking advice, you’re not listening to it.

daedalus told you point blank what you should do right now – STOP TRADING WITH REAL MONEY!

You admitted that you didn’t have any plan, you just bought and sold. That’s gambling, alright, but you’re in the wrong place for that. Forex is not gambling, it’s trading – with a plan and strategy in place first. What you’re doing belongs in a casino.

If you really want to be successful in Forex – and taken seriously here – go through the free school that Babypips offers.

School of Pipsology - - Beginner’s Guide to Forex Trading, Free Forex Education, Learn to Trade Forex, Forex Training - BabyPips.com

As for the signal service you’re thinking of using (and paying for!), don’t waste your time and money.

You don’t even know how to trade properly, yet. You’ll simply be doing what someone else tells you, without even knowing if they know what they’re doing!

And, even if they are competent, you won’t learn how to trade yourself, you’ll just be following directions. If you’re going to do that, you might as well just give your money to an account manager and let them trade it for you, instead of wasting time doing the actual trades that someone else tells you to do.

It makes no sense at all to blindly follow someone’s advice when you don’t know how to trade yourself – especially someone that you don’t even know.

Take some time to read through the Babypips school and learn to trade.

After that, read through the forum posts and pick a strategy that you feel comfortable with. Then demo it for a while to get the hang of trading and using the system.

Then – AND ONLY THEN – open a SMALL account and test the strategy with real money.

Once you’re consistently successful, you can add money to the account if you want, but you may feel a greater sense of accomplishment by simply using your new found strategy to build your account balance higher through trading.

You can be successful in Forex, but you need to know what you’re doing first.

Terry

21

BUT even before that, go school, university, community college, free online courses or something and learn something about finance, and economics, then learn something about trading psychology, then learn something about money management, and then learn something about everything. I give you props for being 19 and trying to get started early, but it’s painfully obvious though, take some time to learn what your actually doing, and then maybe, eventually you might become part of that hallowed 5 % that make good trades. Anyways best of luck too ya and heed the advice of those who have been doing this for a while