Basically yeah!
If we think loss as a part of this business our fear will be less , We should prepare for some loss always when we are going to enter market for trading. This fear can be dangerous if you not realistically deal with it. You should have some courage to bear it and take risk for profits.
That’s good that you already know what your problem is. Now, what are you gonna do about it? It’s okay Crabby. Losses are inevitable. So don’t worry about them so much! Remember, only those who take the risk will see how far they can go.
Hi C,
What I think is the issue is for you is something before actual live trading. I think you have not properly transitioned into live trading.
Fear of losing the money arrives when the trader is not confident of the trades which they have carried because of poor analysis of the forex market and thus there are high chances of losing the money to the forex market.
Hi, well i thought i start by saying well done on being a year in and still striving. well done you have done better then 90% of people who try. now im a bit concerned about some of the other replies. yes you have been involved for just a year and many people take longer to become consistent, however it is also important that a newbie learns to improve in the right areas. if you are going in the wrong direction, going faster or for longer isn’t going to help.
thinking about how you do well in demo and yet are having problems going live, this may be an indication of your psyche, if you feel that real money is on the line you are likely changing (subconsciously, and without realising) what you are doing to trade consistently.
one thing that might help is to test your system, you need to know the specific results back testing. the Expectancy of your system. if you fear the losses, its because you may not be sure that each trade has a positive expectancy. this is the idea that over a SERIES of trades you make profit however on the NEXT Trade you will not know ahead of time whether it will be a winner.
You also need to learn more about position sizing and Risk to Reward ratios. when you place you SL and TP how many points or Dollars difference to each is there? If you have a 20 point SL do you place a 20 point TP or more?
One place to learn more is to read books by Van Tharp. such as “Trading your way to financial Freedom”. and Mark Douglas “Trading in the Zone”.
I am going to be putting on a webinar to play Van Tharp’s “Marble game” this is a game that is designed to show how important position sizing and Risk / Reward is, its even more important then you setups and entry rules. for example a 1:1 risk reward (meaning that you stop Distance and TP distance from the entry point is the same) is likely detremental to your results because then you must “Be Right” more in order to make a good profit.
I also would like to invite you and anyone else. (i’m going to place a posting about this as well).
Wins without losses would be boring. Forex without its popular volatility and dangers would not be fun. We all need to loss sometimes so that we appreciate our successes. Sometimes, I close my positions too early enough; losing but I gain the virtue of patience. Fear of loss if not lost, would soon make a trader handicapped with a cowardly stop loss and order limit. It is worth implying that it is this same faint fear that has made brokers not regulated seem like FX dens were clients are dishonestly feasted on. This not necessarily true, as I know some clients who through due diligence are making good pips for profit despite working through a non-regulated broker who agree indemnify their client and are not too court-allergic to answer client cases.
What’s a amazing post!! Its like I would read my own story. I went through exactly the same steps like OP. School of Pipsology and other resources, choosing strategy, etc. Demo on three accounts with different sizes went very well. Live - completely oposite. Many trades, in total more wins than loses, but won amounts lower than loses due to hitting s/l, which was set up to closely. Fear of losses caused exiting the trade too early or moving the s/l to closely so the broker had cleaned them out (price went later in predicted direction). For example yesterday I went long for EURUSD, price hit my s/l. I switched to demo account and at the same time in long trade, price hit my t/p 30pips above my s/l from real account. So what the heck…(following common saying from the school :)). I still need to practice “trade and walk a way”… it’s difficult. Any other insights from you guys are very much welcomed. To OP, what is your further story since may this year?
That’s the truth Robin. Sometimes it is [I]very[/I] difficult.
OP,
I’m not sure what time frame you trade on, but I’m guessing 1h or 4h based on your SL. I swing/position trade on daily charts and I still find it hard to not check 3 or 4 times a day. The difference is in the psychology. Once I set my trade, SL and TP, I let it go. I check it often don’t get me wrong, but I have faith in the system I use. So whether or not it goes against me, I don’t close out early for a loss, I let the SL do it’s job. Since I swing trade, my SL provides enough buffer to weather the fundamentals that swing prices around. As of this morning, the 6 open trades I have were all going against me, and pretty hard. They have since calmed down a bit and are headed in the direction I had originally planned. You can’t freak yourself out by looking at negative numbers. Have faith in yourself and in your system. Keep at it and happy trading!
-d0c
Hi,
Thanks for all the comments from the first post I made about ‘fear of loss’ - it would seem I am not alone. Since I first posted, I have become more and more successful with winning trades and this is mostly down to keeping calm, trusting my trade and above all, understanding which way the market is going by understanding moving average crossovers. I must say that by having more successful trades has helped me to calm down and to go with my trading system. I have become more and more disciplined, obeying my rules and taking much more profit in the process.
Good luck.
Sure. Fear of loss can be fairly crippling. However, I do recommend you trade with a strategy with high reward potential and only risk a fixed amount per trade…so that everytime, you can ask yourself: “What is the worst possible thing that could happen if I trade this set-up (ie: lose 1% of your trading account’s value) Versus what is the worst possible thing that can happen to me if I don’t trade this set-up” (ie: you forfeit the potential of a 3% gain on your trading account)…
I only trade setups with a reward/risk of 3:1…it helps me deal logically with any fear if it ever rears its ugly head.
The only way out that I see is to use only the money that you can afford to lose. What I mean is… if you lose it - nothing in your life will change. NOTHING.
Like… if you had $100…trade with them… with time you get a profit, say, $100 more. You just divide it in two. AND trade on a different pair, using a totally different strategy! Then, even if you lose the first part of the budget, the second one remains and might even profit from the loss.
This way you secure you money.
Hope it helps! Good luck! =)
Losing something is normal in trading.You just need to be strong there would always be another day if you sacrifice you would also achieve something.
Yes fear of loss is good in this manner that it prevents from high risks in forex trading . When a trader is in fear obviously he will think many times before trading how he should deal with market . Some times he saves himself from critical situations and not indulge her amount at risk when market movements are not clear.
We all here knew that forex is a high risk business. So do not be afraid to lose because it’s part of this business that should be ready to bear the risk