I just thought it might be interesting and useful to ask the same but opposite question, or maybe even how much have you lost as a professional?
I lost $4,000 on a my live account on one trade. Four lots of full sized Aussies that I left open over the weekend. Those Sunday open gaps can be brutal.
It turned into a a total of $10,000 cleaned out in the first week, a 30% drawdown.
Not proud of it at all, but if it makes someone think twice about how fast trading can eat up your account, I’m happy to share.
I had enough sense to stop and go back to the drawing board, I didn’t blow out the account, and it’s going well:)
Nowadays, I spend a lot more time on a demo account than I do the live.
It’s about passing the time, while waiting on A+++++ signals.
The biggest lesson was PATIENCE.
Patience, such patience,
Grandfather, father and son living on a farm in the back Wales, one Saturday night the son’s missing, he’s never been out before, father’s a bit worried, he comes back at 10 o clock and his Dad asks him, Where have you been Son? the sons says - "I’ve been with Elsie at the top farm, O Boy such passion"
Next Saturday night, the father’s missing, 1 o clock in the morning when he comes back and the Grandfather asks him, ‘What time do you call this? Where have you been Son?’ and the son says - "I’ve been with Elsie at the top farm, O Boy such passion"
Next Saturday night the grandfather’s missing, no sign of him at all, the son and the dad get up in the morning and milk the bull, no sign of him, he comes back after lunch and the Father asks him - “Where have you been Dad?” and the grandfather says - “I’ve been with Elsie at the top farm, O boy such PATIENCE!”
He had the patience and I think he missed the trade!
on my first trading week I lost 600$ out of 1000$.
was using 5K lots, like I should have, until one misclick (100K lot) made me lose about 160$, got me steaming and broke me psychologicly which led to the total loss of 600$.
took me a whole month to recover what I’ve lost in 1-2 days.
lesson was priceless though.
sometimes you should trade.
[B]sometimes you shouldn’t.[/B]
I lost $7,000 over about 4 months - lost $5,000 of that in the first 2 weeks.
Randon Reinforcement is a killer!
Since, my monetary loss is rather worthless relative to some of you, I’ll say it in pips. I’ve lost 726 pips since February 1st.
i lost my first account in 4 days. 100$
as i said before… 4 accounts … 100 dollars each …
I lost about $60 out my $500 stake before going back to demo for a good few months more:
Nowadays, I spend a lot more time on a demo account than I do the live.
It’s about passing the time, while waiting on A+++++ signals.The biggest lesson was PATIENCE.
I’m hoping this lesson won’t cost me much more real money. I’m sure it will though - the whole patience and not over trading thing seems to be a lesson many people have to learn the hard way despite being told it a gazillion times :o
Demo accounts probably don’t matter, but I’ll share my piece of mind on this matter anyway.
I used to have a 1000 USD account which got drawndown to 800 USD within 1.5 months or so. That was with FXCM if I remember right and then this year I started demoing on OANDA since about a month ago and is so far 1500 USD up from initial 1000 USD.
I have not blown any accounts because I am strict about not ever risking more than 3% of my account, and I’m sort of a bit of a math wiz. I also got aware that leverage and R/R ratio is irrelevant to me for the most part as long as the SL does not result in me losing more than 3% and so far I am having a success rate of 75% from 32 trades despite R:R of 1:1
Now before I move into actual money, here’s a problem about myself…
Last Year, on my maiden trip to a casino, I had planned to not lose more than 50 bucks playing the penny slots. What happened was that I went overboard with the ATM and ended up 150 bucks down as opposed to just 50. Now, supposedly on my first time going live, this may also happen despite me being completely aware of the stupidity of clinging on to a losing game? I’m afraid I might get caught in my own psychological web 
I’ve lost probably hundreds if not thousands of pips. However in terms of a live dollar amount, haven’t lost anything, EVER.
Why?
In the beginning I traded at $0.01/pip.
Once I remember losing close to $2.
$400 in total over the course of a few months. I bet really small lots.
about $50 of a $150 account
My first account was with US$ 250, and i blow it in a month.
My second account was with US$ 3,500 and i lost 30% in one week. 
Probably about £4,000 before I turned the corner.
BUT what’s amazing is that the- How much did you make? and - the how much did you lose? thread both have posts of people that lost as a beginner.
There is 1 exception I think, so one person got the right approach from the start.
keep in mind,some people don’t admit their loses.
there is a term for those people only handful of people here know about it its called “going Dustin”
any how I lost 2k
Jado
First starting out as a little Hatchling, $9,586.23, in 3 months, thought I was going to die. It was brutal, and almost devastated me.
The Never Devastated VIPER
Well if you are a millionaire that might not be considered a large amount.
LOL! It ain’t a badge of courage!
Did your brokerage firm fix you up in a suite at Vegas?
The question now is, did you get it back?
Along the same lines is this.
I was talking to my broker, and asked her what was the most they had seen anyone lose while working there.
She said there was one fellow that had started with 2 million, worked it up to 20 million, and in one week lost it all the way down to half his initial startup account.
But she said he was getting it worked back up fairly quickly.
Amazing the amounts of money being thrown around at this endeavor innit?