Hello,
Signed up to a trading platform, and decided to trade oil, indicies and forex.
It was my first time doing it, where I initially lost -950 , then made it back (lucky break with the oil) , only to lose -£270.
I have decided now to walk away, because I have found the whole experience very stressful. When it is going in your favour it’s great, but when it isn’t it’s horrible.
Some questions:
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Is it normal to lose money when starting out, and is 270 a significant amount to lose on average?
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I had Stop losses on, sometimes it would help, but othertimes if the market was very volatile as was the case today with Oil, the price would jump a couple of % causing my SL to max out.
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I am not sure trading is for me, and a good way to make money, am I a coward for walking away?
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Are opportunities easy to find - I was lucky today to make some of my money back due to the oil crash and planned my trade based on that, but before then I got in a hole not exactly knowing what to look for.
Cheers
I’ve seen bigger amounts lost on this forum. 
Just search for lost here and you’ll see the dizzying amounts people have lost. I think 270 pales in comparison to the numbers I’ve seen here.
Haha, welcome to trading. Everything you’ve been through, the emotions you feel are completely normal. Nearly every trader goes through the same thing you have. 270 quid can be a large amount but it depends on your initial account size. When I started out I lost much more than that so dont worry you’ll get through it.
What you need to do, is never do what you did today. The best way is to get an education first and learn about what trading entails. You can start here. It’s free and includes links, books and the babypips course. Take your time, study hard and you’ll be more confident next time you try and trade. For now though, use a demo account not a live account.
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Initial account size was 2k. But I later realised I didn’t want to lose that money to trading, but rather invest it into long term stocks…which is why I got annoyed when I initially lost 950, was a relief when I won it back, only to get annoyed by the 270 loss.
Wide scheme of things not a big deal, but was wondering if it’s common for new traders to lose 100s of pounds.
Ah I see, you lost just over 10% in one day. As a complete beginner you done well not to blow your whole account or maybe it was luck. As a more rounded trader that is way too high a % to lose in one day. You should only be risking 1% per trade at the beginning.
So in your case you should be losing 20 quid a trade. There are some people who lose a few hundred but it might be 1% of a larger account eg 20k. Losing is a part of trading. Aslong as you’re profitable in the long run or make more than you lose on your winners you’ll be ok
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Was well on my way to blowing it when I was -950 down, but had a lucky escape…I saw the same pattern forming when I started going down again to 270.
Win, Win , win, lose , lose , lose
Felt like gambling at that point, so stopped.
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