Do you guys ever make any mistakes in your trading? Losing trades are all part of the parcel so I’m not talking about them, I’m talking about a proper error.
I lost a trade the other day & I’m still kicking myself about it. I know that I should let losing trades go but on this one I was 100% right but I made a stupid mistake.
Attached is the daily chart for the EUR/USD (apologies, I’m on the iPad just now rather than my laptop so no MT4 screenshot). On Wednesday night, I decided to trade the rejection candle: I set by sell order for 1.3195, I set my SL & TP & it was literally a set & forget. So yesterday I went pottered about in the morning, went out for lunch, hit the mountain bike trails & then came home. I had a quick look on the Oanda app (where the screenshot is from), boom, a good trade I jumped in the shower, changed, fired up the laptop & stared disbelievingly at a loss on my account. I’d made a typo in my SL & after the trade was triggered, I was stopped out.
So had my trade been how I should have set it, I would have bagged a nice winning trade with a pleasant 1:3 risk/reward. Instead I had a small loss as my SL, was triggered earlier than it should have been so it wasn’t near my 2% risk.
Now this boils down to stupidity & human error (I should have double checked it) but my prediction was bang on, I just made a mistake. Anyone else have a similar story?
Caught a nice move off the US news release just now though so I’m a tad happier but I’m still hung up a bit on this trade. Ggggggrrrrrr!
Plus I’ve never traded the news before & am kind of amazed to witness a 100-pip movement in a matter of 15mins. I think I might keep an eye on the US NFP from now on, am I right in saying that it’s the 1st Friday of each month?
Firstly, if I may, I just want to commend you on knowing the difference between “loosing” and “losing” a trade, and “loosers” and “losers”. This is a rare trait indeed, so I always find time to celebrate it, as such rare pleasures maintain my sanity in this broken world
I am not ashamed to admit that I have made a rather large collection of errors in my trading to date. I have placed trades in the wrong direction; I have placed 1 pip stop losses, 1 pip TPs; I have opened trades during wildly volatile price moves which were spurred on by news events; heck, I even once opened a trade without a stop loss, would you believe it?? Anyway, all of these mistakes were done in error, so don’t be too hard on yourself about it my friend. Everyone has done it, although not all would admit to it of course
[QUOTE=“BayernMunich;485166”]Firstly, if I may, I just want to commend you on knowing the difference between “loosing” and “losing” a trade, and “loosers” and “losers”. This is a rare trait indeed, so I always find time to celebrate it, as such rare pleasures maintain my sanity in this broken world
I am not ashamed to admit that I have made a rather large collection of errors in my trading to date. I have placed trades in the wrong direction; I have placed 1 pip stop losses, 1 pip TPs; I have opened trades during wildly volatile price moves which were spurred on by news events; heck, I even once opened a trade without a stop loss, would you believe it?? Anyway, all of these mistakes were done in error, so don’t be too hard on yourself about it my friend. Everyone has done it, although not all would admit to it of course :)[/QUOTE]
Thank you, I’m forever editing my posts on here as I am a stickler for grammar & spelling. I’m not saying that mine is perfect but I do try - I hate posting things & then noticing an error. Facebook really pickles my noodle as you can’t edit out any mistakes on there, it’s a delete & re-write job.
I traded the news & then traded the fade back up so had a nice double whammy of substantial wins I’m focussing on those wins just now so I’m rather happy with myself but the failed pin-bar trade is still niggling at me. Oh well, here’s hoping that it’s a mistake that I don’t make again.
And thank you for sharing your errors, the only one of yours that jumps out at me is trading in the wrong direction, I’ve definitely done that a few times. The only other one that springs to mind is the following: I’ve got my MT4 on my parents computer & was at there’s one week helping the Old Boy with DIY & got caught out with the default lot size, I opened a trade x5 bigger than I wanted. I tightened up my SL dramatically & set TP to BE which was hit so I got out of the trade ASAP without losing anything so phew, close call.
Spot on sir, NFP is on the first Friday of each month.
When I make such “silly kick-yourself mistakes”, I remind myself of the following:
(1) At least my account was not decimated as I exercised proper trade discipline by having a SL - look on the bright side
(2) In the grand scheme of things, this one trade does not matter
(3) Professional traders have made far worse blunders than me. Check out this fat finger error on the CHF that happened last year - keying in an order of 90 when he actually wanted 0.90. Hope the link below works.
Trading the US Non Farm Payrolls is always a big event by most of the Forex traders worldwide and this is why we see so much liquidity in the markets and the movements.
Only if you are able to understand them you must trade
Trading the US Non Farm Payrolls is always a big event by most of the Forex traders worldwide and this is why we see so much liquidity in the markets and the movements.
Only if you are able to understand them you must trade :)[/QUOTE]
I was bearish with the news & had an order set, clearly did okay & I’ve been reading & watching videos on fading the news & thought I’d try that too. The standard system seems to be: trade using the 5min chart, open a trade on the open of the 4th candle with the expectation of price returning to where it was trading before the news release with your SL below the low. Looking at the chart (& my balance) this played out nicely.
I hadn’t traded the news before, I think I might delve in to the appropriate threads now & learn my way properly. Any thread recommendations guys?
When trading the news, there is nothing like being 100% sure. Sometimes you predictions might just blow back in your face, even when you’ve trippled checked it. Its always risky to trade the news, especially when you don’t know the High-impact news.
There are two sections about trading the news in Agustin Silvani’s book “Beat the Forex Dealer”. Entire book is worth a read IMO, could give a more in-depth understanding of what is really happening in retail FX trading. Nikos Mermigas also has a “Non-Farm Payroll” ebook. I haven’t read that myself as I don’t trade the news, can’t comment on whether the book’s worth the time. No idea about threads though.
Just bear in mind that trading the news is high risk as mercybond has already pointed out.
There are two sections about trading the news in Agustin Silvani’s book “Beat the Forex Dealer”. Entire book is worth a read IMO, could give a more in-depth understanding of what is really happening in retail FX trading. Nikos Mermigas also has a “Non-Farm Payroll” ebook. I haven’t read that myself as I don’t trade the news, can’t comment on whether the book’s worth the time. No idea about threads though.
Just bear in mind that trading the news is high risk as mercybond has already pointed out.[/QUOTE]
Going by the move I witnessed on Friday, I can really appreciate how high risk it is - I definitely wouldn’t want to be on the wrong side of a move like that.
I’ve avoided the news up until now but I’ll maybe put in a bit of work in to learning how to trade it & then evaluate whether it’s something I want to add to my systems or whether I’ll just go back to staying out of the market when there’s a news release due. I think that folk need to experience everything before they can decide whether it’s for them or not - this time I got lucky, maybe not so much next time.
Obviously it’ll be a mixed bag for folk that trade the news but what’s better, trading the news or fading the news? I’ve heard a lot more about fading it than actually trading the release (other than an order in both directions).
Thanks for the recommendations, I’ll look in to the eBook & investigate the book as to whether it’s my cup of tea.
I hate making stupid mistakes; but I know I’m periodically an idiot so that will happen lol.
I’ve attempted to trade the news release and I’m not good at it. The simplest strategy I’ve seen for taking advantage of high volatility events is just to swap down to 5 minute charts, wait for the first 5 minute candlestick close after the release, and then jump into the dominant direction provided the candle doesn’t indicate indecision/hesitation.
But yeah, definitely do your research. NFPs are the most volatile, regular announcement. Bank rate decisions are also fairly tradeable.
I have made plenty of stupid mistakes. One comes to mind of how I got so far in drawdown. I set up a trade but forgot to click sell. It is default on buy. Didnt set a stop or else I would have noticed something was wrong. Well I kept just glancing at my charts seeing price was going in my favor so all happy I went about doing other things. It was not till later on price had moved far enough and I was going to leave that I decided I set a stop past BE. Thats when I noticed I was on the wrong side of the trade. The whole time I thought I was making money my account was getting smaller.
We all make some stupid mistakes sometimes, the most important thing is to learn from them and not to make them again. In general I stay away from news trading, I use the results (the spikes after the release), but never trade the actual number.
Let me ask you a question regarding some of the initial statements made in this thread;
what do you think ‘still kicking yourself about it’ does to your psyche?
what do you feel thinking about the past over and over again will accomplish for you?
what do you feel ‘still being hung up a bit on this trade’ will do for you?
knowing what you know now, what is your plan to correct these errors, and do you think your current line of thinking will help with that?
Just curious to see your responses…
Kind Regards,
Chris Capre[/QUOTE]
1-3) I know that I should just brush it all off, a loss should just be water off a duck’s back - they happen. It was just a small reoccurring niggle that I messed up & should have made some money. It’s long since forgotten about now but the psychology of things is definitely something that I need to work on.
I’ll be double (maybe triple) checking my orders etc before I implement the “forget” part of the “set & forget”.
Thanks for the input Chris, the task I’ve set for myself at the w/end is to look through some of your threads, I’m looking forward to it. Any advise for me before I dive in?
Good - yes, these things need to be forgotten, and psychology is something we almost all need to work on. If we didn’t, we’d all be successful traders by now.
Also good that you have a plan for how to deal with this in the future.
I focus heavily on the trading mindset with my students, so wanted to just chime in on this one as I thought I might have some useful things to share (hopefully).
In terms of looking through a thread, I only have one which you can find here; Forex Price Action
Hope to see you in there soon where we cover such topics as price action, live trade setups, key levels, risk management, trading psychology and more.
No matter how careful you are, there will always come a time when you make a big mistake. A 100pips movement in a matter of 15mins could make you lose or make you win. Trading the news is very profitable if you are able to get 90%.
You raised some very good questions and while they may not be answered here in the thread en mass, traders should at least ask themselves without sharing if they do not feel like it. A past mistake is there to be learned from.
Excellent - yes, asking these questions is a great place to start, and something traders would benefit from asking themselves (publicly or privately).
It points to certain things we all come up against, and can build a successful trading mindset from by changing how we relate to ourselves and our thoughts when it comes to trading.
I jumped in the shower, changed, fired up the laptop & stared disbelievingly at a loss on my account. I’d made a typo in my SL & after the trade was triggered, I was stopped out.
I’m focussing on those wins just now so I’m rather happy with myself but the failed pin-bar trade is still niggling at me. Oh well, here’s hoping that it’s a mistake that I don’t make again.