I’m a real newbie:p , I’m attending Pip School, I’m using [B]ForexTrader (Demo)[/B] and I really blew my first trade:o . As we speak my Unrealized Pip is -172.00:eek: , I was trading EUR/USD. I didn’t use a stop loss and I know I should have, but I’m having a hard time reading the chart. I made this trade last week and just let it ride to see if I could get out of the red. Please offer some advice for me. Should I just take the loss and make a new trade with a stop loss. Any advice on what some of you keep your eyes on on the chart and what time frames you use? I have a 15 min. candlestick chart right now. I’m so tired of not knowing what I’m looking at, please help:confused: . Thanx so much!
P.S. I’ll be going over Pip School 4-5 times as suggested.
Ok, so you lost your first trade. Get out of it. I promise, this is the best thing that possibly could have happened to you. The full reality of this has hit you smack between your earholes. Trust me - you dont want your first trade to be a big winner, all that does is set you up psychologically for unrealistic expectations. This is not an easy gig and there are plenty of people who have been at it for many months or years and are yet to be consistantly profitable.
Cut your losses short and let your profits run. Ok im sure you have heard that one before even if your a big newb. If not, get ready, your gonna. But thats kinda vauge isn’t it? What does it exactly mean? Well obviously it means that your losses need to be smaller than your wins, but how do you accomplish that? Well, its up to you, but you MUST have a system in place with rules for you to follow that get you out of loosing trades. If you enter a trade and the market doesnt do what you thought it would - get out, your analysis was wrong and you need to rethink your trade plan. For me, I never take over a 15 to 20 pip loss. One suggestion that I might make is for you to use stop losses. These will save you the mental effort of closing your trade manually.
I don’t know what trading style you are using, but if I lost 172 pips I would be rolling on the floor kicking, screaming, and crying like a little baby, so yes I would say that is too much, and you should not trick yourself into thinking that the market will come back - THIS IS THE WAY MANY MANY AN ACCOUNT HAS BEEN BLOWN - dont fall into the trap.
Sorry for the long post. Post a reply if you want more information.
It’s only a demo account so it’s no big deal… you learned a valuable lesson: you aren’t ready yet. Personally I think this is better than if you have just gotten lucky and suddenly thought you were an expert, put all your real money in and then you would have been REALLY disappointed! So yeah, take the loss and start over.
Are you only trading with candlesticks? Indicators can really help you identify trends and patterns on charts, if you find the right ones for you… if you haven’t read about the “Cowabunga” system here on this site, it’s a good start to get you thinking about how to make your own system.
Personally I am not a fan of stop-losses at all, but most other traders on this site would disagree with me.
Hi 4x4, I�m a newbie too, i�ve been demo trading for the past 4 months!! but i have some ruls that i follow, always, it doesnt matter the timeframa or the pair:
-Don�t risk more than 2% of my account
-My STOP LOSS/TAKE PROFIT ratio at least has to be 1/2, that way i cut my losses and let my profits run.
Just to give you a different side. Using the system I trade a 170 pip drawdown is no big deal. I trade more long term though and my lot sizes are alot smaller. It really depends on the system you choose to use. I will warn that the lower the time frame for the charts the more often your indicator will give false signals. Just keep reading and practicing it’ll come.
