Overtrading Wiped Me

Trading Discussion
21

I think this is interesting.

Please tell us what strategy you used on these 3 accounts.

I have a friend with “an ego” who has recently started (about 2 years ago) trading GBPUSD.

A couple of months ago he was doing ok - better then me :sunglasses:

Then I get the phonecall - He’s taken on a triple position and it didn’t turn ! just kept going DOwn - so he’s “moved his stop” - Now the Pound has to go down to 45cents before he gets “stopped out” - and he’s “lost interest” (He’s on demo)

Will it come back the many hundred pips it needs to ? - probably IMO - but if this was real money he’d be getting margin calls day after day - because his “demo” is $10,000 whereas his “real” would be £500 or similar. WOuld he be able to “Cover” - well yes but would he in real life do so ? I doubt his wife would let him !

Sadly his ego is getting in the way of learning to trade. I doubt he will ever be able to do it and now hhe cannot even “Practice trading” - because his “ego” is locked in to a monster “loser” and he cannot even look at his account - !

Yet IF it does “come back” - I’ll hear nothing but "I knew it would - that’s why I did what I did and furthermore - I’m now an expert because I know how to trade this stuff ! " You should listen to what I have to say because you would have closed it out ! So I know best ! "

However @anon46773462 has said “Strive for excellence” and I think that is likely the true way to demonstrate a successful “ego” - take your losses, take your wins and strive to increase your knowledge and skill to the state where your “ego” is fulfilled by the success on a regular basis which you can demonstrate. - The increases in your balance.

As far as your patience is concerned, I think you should go through the babypips school in detail, learn it a*ssways and do every excercise until you are in the top 5% on every test.

Then you have achieved something, and can say you have some knowledge - maybe the time taken will help the “Patience issue” ?

Following some random “like junkie” on Social media - you are learning nothing.

Please DO tell us what strategy you used on these 3 accounts.

All the best

F

1 Like
22

Something I did not think about…wow thank you for this.

The last 2 wiped account was 10$ with 400:1 leverage.

23

This is true, I am accepting this task, I will notify you when I’m done.

24

The strategy I’ve been using on these paper accounts is support and resistance and trandlines. I mastered (well maybe I convinced myself that I mastered) the caddlestick patterns (I think you know all of them). And a bit of fundamental trading (didn’t invest much time on this as it seemed a bit full of manipulation) which I didn’t use that much.

All the accounts had 1000$ start up equity, and I would use 1-3 (another problem I figured) lot size volume. Only on the last account where I lost interest on, I used a minimum of 0.01- 0.05 volume lot size (I think this explains the “patience issue”).

2 Likes
25

And this is noted. I should accept my losses and accept my wins. Thank you so much.

26

…when you wake up with gut- wrenching food poisoning, you think twice about making the same misake again…or do you?

I hope I make sense.

I am assuming this is sarcasm, Sorry if my posts appear arrogant or something? So I’ll leave you to it with a couple of well-worn but accurate and, I think, helpful clichés:

“If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.”

and if that rings true then the answer is simple:

“Plan the trade and trade the plan”

2 Likes
27

Thanks, man!

Hah, good question. I guess you should read about the marshmallow test and perhaps this article: Delayed gratification - Wikipedia .

Sure, it’s hard as hell, you need to think of the long-term benefits :slight_smile:

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28

Somebody else suggested this already, but switch to a higher time frame. I found a strategy that worked for me on the 4-hour chart, and I kept getting faked out by small fluctuations. So, I switched to the daily and it has made a world of difference. Much less fake outs.

The other thing I did was I went back and backtested the strategy. I wrote down every gain and loss. The I calculated my account balance, margin, and risk, and I came up with a total I would have made over that time. The sum was quite significant!

Now when I want to deviate from my plan, I can remind myself: “Ok, dude. You know this strategy works, and it will have you be successful in the long run. Stick to your plan!”

It has helped me to be patient and let my trades play out recently.

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29

Keeping a trading journal has really helped me. I put questions that I must answer in each setup. Having to answer these questions alerts me to when I am going against my plan. Sometimes I start answering the questions and I think to myself, “ok, now you KNOW this is a bad trade,” and it stops me from taking it.

1 Like
30

I’ve been doing my journal wrong all ths time, thanks for this insight.

31

100%… learn from your mistakes, got it.

32

Wow this really seemed helpful

33

Not at all, just straight facts.

This is greate advice, “the plan is the key” basically.

Thanks a lot @anon46773462 I really appreciate it.

34

Yeah, if sticking to the planned routine works out for bodybuilders, it should also work out for day traders :slight_smile:

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35

That’s true. It’s important to learn discipline and to follow a trading plan. Deviating from it rarely leads to anything good.

36

I too am a new trader. Still not confident in live trading yet. One advice that I can give you is, when don’t have a lot of money, then don’t trade until you do. So I would suggest depositing $50 each month to your forex account and not trade it. Here you are building your account. You do that for one year and you will have $600. Now if you have a solid method you could start by opening micro lots. But don’t forget to still deposit the $50 to your account, even if you are winning. Just my 2 cents.

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37

Yeah I’m negative 150 pips into EU 1.175 >1.155

38

How did that happen? Is that one trade or adding more as it went down? Is this intended as a long term position or is it a shot term trade that went wrong? Is this on demo?

39

The Professional’s secret hack- Place each trade in levels (1-3). 1 & 2 being high probability tades. 3 being your impulsive tades ( those trades you know were poor setups yet you still took) record the results and use this to train your brain into taking only those high probability tades that you will see from your results generate more winners than losers and avreage wins grater than loses. — Reseaech high probability trade setups focus on these, levels (1&2). It will be hard at first, develop the patience, don’t take level 3 trades (high risk, low reward). This is the simply hack to week, in week out profits in any market. Hope this helped.

— Grade every trade before you take it. If it’s a level 3 set up, it’s not worth the risk!!! Don’t place the trade!!!

3 Likes
40

All good advice no doubt - perhaps you’d like to give us a few examples - or rules ? :slight_smile: