So tired of losing money

Beginner Questions
1

I am always on the wrong side of price direction. If I do get on the right side, my stop loss is too tight, or I’ll watch a winning trade run into profit then right back to my SL. Now a’days I give myself more room for stops, but it doesn’t help if the trade is going bad.

Once the trade is over, I understand everything. Well, almost everything. I’ll still remain convinced that price or the trend is going the other way. But it’s just the way I see it. Every time frame shows a different trend, anyway.

I give lot’s of credit to those who do well. I’ve been working at this for over two years, and I still have over a 90% lose rate. In fact I’m watching a trade race to my stop loss as I write this.

Just one trade… even if it only nets me 2 or 3 pips. I would be so delighted.

All I do is read forex. $$'s in books, printed forum threads from great traders and great methods. Phsycology books and rules. The only thing that helps is going demo. Trading with no money. Then I do fine. Once I turn the money on, every trade is a loser.

I make a couple of winners, but I’ll lose $60, make $0.75, lose $30. make $4.00, etc.

I make all kinds of pips on paper though.

Last night was a great example. the EURUSD. It was all bound up and ready to go. I had in my notes if it moved lower 20 pips to jump in. Looked like a doozy from my analysis. I was excited about it all weekend. I wasn’t around to catch the move though, but I got in as soon as I could. Once it was over of course.

I know the only way to get better at this is to trade. A bit last week and this week so far is the first time I’ve been able to make time to trade since late November '09 and Christmas break '09. Before that it was July/August '09 during summer time off.

I’m forcing myself to trade so I can get better at. I can read until I puke, but if I don’t trade I’ll never get better.

I’m 14… 17… 19… 21 pips in the hole right now, after sitting on a trade all night. I’d kiss a pig to just once, get 14 pips in the positive and maybe have a chance to move my stop to BE and let it ride with no risk. I would be sooo happy.

A good portion of the trades I take start off well. I was just in 4 pips profit, which happens often. Now I’m 8 pips in the hole with a very good idea that it’s over, and I should’ve taken my 4 pips. This is my trading history. Get ahead, then get waaay behind. But 4 pips doesn’t help me set a BE line. 4pips is much too tight a SL. So what to do? I’m going to lose another 20 pips for being greedy and not taking 4 pips.

But it’s not greed. It’s trying to set that BE and getting a trade going! wtf! I can never, ever, get there. a lot of folks talk about setting a BE after getting 20 pips in profit. I’m telling ya. Me getting 4 pips in profit is really something. -11 as I write. Hopefully it comes back. I know your not supposed to hope, but it’s all I can do.

Everyone, send me a pm! instead of giving money to my broker, I will select a couple of folks to give $50 away to. I’m going to lose over $100 today anyway. Might as well put it to good use.

I’ve been going long on EURUSD since I missed the first move last night. I’m serious. Get your pms to me. Rather make someone happy with my money then watch it go away. I just lost another $10!

Ok, now I get a long candle going. This is where I get in!

If I could only take those 1, 2, 4 pips everytime. I’d be in the positive. I’ve burned myself twice this morning going long on the EURUSD, but now that I didn’t get in it cleared 15 pips from where I would’ve entered.

Any advice? Is there something fundamental I’m missing on the EURUSD? I didn’t find anything news worthy. When should I try again? At the moment, all of my trading rationality is gone. I went from a studious, planning guy over the weekend to I’ve just lost over $100 and I need to get it back with quickness.

I’d be happy with one or two pips at a time, but we’re taught to let it ride. Let the trade develop. But I try, and it just burns me. And now the EURUSD is going my way. Finally. But I’m not in…

2

What is your basic strategy for entry?

3

Wow. Here’s what I think. Even though a pip is a relative term for value, 4 pips is nothing. Having a 11 pip negative retrace is normal. I trade off the 1h and 4h charts. Sometimes there’s a retrace of 50 pips before going on the direction of the main trend.

Some advice: Decide what time frame you wanna trade off of. Then open up the time frame up from it…or if you use shorter time frames then open a couple higher ones.

An example. You said you were long EURUSD. Why? Both the daily and 4h time frames show a downward trend. 1hr was trending slightly up but its mostly bearish now.

Consulting a larger time frame before entering a shorter one will significantly help your win rate.

Put your stops at recent swing high/low and you’ll get your stop loss hit less often.

Now, as for the money you’re offering…hehe. If you wanna give it away, my paypal is…

Stick with it though. You just haven’t broken through to a point where you understand fully what you’re doing.

1 Like
4

My strategy for entry is reversal patterns. Not necessarily huge ones, just watching for momentum to fizzle in one direction, and confirm that it is moving the other way. Keep an eye on SR lines, bounces off of etc, and big even numbers.

I usually watch 3 or 4 pairs, but I decided this week to just watch one, the EURUSD. Bad choice for this week I think.

I’d like to trade from the 4 hour, but I can’t; the 15 minute is like a magnet that pulls me in and I can’t stop myself.

5

I’d like to throw my two cents in here, even though I’m relatively new to the forum.

I too have been at this for a while, and made very similar mistakes. The one part of your post that hit me was the part about the money spent on books. If there’s one thing I’ve learned thus far, it’s that a book cannot tell you what the market is going to do. And, though MANY of the threads and blogs here are insanely good, they aren’t there when you are trading, setting SL’s, etc.

Take a step back and maybe refrain from trading until you get your head out of the losses you’ve incurred. You have to be mentally strong to survive the beast that is FX - the second you lose confidence in your overall strategy, you’re asking your broker to take your funds.

During this downtime, start looking at the longer-term charts and map out how you see the trends forming. Pay close attention to the way each pair retraces, and at what times (different markets treat different pairs, different ways) - but always look at the whatever the market tells you that is OBVIOUS. If a pair is doing something that’s hard for you to decipher, move on and look at something else. You have to get to a point where you know that going short or going long is the right thing to do, even if there’s a big retrace in there. Once you do, the logic in the books you have and here in the forum may give you a few tools to incorporate into your overall interpretation of the market.

Virtecs is spot on with her SL logic. Put 'em at highest highs and lowest lows within a trend, and with patience, you’ll see those profits you so desire.

Take care - and don’t give up. People here are successful for a myriad of reasons, and none of them are reasons that you cannot have yourself.

6

Hi Edacsca,

If you don’t have a strategy to do the analysis before initiate a trade I would like to advice you sincerely to check the cowabunga system. I did a lot of succes with this strategy with some modifications just to fit my personnality. Try to stick with one major pair until you gain more confidence of yourself.

Good luck, Buddy.

From Montreal, Canada:)

7

I guess it could be worse, I only lost 70 pips in half a day today. It’s only money. I’ll just keep swinging with price I guess. I’ll get it right eventually.

It’s amazing how I get knocked out at my stop loss. Obviously it’s now going the other way, so I get back in and it turns around to hit a new stop. Rinse, repeat. I’ve been doing this all day and it’s driving me crazy.

8

Hey edacsac…you’re screen name reminds me of that cartoon character Sad Sack :smiley:

It seems that your commitment is there but with only a bit of time here & there this week & last, before that at Christmas, and before that during the summer, your application time really doesn’t facilitate that. Even tho technically you’ve been at it for 2 years, the actual time barely sounds like a year. I mean I’m doing it part time and at the 2+ year mark and still not consistent enough yet to go back to live trading, But I’m at the charts each evening and practise on a simulator.

Just a comment on your “system”. It’s good that you mark S&R areas and try to take trades that bounce or reverse off them…but you may be waiting too long for your “confirmation” that price is actually reversing. Price does like to retest S&R levels, and generally retrace so you need to be in [B]AT[/B] the S&R level to weather the retest/retrace.

Also, do you check if there are other indications that price may “react” at those S&R levels?..like a fib retracement/extension level from a prior swing or 2?..or a divergence in an oscillator? If you’ve got a couple of different indicator that point to/converge at the same price, then the odds that price will reverse or at least have a “strong reaction” is supposed to be pretty good. You could use the H4 to detect those levels, then use the 15min to watch for candle sticks patterns when price does get there. That way theoretically you could get your “confirmation” closer to the optimal entry price instead of waiting for it to reverse say 20 pips before getting in.

Keep trying :slight_smile:

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I use fib retracements as well as trend lines if applicable.

I do fine on demo because it doesn’t matter. Sometimes I even do well live when it’s obvious. But once I’ve lost a chunk of money, I have to keep trying even if it kills me. I can’t detach myself from the money. Half the trades I’ve been in today I can’t even rationalize, except for I got stopped out so enter the other way.

That and getting out of a bad trade without hoping… All easier said then done.

I’d give a bunch to have time to trade every day.

10

You’ve got some bad habits to kick…lol.

So are you in school or something to prevent you from trading more often?

11

Trading takes a lot out of me emotionally which in turn pretty much wipes me out physically, so I really need to clear my schedule to trade.

I’m a programmer, so there is always time to glance at a chart or whatever. Realistically though, when the money is on my eyes are glued to the screen. I can’t even take a bathroom break half the time.

So ya, I have to clear everything in my schedule if money is going on. That’s why I’d love to trade 4hr+ chart. But nothing really happens when I have time on the 4hr. 15m there is something going on every couple of hours.

Trade after trade, after trade. I get up 2 pips, 4 pips, maybe even 6 or 7. Then they turn around and stop me out. It’s heart breaking. If I was smart and didn’t listen to all the damn books or advice everywhere, I’d be about 20 pips in the positive and happy. Not 70 in the hole trying to dig myself out using bad habits. 20 pips would be a good day.

12

If only we could all be a bit more like you as we get started in this headache inducing business. I think your doing great for keeping your patience!

13

Here’s my suggestion,

Make a major change in your trading style - stop trying to trade time frames you clearly don’t have enough free time for in your life.

It’s like that for me too. I work a full time job that doesn’t allow me to check the charts whenever I want to. Due to my time zone I work during London and the early part of NY. After going to the gym etc things are winding down in the markets by the time I come home.

In my early, stupid, days I thought I could sit down and scalp a couple of hours in the evening. Well, I learned the hard way that it would be smarter to just ask for those PMs you mentioned…

I decided I had no choice but to adapt my approach to trading so that it would fit with my life. I decided to trade only 4H and up and after a while I pretty much scratched 4H and now I’m basically just trading daily charts.

Many think it’s like watching paint dry but I’m learning to appreciate the many pros:
only have to check the charts once per day around the daily close
plenty of time to analyze a trade setup before making a trade/no trade choice
more reliable signals
etc

Am I consistent and a successful trader? I don’t know yet - ask me in three years.

If you’re interested in making a similar change like I’ve done I’d recommend you have a look at these two threads. Maybe they can be your savior as they have been for me:

james16 Chart Thread @ Forex Factory

Silent Service Method @ Forex Factory

Good luck :slight_smile:

14

Thank you o990l6mh,

Over the weekend I added a new rule to my list. No less then 4H! I think I’ve added that rule before…

If I would’ve closed all my trades today when I said to myself “I think I should close this trade”, I’d be in great shape right now, or at least not have a losing day.

I’ll check those threads out!

15

Why not spit your trades into two components, close one half using a discretionary exit, and the other according to your plan. At least you’ll know for certain if you really have discretionary skills, or if your just fooling yourself.

The statistics never lie.

16

Well if I was to go back to school to get a designation of some sort, I’d be there for a few years at least, so I’m quite content with the time it’s taking. I’m probably taking a long road around a short path, but I keep finding new points of interest along the way…lol. Like o990l6mh (macgyver guy) says, we have to find a method that suits us.

Many times I tried a great looking system that never gave signals when I was present so that was a waste of time until I figured that out. The trading simulator helps with that now.

Then the time that I am present is usually a low volatility time that can see price gradually swing up or down 20-30 pips over several hours…can be very frustrating.

So now I’m onto a system/method that allows me lots of time in late Asian for analysis, for a predetermined entry in early London when price picks up.

It’s just taking that long to learn what I have to work with, and how to work with it. If I could have anytime of the day, then I could work some of those other systems whenever they give a signal, but that’s just not the case. :wink:

17

Cannot post the chatroom link as a newbie, maybe someone else can.

18

Then I could save at least part of my money… It’s hard to say though. Did I close any of my trades? Not a one. Everyone went up to at least +2 pips, then all the way down the tubes. If I closed every trade when price started to fade I would’ve been 14pips up. Nothing to write home about, but I’d be able to sleep tonight.

I just read that closing a trade when it’s given all the pips it’s going to give or just closing a bad trade in a timely matter is more important then entries, stop losses, strategy, etc. To bad I’m not following that info.

19

I’ve lost a bit of money recently, and decided last week to just stay out of the market, and just watching price action. I have found that my trade always going in the negative first before going into profit. Trading on the 1h and 4h charts means I have to wait a while for that. Usually I’m so happy when they become profitable that I take my wins early, only to have the price move up significantly 2 or 3 bars later.

It’s all about patience.

And yes, it’s all about having a system. If you don’t have a system, emotions and “gut feel” will get in your way. And as I’m timid from my losses, I end up missing out on winning trades.

Recently, I’ve been doing quite well working with daily/weekly/monthy pivots, one FIB and other S&R elements. Ofcourse this ain’t something new. Once I get my entry and exit rules set I will take it live.

20

Just a second to this. Some very helpful people there with time to offer assistance. We’re all learning together :slight_smile: