Up s... creek, anyone got a paddle?

[SteveKG]

Ooops!
The stops got hit (as expected), so no surprise there then. To some it may be an awful lot to lose and to others it is a mere drop in the trading ocean. I am going to treat the loss as a necessary tuition fee that will give a greater return in the future.

I would like to thank everyone on this thread who have helped me tremendously with your expertise,opinions, insights and support.

A painful experience everyone who’s traded has to have experienced.

I hope I have taken on board everything that has been said, I have had important lessons and never want to be in this position again.

So, back to the demo it is. I’m still in the game but not in any hurry to jump in just yet.
And I vow never to go near the 1m TF again.

[dariousforex]

And I vow never to go near the 1m TF again.

Indeed. Good luck!

[zrrsys]

DO a buy if it goes above 1.129680 but go easy this time
or do a sell now and set your sl at 1.129680

[artawidi]

never to go near the 1m TF again

Smaller timeframe i use is H1,
Less screentime, more time for analysing

[dudebro]

What excellent advice!

[dudebro]

And I vow never to go near the 1m TF again.

Have you trading anything else in the past? Or just 1m the entire time?

[SteveKG]

dudebro, I 1st started doing the 1min when I tried it on the demo and found that the results were very good so I carried it over to the live. Again the results were good, quick and fairly easy to achieve so I stuck exclusively with that TF and enjoyed the simplicity and speed.
I trade more on Tue, Wed and Thu with a little bit of ‘tinkering’ Mon & Fri.
Looking back I can see that the trades that did get away from me were when I was distracted or away from the desk for a few mins and because I felt that I had a position open only for a few seconds or minute I didn’t need sl’s so never bothered with them.
Also, looking back, I wasn’t ‘trading’ as such, just looking at a few candles close up and ignoring the bigger picture although I do spend a lot of time with fundamentals on non trading days.
I’m going to try 1 or 2 different strategies on the demo again with a longer TF. I like clean charts with very few or no indicators so I will look more to the technical side and get into price action more.

[Willedo]

Been there and at times still there. I am getting better at staying away from the bad trades, fall over with some of the action now and again.
I have started using a different approach, my broker is Pepperstone Australia, have only been with them for about 8 months, the EA’s supplied are good and handy, especially the Mini Terminal.
I can set up a variety of orders and save them as templates, I use a percentage basis, Stop loss 1% of balance from 1.2% to 1.5^ Take profit mostly on time frames no less than 1 Hour.
Sure I have losses, sometimes a run, then I can have some good winning runs.
If you are not comfortable with a 1% SL, I have used 1.5%, but doing that puts you at risk of “diving in” and losing money. A short SL in my opinion, tells me to double check the decision to trade an instrument.
I have thought of the day when a 1% SL will be way over the top, dreaming of a large increase in my balance, I am only running a $500 account.
Well that is it for my two bob’s worth, hope it has been a comfort, your not alone!

[TP89]

So how did it go, did you close the positions or did you go out old fashion with a margin call. lol

[SteveKG]

Thank you Willedo. Useful info, I also no longer feel that it’s only me out here with no way to turn when it hits the fan, the forum is a useful addition to the tool box.

After this setback I’ve had to put the Lambo delivery back …by 18years!

[SteveKG]

TP89. I let the stops do the work for me; the pockets weren’t deep enough.
It would have been far cheaper to set the stops right at the beginning obviously. I read arguments for and against setting a stop loss, I know which side I’m on now.

[ProfitPotential]

Always use a stop loss.

The wider the better until you get more experience. You should adjust your lot size for this wide stop loss to not risk more than what you are comfortable with.

[clemmo]

The most important thing to learn is that you didn’t learn anything useful on BP’s school site and you won’t get any good advice from this thread (including my own probably). If you’re serious about trading profitably start reading and doing your own research, make your own databases, find your own edges. It’s not in anyone’s interest to help you learn how to fish and the free fish are bait.

[SteveKG]

clemmo, I disagree completely. Before BP I didn’t know what candlesticks, forex charts (let alone heiken ashi or bollinger bands) were. The beauty of the course I felt for me was that it was simple and everything was all in one place.
I do not restrict myself to the BP school, as I progressed over the months I downloaded, bought and borrowed many, many books, articles and papers connected with trading and have gained a vast amount of knowledge from them. (Putting the knowledge into practice may be a little bit harder).
I also know that I have had great support from this thread and knowledge what others have written/questioned on the BP forum. To me it has been invaluable as it has provided alternatives that I may not have considered.
I firmly believe that the tiniest bit of knowledge gained from whatever source,(even the back of a cornflakes packet), is always useful if it helps me to understand and form a credible opinion or an idea.

[clemmo]

Then I recommend you follow Robertop26’s link and digest the core concept videos and see if it alters your opinion. While I don’t agree with VP about everything I firmly agree with him that almost all the concepts ‘taught’ to beginner forex traders are designed to get them to lose (but slowly). You are better off not knowing about candlesticks, Heiken Aishi and Bollinger bands. They were not made for forex markets.

[SteveKG]

Had only a very quick look but I have that planned for part of this weekends reading.

[Jag51]

Hi Steve
i made some of the same mistakes as you but on NASDAQ since then i have changed broker to oanda and also changed asset to Natgas and almost got all my money back from what i lost on Nasdaq oanda is more set up for small retail traders like us as you can do units and also see how much margin you are using before you place your trade

[dudebro]

The most important thing to learn is that you didn’t learn anything useful on BP’s school site and you won’t get any good advice from this thread

That’s kinda bold to claim, isn’t it? You’ve been a member since 2016. You haven’t learned even a single thing here in your time? That’s hard to imagine. Why are you still here, in 2019? Serious question not meant to attack you.

I’m a completely noob, but many of the replies here appear thoughtful, helpful and apply to Steve’s situation.

[clemmo]

I learn a lot from Babypips forums in general; there are a lot of clever people who post here.

And I lied, I DID learn something very valuable from BP’s school. I learned that you can’t put your faith in anyone else’s educational system when your money is on the line. Before I started live trading I should have demo traded for about 2-3 years and read about 7 forums and 50 books. And I still would have needed to do a lot of independent research and study to get close to where I am now. I don’t see the time as wasted though, it’s what Josh Waitzkin would call ‘an investment in loss’. You NEED to lose before you can win. Ideally for a new trader the loss should sting for a lifetime but not be crippling.

Still, that’s just my opinion. Maybe there are some people who are smarter than me who learned how to trade profitably based on triangles,pennants, and Gartley patterns, risking no more than 1% on every trade. Trading is a very personal endeavor, even though the popular notion is that it gets done by large multinational firms and robots.

[VarSine]

I think that the best approach for Steve would be to spend some time on demo. Then try to go through your list of mistakes which you are making in trading and seek the ways to improve them. Actually, no matter how it sounds to you, I think that you are on a good track to become excellent trader