Why did I bottle it on my first live trade?

Hi all!

I went live today having built up my demo trading account. I sat all morning waiting for a Buy trade on the EUR/USD, and when the opportunity came I convinced myself that not all was quite as it should be, and I didn’t take the trade, though I would have done on the demo site. The trade went straight up after that having moved only 4 pips against my stop loss, for a maximum of 126 pips. I’m now beating myself up for bottling it on my first live trade, a trade that would have given me a brilliant head start as I only use a 10 pip stop loss.

Is there anyone out there who has perhaps suffered the same apoplectic seizure, and if there is, do you have any wisdom on how I should confront the new trading day. right now, I’m sort of convinced that my next trade is going to be a loser, don’t know why, sod’s law I guess.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hmm, where do I start…!
First, have you a plan? If not then you should not be trading live for certain as your more than likely to blow your account. Secondly, if you do have a plan that has been proved successful in demo trading then it is the mind! Ive just begun reading a great book (Trading in the zone) all about what differentiates the successful traders from the unsuccessful ones - the mind set.
ALWAYS stick to your plan, don’t let your emotions get in the way and even when your plan goes against you don’t doubt it. If your trade is a loosing one, congratulate yourself that you followed your trading plan correctly!
Now… You say that you watched a potential trade drift by… Forget it, immediately!
That does not matter, the Market doesn’t end today, you’ll have many many more opportunities.

So, move on, and trade to your plan detaching yourself emotionally from the trades. If they end up loosing ones, give yourself a clap if you followed your plan!

I think you’ve got the message!! Good luck

Without questioning your strategy or style … to have a 10 pip stop loss (taking into account of the spread) appears quite tight unless you are scalping…

Always remember this adage : “you need to lose money to make money” … just make sure you make more than you lose and exercise good discipline. Good luck.

Thank you very much for that, you are so right, I have got the message and shall try my best to take it into the new trading day. Yes, I have a plan, and have Mark Douglas’s ’ trading in the zone ’ on my bookshelf. It’s just amazing how you tell yourself a hundred times that you will not be the one to make all the rudimentary mistakes traders make, but there I am on my first trade failing to take a perfectly good opportunity.

I deeply appreciate your reply. My heartiest thanks!!

No problem!
I know exactly what you mean, I have to battle with it every day too as I’m a newbie trader too.
I find it’s good to go through (out loud) to yourself before entering a trade exactly why you are entering it. Like you are convincing someone else that this trade is a good one!
Anyway, stick to the plan and you’ll be fine I’m sure.

It’s tight I know, but I’ve spent two years working on the entries to try and pin them down. If I’m right, I don’t normally need more, if I’m wrong, any more than 10 pips just sees me incurring a bigger loss. No, I’m not scalping, but always move my SL to break even after 20 pips. Thank you very much for your reply.

10 pips is tight even on EU. Perhaps it might help if instead of taking an arbitory 10 pips SL you look to a more logical SL based on PA/ SR, time of day i.e. Asian, London or London/ New York and of course your strat and preferred TF?

Yep… theres a world of difference between demo and live! Don’t let it get the better of you… in time you’ll learn to seperate out the emotion from trading even to the point of it becoming mundane.

That said, I’m currently shorting EUR/NZD and GBP/NZD and let me tell you on the daily TF, its heart stopping seeing PA jump 10-20 pips at a time! LOL!!! But with the correct MM fun at the same time!

I’m gonna go against conventional wisdom here, and say that I make trades all the time with UBER tight stops. I also have a strategy that uses no stops.

My setup affords me that luxury.

But as to why YOU hesitated, it’s the transition from demo, to having actual consequences from a trade that make you hesitate.

The solution is to lower your lot size so much that the trade is unimportant.

Do that until you are comfortable, because even with a tiny lot size, your head will play games with you until you get used to the idea of having the reality of risk set in.

The biggest battle is the one you haven’t fought yet.

Just remember, it’s all in your head.
Lower those lots until you have no qualms about a trade, and STICK TO YOUR STRATEGY.

Do it over, and over, and over, just like you did on demo, and you’ll get used to it. Then ratchet things up a tad, rinse, and repeat.

Cheers!

A couple resources worth looking at.

First off, check out the “What Every New & Or Aspiring Forex Trader… Still Wants To Know” thread, and try ICT’s 20 trade plan. I wouldn’t demo trade the plan because it will only put you right back where you are now. Instead, figure out an amount of money you can afford to lose even if all 20 trades went against you, and size your positions accordingly. A great read would also be “Trading in the Zone” by Mark Douglas, which also will give you a trading plan, but more of an in depth look at why you froze so you can work on moving past that point.

Demo trading gives a false sense of security, it’s really nothing like live trading because of the extremely different emotions involved.

Also, since you have now told yourself that your next trade will be a loser, it most likely will be. If you truly have an edge in your system, you don’t have to fear losing trades. Instead, think in terms of probabilities and realize that you will have winning trades, and losing trades. Each losing trade only brings you closer to your next winner.

Good Luck!

Just went back through to read the other replies in the thread and noticed I wasn’t the first person to bring up reading Trading in the Zone. Might be worth thinking about :wink:

Thanks for your reply. I try to get my SL outside the Bollinger band, and 10 pips, if the entry is right, is usually enough, though I will extend it to a maximum of 15, though seldom less. Just wish I could be as cool as when placing a demo trade, though as you say, it’ll come.

I always try and get my SL outside the Bollinger, sometimes it’s 10, sometimes a few pips more, but never less than 10. Thanks for the advice, it’s greatly appreciated.

I’ve got the book, read it and will read it again. Currently reading Lefevre’s ’ Reminiscences of a Stock Trader ', full of many nuggets of wisdom. That trade would have been the first of my 20 live trades, and today is a new day! Thank you very much for your advice!!

Try NLP NLP introduction

But I’d say that your strategy just isn’t quite strong enough, if your strategy was stronger you wouldn’t have the same issue.

Whatever the case might be for your poor first day, don’t despair, you probably nearly there, stick at it.

I just finished Reminiscences earlier today, great book as well! It amazed me how the book was written so long ago, covering some of the late 1800’s but was still such an easy read.

No mention of risk management though, and note that even a great trader blew his account a few times.

Oh, I’m sure my strategy could be stronger, that’s something that I think anyone can always improve upon. Thanks for the encouragement!

Yes, it’s incredible isn’t it, still SO relevant to today’s speculating, but boy, Livermore must have had balls of steel to stomach and repeatedly come back from being wiped out, though I guess, hardly surprisingly, it all got too much for him in the end. Fantastic read!!

Sound advice, many thanks for your wisdom!