I hate to not have an open position, I always have to have some position open. Since i started trading, i have lost 250% of what i have put in. I only invest what i can afford to lose. In my situation we are talking very small amounts of money, I work with lots of 1,000. My current equity is $47 in my account. I am not doing this for big gains, but for the education, a practice account can never teach you like a live account can. When my equity falls below the amount for 1 lot, i put in another $50. I have done this so many times, and lost a lot of money, but i feel that it is worth it. The first day i started trading, i lost $120. My biggest loss since then was $50 and that was because i was trying to trade on the day that Japan had that earthquake, volatility was insane! At one point i was negative more than $300 on my account that had $50 in it. It was so volatile that it jumped down so far, and the system didnt have time to liquidate the position before it bounced back. This was a bad idea... Since then, my biggest losses have been around 10-15$ per trade. But i have had some decent wins as well. I started trading because i was not satisfied with the interest rates on a savings account. I wanted my money to earn me enough to cover inflation... I ended up losing a lot, but have learned a lot, and education is priceless.
My long term goal is to be a professional day trader. I am realistic in that my shorter term goal is to be an electrician, to raise money to pay for school to become an accountant, then to save money to retire as a day trader. I am not looking to make a living on Forex while i work at Pizza Hut...
I have been told by coworkers that i am addicted to day trading. I absolutely disagree with this, the only thing that qualifies as an addiction is that i always have to have a position open, but i never put my financial well-being at risk, i never open unreasonably large positions (mostly because i can only have 1-2 lots usually), and if i take a big loss, i step away for a bit. I dont try to recoup it the same day, i research and plan my approach.
I am trying to take a more conservative approach however. My original purpose was to earn interest on my money, i now have $500 to recouperate before i have earned a single penny. After that, it will take a mere 30 pip gain to earn more than i could have at a bank, but it is that 5000 pips before that which poses a challenge.
I tend to react too quickly. When i see that i have made a 50 pip gain, even if it shows to be trending in my favor, i close the position. Likewise, if i take an 80 pip loss, i close it, in fear of losing more, almost every time, it has rebounded, and i may have taken only a 10 pip loss, or made a profit. I try to just close the window once i have opened a position. To ride it out, check it every few hours, but usually my original instinct turned out to be right and my losses were a result of not trusting that.
My advice to anyone reading this:
Just know what you can afford to lose, never invest more than that. If you lose it, hope that you have learned something, then it was more like a purchase. But if you go out and invest your life savings, or borrow money, you better be damn sure you know what you are doing, because if you dont, you could really screw yourself over.
I hate to not have an open position, I always have to have some position open. Since i started trading, i have lost 250% of what i have put in. I only invest what i can afford to lose. In my situation we are talking very small amounts of money, I work with lots of 1,000. My current equity is $47 in my account. I am not doing this for big gains, but for the education, a practice account can never teach you like a live account can. When my equity falls below the amount for 1 lot, i put in another $50. I have done this so many times, and lost a lot of money, but i feel that it is worth it. The first day i started trading, i lost $120. My biggest loss since then was $50 and that was because i was trying to trade on the day that Japan had that earthquake, volatility was insane! At one point i was negative more than $300 on my account that had $50 in it. It was so volatile that it jumped down so far, and the system didnt have time to liquidate the position before it bounced back. This was a bad idea... Since then, my biggest losses have been around 10-15$ per trade. But i have had some decent wins as well. I started trading because i was not satisfied with the interest rates on a savings account. I wanted my money to earn me enough to cover inflation... I ended up losing a lot, but have learned a lot, and education is priceless.
My long term goal is to be a professional day trader. I am realistic in that my shorter term goal is to be an electrician, to raise money to pay for school to become an accountant, then to save money to retire as a day trader. I am not looking to make a living on Forex while i work at Pizza Hut...
I have been told by coworkers that i am addicted to day trading. I absolutely disagree with this, the only thing that qualifies as an addiction is that i always have to have a position open, but i never put my financial well-being at risk, i never open unreasonably large positions (mostly because i can only have 1-2 lots usually), and if i take a big loss, i step away for a bit. I dont try to recoup it the same day, i research and plan my approach.
I am trying to take a more conservative approach however. My original purpose was to earn interest on my money, i now have $500 to recouperate before i have earned a single penny. After that, it will take a mere 30 pip gain to earn more than i could have at a bank, but it is that 5000 pips before that which poses a challenge.
I tend to react too quickly. When i see that i have made a 50 pip gain, even if it shows to be trending in my favor, i close the position. Likewise, if i take an 80 pip loss, i close it, in fear of losing more, almost every time, it has rebounded, and i may have taken only a 10 pip loss, or made a profit. I try to just close the window once i have opened a position. To ride it out, check it every few hours, but usually my original instinct turned out to be right and my losses were a result of not trusting that.
My advice to anyone reading this:
Just know what you can afford to lose, never invest more than that. If you lose it, hope that you have learned something, then it was more like a purchase. But if you go out and invest your life savings, or borrow money, you better be damn sure you know what you are doing, because if you dont, you could really screw yourself over.