Trading is the hardest thing I've ever done.
Was trading the Euro futures today.
1st trade was a scratch. Broke even. Well, made 6 bucks actually. Ha Ha.
2nd trade went ok - I was making a little more than 20 bucks, so I held it. Without warning, price went south (I had gone in long). I followed my rule, and covered when it fell through support. I usually would have taken a smoke break after closing a position. But that was a strong support that price went through, so, I sold right away. In less than 1 second, price shot back up and closed above support and the next candle opened above its close. Again, I followed my rule, and went out at a loss that was bigger than the first one.
I was then in the red by 467 bucks.
Thought I saw a signal to go in long again, so I went in. At one point, I was up 300 bucks. I'm so used to seeing big numbers that I have become numb to them. I held on, and believed in the pattern that I was seeing.
As fate would have it, price went plummeting after forming mountains after mountains that had higher peaks and higher valleys giving you the illusion that we were on an uptrend. Had I stepped away from my screen, and looked at my charts from a distance, I would have seen we were trading in range and it's only a matter of time that price would break out of range to start a trend.
I lost 1200 in that single trade.
All in all, I was about 1700 in the red.
When price fell to one of the major supports and started forming hammers after hammers, I went in long again.
I kept watching price plunge through one support after another, but it had its way of making me believe that indeed had wanted to go up. All the hammers and dojis failed miserably.
My morning star never came. I wouldn't blame it. I realized then that price can continue to fall through supports as long as bears don't see the need to run. What is 2 days of sell-off, compared to days of rallies before that? Absolutely nothing.
None of today's trades was about revenge trading. I wasn't angry with anything, I just didn't feel defeated enough to call it quits.
Was trading the Euro futures today.
1st trade was a scratch. Broke even. Well, made 6 bucks actually. Ha Ha.
2nd trade went ok - I was making a little more than 20 bucks, so I held it. Without warning, price went south (I had gone in long). I followed my rule, and covered when it fell through support. I usually would have taken a smoke break after closing a position. But that was a strong support that price went through, so, I sold right away. In less than 1 second, price shot back up and closed above support and the next candle opened above its close. Again, I followed my rule, and went out at a loss that was bigger than the first one.
I was then in the red by 467 bucks.
Thought I saw a signal to go in long again, so I went in. At one point, I was up 300 bucks. I'm so used to seeing big numbers that I have become numb to them. I held on, and believed in the pattern that I was seeing.
As fate would have it, price went plummeting after forming mountains after mountains that had higher peaks and higher valleys giving you the illusion that we were on an uptrend. Had I stepped away from my screen, and looked at my charts from a distance, I would have seen we were trading in range and it's only a matter of time that price would break out of range to start a trend.
I lost 1200 in that single trade.
All in all, I was about 1700 in the red.
When price fell to one of the major supports and started forming hammers after hammers, I went in long again.
I kept watching price plunge through one support after another, but it had its way of making me believe that indeed had wanted to go up. All the hammers and dojis failed miserably.
My morning star never came. I wouldn't blame it. I realized then that price can continue to fall through supports as long as bears don't see the need to run. What is 2 days of sell-off, compared to days of rallies before that? Absolutely nothing.
None of today's trades was about revenge trading. I wasn't angry with anything, I just didn't feel defeated enough to call it quits.
What I learnt about myself today:
- I can let profits run ONLY when trading FAMILIAR patterns
- I over-analyze
- I should have kept running - if I choose to continue to trade, I'll have to be prepared to run whenever price is not doing what I expect it to do. The only time I can put running behind me is when I have NIL position.
- There's only so much that knowledge can do for me
Am staying with the eur today. Once I see the pattern I had wanted to see all day today, I'll still take a trade. But this time, I'll run when I have to.
I'm down USD2400 for the day.
I'm down USD2400 for the day.
4 comments:
Jules,
This morning was pretty tricky on the Euro. I'm glad I was asleep.
Sorry you got clobbered.
LT
:-) Good for you, LT! You would have taken it down. I was trading against trend. Would have been fine had I not overstayed.
It's a good thing I got clobbered. I had gotten complacent.
Ouch that hurts. Sorry about that. Hope you come back stronger. It's been about a year now right? Most traders lost money in their first year so, if you're still in the green, you would have done better than most of us. Trading is like any career or business, you don't expect to be green from the word go.
Sage,
yes, it's been a year. Time really flies in 2008. A year used to seem sooooo LONG! Tells me I must be doing something I really like :-)
I know that most traders lose money or end up wiping out accounts after accounts when they first started out. That's why I prepared for a long time before trading live.
I don't believe I'm special, but I'm determined to win.
When I took the M6 paper for the Capital Market and Financial Advisory Services Exam, I was told no one passes it on the first attempt. I heard in Citi, even when their bankers were given pass papers to practise (very singaporean...), there were those who took it 8 times and still trying. When I prepared for M6, I had used the textbook (which was filled with errors..complete junk) only as a guide - specifically, to be aware of the topics I needed to be familiar with. And then I hit the bookstore and the net for material that are properly written. Just the material from the net, after I've printed them, was 5 times the thickness of the textbook. I read them all, plus the books I bought. I passed M6 the first time I took it. When I joined ABN, I was famous for being the girl that had never flung M6.
I thought I could do the same with trading. But trading is so much more than about knowing the market, the instruments, and the tools to use. With trading, you're tested almost every day. And the challenges are endless. One thing I know is that you can never come up with a 10-year series for mock exam for trading. :-)
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