[mslk]

i've been actively trading for 6 months now, making more losses than wins down on my account. i feel drained after everything i have learned its not working out as i hoped. some say everyone goes through this when new to trading. i am also designing my own system which is proving more difficult than i thought.

what i am asking is when do you know time is up or the tide has turned?

thanks
-mslk

[jpennybags]

M,

You are asking a question to which only you have the answer. Keep a few things in mind though.

1. 6 months is not a great deal of time, though if you are consistently on the wrong side of the trade it can feel like it. Much of what you need to learn comes with time at your trading desk, and getting a feel for the market. Consider your burn rate… can you make it another 12 months... do you need to scale back your position size?

2. No one is holding a gun to your head… you don't need to trade your hard earned cash to learn. Consider paper trading for the next few months. If you can't get profitable paper trading, you have no business trading live. Without money involved it then becomes just a game. It's much easier to learn while playing a game.

3. If you don't keep good records of your trades… start (screen prints for entry and exits, notes about why you are entering/exiting a trade, stop placement and movement). A daily trade journal is not a bad idea either. Good records will help you refine your skills when linked to a journal. A journal can also help with the mental side of the trade.

4. It has been my experience with any learning experience that progress and achievement comes in stages. You struggle, you learn, you get frustrated, and then it happens… you move to the next level. You get stuck there too… more struggle, more learning, more frustration. That's the way it is… if you're not enjoying it, you may be better off working for someone else.

5. If anyone told you this would be easy… they lied.

Best of good fortunes either way.

[TheNegotiator]

If you are going to be successful at it, you should be passionate about trading. You don't always have to enjoy all aspects of it though.

Let me ask you a question. Do you believe your failures are due to inability to apply what you've learnt effectively or is what you've learnt a less than comprehensive picture of the market?

Trading does take time to master. My suggestion is do what you can right now to be organised and disciplined in your approach. Create a routine and stick to it. That'll help you notice what's going on around you, notice when things have changed and also notice things which the market does pretty consistently.

[rforexdad]

Originally Posted by mslk »

i've been actively trading for 6 months now, making more losses than wins down on my account. i feel drained after everything i have learned its not working out as i hoped. some say everyone goes through this when new to trading. i am also designing my own system which is proving more difficult than i thought.

what i am asking is when do you know time is up or the tide has turned?

thanks
-mslk

I made 1200 pips in the last month...but now I am trying a different technique
I want to make 20 pips daily with a 4 day trading cycle...Do not trade on Fridays
Only trade from Monday-Thursday in the London session.

Once I am consistent....I shall increase the position size.
Right now I am playing at 30K lot size....
So now the target it 80 pips every week which should amount to $1000 a month.

slowly I shall increase this and hope to reach $5000 a month in 6 months....not by increasing the pips...but by increasing the position size.

Why do I write this....message ?
This is one style of trading which I feel will be profitable and I know two traders who are adopting this style and are very successfull.

Less pips but larger position size.

[JohnTaylorHK]

Trading live is different to paper trading. This is largely psychological, but there are a few mechanical differences in the way demo servers behave versus live servers.

My suggestion would be to analyse every trade against your strategy:
- Was it entered according to a plan?
- Was the entry point correct?
- Was the exit point correct?

If you are not making a 2:1 win to loss after 6 months, reconsider your strategy. If you are making a 2:1, and still losing money, then your exits or stops would be suspect.

Analyse your trading signals. Would the entries get you in at a disadvantageous price, whilts looking good on the chart? Similarly for exits.

Do you use market orders or limit orders? If the latter, consider the former. If you are sure of the setup, limit orders are proactive, market orders reactive.

My first big losses came in futures trading, which caused me to step out and paper trade for almost 18 months. Remember 90%+ of day traders are not successful in the long term. Early success leads to overconfidence. Early failure leads to the feelings you have right now.

[mslk]

thanks everyone for the input ... i figure trading will get enjoyable when i start to see success. so all my effort is into making some profitable trades. do you see anything wrong with this approach?

how many strategies do you have trade with? do you continue to 'go back to the well' with the same strategy over and over again? or are you looking for new ones?

thanks
-mslk

[jpennybags]

Originally Posted by mslk »

i figure trading will get enjoyable when i start to see success. so all my effort is into making some profitable trades.
-mslk

We all come to this business with different skill sets, beliefs and constitutions; some helpful… some not. Consider the market(s) as a giant biosphere filled with myriad creatures each working out their evolution or extinction. The first 2 years is more about survival and evolving than making money. The goal is to become consistent as a predator, forager, or scavenger… what ever kind of creature you are (or are to become). My personal experience has been that before I could step forward, I had to step back to learn and/or unlearn notions or concepts. If we were born into trading by trader parents, and developed as traders in our formative years and had lived our lives in the biosphere, this "unlearning" would not be necessary.

In my "other" life I was skilled at making something from nothing. I was well compensated for being able to absorb information on the fly, juggle multiple tasks, and force issues. As a trader only the 1st is truly helpful, the 2nd can be a distraction, and the 3rd is hazardous. I had things to unlearn, and unfortunately I have to get up every day and remind myself of the hazards of having too much going on, and forcing the issue. It gets easier with time.

I've shared all this, just to make the point that sometimes it's not about what you learn but what you must unlearn that brings success… learn to love the struggle.

[MightyMouse]

Your perception of what trading is changes as you mature as a trader. Trading does not change.