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Is it okey to blow 100 000 $ ?
or learn first to trade in SIM and make constantly "money" ´
Learn to trade from ZERO with money is way too expensive. Yes you are right trading is not for everyone.
Lets see maybe I will be wonder boy and show that from SIM to LIVE is possilbe.
The following 3 users say Thank You to lemons for this post:
1st blow up was a complete one around 2009 as the market was rebounding. I made some money during the 2008 crash which inflated my ego and turned into a perma-bear zerohedge kool-aid drinker. I was completely naive about the natural market drift to the upside. I was short in the hole a heavy load of SPY near the bottom of the bounce and it kept going against me, I added more. At some point the pain became so unbearable and with an account less than half, I went into I don't give a FCUK! mode and just left the trade on and walked away from trading a couple of days. I got a margin call a couple days later and my account was pretty much nothing. In hindsight, what occurred was a lack of taking responsibility, lack of quickly recognizing when I was wrong and getting out, and just everything you're not supposed to do.
2nd blowup (almost) was near 2011 as I was looking for a system and decided to follow one of those futures trading rooms. I blindly followed the dude's trades and I quickly took my account down to half. Even though it wasn't a complete financial blow up, my emotional capitalize was done. I learned that I need to stop paying for these FCUKing trading rooms and proprietary indicators and all this other shit that's out there that claims to work. At this point I figured that trading was bullshit and it was impossible to make money and took a year break. During this time I had to really decide if I was going to stop looking for shortcuts to financial glory and roll up my sleeves and put the work in.
3rd account blow (almost) was in 2013 about a year into trading again. I was trading pretty well in a certain swing style of trading and then it a string of about 5 losses in a row. Lost confidence in my method as I didn't have any proper backtesting or stats for it and started to slowly add shit, remove shit, change timeframes, and then after a while it wasn't anything like it originally was. The drift took me to another style of trading that I was completely unfamiliar with (scalping) and at some point I had to give myself a reality check that I didn't know what the hell I was doing or why I was doing it. Emotional capital depleted, I took 6 months off to reinvest myself again. Lesson here is to understand the randomness of the markets and to know your edge.
I've found a bit of success recently (a little, not much), just trading the simple shit. Simple price action with almost naked chart, just a MA. A market profile chart to help me have context of the day. And a daily chart with some simple MA.
The ironic thing is, trading seems so much more difficult now than when I was just rolling my face on the keyboard. Lots of lessons learned over the years but this emotional baggage from those lessons are a (female dog).
In trading, shortcuts lead to the longest path possible.
The following 12 users say Thank You to fminus for this post:
I completely agree. I have done well over the last year, but could not grasp TST.
And as the old argument goes SIM will never equal LIVE. Even if you try your hardest to trade SIM as LIVE, you will subconsciously take more risk in SIM then you will LIVE. And there is only one real way to get around that. That is to trade LIVE and work to trade it in the same I don't care attitude that you trade SIM in.
LIVE + I don't care is the only way to successfully trade.
The following 9 users say Thank You to tturner86 for this post:
You are commenting as someone that is not profitable and on sim. Because of this, your view/perception is inadequate to really see beyond your nose.
Saying that you need to make money on sim sounds like good advice, just like saying cut your losses short and let your winners run. In reality, things are just not that simple or black/white.
By remaining on sim for so long, what you are really doing is conditioning your mind in all the wrong ways. Like I said before, the real learning process does not begin until you start trading cash. It doesn't need to be 100k account, just whatever size that makes you start having skin in the game.
Mike
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The following 7 users say Thank You to Big Mike for this post:
I blew out my first account, lost about $6400 total in 2013. Account sat at $500 margin for some time until I was able to rebuild and relearn. 2014 I became net positive and then some. 2015 I am flat or up slightly.
Overall the sting of that loss I still feel. Many dark days staring into the abyss as Elon would say. Problem I see going forward is balancing the I don't care attitude. I shouldn't care about each individual trade, but you have to care at some point or I could easily give it all back and then some.
I think the biggest challenge for me is to move this from a 'fear' item into a strength item. Use the experience to keep me moving forward and not hold me back.
The following 17 users say Thank You to tturner86 for this post:
When I started trading I split into two accounts. One to position trade forex. One to daytrade futures.
The daytrade futures account I blew out in a little bit over a year (It started with about 10k in it). Forex position trading account is still going strong.
I think I did learn alot though about trading and myself as I blew out that account.
In a sense that account was like a bad trade I could not get myself out of.
As it went further and further against me I simply could not stop myself and admit that 1. I was not trading correctly 2. That I was simply wrong in my belief at that time that I could do what so many others could not do and that was take a small account and successfully trade from it.
After stopping trading that account I took ~2 months off from looking at intraday activities. Spending some time working elsewhere allowed me the time to step back.
Ironically when I came back I basically continued what I had been doing before. As of last week I am hoping to change that, and approaching the future markets from a different angle then I have before.
I guess this is where I am at now. I have gone back using historical data to identify a method that has an edge, places where I should be entering, adding, and exiting. Now im using sim to practice before going live again.
The following 6 users say Thank You to DeadCatBounced for this post:
Yes not black and white and I my be short-sighted but TST sees value in SIM trading.
If TST thinks that SIM trading has zero value the would use different selection process.
But sorry this is not LIVE vs. SIM thread and I :tape:
I have blown my account twice, and for the same reason: some kind of psychological meltdown.
Both times I slowly grew my account + 50% and then erase all on one or two days. This is the chain of events:
- I'm doing great, but I still find hard to pull the trigger.
- I miss a great opportunity because of that fear.
- I make an impulse trade that have no basis. Loose. Make instantly the opposite trade. Loose. I enter again on the original position but with 2x contracts.
- The trade goes against me so I widen my stop. I add more, widen more, etc until I loose everything.
It's like someone takes control over my mind and I can't seem to know what the hell I'm doing. I thought I was very strong psychologically. I don't smoke, I don't drink, I don't do drugs. I was a very succesful professional tennis gambler but due to a change in european regulations I had to quit it, and I never made a bet since that day (whats the point if I can't make money?).
But trading is turning out to be more difficult to handle emotionally. I decided I had to do something so I changed habits and joined this forum. I have been able to identify when I'm starting to loose control over myself and avoid it, but the threat is always there.
Now I'm profitable but I don't exclude the possibility of blowing another account in the future, but it will be because the way I'm approaching the market doesn't work (I'll discard it and look for a better one).
But if I ever loose my account again because I haven't been able to control myself, that day I'll accept that trading is not for me and I will look for another thing.
The following 13 users say Thank You to Malthus for this post:
Never blown an account, I tend to be extremely risk aware. When I start engaging in the type of behaviour that will lead to blow-ups, I usually close all positions and take time off to clear my head. I have been lucky though...there was a period where I was trading way overleveraged with insane risk and the markets just kept on trending in my favour. That period did my account balance very good and luckily I realised what I was doing and stopped before I gave it all back.
Sometimes all you need is a little luck and the ability to hold onto winners.
The following 12 users say Thank You to grausch for this post:
I blew up my first account in 99 - 2000. Started trading in mid August of 99 and took 2500 to 12K trading small caps. I was a trading god! Then I proceeded to lose it all by April of 2000. I remember the last trade I made; I was watching the tape and saw these big trades going through at the EOD. Decided to hop on because obviously somebody knew something. I felt like the two traders from Trading Places: "The Dukes are trying to corner the market, lets get in on it". Found out 15 minutes after the close why the big trades were going through. There ended up being some accounting irregularities and the stock was halted. The stock lost 3/4 or its value by the next day. Margin call and I was done. 2500 to 12k to 575.50 cents. I was crushed.
After that I traded in fear for the longest time. I would make some money then give it back.. once I made back to my starting account level I would quit for a while then start over. This has been my pattern up until a couple years ago. Now, I have overcome my fear or losing it all and realize that it is part of the business.
Robert
nosce te ipsum
You make your own opportunities in life.
The following 14 users say Thank You to Silver Dragon for this post:
Then I proceeded to lose it all by April of 2000. 
I remember the last trade I made; I was watching the 
