@Stuck - still in or did you bail just before the present fall ?

My 2c as follows : @shodson & @wldman have made good suggestions, but only if you can trade profitably and unfortunately your situation suggests not.

If your account is, say €25k+, then I'd say just take the medicine & learn your lesson. If it's smaller, say you've lost €10k of €15k (I'm assuming your FDXM margin is no more than €1,000), you've basically blown up already (relatively speaking), so I would NOT bail, but draw my resistance levels on a D1 chart and try to average the position. It would be helpful to use Ger30 CFDs @ €1 point for flexibility, but this may require an additional account.

Uncomfortable position; good luck.

FWIW, I average in all the time, but I'm a retired day trader & trade one market off Daily & Weekly charts, long only (def not the DAX).

The absolute best and most correct "advice" is to kill losers little. That is sometimes theoretical as losers get big fast. Fear and regret lead to hope, which is the real enemy.

Trading does not always have to be a binary. A person could certainly hedge up and then job it by legging in and out of the appropriate "side". I always have long deltas and a hedge on or ready...but everyone is not me.

What Morad (@FuturesTrader71) said in the 3 key damages section of his response is exactly correct. One distinction in how people are answering is interesting. Did you mean, how do I trade out of this shit show or how do I NOT step in the poop again?

For me, I can trade out of anything given enough time. But I have a lot of capital, diverse positions and 30 years experience. Stay on method and focus on good trades will keep your boots clean.

Thanks Morad.

-Dan

Stuck 

Dear traders, I need some advice. I got stuck in a short position and am over 2200 points in a loss on the mini-dax (entry around 10600). I know, always use a SL. But forgot to change my SL order to GTC, and from there things got worse. I know, cut your losses. Economy and stock prices are not balanced, so I would expect a good drop. ECB (and FED) seem not to let this happen. I can hold on longer, but what if dax goes to 18000 or something? Or, I could get another short at some moment, to average the entry price, but if the dax would continue to go up, my trading account would not be sufficient. Nobody knows where price is going, but I hope you could give me some direction. Thanks

Hard to give advice without knowing more about the trader, that being said, you may look into selling covered puts and buying calls to protect the upside.
Be happy to share more in private.

I am new to trading on my own. So may not be the best advice, but been in rooms with good profitable traders and saw what they did.
I was just stuck in a day trade that did not go as planned during the jobs report had a big follow thru. I had multiple positions so to trade out, with a second loss target. I did minimize my loss a little. I finally killed it with a big loss. I got the loss back in 3 more days of trading.
0 - Look at your past history of trading and see how long it would take you to make the money back. That may make it easier to just say fudge it, next trade. Remember, losses are part of your trading plan.
1 - Add this situation to your trading plan.
2 - Can you still do your style of trading and make money or is this making it impossible? If not kill the trade.
3 - Do you see a pattern of ups and downs in the daily candles that may lead you to have a pull back in that market? So that you could have a smaller loss?
4 - Have you develop a second stop loss?

Thank you for this question as I need to add this to my trading plan.

Stuck 

I know, hope and fear, emotion driven...

Obviously you should exit the trade as your only in it for emotional reasons. I would go a step further and suggest you stop trading compleletly until you are confident you can control your emotions otherwise you'll just be in this position again, and again, and again.

With you @SMCJB!
This is my opinion:
This thread is the perfect example of how a mistake turns into a disaster trade.
There are no strategies to save losing trades that occurred as a result of an error. Period.
@Stuck If you can not afford to take this loss, the market could make you take a loss one day that could end your trading career.

Not sure why everyone "dances" here around the area of risk. Trading is about habits, and mistakes will happen. When mistakes happen, you need to minimize and eliminate exposure, not sit in a circle, and seek advice.


Matt Z
Optimus Futures

There is a substantial risk of loss in futures trading. Past performance I snot indicative of future results.

Stuck 

Dear traders, I need some advice. I got stuck in a short position and am over 2200 points in a loss on the mini-dax (entry around 10600). I know, always use a SL. But forgot to change my SL order to GTC, and from there things got worse. I know, cut your losses. Economy and stock prices are not balanced, so I would expect a good drop. ECB (and FED) seem not to let this happen. I can hold on longer, but what if dax goes to 18000 or something? Or, I could get another short at some moment, to average the entry price, but if the dax would continue to go up, my trading account would not be sufficient. Nobody knows where price is going, but I hope you could give me some direction. Thanks

Hey Stuck,

I never traded mini-DAX, but I'll try to add food thoughts from my experience of SHORTING stocks.

1) Never add to a losing position, until and unless it comes to profit. Adding to a losing position to average price may work sometimes, but most of the times this approach will bite back.
2) Also, brokers will induce wash sale non-sense rule, on this averaging price if applicable, for the part that was sold below the profit taking price.
3) Have a long term view of market and then assess what you should do here without looking at what is your loss right now.
4) Market seems to have a V-shape recovery. I don't think overall market will go down a lot, maybe a correction at top (breakdown point) and then up again. Natural human reaction at top.
5) One thing could be close half of the position right away and add back when price seems to be in a trend you want. This will grow your loss slowly and will provide an opportunity to average price at a higher price.
6) Listen to everyone's advice and then do what you think is appropriate for you at this moment. Sometimes taking a 11k loss here will save you down the line and sometimes taking a 11k loss here will be proved completely wrong decision. I was part of both results and controls my risk more than what my profits in a could be scenario.

Hope this will help.

bcomas 

Cut your losses. Learn again. Better a big loss than lose the account. Dont pray , execute

here is my outlook just try to time yourself to exit in this pullback

The biggest most important thing is to be nice to yourself and don't beat yourself up. We have all been there. at least for me, forgiving myself and learning something to
create a new trade management rule is key.
Our business we are in is to a certain extent on the job training. So just have a plan to exit with planned timing. then make your new adjustments to your existing plan take place
It costed you X amount of dollars to learn this valuable lesson.
But in the long run it will potentially make you a great living so in the end it is all worth it

The reason not to beat yourself up is because I feel that it actually makes the behavior that got you in trouble persists. In order to rise above that behavior you have to forgive yourself, learn, and apply what you have learned
Then in that quiet space you will move past that problem

For me, the biggest problem is FOMO (fear of missing out)
I can do really well but I can also be really destructive because I tend to enter trades too early
The only way to for me to get past that emotion is to resist the urge to give in and enter a trade sooner than my trading plan allows me to
As long as I can accomplish this then I am moving forward with mastering my emotions to not work against me and instead work for me

Sorry to hear about your predicament but 30 years of experience makes the answer to your question simple ... get out ASAP. Once you do that you can take a breadth and reevaluate market conditions with more clarity. If you are a successful trader with a proven approach you will eventually recoup your losses. Keep in mind that you can't "press it". Just follow what you have done in the past and use discipline. It is a must in trading. If you are not yet profitable as a trader the situation is much more complex. You still need to close your trade, but you will also need to develop then test, test, test, an approach that you can make money with.


Stay calm, use discipline, adapt, and there is a good chance you will come out of this whole.


Good Luck,
Joe

the right thing to do according to theory books will be to close your position. But if the market will go to 9000 for example and you did close with a huge loss it will make you feel miserable for a long time. But if the market go against you then you can lose your account.
My personal view is that dax should go lower short term, but that it's not good enough to be in any trade. A compromise would be to close half of your position and have the tp to breakeven. But it's not a place where any trader wants to be. At least, you're in the Netherlands and got legal ways to cope mentally if the trade doesn't go your way, I know because I was in the same position few years ago and I had to visit your country for a week . Anyway, good luck.