This is my first post on this forum. Despite what I am about to write below, I am here seeking help, trying to understand why I'm such a complete failure.

As the first post on this discussion alludes to, I am on the wrong side of every trade. No matter what move I try to make in the market, it is very nearly always wrong. I might make money on 1 out of 40 trades, and then it's most often only a very small win.

I've been at this for 4 years now, and I've racked up $50k in losses. I paid for a technical analysis course at the beginning that was quite in-depth, explaining everything from candlesticks, patterns, trend and support/resistance lines, and market psychology. I had a wildly successful trader from that course, whom I met in their forums, mentoring me for over a year. That's my trader education background.

I have paper traded the combined equivalent of 1.5 years. What typically happens is that I will start to see some consistent success in paper trading a strategy- enough that I feel some confidence to go live, and then the following is what has happened several times: Initially I may make some small wins. Within two to three weeks, I will start losing, and once that happens, EVERY SINGLE move I make is wrong. Every buy of a call or put IMMEDIATELY goes against me. If I stop out, the market immediately reverses to my original direction. If I hold and add to a position, the losses just accelerate. If I stop out and reverse the trade, I lose again. Once this starts, I will lose at every single decision I make until I give up and walk away from trading for months. It's almost as if the markets knows exactly and specifically what I am going to do and does the opposite, with a degree of perfection and precision that you would not believe unless you were me and lived through it like I have.

I've become convinced that nothing can possibly turn this around for me. My destiny is to lose, and I cannot escape it. Why am I such a loser?

Quoting 

=Why am I such a loser?

If you minimize your losses or cut your losses early, you can survive and with time you will be profitable. Stop losses are mandatory and depending on Volatility use 2x or 3x ATR stops.

If you stop or give up trading, it's being a sour looser. Keep going and respect your stops and cut your losses early.

I've set stop losses many times, honored them, watched them get hit, and then watched the trade immediately go in my original direction. I learned not to chase it as buying in the original direction once this happened always resulted in an immediate reversal and more losses. Like I said, it's as if the market knows exactly what I'm going to do and it does just the opposite. Perfectly. Every time.

Always A Loser 

I've set stop losses many times, honored them, watched them get hit, and then watched the trade immediately go in my original direction. I learned not to chase it as buying in the original direction once this happened always resulted in an immediate reversal and more losses. Like I said, it's as if the market knows exactly what I'm going to do and it does just the opposite. Perfectly. Every time.

Stop losses are mandatory. You can only control your losses and check your emotions. Cut your losses early when in doubt, honour your stop loss and you will be profitable.

gdplus1 

Stop losses are mandatory. You can only control your losses and check your emotions. Cut your losses early when in doubt, honour your stop loss and you will be profitable.

Unfortunately, that's not been my experience. Use of hard stop losses hasn't stopped me from continuously losing money, because every single trade I place is a loser.

gdplus1 

Stop losses are mandatory. You can only control your losses and check your emotions. Cut your losses early when in doubt, honour your stop loss and you will be profitable.

Stop losses might be desired, but in my experience they reduce performance. Some of my best strategies are always in - either long or short. No stops.

Lots of people should use them for the psychological benefit.

But mandatory? No.

Always A Loser 

This is my first post on this forum. Despite what I am about to write below, I am here seeking help, trying to understand why I'm such a complete failure. As the first post on this discussion alludes to, I am on the wrong side of every trade. No matter what move I try to make in the market, it is very nearly always wrong. I might make money on 1 out of 40 trades, and then it's most often only a very small win. I've been at this for 4 years now, and I've racked up $50k in losses. I paid for a technical analysis course at the beginning that was quite in-depth, explaining everything from candlesticks, patterns, trend and support/resistance lines, and market psychology. I had a wildly successful trader from that course, whom I met in their forums, mentoring me for over a year. That's my trader education background. I have paper traded the combined equivalent of 1.5 years. What typically happens is that I will start to see some consistent success in paper trading a strategy- enough that I feel some confidence to go live, and then the following is what has happened several times: Initially I may make some small wins. Within two to three weeks, I will start losing, and once that happens, EVERY SINGLE move I make is wrong. Every buy of a call or put IMMEDIATELY goes against me. If I stop out, the market immediately reverses to my original direction. If I hold and add to a position, the losses just accelerate. If I stop out and reverse the trade, I lose again. Once this starts, I will lose at every single decision I make until I give up and walk away from trading for months. It's almost as if the markets knows exactly and specifically what I am going to do and does the opposite, with a degree of perfection and precision that you would not believe unless you were me and lived through it like I have. I've become convinced that nothing can possibly turn this around for me. My destiny is to lose, and I cannot escape it. Why am I such a loser?

You probably need to stop trading. Like for good. Maybe do mutual funds if you want to be in the markets. You aren't a trader, you're a donator. You're just donating to others' accounts. Everything about your attitude and approach (starting with your screen name...c'mon, really?) shows you do not have what it takes to compete in this arena. And this is a competition. Professional traders are the apex predators of the markets. The equivalent of PGA tour golfers and pro football defensive backs. That is who you're going against.

Far be it for me to tell others how to live their lives or what to do with their money, but this isn't going to change unless you make some fundamental changes to your attitude, psychology and approach to trading. I don't know what else to tell you but I do wish you the best.

kevinkdog 

Stop losses might be desired, but in my experience they reduce performance. Some of my best strategies are always in - either long or short. No stops. Lots of people should use them for the psychological benefit. But mandatory? No.

For traders who are consistently making net losses for months or years, stop losses are life lines and hence mandatory to keep them alive and keep trading.

Always A Loser 

I've set stop losses many times, honored them, watched them get hit, and then watched the trade immediately go in my original direction. I learned not to chase it as buying in the original direction once this happened always resulted in an immediate reversal and more losses. Like I said, it's as if the market knows exactly what I'm going to do and it does just the opposite. Perfectly. Every time.

gdplus1 

Stop losses are mandatory. You can only control your losses and check your emotions. Cut your losses early when in doubt, honour your stop loss and you will be profitable.

kevinkdog 

Stop losses might be desired, but in my experience they reduce performance. Some of my best strategies are always in - either long or short. No stops. Lots of people should use them for the psychological benefit. But mandatory? No.

After reading traders' posts for a good long time, I believe that it is very common to have the exact same experience as @Always A Loser -- very likely, almost everyone who trades discretionally, particularly who trades in the short term, has had something like this going on at some point. Maybe not "every" trade, but many of them.

The reason? Hard to say, but I would look to personal emotional or psychological issues leading one to do things like hold off to see if a trade will work, or jumping in and out with no reason except fear/greed, as well as the fact that a lot of people are going to be placing their exact stops, or taking their entries, at the same time, because human nature makes us run in packs, even if not consciously. If you are doing what everyone else (more or lsee) is doing, you are not going to beat them.

Whatever the reason in a particular case, there is one, and it's in trader's decision-making, not that the market is out to get you. Actually, of course, "the market" is out to get you, in the sense that everyone is trying fot the best entries and exits, which means, buying at a good price and selling at a good price for them, not for you. But no one is actually watching you and gunning for you. I have bought at the exact top, and sold at the bottom, and placed my stop at the precise point where I should not get out, many times. Finding out why and fixing it is important, and only you are going to be able to do that. Understanding why a trade looked good to you, and if it didn't work, why it didn't, is the inquiry everyone needs to make.

And it is not easy.

As to stops being mandatory, nothing is mandatory, for everyone, at all times and conditions and methods. I wouldn't trade without them, but I can really only speak for myself. The fact that other things can be done by profitable traders show that there is more than one way to go, as in many things.

But to @Always A Loser, your experience is not that unusual. Now you should start to take your trades apart and see what you can change.

You are not alone, and good luck.

Bob.

gdplus1 

For traders who are consistently making net losses for months or years, stop losses are life lines and hence mandatory to keep them alive and keep trading.

Did you ever consider that stop losses might be the reason for the losing months or years?

I see a lot of people feeling really good about having $50 stop losses, when all that is doing is slowly grinding down their account. They think smaller losses prevent big drawdowns. You can have no stop losses and avoid a lot of the stop loss volatility grind.

Not saying stop losses are good or bad for anyone is particular, but I definitely do not see them as being "mandatory."