Making the jump to Forex

[RazorX]

I think I should get a rifle and shoot myself - not because I'm depressed, but because I was stupid... and broke the rules. These factors combined calls for execution. However I have decided it is worse punishment to keep living.

See what happened was that after doing quite well in Demo forex trading for 6 months I decided to go live. Yay. Started with $1000. First week made $47 net. Great. Today I wiped out 12% of my account. Not smart. This happened because (Apart from the trades going against me which is obvious) but because I failed to put on a stop loss (Rule 1), then when I saw the trade was going badly I didn't want to close it so I watched. Eventually the market turned down again and so I put on another sell (So that's two) What happens? Yep the market immediately got nasty and turned upwards again.

Anyways after it breached the resistance level I set up I finally closed my eyes and closed the trades. Two big losses and a lesson well learned. I seriously think when Arco opens up membership again I need to join his blog.

Comments and queries please feel free.

BTW it was on the GBPUSD which is ranging at the moment so I shouldn't have been trading it anyways. (3rd rule broken)

Here is an image of my misery. Yellow lines tell the story.

[shasta]

I think I should get a rifle and shoot myself - not because I'm depressed, but because I was stupid... and broke the rules. These factors combined calls for execution. However I have decided it is worse punishment to keep living.

See what happened was that after doing quite well in Demo forex trading for 6 months I decided to go live. Yay. Started with $1000. First week made $47 net. Great. Today I wiped out 12% of my account. Not smart. This happened because (Apart from the trades going against me which is obvious) but because I failed to put on a stop loss (Rule 1), then when I saw the trade was going badly I didn't want to close it so I watched. Eventually the market turned down again and so I put on another sell (So that's two) What happens? Yep the market immediately got nasty and turned upwards again.

Anyways after it breached the resistance level I set up I finally closed my eyes and closed the trades. Two big losses and a lesson well learned. I seriously think when Arco opens up membership again I need to join his blog.

Comments and queries please feel free.

BTW it was on the GBPUSD which is ranging at the moment so I shouldn't have been trading it anyways. (3rd rule broken)

Well done on learning your first harsh lesson.

Stop losses are like training wheels on a bike, seems unnecessary at the time, but stops you from falling!

Next time, set a stop loss just below a previous support level, & remove all emotion from the decision to bail.

Trust me, you will look back on this in 12 months & will have learnt a "cheap" lesson.

Good luck for your future trading

[RazorX]

Thanks Shasta.

(I finally got that blasted image to post properly. Oh and that chart is a 1 hour - I was trading off the 15 min so there were a few more reds where I entered the second trade. In hindsight this was a very dumbass place to short.) *Shakes head at myself*

No more forex for me this week - I have an exam and I think I've done enough damage for one week.

[miner]

"What happens? Yep the market immediately got nasty and turned upwards again. "

As I was saying,also let the trade come to you.

Cheers
Miner

[RazorX]

Aye patience is good. (Incidentally the price where those trades I got bombed out on reversed about a hundred pips later and overnight it dropped and hit where my take profit would have been. How unfair is that? lol )

Anyway's I got 3 good scalps, and an overnight trade on the AUDJPY lastnight. The overnighter made 850 odd pips (Or 85 pips because my broker goes to 5 points instead of 4.) It made my balance look a little healthier. Looking at joining Arco's membership as I think the cost of the monthly fee should make itself up. It will take some stress off me and give me more time to learn about the market.

[Timo]

I've found these guys helpfull http://www.informedtrades.com/forum.php
Cheers,
T

[RazorX]

Hi Timo

Thanks for that link. They have a big forum, looks like lots of interesting info.

Cheers

Razor