Just quit, walk away,

Lets get the record straight.

I day trade Part Time.
I work 40hrs/week like every other avg. American at a good paying job with people I like.
My trading account IS NOT MY LIFE SAVINGS, even though I said it in my video. I've had many bad days and never would want to be totally wiped out of all my assets. I realize that my trading account can be lost, and that trading is very dangerous, and that you should only invest/trade what you can afford to lose.(RULE #1)
I started with less then 10k in the account last year.

I've made good returns trading futures

I have a tendency to lose a lot of my gains in one day from poor discipline. And I should use daily loss limits to avoid this from happening in the future.

My Trading blowups

I'm a Trader, and each day I learn more about the markets and I get better.
Truth be told, I lost most of my account in the first 6 months when I first started trading 2 years ago, but I didn't completely wash out, I traded small, stayed focused and made back my stake.

There have been some good comments that I would like to quote/address.

1. Easy to say "take a break, walk away, etc" but daytraders know how it is. Like everyone else who's on auto-pilot to wake up and go to your job, this is what a daytrader does. Has nothing to do with addiction or anything. People with godawful 2 hour commutes to go to their sickening desk job every damn day of their lives aren't addicted to it.

Unless a trader is totally liquidated by his/her broker, unless he's got nothing left in the account to trade with, I'm know 90% of traders would be doing the same damn thing: getting right back on the horse. Another 5% might not be laying on trades immediately the next day, but they'd turn on their computers and see what's happening with the markets. The remaining 5% would walk away or take a sustained break, and good for them. Some people have a bad day at the office and take a "leave of absence" too. Ironically, that's actually frowned upon as irresponsible and weak in society. A daytrader shows up to work after taking a horrendous hit, and everyone's ready to strap the guy in a gurney for a prolonged vacation for deep introspection and meditation. Sure, everyone's mental makeup is different, but in this case, I think HPT is doing what the vast majority of us active traders would do.

2.Daytrading is easy.

I could get anyone with a working eye and a stick taped to their stump up and trading online in a day.

The only hard thing is keeping your sanity for the long haul since it's possible you may put in 100 hours/week and lose money for the week, month, year. Plus, it's very lonely so you'll be flocking to the idiots on CNBC, chatrooms and blogs for cameraderie. Plus, all your family & friends will deem you a loser & societal misfit until proven otherwise (i.e. you're making insane amounts of money).

3.TMK500 said...It's clear you've touched a resonant emotion in a lot folks and have generated more comments and responses on your abberant large loss than the sum total of interest in your ability to properly read order flow, exhaustion spikes and intermarket analysis.

For whatever reason, you've chosen this public cathartic path to "deal" with the situation ... "OK"... it's unique and it's your way of coping: kudos.

Now, Go To Ground ... get back to your roots and your "edge". Is your edge on market timing the larger swings or grinding it out on the short term interval? Do that which feels comfortable because you've practiced the competent trade to the point of being bored and pay your way through life -- enjoy the bounty that your screen time, methodology and unique "day to day" methods have afforded you. The legacy HPT trader stayed on the positive side of the equity curve week in and week out without the account crippling blowups.

You've already demonstrated time and time again that you've discovered how to exploit and execute on your "edge" in grinder mode .... and, you have done so without investing a bazillion $$$ in a bunch of silly retail trading seminars. You self education, unique intermarket approach for trade management and ability to read order flow has seperated you from a "herd" of retail mutts who refuse to do the hard work and continue to shell out $$$ for the latest "squiggly line" indicator panacea.

Finally, my parting thought --- "It's OK to be successful." I know that sounds like psychobabble tripe BS, but you've set yourself up for the "Big One" time and time again after being on a pretty decent equity run. I've seen the type, I know the type, I am "the type" --- until you believe that you really deserve to consitently be on the winning side, you'll find a way to sabotage yourself and engage, once again, in a cathartic drama for all to hear and see around the world.

I'm looking forward to your future posts that continue to show the detailed analysis of why you executed a particular trade in a particular way and justify the reasoning for taking that trade a 1000 times again.

4.Tim Knight said...

We've all been there. And the anonymous jerks telling you that you got what you deserved can fuck themselves. I'm just sayin'.

5.bigbear said...

i feel your pain.

IB auto-closed my position of 8 NQs 1/2 point above limit down.

my realized losses came up to nearly 30k.

after the fed cut and bounce, i could not get back in to reduce losses as my excess liquidity was only enough to open 1 position.

so we learn ...

6. My buddy DehTrader has also taken a beating from the recent drop, as I'm sure many investors/traders have. Simply put, Trading is a tough business.