How much did you lose in your first year?

[sammy84]

Made 35k in a BNB trade. Thought I was the master and this all was to easy. Lost the 35k and more in the next 3 months

 

[matty2.0]

During the mad month of October (or was it November?) of 08 during this credit crisis, at one stage my portfolio was down -40% to -50%!!

 

[ojm]

I've been trading about 2 months now. I've deposit $2200 into my share trading account, and I'm $107 up so far after fees (got a stock that is down $100 which has stuffed my profit level ). Keep adding more capital to the account every now and then.

I feel I'm being quite careful and hopefully won't lose too much in my first year (hoping to continue to be profitable!). I think I'm being too careful as I chickened out of buying some stocks and they have grown substantially (a one bagger for one of the stocks I think the term is ).

 

[johnnyg]

Id say Ive had an active interest in trading for the last 18 months. In that time id say I'm pretty close to break even. In paper profit I think that I might of been somewhere between 20-30K + and then lost it all again threw basic beginner mistakes.

That said I know that being a trader is what I want to do and I'm now taking the steps that should provide me with the best chance to be successful.

 

[tech/a]

20k in the first 6 mths.
14 yrs ago---

Time heals all pain,but
Profit does a better job of it!

 

[MACCA350]

After 6 months I'm sitting at 10% ahead(would've been more if not for a $16k loss on BNB)...........have to wait and see how the rest of the year pans out.

cheers

 

[Jack Payback]

I am in first 6 weeks of active trading and am down 10%.

I would probably be even except for 1 HUGE mistake. Let's say I suffered from a bout of "irrational exuberance"!!

 

[CanOz]

In 2006 i made a 54% return in 3 months of trading stocks with Etrade. I switched to CFD's and lost all the profit in just 30 days. I knew nothing about Fixed Fractional Positioning and at the time IG Markets would only let me use GSLs. The stops therefore were not calculated by me, but by them. I left myself exposed more than 2%, much more. After a string of losses, like 23 or something i pulled the pin.

After that i recapitalized, wrote my trading plan down, opened a margin account with IB and traded using 1% risk of MY capital. The margin loan instead of increasing the risk, allowed me to trade many more positions. This increased my chances of hitting a big winner. I traded Nick Radge's US Power setups both long and short, becoming more and more comfortable, then started picking my own trades as well.

I have made all that i lost back now, and more. But the scars from that experience still haunt me a bit.

The best thing that i have learned from Nick is Risk and Trade Management, and Jason Leavitt has taught me that "if you get good at hitting singles and doubles, every once in a while you will hit a home run".

I've spent allot of money on hardware, software and books. More than needed really. Its been a great journey so far, and i look forward to my future experiences, every moment in the market is unique, so too are the learning outcomes.

Cheers,


CanOz

 

[IFocus]

Actually made a couple of $K then decided I was a genius and proceeded to blow 3 $10K accounts

Some where during the 3rd account I went back to basics and found the holy grail.....testing, money management and more testing etc.

 

[marcadrian]

I'm similar to a few here - started 3 months ago and am down about 7% currently. Long system has had some good wins but my short system caught me out. Learnt a good lesson - check whether the stock you are going to short is going ex-div in the next 2 weeks. If it is, avoid it.

 

[johenmo]

first year - dabbled a bit, made a couple of grand on a small dabble. Easy stuff, I thought.

Came back a few years later - lost 6K. Still have a couple of them.
Have changed tack considerably & now know about/understand stop losses.

 

[Trembling Hand]

About 80 grand but to be honest the biggest cost was the 4 years it took to understand what moves markets and how to make money from it.

Money you can earn back. Time once lost is gone forever, probably why most look for a short cut and probably why most fail.

 

[Grinder]

About 80 grand but to be honest the biggest cost was the 4 years it took to understand what moves markets and how to make money from it.

Money you can earn back. Time once lost is gone forever, probably why most look for a short cut and probably why most fail.

TH, can you tell me about your thinking during that time. Not trying to be facetious, just have an interest in pyschology & would like to know the mental strength required to get back from that.

 

[Trembling Hand]

TH, can you tell me about your thinking during that time. Not trying to be facetious, just have an interest in pyschology & would like to know the mental strength required to get back from that.

Well to tell you the truth it was frustrating but that was the attraction. I could see the massive potential. Far greater than anything I had seen in any business I had been involved in beforehand and the fact that it was so bloody hard made me even more determined to crack it.

And really I was use to failure . I had tried to make it in cycling then left that to start a couple of businesses that went broke so setbacks were not that uncommon . In fact from my sport & biz back ground I knew they were inevitable and part of the learning process. ie practise , review .................

 

[AlterEgo]

Well to tell you the truth it was frustrating but that was the attraction. I could see the massive potential. Far greater than anything I had seen in any business I had been involved in beforehand and the fact that it was so bloody hard made me even more determined to crack it.

And really I was use to failure . I had tried to make it in cycling then left that to start a couple of businesses that went broke so setbacks were not that uncommon . In fact from my sport & biz back ground I knew they were inevitable and part of the learning process. ie practise , review .................

TH, so what was the ‘light bulb’ moment that first put you on the right track? And were you scalping back then, or has your trade timeframe reduced over time?

thanks

 

[Trembling Hand]

Lots of little progressive steps. not one "secret"

 

[Rastan]

My first year was last year and I lost the lot at about $60K. I wanted to do a finance course at uni fulltime - well essentially i wanted to learn to trade fulltime and the degree was a) a good thing to tell others what I was doing and b) something to put me in the finance industry to learn more if I cant day trade by then. Anyways I took 80K out of the home loan in readyness to take a year off, and in my first year (part time) I made friends with a broker who encouraged me to open a margin account. New eager (wannabe) trader + margin account + lots of capital to lose + major market burst = me has no more money. So there goes the year off work, but I am still doing the course. I am licking my wounds and learning whats is a very valuable lesson (in lots of ways)... It's hard now that the market is rebounding not to have capital to use to get it back, but there's a lesson in that for me too...

 

[Grinder]

thanks for sharing TH. It's always refreshing when one speaks candily about their experiences. I can relate on the buisness side of things, been there also.

 

[Nero64]

Lost 100% of trading captial - 2 years of savings (50k). Wiped out 4 CFD trading accounts.

Thought my Bank Balance could beat any down turn, but no it couldn't.

Never been hurt badly doing shares, just indicies. Made the same mistake 4-5 times. No stop losses and large positions = disaster. The final blow came when I owed money to 3 brokers and they chase and harass you with no respite.

Don't pity me, pity the person that gives up.

 

[CanOz]

Lost 100% of trading captial - 2 years of savings (50k). Wiped out 4 CFD trading accounts.

Thought my Bank Balance could beat any down turn, but no it couldn't.

Never been hurt badly doing shares, just indicies. Made the same mistake 4-5 times. No stop losses and large positions = disaster. The final blow came when I owed money to 3 brokers and they chase and harass you with no respite.

Don't pity me, pity the person that gives up.

Wow, appreciate your candor, well done for persevering.

CanOz