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Have compassion for your self. This was purely a mistake, though a big one , still an opportunity to learn and improve. Good thing is , you will never forget to put a stop loss ever again. The part of your mind that is shaming you, belittle you and making you feel worthless are not YOU. They are just thoughts originating from your underlying beliefs regarding worthiness, inadequacy etc.. Remember these beliefs are embedded into you by your environment where you grew up. Their primary focus is survival.. Please remember your true worth is not your trading account or the things you have or what you do, your true worth is what you are inside.. Trading account merely reflects your performance as a trader.. It has nothing to do with your worthiness because you are worthy as who you are.. I can see that you care for your wife and family.. you are a very compassionate person. Have the same compassion for your Self.
Sorry to hear that.
...50% lost in one week....?
What strikes me when I hear about that is.... are you trading to BIG ?
How much did you risk on each trade...? your SL should not allow you to loose more than 2 %
If it still was below that you must have been taking more than 25 losing trades, maybe revenge trading...?
Sit down for a while and think about it...
I will advice you to cut down on your risk for a while ... just like FT71 says in his scalping webinar.
You can go back to normal risk size when things have cooled down and you have proven profitable again.
I really hate to hear about anyone losing money, and especially in a manner like this. Although I find your story a bit unbelievable, for the benefit of others that might be reading this thread, this sort of thing is generally preventable.
Most reputable brokers will allow you to add risk controls into their risk management software. If you're with a broker that doesn't maintain risk management software, you might want to rethink that decision. For example, some things that you can set controls around are:
* How many lots you can trade
* What is your max loss for the day
* What markets you can trade
For instance with my broker I can's lose more than x amount of dollars or they lock me out. I can't trade more than x amount of lots (and it can be specified on each symbol independently, so I could have a limit of 5 lots in ES but 2 lots in CL for example). I also couldn't trade Yen, Corn, or Oil if I wanted to because I specifically set the markets I'm allowed to trade.
Of course I could have none of these things specified and have full liberty, but these things keep me from making spur of the moment decisions that are not in my best interest. If I go full tilt my max loss is manageable. It might wipe out a week of profits but it's not going to take me out of the game.
Call your broker and find out what your risk options are. As others have said, take a break, get your head straight, trade small. Best wishes to you.
I really feel for you. I had a similar experience about 6 years ago when I put on a long trade in the pound/yen. It was just a stupid little 3 lot trade that I was trying to make about 30 pips on. I was also getting ready to go take a trip at New Year to Las Vegas. I wasn't monitoring it that closely and had forgot to have a stop on it. When I checked I was 100 pips down...and the market had closed early that day because it was New Years Eve. I figured it wasn't going to probably do much over the Holiday so I didn't worry about it.
Well, it ended up gapping down almost a 1000 pips. I only had a $30,000 account. I was about to have my account closed out..so while in Vegas I ran to the bank and wired in another $10,000.00 . My thought was that it just had to come back and I didn't want to have a margin call.
Guess what, it fell another 300 pips and I lost the whole 30K.
This was really disturbing. All because of a stupid mistake. I trade futures now, by the way.
I have had a few other instances where I went "Full Retard" and tilted like the leaning tower of Pizza. Although I don't think I will do that again, I am looking into this software where you can program a daily loss limit and once you hit it, you are locked out of your platform until the next day..or whenever you choose... just in case, I have an emotional meltdown. Again, I doubt I will..but I know I have that in me.
Good luck. I hope you feel better and can regroup. I wish you the best. Sorry, you had to start your New Year this way.
Funny, I just read this after I posted my comments. I wasn't aware that brokers have the options you mentioned, as far as max loss limit protections. I have never heard of that..which is why I was considering getting software that does just that.
Thx so much. The problem is so many people can find high leverage trading illogical but my way was profitable for me for lots of years. But there is a disadvantage to this. You should be much more careful than other people. I will stick to normal risk methods but I am not used to them. Will try to learn anyways. I just check depth around daily pivots. When I see accumulation in one side I trade reverse side with a really tight stop. This was my approach. I was losing a few times but when I win it compensated much more. The biggest issue here is to be really disciplined in stops.