first of all ,i want to thanks everybody for this thread, it s fantastic and a key for my problem, to take losses..

i am fascinated how different is to take a loss in SIM and do it cash, we have a System1 that it not be turn it off and is scanning everything what we see, and it gives us suggestion to take actions, and for me this was a key i discover in a book think fast think slow recomnended by @tigertrader, maybe could be useful for you also

little loses are great trades and to that extent are part of the game. The little loser needs to be embraced like a friend. As such little losers are different from being a loser. You are a loser as soon as the little loss becomes too big for you to kill it without feeling it's death.

There is an old saying "Don't lose the money and the lesson." Each trade should benefit you in one way or the other. A loss should provide a lesson and experience on how to trade and a win should provide profit.

Also remember you will always learn more from a loss than a win.

The only way I know how not to take losses personally is not to take PROFITS personally. It's two sides of the same coin. Either you are personally attached to both.... or neither.

wldman 

little loses are great trades and to that extent are part of the game. The little loser needs to be embraced like a friend. As such little losers are different from being a loser. You are a loser as soon as the little loss becomes too big for you to kill it without feeling it's death.

Absolutely.

There are 4 outcomes to a trade. Big Win, Little Win, Little Loss (including B/E), and Big Loss. With correct stop losses and correct risk:reward ratio you eliminate the Big Loss. Then Little Win washes Little Loss and allows Big Win to create profit.

Follow rules, cut losers, and let winners run (easy to say hard to do). Another thing to keep in mind is learning to read when a trade is turning, it is better to take your profit off the table then let a trade that is profitable turn and create a loss. (That can mean moving stop to B/E after a certain point, or just taking profit with a limit until you are able to consistently trade and start trailing your stop.)

wldman 

little loses are great trades and to that extent are part of the game. The little loser needs to be embraced like a friend. As such little losers are different from being a loser. You are a loser as soon as the little loss becomes too big for you to kill it without feeling it's death.

I love that !! ... The psychology of losing is so important in this business

tturner86 

Absolutely. There are 4 outcomes to a trade. Big Win, Little Win, Little Loss (including B/E), and Big Loss. With correct stop losses and correct risk:reward ratio you eliminate the Big Loss. Then Little Win washes Little Loss and allows Big Win to create profit. Follow rules, cut losers, and let winners run (easy to say hard to do). Another thing to keep in mind is learning to read when a trade is turning, it is better to take your profit off the table then let a trade that is profitable turn and create a loss. (That can mean moving stop to B/E after a certain point, or just taking profit with a limit until you are able to consistently trade and start trailing your stop.)

i will take from you this 4 outcome to analysis purpuse, and of course the big losses are my main focus now, i rate down my trade if i le become in a loser , but if finished big loser, ...grrr

thanks

alejo

Anagami 

The only way I know how not to take losses personally is not to take PROFITS personally. It's two sides of the same coin. Either you are personally attached to both.... or neither.

yes , when i have a big win, i go up of mood, and i feel better, and it is better to say calm, and dont feel that

thanks

alejo

alejo 

yes , when i have a big win, i go up of mood, and i feel better, and it is better to say calm, and dont feel that thanks alejo

Yes, take the emotion whether good or bad out of the equation. Each trade should be entered and exited based on your plan and strat. If the entry is valid you should be in, if the trade is no longer valid you should be out. And emotions should have no say on entry or exit.

Now, at the end of the day if you check and you are up. Celebrate, enjoy it. Have a nice meal, cold beer, etc. But do not worry about up or down while you are trading.

As I have been posting in my journal, I made a catastophically oversized momo chase trade in a silver ETF a while back that turned just sucked all the air out of my trading. It went from being considered a trade, to a position, to an investment.

Anyway, due to the fact that I am stuck with this position and have now stubbornly taken the Bill Ackman "ride it till the end of time" attitude, I have actually begun to learn quite a lot from it. It's a motivation for me to really dig down into silver and understand everything about it. For instance, I did not realize that the supply of silver is not exactly the same as gold in that silver is not always dug out of the ground for its own sake, it's a byproduct of production of other things like copper.

And then because silver price action seems to be yoked to gold in some way (not sure why) I've also been drilling down into gold to try and find out what on earth is going on with this bear market in gold. This has led me to learn about naked short selling of gold futures by certain alleged manipulators, etc. and to grasp the correlation with the dollar.

So, I am trying to turn trading lemons into lemonade. Anything that gives me a motivation to roll up my sleeves and drill down to expertise and insight is a good thing, IMO. The longer this takes, the more I am going to learn from it.