I took a beating today
March 2, 2006 by Trader Rich
I took quite a beating today knocking my profit/loss down into the red. I’m down $1300 this week. As my losses started piling, I started to let my emotions get the best of me. Today has really made me scratch my head and wonder what I’m supposed to do now. Yesterday I was stating how in the flow with the market I felt and how everything on the charts was making sense but today really knocked me for a loop. I look at the charts and it’s almost like I’m looking at another language. Now nothing seems to make sense.
I have to say that I could kind of see this coming. Do you want to know what my biggest mistake has been this week? It has been my inability to let my positions run their course. I’ve been foolish on every trade this week. I’ve found that I’m not even setting limits most of the time and when I do set limits, I totally disregard them. I’m entering on a setup on the 240-minute chart and exiting on a 5 minute just for a little profit. Today I gave up quite a lot in profit because I just wanted a little bit. Then I was willing to let 1 trade go 50 pips lower before closing it out. My money management has been poor and I’m paying for it literally.
I will have to learn from these mistakes and move on. What’s gone is gone. I should actually feel lucky that I’m not down more.
No wonder I’m starting to salivate at the thought of paying $1000 for an online seminar. They must reel you in when your most vulnerable. Help. 
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Been there. I’ve found that when I get a bit giddy or too confident about my trading results, I’m in trouble. Still happens on occasion (after a huge win or loss). I trust what the chart is telling me, don’t trust my emotions, high or low; sooner or later they’ll lead me astray.
Well, allow me to disagree with your observation above, although I’ve been reeled in on different forex offers too. I’ve been trading forex four years and done okay. Okay is not near good enough, and it eventually occurred to me that I could use professional help. ‘Cause I don’t pretend to have all the answers. I learned what I came to know through trial and error, the long haul of making and losing money, never ever getting ahead and wondering why. ?! (Let me also add that there are some very smart and talented Forex Pros and Computer Systems out there. We’d better be as good they are, i.e. as good as “the smart money.”) My advice to anyone at my point (above) in their “career”, is to hook a with a mentor, a Professional Trader with a proven track record. Truth is, we all need teachers at some point in our lives, especially true of Forex. I believe we can save a lot of time and money, and grief, if we’re lucky enough to find a talented one and clone ourselves to them. You’ve heard of the famous “Turtles” I’m sure, a team of nobodies put together by Richard Dennis, one of the greatest traders of all time (he’s still mentoring), who went on to become extraordinary traders in their own right. That’s surely our goal too, and the sooner the better.
Happy trading.