"I can´t do this but everybody can" phase - pls share experi

[DirkLux]

Hi guys,

I have a question to you and I hope its not to personal.

Background: I trade my live account since around mid August and today I am at a loss of 12,5% of my initial capital.
Sometimes I win a trade, more often I obviously lose.
By analysing my trades at night on paperprints I understand more or less my issues: I exit to soon. Some of my setups seem not right, I dont seem to be simply there in the right moment (that´s how it feels at least LOL) etc.
Then I say to myself "NEXT! New day, new trades, new situation". But all-over-all, it does not fly.

Now, when paging through the Journals and the rest of Forum I obviously see all those "I made soandsomany pips today"-messages and some beginners first post are their trades displaying a "Hey, i made 60 pips today" message. So where are the losing ones ?
Naturally I start thinking that I not made for this while everybody else is doing great.
(dont get me wrong - I love the journals and I am happy to see e.g. Grant posting his trades for our learning curve )

So my question: How did your start-up in trading look like? You all skyrocketed from the start?
How did your beginnings look? Any phases during that you felt like I do today?

PS: I dont want to sound pessimistic or bring people down. Far from that. I am a postitive person really. And I really want to get into this.
I thought I just be open and see if you professional guys have had a similar (maybe mind-set !?!?!) experience /phase on your way to where you are today...

Cheers,
Dirk

[immy]

Hey Dirk!

I know exactly how you feel. First of all what you need to do is analyse all your trades and find out how many of them were according to rules. Find the percentage of how many times were you disciplined. Anything less than 90% of the time is to be classed as Not-Disciplined. Then find out what is the result of the trades you took when you exercised discipline. This will clear up stuff.

The journey has not been easy for any of us. Ask Grant he'll tell you how much he's lost, i can tell you too. I have never blown an account so far but have lost considerable amount of money before I came to grips with the idea of successful/profittable trading.

Trading is a Game of Statistical Edge.
1-20 trades cannot tell you whether you will be profitable in the long run
You must never lose your edge, when you do not follow rules, (even if you miss 1000pip move) you will lose. because trading without rules = trading without edge, trading without an edge is NOT trading. its gambling against very bad odds.

The name of the game is to keep your losers small and winners big.

How you achieve this is called "Trade Management Plan".

Your winners and losers are not to be counted in pips alone, they must bring in the money as well.

So here comes Accurate, sound "Money Management Plan".

Your trading must always give you higher Ratio of winners moneywise as compared to losers. e.g. if your win loss ration is 50% you lose 5 out of 10 times. if you keep your winners twice as big as your losers you will still make money.

So Know your step (10% done)
Know and correctly implement your Trade management plan (10%) done
Know and correctly follow Your money management plan. 80% done.

I hope it makes sense

Cheers

[John Wimberley]

DirkLux, hang in there. I too share this problem of "premature exit". What I strongly advise you to do is use micro lots to help you understand the setups. I did this from the start and now am only moving towards proper lot sizes for my trades. As far as everyone saying they are making many, many pips a day; well there are only a handful of people I know who are actually doing this. Immy and Grant are certainly making great headway, and only because they are very experienced with AIMS and they have a well thought-out MM system . The only person you have to measure is yourself.

[snowman]

Hi Dirk

I can understand your frustration at not being quite there. I have no idea other people’s personal level of trading experience, but I expect there are quite a few who have put in the time over the years like me. I have been trading for approximately 13-15 years. I was first introduced to the aims levels and Imran around 18 months ago when he was in the Black dog forum. Even at that stage I had a sound knowledge of factual levels. So by the time I started trading this method in August I already had a good grounding having had the Aims levels on my charts for around 18 months. Now I know there are a number of other ex Black dog members here to. (Big advantage)

As for losing and making mistakes you will not find a trader who has not gone though the stage you are at now.

As for not getting it right. Even after 4 months of trying I still can't get my head around Elliott waves, but it won't stop me looking for them.

Follow Imrans advice and see if you can narrow down any mistakes you are making, even better do it the lazy way and start a journal and let Imran and Grant point you in the right direction. Trust me on this, if you start a journal and post every single trade you will double check each trade before placing it.

Just stick with it and you will get there.

Hope I've answered all the questions.

Cheers
David

[Grant]

HI Dirk,

Imran and David have replied exactly as i would have done, but i do have a couple more points.... I apologise if this sounds like its teaching you to suck eggs.

1. i'm not sure what your % risk per trade is or how many pips that % is calculated on. i would halve what you have now until you can are more consistent, i don't see the point of losing money needlessly....

2. At the end of the day, instead of looking at how you did in money or % terms, analyse if you took each and every set up as per your rules.... You can see from Imrans and my journals that we have an edge on the market, so if you have taken every correct set up then it will be rare you have a losing day. Losing trades/days are part and parcel so don't beat yourself up over them....
My wife always used to come home from work and ask " did you make money today?", now she comes home and asks "did you take every set up", knowing that if i did then i have "usually" made money.

3. Above all relax and follow the rules as best as you can without fear... easier said than done i know as i still struggle

cheers

Grant

ps david said it perfectly when he said start posting your trades for critique, i find it sharpens the mind when i know that others are looking and it does stop me taking those 50/50 entries