All's Fair in Love and Trading
Friends, Monkeys, Trader-men, lend me your ears!
I come to you in a sad state my fellow cubicle jockeys, for I am a bit heartbroken. It was probably a long time coming but it still hurts like a bastard. Now this would be a distraction for anyone in their career, but for myself being a prop trader it might be downright destructive.
It has been a couple of days now and today I finally had the worst day trading of my (short) career. So my question is, have any other fellow financiers (traders especially) had to deal with this and how did you go about it? Should I chalk my bad day up to random chance, or was my emotional state probably a major factor in the losses? Should I be trading smaller for the next couple of days? Should I short the holy balls out of her company (it is public haha)?
C’mon virtual bartenders, let me know what’s good (also I don’t need any sorry’s or man-up’s… you may only be trying to help but Mr. Beam can take care of that).
Cash out
On to the next one
Sit on your hands until Friday night so you don't fuck up your desk worse, and then go out and get fucking HAMMERED. Be a fucking man for Christ sake. Do something stupid and learn from it. Moping about some piece of tail and a few lost dollars won't solve jack. Hit the gym or get a hobby that people like (hint: music) and get a life outside of work so you have something to live for. I will also give you that much needed and all important "perspective".
You're welcome.
First a couple questions for you...what do you trade, how long have you been trading, and what kind of training did you get?
Every new trader has bad days, it comes with the territory. The key is to try to learn from it. Why did you have a bad day? Were you chasing moves? Were you putting too much size on in the middle of the day? Were you adding to losers? Were you missing your outs? These are the kind of questions you need to be asking yourself after a rough day. As a new trader, there's no point in killing yourself over a bad day. Just need to learn from your mistakes and try to stay positive.
@UFOInsider - I hear you man, I've been saddled-up to the bar at 3:30 sharp every day this week. Picked up a gym membership this evening (from costco to a gym, good deal for anyone looking) so Ill be back to the grind soon. Thats awesome youre an actual bartender too, you had experience before or networked your way in or what?
@livingthedream86 - cash equities for about 3 months now. We focused on technicals really, not much of the mental game though. I felt pretty calm and clear when trading, but Im sure the personal situation wasnt helping. I started the day well then got ran over midday by some of the commodities names, then was pressing for bounces late in the day to make up for it (I know, I know). Thanks for the words man.
I think everyone had a tough day today. I wasn't nor do I think anyone was expecting the FED minutes to say they might stop QE infinity. I'd take your profits and run, you may also want to start putting on some short positions. There is no way the market can keep ignoring or brushing off bad news, as we saw today. Since your in equities I suggest you look into some short S&P, DOW, NASDAQ, and maybe some Russell ETFs. Wait for the market to rally for a brief moment and start buying into those. Use those to hedge any long positions you have and think will withstand any correction we WILL see in the near future.
Just try and adhere strictly to a strategy, If you haven't read Market Wizards, Interviews with Top Traders do it. Its a great book on the mentality of trading and how to stick to a strategy. One of the points that is repeated throughout every interview is if you aren't in the right state of mind of are getting killed a couple days in a row Take a Break , also, don't do anything unless you have reasons for something. If you already don't keep a journal of your trading ideas you should. I don't know if this helped at all but you really should lighten your positions, reevaluate any decisions you made in the past couple days, and take a break.
shit happens man..just learn from it..dont make the same mistake again.
Be on the other side of the coin next time
I've been doing this for a few years now, and it never gets any easier. Have had days of losing 5-10 bux, and it's just crushing... hell, I've had days I've made money and still am furious because I thought I could have done better. Either way, you need to try and go in the next day with a fresh perspective. I guess I'm pretty good at being momentarily infuriated, and then wipe it from memory shortly.
Best advice I can give is learn from your mistakes but don't let them weigh on you. Realise though, there are times you didn't necessarily do anything wrong other than BE wrong. That's part of trading. Be able to reflect and spot the differences.
Revsly, have you really been +/- 5 to 10mm in a single day? That sounds like a good chunk of size you were given to trade - is that typical for someone your age at your shop, or are you just that good?
Getting back to the original topic - how easy is it to separate personal stuff from trading? Are you finding yourselves becoming more robotic and emotionless even outside of work, or can you switch between the different modes easily?
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