First day blues

[CHRISM27]

Decided to put my first money into betfair yesterday after over a year of believing i knew what I was doing with training bank and swatting up and attending courses. Saved up my first $500 and deposited it. With my training bank I made small profits on weekends on the horseracing scalping along. Never successful with the football or tennis but felt confident with the horses.

So this was the week booked off work and went for it. 10 races in 42 profit, 15 races 65 profit then BOOM!! I was trading at the lowest resistant point at had a couple of ticks profit then it jumped and before i knew it went in play. $185 down later I finally got out. At that point I walked away and wondered whether I should be doing this... Not sure how i let it get like that, feel a complete a** . Any advice would be awesome thanks

[Dallas]

You mean apart from the age old advice of NEVER let it go in play which is written all over this forum and just about everywhere else??

Start by taking the positives from this:

1) You knew instantly your mistake and have admitted it now just DONT repeat it, better learning now with a £185 loss than to of got away with going in play a few times then lost a much larger amount in a few days/weeks when the inevitable happens

2) You WALKED away afterwards and did not chase it or go on tilt. (not alot of people manage to do this especially when just starting)

3) You did have some profitable trades

No matter how long you practiced for its a whole psychological difference when using real money and that does take a bit of time to get used to (you obviously know how everything works and how to do stuff) so just take slow steps.

Put today behind you tomorrow is a fresh new day remember what you have learned but forget the monetary loss.

It is inevitable you will have losses when you first start out and these will always happen no matter how long you do this for but as time goes on these will become less frequent providing you stay disciplined

Something i always say is keep the losses under control and the profits will follow in due course and just take it one step at a time

[CHRISM27]

Thank you Dallas .. Inkers replaying it over in my head and before I know it was in play 10 secs elapsed. Goes to show I was so fixed on those 2 ticks being matched I didn't concentrate on the time . I chose to trade in a coffee shop which I know has a fast wifi connection but had my Mac on silent . Bad error . Should I lower my bank and start smaller?

[The dog of ry]

Cricket analogy - You were batting nicely, plenty of 1's and 2's. Ticking over the strike, accumulating. Then you took your eye off the ball, and your off stump was uprooted.

Keep your eye on the ball.

[CHRISM27]

Looks like this may be a positive rather than a negative .... I think a stop loss maybe a good idea next time ?? Just I've always found with the trading bank soon as I add a SL it seems to come into play straight away then bounce back up.. That was at 2 ticks lower maybe 4 ticks ?

[Dallas]

First thing is to ask yourself is the bank and stakes your using within your comfort zone and can you afford to lose it in a worse case scenario? if not adjust them

My advice is always to use stakes that mean something to you though (money has a different value to each individual - Its no use someone who is used to a six figure salary trying to trade with just a £50 bank there just not going to take it seriously, just as its no use someone with a part-time job saving up for several months and depositing it all in BF in one go there going to be to scared to trade effectively).

You need to find that comfortable sweet spot that suits you as and your circumstances then as your experience grows so will your bank.

Too low you wont takes losses when you should and hang on hoping for extra profits which you then miss.
Too high you trade scared and cut out too early and grab profits too quickly.

[CHRISM27]

This is were it was easy with the training bank no emotional attachment . I believed a year of training bank would get me ready to take the plunge into lowering my work hours to catch more of the weekday meetings. I'll see how tomorrow goes with lower stakes and take it from there. Stop loss a must I think

[Dallas]

My opinion has always been that practice mode should be used to familiarize yourself with the software and the behavior patterns and what movement is expected from the market as soon as your comfortable and understand this you should be moving onto real money to gain experience as one of the most important things in trading is the psychological/mental element and that can only be gotten when using real money.
Obviously keep the size of your bank/stakes within context as i said previously

The only time to return to practice mode after this is to try something new or to test automation strategies etc.

[CHRISM27]

Thanks Dallas . I'll post how tomorrow goes before the dreaded return to work Monday

[convoysur-2]

we have all done it buddy,
just get your shit togeather and go at it again,just rebuild you loss slowly ,have the mindset that that big trade will not come to make u rich,,,slow and slow ..small profit and small profit,build on that ,build the descipline like that,
discipline is the hardest part of trading,well for me it is.
you will be fine..

Marc

[CHRISM27]

cheers marc see what today brings

[CHRISM27]

just finished trading for today and my discipline even with the rules wrote out in front of me cost me. All $1-$4 profits except 4. One at -7 one at -13 and one at -17 and one at -14. Two got close to the in play time began to match my money then jumped. The other two for some reason I let go in play... I dont even know why as I was in profit with them. My discipline is a shambles and i need to have a serious look at myself if I want to do this and make consistent profit.

Todays total is -$21

[Dallas]

Have a good read of this thread, this is a guy in your exact shoes regarding disipline and there is many many helpful suggestions from members on how to over come this.

viewtopic.php?f=17&t=9675&p=80296&hilit ... ple#p80296

The whole thread is his daily personal journey mostly revolving around going in play and not just accepting a small loss to begin with.

[CHRISM27]

stil reading through this topic and watching the vids..... feels like the path i am on..... Dallas could you PM me as I have some questions ?

[convoysur-2]

chrism
u must read alot and watch videos loads of times,and thats all very complicated in the beginning,to make thing easier for your self i suggest that you dont trade anything higher in price than 5 because it hurts too much when your on the wrong side of it ,and for the moment i suggest you stay away from that all weather markets there up and down like a whores knickers,and your not ready for them yet,i suggest for 2 morrow find races where the class is 4 or better they will move but not as bad as that all weather shit,
you will loss all your money if u just keep doing what your doing.
try easier markets like the over /under 1.5 2,5 just to get better at what your doing
Marc