alex84 wrote:pips400 wrote:Ok time for me to take a breather this bank holiday weekend and analyse my trading before Tuesday comes around. I consider myself a noob but have been learning forex for ten months and apart for a six weeks mission tour in Africa at the end of last year, I've been doing this pretty much full time on demo trading until a couple of weeks ago when I finally went live. For me the pyschological battle is the hardest part of trading especially when live. I believe the 104/105 strategy gives a massive edge and so I ask myself why aren't I succeeding, I'm glad to say I haven't lost anything but neither have I gained, my balance is where it was a couple of weeks ago, and so I realise that the weak link in the chain is me
As I look back over my charts and the trades I made there is one thing that now seems obvious and I think I've identified a weakness in my approach and mindset, which is my fear of drawdown. I know about DD but I don't think in my head I was prepared for any DD as a normal part of trading, and so I've identified that killer of forex traders FEAR, which I really didn't think was there, but now realise it was there all along.
So dear traders, does anyone have any advice about approaching drawdown, managing DD etc? What level of DD% is considered aggressive/average?
Thanks to all, have a great weekend everyone
Pips400
Hello
very good analyze of (your) live trading
Personally i always test a strategy on a live account, even small account, but live account always, cause the way I trade defers from a demo. Fear, greed, are not same level on live account and the way i manage trades then is different. I guess you have the same problem for that. In my opinion, the only way to avoid DD and fear is :
-to be able to stay in wining trades as long as possible, managing the sl to be when possible, if we always make small profits they will soon be compensated by the larger sl hits. For the moment it's still a problem with my trading, i'm taking profits to fast and then to small.
-to be able to get out of a losing trade if css changes color (closed bar not current bar), and not expecting price will come back in my direction, expecting is not trading. You're right or you're wrong, 0 or 1. No alternative choice.
-to put only small lots, so I can stand a reversal and DD. The very bad thing is over exposed trades, over trading as well.
I guess that much of the guys here testing bob's system on the forum who test it on demo accounts are much to exposed and face sometimes large negative floats. I'm sure they wouldn't handle it if they where on live accounts. So making lots of pips in this configuration doesn't mean they will make as much pips when live trading. I read some guys sometimes face 25 to 40 % floating, who can go that way on a live account ? I never could. On a live account you will always be thinking, wow "i'm risking 40% of my savings right now, hmmm what do i do now?, and what if this goes even worse ?"
I also guess most of accounts managed this way could soon face margin calls or DD hits SL. Some guys already did experience that.
Don't forget that at the beginning of bob's pdf Bob recommended to use very small lots to be able to stand eventual DD.
I personally use 0.01 lots for a 1000 usd balance, i think it's even to much right now as i don't manage the system very well yet..
But I put only one to three pendings on a same pair, limiting risk of DD. And I avoid similar pairs, example Aud Usd, Aud Cad etc...which often means putting a lot of pen dings on one same pair.
I also put pendings only on D and W pivots, not on S and R, as they are not as reliable for a start trend, well at least i guess.
May be i'm wrong, but it's my way to be safe and wise. So i sleep well.
I only made 6,5% profits for the month of may, it's really bad compared to other guys performances but I only faced 4% floatind DD, which is enough for me. And It's 6,5 % live money.
I'm cool when week end is here.
I don't want 50% by month, 10% would be really great.
I guess it's much better to learn how to earn 10% each month of the year, rather than trying to earn 50% this month.
But of course I wish i'll manage to be better with Bob system which i believe is a great system.
I thank again Bob and other guys of the forum who contribute in this system.
This forum is really great.
Thank you all
(sorry if i'm not always clear with my explanations, english is not my native language)