A couple of months ago I thought I was starting to really get to grips with horse trading. I was regularly making a profit, and even my bad days werent so bad. Recently though, I just cant seem to do it. I dont know if its just frustration creeping in, but the number of races where I have a big loss seems to have risen dramatically. Today I had a medium sized loss, battled back to break even, and then got hit by a huge loss. This pattern is happening all too often and I dont know why.
I have already dropped back in stakes, to £20, I think I need to spend more time recording and reviewing my trading.
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It's probably happening because you seem to be guessing rather than have a set plan. You've got to spend more time looking at where you're going wrong rather than jumping to the next race.
ReplyDeleteIf you do have a set plan it's obviously not working well and you need to stop repeating past mistakes in the belief they're sound. It's very easy for traders to think they've sussed it from a winning week but those profits may have been just a lucky week/month.
Start thinking and acting like a winning trader and you might just find an edge. No one can accuse you of not putting in the effort it's just you're not using that effort wisely.
A lot of the big losses are because I lay at the top, a basic mistake I know. The horse has been drifting, and I always seem to choose the perfect moment where it goes the other way. The fact that I have more than 1 opening trade in at the time just makes it more painful when it does turn. Its a noobie mistake, and it seems like if I dont enter,or back, then it keeps going. Greed indiscipline, and impatience.
ReplyDeleteIt's a pattern I know well! I think you are right to say greed, indiscipline and impatience. In my case I think it is especially due to expectation. I inherently expect to just get better / earn more over time. Using the same techniques over time though, perhaps there is no reason to expect to get "better", i.e. make more profit. Until I reach the point where I am happy with my average monthly profit then I think this will continue. Sometimes I think a small increase in stake is required. The extra profit will give the reassuring sense that I'm on target for my goals and no need to get into self-doubt. Perhaps dangerous I know but I expect plenty of us starting out trading thought to ourselves, "I'll learn with small stakes, then once I'm doing well, I'll whack the stakes up and bingo"!
ReplyDeleteyes, Im always thinking I made £x today, thats £5x if I times my stakes by 5!!
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