To everyone willing to read this, and ESPECIALLY all the new traders - DON'T be part of the 90%!

I made a terrible trade. Just awful. It really makes no sense at all in retrospect, but the reason I made it can hopefully be a good lesson to some.

I'm a new trader starting with a small account ($2,500). I had made some tiny trades up till this last big mistake and was already up against the PDT rule, so I had no more day trades left. However, what did I do? I forced a trade. I didn't need to trade. It wasn't even a great opportunity, obviously, but I WANTED to trade.

Mistake #1. DON'T FORCE TRADES!

Mistake #2 - I had NO EXIT STRATEGY. I thought, like an idiot, "Oh, RETC could be a really good dip buy. I saw Roland Wolf make a good profit off of a previous RETC dip buy, I thought I had studied, saw the Tim Alert but ignored the part that said to be careful. I bought what I thought was the low point on RETC and thought, "I'll just hold it overnight since I can't day trade"...stupid...stupid...STUPID!!! Don't do this people. PDT could have protected me if I had been patient, but instead, I blew up half my account like a moron.

Mistake #3 - I took a position that was roughly 50% of my capital. Nuff said...

Mistake #4 - I let my emotions take over this morning and actually ADDED to my position thinking "when this turns around, hopefully I can make up some of the big loss in case the bounce doesn't go back to my break-even point"...seriously...DERP!

Mistake #5 - I broke ALL the rules. Before you place any trade. Have rules and STICK TO THEM!

Mistake #6 - And hopefully this is where some of the education starts coming in - I didn't manage risk, I made a bet. Think about that. When you place a trade what are you doing? Are you managing risk, or are you placing a bet?...because if you are betting, then you might as well go to a casino. That's essentially what I did.

When you read Tim Sykes comments you can CLEARLY see his logical rational and can follow what he is doing and why. He doesn't go into a trade unless he has done his research, has a plan, and a good exit strategy if things go south. Whenever things don't go right, he just gets out. Small loss or small profit, he gets out. The ironic thing is on the day I blew up my account, there was a post from Tim saying "no good plays right now, great time to study".

Tim and the other Gurus KNOW what they are doing. LISTEN TO THEM, PEOPLE! I wish I had...

 

Don't make a bet! - Manage risk!

Don't be part of the 90%!