It hurts doesn't it? Specially, if you lost money because you made stupid trading decisions. You tried calling a bottom or catching a falling knife. Then its hard to say what hurts more....the losses or the stupidity. Most of the times it's the latter. I can feel your pain dear readers. Though I wasn't much hurt (emphasis on much) from this fall due to my trading sabbatical, I have been there before.
At times like these, it helps to get things in a proper perspective. So, you lost money. Maybe you lost a lot of money. Hopefully, you only trade with money you can afford to lose and not money needed to pay next month's bills. If not, cut back on your trading accounts immediately. Even if you did not lose money. Only trade with money you can afford to lose.
Now the next step. Money is fluid. By that I mean, money comes and goes. That's the nature of money. You were the one who earned it in the first place, and you were the one who lost it. Accept the responsibility. It wasn't the markets. It was you. It was all you. For the profits and the losses. It wasn't the markets or what's happening in Greece. It was you and it will always be you. You lost it in the last couple of days and only you can earn it back. But here, it is very important not to let the temptation of getting back at the markets creep in. If you accept the responsibility, then the markets are not at all to blame, so what for do you want to get back at the markets? Take it slow and easy. It might take you months to recover from the damage caused in the last couple of days to your trading accounts. But that's OK. Trading, like most important things in life, is about the processes and the journey rather than the destination.
I talked earlier about putting things in proper perspective. I would be the last person to belittle the importance of money in our lives, but in the end, if you were trading only with the money you can afford to lose, its only money. You can always earn it back. Some things in life are so much more important and once gone, can never come back. Take your health, for example. Or the time spent with your loved ones. Now these are things that money can't buy. So, take comfort in the arms of your family and loved ones (or your favorite alcoholic beverage if you are like me :)...Pathetic, I know). instead of brooding over the losses tonight. This reminds me of a post I wrote in January when my account took a big hit due to days like these. Disclaimer: The following post was written after, actually during, generous consumptions of good ol' bourbon.
In the end, I would just like to say that things are never as bad as they seem to be. Even I know that at my ripe old age of 28 years. So, I take it dear readers, you know that too. Believe in it.
Take care and good luck!
2 comments:
I guess you took your trading sabbatical at the right time. Though I'm assuming your still long on NEP
Whether or not the proper advice was given to each individual trader reading this, I think a lot of new traders can get some comfort (yes, just like your alcohol) in this blog.
Talking about comfort again, I think you might find some from Stockgod's BOWS blog post on NEP.
Anyhoo, keep at it.
this reminded me of 2000's n money I lost n money made after that bust.
I took trading as a side business after that where all my stop losses and commission and other losses were my expenses and made sure that they were below profits. I see no money lost when I look at my loss in tech bust now but money spent to learn a skill just like plain old college education.
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