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Lost $8000 this month !

cashcomstock, my goodness u started trading for less than even 3 mths and u bet ur savings on it? this is sucidial. and u bet so big. hope u can learned from this lesson and grow from it. others pls use this as a lesson. dun bet so big when u just started. even seasoned and professional traders never bet more than 50% of their money. most just 30% of their capital. next is dun buy warrents for starters, it is dangerous.

 

Take it as a very expensive lesson/course. As what Elf mentioned : It's only money, its not life or death. Must have the fighting spirit inorder to pull thru this period....all the best

 

I always go for safety first. For instance when you have huge amount of lots at near break even price, you have to quickly decide if you should cut your positions. A big drop in share price below break even price would mean big loss.Whenever you are in the market always have your net position (i.e how much in profit or how much in loss) in your head at all times. Don't just buy, just leave it and never monitor. Protect your capital Paper loss whether realised or unrealised IS a loss 

 

Market watch: it is tanking lah. Let's not even deny it. For those not into shorts, CFDs and puts, it may be a better idea to just sit out. Now isn't the time to be thinking of making profits. Now's the time to be thinking capital preservation. Live another day, fight another day. Long term (080808, beijing olympics), it'll be up. But short term, it's down, and likely a bad down. Dow has cut below 12,800. That's a crucial pt.

Just a question of whether you can hold on til next year, or more worthwhile to cut now and wait for buying opps to appear. Count via overall portfolio rather than per stock?

btw, just my opinion: if you're not into puts yet, may not be a good time to buy them now: DOW is super dropping already; if Fed does a sudden rate cut, markets will spike overnight. which then means that puts will drops, stocks will recover, but not likely to your buy px. so one may be trapped in a situation where both stocks and puts are stuck.  

 

hullo all!

hey scotty, don't feel so down, same for all of us. and nah, i'm no expert; have taken quite a hit since aug. tho overall not in negative yet, it's painful to see hard-earned profits being wiped out. anyhow, just to share the following conversation btwn asterisk and myself, hope it'll help cheer up some here. keke.

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elf: It's ok to die in a battle as long as the war is won. My mistakes--should not have bought when couldn't watch; should have cut at first sign of down. sigh..

asterisk: Les learnt: don't rush in, don't rush out, know when to rush in/out. Market charges dear. Better make it value for money. Lol. stupid mistakes. iGoon.

elf: I'm iGoon beta then! LOL. Most impt of all, always keep a sense of humor. Haha. It's only money, its not life or death. Cheers!

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cashcomstock, u r not the worst lah. i lost my half year salary in yesterday alone (paper loss). market is still very uncertain moving forward, don't trade on margin or borrowing.

 

think long term...

 

After reading this thread, I feel that I am one of the worst. I lost more than 30K this month. Thanks to Alibaba for sudden drop and HSI Call warrant. Now, I really find nowhere and no way to win back. Worst is that I still hold more than 200 lots of HSI call warrant. As of now, DJ is super negative, I feel very demotivated. Think there is no way that the HSI will go up tomorrow unless DJ rebound later. I have lost most of my savings,... very sad. I just started trading one month plus and total lost nearly hit 40K. I think after tomorrow, it will be worse.

What should I do???

 

Better cut loss. This downtrend will last at least a few weeks. Never catch a falling knife. You'll only bloody your hands in the process.

 

Scotty,

I agreed wiz mos of the comments..  many times it's btwn greed & fear. Fear from losing n greed to profit more. at tis time, it's preti dangerous to hold 2 many stock on hands if it is bought at high price.....As4 myself, sinx Mr BahPowTan  annonced the incris of cnstruction tax somewhere Jul/Aug, I had nt yet revr my $20k+ fm contra, lure by "ignorance" greed, i blindly enter 4 cntrs in the morning n it crashed afr 3pm...Fear of further plunge, i cut loss e nxt day

< - We all got to learn the hard way.Rmbr Terminator's catchphrase? "I'll be back!!     Dun give up  "

 

This is the time for the very senior and experience players/trader/investor/punter to trade.Never break under pressure.GOOD LUCK

 

It is easier to make money in a Market uptrend (or bull run). Conversely, it is easier to lose money in a Market downtrend.

Unless you are a sophisticated investor/trader who makes use of shorts, CFDs, warrants etc.., my take is that it is better to stay on the sidelines until the environment improves.

 

i lost 2.7K within 3 days. will stay away from the market for a while. Else the 2.7k will be 27k. So tempting to trade but got to suppress my emotions, i need to control that, esp for novice traders like me

 

Hi Mani, U mention abt chart reading and techical analysis. But there are so many technical indicators. So which ones do u swear by? Do u use intraday charts or daily charts? The Master Trader author rely on mainly MA and Stochastic. Are these enough?

 

I always believe when we make mistakes, it is important to learn something from it. Summarise the mistakes in points and what you should or should not do next time. Sometimes it helps if you write it down and refer to them. Sometimes mistakes get repeated because they have all been forgotton. So writing it down helps.

 

That is why I said it might not be good to own too many shares. You have so many positions in so many stocks, it is hard or your mind will not be able to work out the sums on your net position fast enough when a crash happens. You need to make very fast decisons sometimes

 

 

Yes, technical analysis is useful. But if one has not mastered that, one can use simple management skills to prevent one from making a huge loss.You reach break even price and sometimes not to make money is better than losing it.

 

 

Hi all,

I think if we hold on to our counters that have good records, should be able to weather through the

storms we are in now.

cheers

 

Learning and using technical analysis is a must... 

 

Money management or managing your risk profile is very important. It is important to assess your overall net position in the market. For instance you may have a paper profit of $5k but now have 100 lots of shares at break even price. To me, that is a risky position to be in. If your share drops by 20c tomorrow, you have a net loss of $15k