Today was a the first real negative P&L day since starting the XFA. While I started great on the second combine with a + 1000 USD day, I didn’t manage to maintain this when switching to the real account.
I traded while preoccupied with other things and while being distracted. This led me to take trades I normally wouldn’t and resulted in some losses. I could’ve recouped my losses with one position which i had 2 contracts of NQ in. However, i held the trade too long, wishing to not just recoup my losses, but make a profit. The trade instead went against me and i lost more.
The stoploss for my account is set on -1000 USD by TopStep. When i loose this amount, i cannot trade anymore for the duration of the day and am locked out. While this is great to avoid major losses, it can also be a difficult barrier when the day’s start doesn’t go great. Due to the losses i had made during this day, I was quite close to the stoploss. Using the little bit of margin I had left, i jumped into a short, but after being so frustrated with my previous performance, i took a position of 4 contracts instead of 1 or 2. This increased position also exposed me to greater risk and consequently when price pulled back a little i got stopped out and ended with a loss of -1026 USD. In the next few seconds, the price went as predicted and had i gotten only 2 contracts i would’ve most likely made back my losses.
This type of behavior is called revenge trading and should never be performed. What I believe partially caused some impatience in my trading was the feeling of having to live up to the previous +4k day which instinctively makes one take larger risk. This however, has the opposite effect.
0 Comments