Master Trader Recap: Dr. Z’s Terrifying Losing Day

Editors Note: Oh… so you thought that it was all butterflies and rainbows when it comes to trading? I don’t think so sir (or miss for our day trading angels out there).   One of the reasons why we have such a tight knit community here at The Day Trading Academy (DTA) is to be there for each other through thick and thin. In these kinds of situations when someone can have a terrifying losing day all because of bad circumstances. Losing is part of day trading. What we have to understand is that we have to win more than we lose and we want to have our winners be bigger than our losers. We always like to be transparent which is why we asked our newest Master Trader, Dr. Z, share his recent experience.  Here is Zeke in his own words.

I don’t like losing.

In fact I hate it.

I’ve been down that road more times than I care for and never really acquired a taste for it.

Unfortunately it happens though, and when you trade, how you lose directly effects how you win. Emotions can take you on a quick trip to disaster and you know what I’m talking about if you’ve experienced day trading.

7/23/14 was a special day for me because I increased my contract load aggressively because I had experience and confidence in my trading and it was a step up from a long road down. I knew exactly how I wanted to attack the market and didn’t fear losses if they were good decisions.

This is a trade short which equates to a large loss. Thank you unreliable internet.

8:59 AM was my first trade of the day on a short to the downside.

I expected a reaction off the overextended move from the buyers trying to make their entrance and was going to scalp a quick point to start the day before trading the possible transition to the upside right after if it show me weakness to the downside. My order didn’t have a stop because my charts reset in the morning and I was using a different chart for the trade. I didn’t worry about though because I was planning to be out of the trade very quickly.

About four minutes into the trade I noticed the price wasn’t moving.

My sound was off and I looked at the main page to see “Disconnected”.

I’ve had internet issues before but it always came back very quickly.

I started looking for my number for the broker and realized it was on a network folder.

Great.

I knew the position was going to work against me and could feel that old feeling coming back of falling down the rabbit hole.

What a rabbit hole feels like. With leggings of course.

I packed up my computer and went to the nearest place with Wifi.

They had the same service and it was down. After a few other places I finally packed up and went to a friend who had different service and by the time I saw the charts the position moved against me 5.5 pts.

It doesn’t sound too bad but I increased my contract load aggressively and this hit home pretty hard.

It was just the right circumstances for the bad move. I took the rest of the day off knowing the effects of trading emotionally.

Lots of feelings came racing back to me that day. When you’re introduced to trading we all have the grand vision of being the best and redefining how to be successful. That’s when you’re introduced to the other part. Losing. And depending on how emotional and stubborn you are this means losing a lot.

I was plenty of both.

Real struggles are not one day out of the month or even week. Its time and pressure that really break you down and that’s when you really find out why you chose the path you did. I lost every day for 3 months when I first went live and SLOWLY turned it around. During those months, time slows down because all you think about is trading and why you’re losing and your million attempts to correct your failures to only find more variables you didn’t know about or misread.

Then you experience pressure to make money to meet deadlines, family and friends worried about you bad making bad decisions, doubting your judgment, guilt, depression, anger, fear and every other great feeling in the book.

Time and pressure.

When you finally get to the bottom of the ocean, dig a little bit deeper, and look up to try to see if there’s light is when you finally make the real decision.

Do I quit or do I continue? I talked to my wife and the DTA guys about where I stood. I thought about it for a week as I blew my account again when I realized that’s not the real question. If you continue you’re already expecting more loss and hoping to eventually come out of it. I didn’t readjust my living to continue.

I didn’t give everything I had for chance. I didn’t drag my family this far to fail. I’m not here to reinvent trading, turn heads, “give it a go”, and be accepted by the community. I’m not here to blame others for my struggle. I don’t care what the statistics are, or if I’m going against the grain of culture.I’m here for freedom for my family and myself.

Do I quit or do I Succeed?

Short story is I found a way to make it work. Time and pressure. Teaching students brings back a lot of these feelings being reflected by their circumstances. How you lose is just as important as how you win if not more. I have no illusions I’m out of the fire pit just yet and I may never be, but when that ocean is coming down on me and all I have is a teaspoon to hold it back I’ll find a way to make it work.

I choose to Succeed.

Ps – I won the next day

Click here to see all of our market recaps