The story that taught me how to trade

Gagik Gevorgyan, 27 years old, Armenia. Since 2004 has been managing investor accounts. Prefers working with futures.
Storytelling as part of the contest "A day in the life of a trader“

It was night, 4:00 a.m., I was sitting in front of my monitor, intently watching the price in the ID System, and it all started when I opened 3 lots deal on euro/dollar.

I'll tell you right away, it was my intuition that pushed me to it. The deposit was on the verge of loss; it was also bad that I was in the Internet club since 10:00 in the morning and had nothing to eat. It was just me and the operator in the club - all the customers had long since left. My condition was terrible - I did not understand what was happening to me, the only thing I could think about was my mistake, which I had made so suddenly. I had unreasonably opened a big deal. Although I had gone positive in the first few minutes, when the price showed a loss equal to the spread, I didn't dare to close it. Something stopped me and now my loss is not -120$ but -4.000$, while my deposit was only 5200$.

At one point I decided to leave the transaction and go home, as I did not feel well. Gathering all my strength, I closed the terminal, got up from the chair, went to the operator, paid almost 30$ and went home. How I got there, I do not remember, in the morning, when I opened my eyes, it was already 12:00.

It seemed like it was all a dream, and I wanted to sleep more to dull my senses, but I couldn't. I got up and realized that I wasn't sleeping in my bed, but in the living room on the couch.

After cleaning myself up, I went back to the internet club. There was already a young guy sitting in my seat, and I asked him to change seats and give me way. As I clicked on the dollar icon (the one the ID System had), I prayed that all would be well and that the price would return to its place. The tension was so great that when the terminal was open, I covered the quotes, the chart and the balance with an A4 sheet, so as not to see the result at once. When I dared, I started to slowly open the balance line...

At first I found that my balance was the same as what I had left the night before. The first thing I thought about was that I was still at a loss. I continued to open, and when I saw the minus sign, my whole body began to shake. Finally, I could not stand it and tore off the sheet from the screen, which said "-220$". I have instantly closed the transaction, after that I sat for a long time and could not do anything.

A little later I got up, went to the operator, paid for the time used, went home and went to bed. After that, I did not go near the terminal and Haven't traded in 4 months.

It was the worst day of my career as a trader!

After that incident, I vowed never again to open a trade without a valid reason, not to open a trade more than 1% of the account, vowed to always use protective stop orders.

Over time, I realized one truth: you should not rush into trading, that was my biggest mistake - I wanted to make a lot of money immediately, I played without stop-losses, did not watch my health, sat in front of the screen in any mood.

It could have ended with the loss of the deposit. I hope that other traders will learn a lesson from my story and not repeat my mistakes. Take care of yourself, your health, your mood, always play with a protective stop, trade with the minimum lot and never, never risk more than 1% of deposit in one trade.