Rags to RichesA: My worst trade was when I opened a trade, and just as I
opened it, the telephone rang and I had to attend to something
urgently. I attended to the matter not realizing that I had not set a
take profit or a stop-loss, the trade was wide open. To make a long
story short, I came back and I was down about$380 and I got the
shock of my life when I saw that. In a state of panic, I just closed
the trade and it took me quite a while to recover from that.
Q: Was there any lessons that you learned from this?
A: Yes, I will never, ever trade without a stop-loss and a take profit.
It’s actually a habit now, where the minute that I open the trade,
I will immediately put in my take profits and stop-loss. My trading
robot has been programmed that way as well. This is part of money
management, which is critically important to a trader’s survival.
Q: What about your best trade ever?
A: My best trade was during nonfarm payrolls and actually it was
when I broke all of the rules that I have now, or more specifically,
before I developed my current discipline. In that trade, I made
over$3,200.
Q: Can you tell us a little bit what was happening during that
time? Did you have large position on and it moved quickly beyond
your 10-pip profit?
A: I could probably have gotten more if I had stayed in the trade
longer. But basically what I did was, at 2:50 our time, I opened a
buy stop and sell stop, and I just waited, and suddenly the price
shot up and my buy was triggered. I was trading I think it was at
three lots, which are$30 to a pip. 1–2–3 boom before I knew it
[laughter] I was$3,000 up, and I just closed it. I didn’t even think.