@Sheela A friendly reminder that you are not alone. I have been there over a handful of times. And I personally know how hard it is to recover from it. A couple ideas of insight on what to do going forward 1. Do you have risk controls and a max loss to prevent this? If not, search this forum and our youtube channel for "Risk Controls" and consider implementing them on your account 2. Forget about it. Take the lesson learned, never do it again, but do not agonize over it going into tomorrow 3. Some of my BIGGEST losses are the next day AFTER a somewhat big loss, so consider doing a no trade or 1 trade challenge tomorrow 4. This is a silly one in terms of trading insight, but I promise you it has helped me every single time . . . . Do Something randomly nice for a loved one or stranger. Go out of your way to help someone else or show compassion to someone that needs it. After doing that you might be reminded that Trading isnt everything in Life and there are so many more important things in this world. It really helps me to put everything in perspective . . .

Hello, (Back to Real Account) I opened this post as a journal of trying to grow a small account ($3,000). I failed mainly because big losing days that erase all the profit. Another thing that i learned was that is very difficult to trade with a small accounts when you trade a lot of stocks between $50 and $150. I think a small account like that could work for stocks between $3 and $10. My new plan is to go back to simulator and test a $10,000 account with 6:1 leverage ratio. The plan is trade only the following strategies , that works at the open. Risk: $80 Reward: $160 Daily goal: $100 (1%) Max loss (daily) : $160 Strategies: Strategy 1 (VWAP strategy). Stocks in play (gapper 3% or more in any direction). Plan: Wait for the first three minutes. Watching the 1 min chart, if one candle cross the VWAP try to buy (or short sell) close to it, the stop loss is a few cent below( or above) the VWAP and the first target would be at one of the pre-market levels. The final targets can be defined by the levels in daily chart. (you can watch plenty of examples in this thread) Notes: a) The first minutes of the market open is very volatile, it is a good habit to keep your hands on the hotkeys to take profits or to sell (or cover). b) It is very important to buy (or sell ) close to VWAP because of the risk reward ratio (1:2 at least)

@Rob C Thank you for the support! I can see the intensity and depth in your comments. I totally agree as its internal process which takes time but reduce the impact of risk during that process is very important. Will research on Risk Controls! Have decided to have one small green day (candle stick) everyday to cover the big red day (drop of red candle stick from yesterday) going for couple more days/weeks. Its like Andrew saying, you study Med for all those years and you perform anatomy on dead bodies to learn (like learning on sim in our case) but when its time to perform surgery on a living person, its up to that surgeon sending that patient home happily or somewhere else. We learn all the theory about the stocks all the studies and understand and analyze those strategies very well and we know when to get in and out Etc.... but when we trade live the psychology plays major role and dominates everything else including all the studies and strategies that you very well know- just like surgeon in the OR with his patient right in front of him:)

April 1, 2019 - $JD x 2 (Stopped Out, Partial) I am amazed how much more comfortable I getting stopped out. Today, I got stopped out and started looking for another trade, saw another opportunity on $JD and got a partial out of it. I than went looking for 1 15 min Orb but did not see one that my edge. A month ago I would never of been able to do this while being in control of my emotions. Sample Set Results P G S P 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

Monday 4/01/2019 I had a well-being score of 5/10 this morning. My nerves were bad. A bad start of the month. Hopefully I just took the worse trade of the month. First, since my nerves were bad I didn’t want to take an opening scalp. But MU was setting up so much in the premarket I couldn’t help it. I went long when it broke the premarket high and sold all when it reached the daily level at 42.56. Now all last week I have been taking a partials on scalps and yelling at myself not to since all my scalps reversed after my partial. So today I made sure and sold everything at the TL. Of course it moved another 20 cents after I sold. Figures. But my data, so far, does show I should exit all at my target on scalps. I was pretty happy with scalp of +1.4R. Since my nerves were bad I considered calling it a day and of course in hind sight I should have. I usually like to take a small break between trades to reset. But I immediately saw AAPL was setting up for a good 2min ORBD. I was planning to go short if/when it bounces off of VWAP. Now I am not sure what happen, likely nerves, but I immediately changed my mind and went long to get a scalp to VWAP. Maybe I was in a scalping mode still since I didn’t take a short break after the last trade. I do have a 1min reverse setup. But I only take that when it reverses on a TL with volume. This had neither. The moment I took the trade I was asking myself, “why did I do that?” I haven’t watched the video and not sure if I want to, so I don’t know if I got a bad fill or was I caught in the headlights. Either way my share size is now 2X larger than it should (using the LOTD as my S/O) for my entry. The price actually moved in my favor for 10 cents giving me plenty of opportunity to get out of a trade I knew was bad. But I didn’t and finally got stopped out at -2R. I only remember once last month I had this bad of a S/O and now this occurred on my first day of the month! The market was nice enough to help enforce this lesson by immediately reversing and reaching my target. Also, in time, the market showed if I followed my original plan (short at the bounce of VWAP) it would have been a good trade. Wow, I did a lot wrong on that trade. What I did good today: Fought through nerves and did a good opening scalp. Fought through FOMO and exited at the planned price. How did I challenge myself today? Traded with a larger risk/trade. What I did bad today: Made so many mistakes on the AAPL trade. Ignored my plan, took a trade without a setup. When I realized I was in a bad trade with too large of a share size I did not get out when I could have. Took a -2R S/O. What can I do better tomorrow: I need to take a small break between trades to reset. Since my total loss for today was only ~-0.5R, if I learned and retained something it was worth it.

Hello fellow BBT's, I have been experimenting with an automated way to manage risk in DAS. What I have so far is a set of hotkeys that can be used for trading. There are a total of 10 hotkeys, 5 for managing long positions and 5 for managing sort position. The intention is to have the the keys automatically calculate share size when entering a position and also define the exit strategy for that position based on risk to reward. These hotkeys are not trivial and require a lot of explanation. If you are interested, keep reading, beware this is a lengthy post. I would greatly appreciate feedback, especial with the math model used to calculate risk. UPDATE 20190126- There is a new version of the spreadsheet and some of the functionally has changed from the original version posted (v1.4). Background concepts The scripts are based on a number of parameters, some of which are user defined and some are obtain from DAS. Here are a list of concepts then need to be understood before using the hotkeys. Equity: Is the amount if cash in your account. DAS has this. Margin is the margin that your broker gives you. Some brokers give 1:4 some give 1:6. If your equity is $25,000 and you get 1:4 margin then your total baying power is $100,000. Buying Power: DAS calculates your buying power based on your account equity and margin. Buying power is Equity X Margin. Percentage of Buying Power to use: This is a user defined percentage to be used. In order to manage risk, the user may decide to only use 10% of the account. Adjusted Equity: This is Equity X %Percentage of Buying Power Adjusted Buying Power: This is Buying Power X %Percentage of Buying Power. From here on when we refer to Buying Power in the Hotkeys, we really mean Adjusted Buying Power. Risk Tolerance: This is a percentage which indicate how much you are willing to risk (lose) in a single trade. A good guideline value for Risk Tolerance is 1% of your Adjusted Equity. Max. Loss per Trade: This is Adjusted Equity X %Risk Tolerance Example: Equity= $25000 Percentage of Buying Power = 10% Adjusted Equity = $2500 Risk Tolerance = 1% Max. Loss Per Trade = $25 Risk Per Trade: This is value calculated using using a mathematical model that I have found to approximate the expected change in the price. It is a simple model based on a linear function of the form f(x)= ax + b where x is the price of the stock and the constant a is a percentage of the price (user defined) and b is a user Base Risk plus the Spread (Ask-Bid). I found that a=0.1/100 =0.001 (or 0.1%) works very well in this model. Base Risk: This is a user defined value which represents the minimum change that a stock can have. What this means is that a minimum a price will move this value. I have 0.05 is a good value for Base Risk. Thus be can be defined as: b=Spread+0.05 (Spread plus 5 cents) This is the model used: f(x) = 0.001 x + 0.05 + Ask – Bid The model works best with smaller spread (Ask – Bid), simply because a high spread means high risk. In general you should avoid trading when the spread is too high. I personally look for spreads that are less than 0.05. Let's do an example of the model Assume are have a stock where Ask=20.22 Bid=20.2 f(20.22) = 0.001 * 20.22 + 0.05 + 20.22 – 20.2 = 0.09022 The Risk per Trade is 0.09002. What does this mean? Well if you are considering this stock for a long position, it means that the if the stock drops more than 0.09022 in price, you should get out of the trade. Now that we know our Risk per Trade for this stock, we can define our risk to reward levels If we take a long position at $20.22, expecting the price to go up, then our stop loss is at $20.1297 (20.22 – 0.09022). At this point we should exit the trade. The reward at a 1:3 would be when the price gets to $20.49 (20.22 + 3 x 0.09022). Note: Similar math applies to Shorting a position. This Risk per Trade model explained above is used in the hotkeys to create STOP Range Order to exit a position either on a STOP Loss or on a reward ( 1:3 or 1:2) level. Risk per Trade value is also used in some of the hotkeys to automatically determine how many shares to buy and stay within the Max. Loss Per Trade value. This is especially useful to determine how many share to take when the price of a stock is low. If a stock price is less than $30, you should determine the share size using Risk per Trade. There are a couple of hotkeys that will do this for you. Long Position Keys are used to enter and manage long positions. ALT+Numpad9 - Buy X number of share based on Max Risk per Trade and staying within the Buying Power parameters. ALT+Numpad7 - Buy X number of shares where X is ½ of the shares of ALT+Numpad9. ALT+Numpad8 - Send a STOP Range order to Sell with lower price at Ask – Risk per Share and High Price at Ask + 3 Times Risk Per Share (1:3 Risk Reward). This key is based on the current Ask price can be used repeated times while in a trade. Each time that is used, the previous order is canceled and a new one submitted based on the current Ask price. So if the price is moving in your direction you could use this key to “trail” the price, thus protecting your gains and possibly maximizing the gain. ALT+Numpad/ - Send a STOP Range order to Sell with lower price at Ask – Risk per Share and High Price at Ask + 2 Times Risk Per Share (1:2 Risk Reward)This key is based on the current Ask price can be used repeated times while in a trade. Each time that is used, the previous order is canceled and a new one submitted based on the current Ask price. So if the price is moving in your direction you could use this key to “trail” the price, thus protecting your gains and possibly maximizing the gain. ALT+Numpad- - Exit the position selling all share Short Position Keys are used to enter and manage short positions. ALT+Numpad3 - Short X number based on Max Risk per Trade and staying within the Buying Power parameters. ALT+Numpad1 - Short X number of shares where X is ½ of the shares of ALT+Numpad3. ALT+Numpad2 - Send a STOP Range order to Cover with lower price at Ask – 3 Times Risk per Share and High Price at Ask + Risk Per Share (1:3 Risk Reward). This key is based on the current Ask price can be used repeated times while in a trade. Each time that is used, the previous order is canceled and a new one submitted based on the current Ask price. So if the price is moving in your direction you could use this key to “trail” the price, thus protecting your gains and possibly maximizing the gain. ALT+Numpad5 - Send a STOP Range order to Cover with lower price at Ask – 2 Times Risk per Share and High Price at Ask + Risk Per Share (1:3 Risk Reward). This key is based on the current Ask price can be used repeated times while in a trade. Each time that is used, the previous order is canceled and a new one submitted based on the current Ask price. So if the price is moving in your direction you could use this key to “trail” the price, thus protecting your gains and possibly maximizing the gain. ALT+Numpad- - Exit the position covering all share How to Use the Keys The keys are layout for easy use on a full size keyboard. Buying: Hold the Alt Key and when ready to buy press one of the Buying (“9” or “7”) from the numeric keypad. For Ask price less than $30 use “7” for higher price use “9”. Immediately after the order is executed, and while still holding the Alt Key, press one of the STOP Range Sell keys (“8” or “/”). This creates a STOP Range order. Any time during the trade, you can press Alt+Numpad8 or Alt+Numpad/ to adjust your STOP Range order based on the current Ask/Bid price. You can also Sell your position anytime during the trade with Alt+Numpad- (minus key). Shorting: Hold the Alt Key and when ready to short, press one of the Shorting (“3” or “1”) keys from the numeric keypad. For Ask price less than $30 use “1” for higher price use “3”. Immediately after the order is executed, and while still holding the Alt Key, press one of the STOP Range Cover keys (“2” or “5”). Any time during the trade, you can press Alt+Numpad2 or Alt+Numpad5 to adjust your Range order based on the current Ask/Bid price. You can also Sell your position anytime during the trade with Alt+Numpad+ (plus key). How to get the hotkey scripts and load top DAS If you made this far in this, then you are probably interested in giving this a shot. Here is how to get the scripts: Step 1: Read and agree to the license for the scripts: IMPORTANT Licensing information These hotkeys/scripts are only meant to assist traders using DASTrader to learn how to trade. They automate simple tasks like share size and creation of Stop Range orders. The scripts are experimental and provided as is with no guarantees. Use these hotkeys/scripts only in a simulator environment to avoid issues. The author is not liable for any damages. The code is licensed as open source under GPL-3.0 (https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.en.html ). Read the license before you proceed to download and use the scripts. Step 2: Get and install the OpenOffice suite so that can use the spreadsheet configure your keys. Here is the link for Open Office: https://www.openoffice.org/ Step 3: Get the spreadsheet from this link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/opzq1ws4005xii4/Trade-Risk-v1.8-beta.ods?dl=0 Step 4: The default values should work fine for most cases. However should you need to do changes, you can changes these values in the configuration spreadsheet: Account Equity Risk Tolerance Margin Percentage of Buying Power to use ROUTE Base Risk Percentage or Price to use Note: Some cells in the sheet are lock/protected to avoid changing them by m,mistake. If you need to change the locked cells you will have to unlock them. Step 5: Follow the instructions within the configuration spreadsheet to set the parameters and copy the Hotkey Scripts from the Hotkeys tab within the spreadsheet. Step 6: If your DAS is running, then exit DAS. Find the DAS Directory and make a copy of the hotkey file “Hotkey.htk”. Use a text editor, like Notepad, to open the file Hotkey.htk. Paste the content from Hotkeys Tab in the spreadsheet above to the end of the file Hotkey.htk and save it. When you open DAS you will have the 10 Alt keys available. You can examine the scripts in DAS by clicking Setup->Hot Key and scrolling down. The Alt+ keys should be together. Click Cancel to exit the Hot Key tool. Note: If you are updating your ALT Hotkeys, you must first delete the old hotkey scripts from the Hotkey.htk file. For details follow the Updating Hotkeys instructions below. Step 7: Set your DAS to operate with your simulator account for testing. The hotkeys are now available to for use from any Montage Window. The Montage Window needs to be selected for the keys to work. Updating Hotkeys If you already had a set of ALT Hotkeys, and need to update them with new scripts, follow these steps: Step 1: In DAS open Hotkey Tool (Setting > Hot key) locate the Alt+keys and delete them all the Alt+ hotkeys using the Delete Item button. The click OK to Save the file. Step 2: Exit DAS Step 3: Use OpenOffice to update the hotkey configuration file as needed and save the spreadsheet. Follow the instructions within the configuration spreadsheet to set the parameters and copy the Hotkey Scripts from the Hotkeys tab within the spreadsheet. Step 4: Find the DAS Directory and make a copy of the hotkey file “Hotkey.htk”. Use a text editor, like Notepad, to open the file Hotkey.htk. Paste the content from Hotkeys Tab in the spreadsheet above to the end of the file Hotkey.htk and save it. When you open DAS you will have the 10 Alt keys. You can examine the scripts in DAS by clicking Setup->Hot Key and scrolling down. The Alt+ keys should be together. Click Cancel to exit the Hot Key tool. Step 5: Set your DAS to operate with your simulator account for testing. The hotkeys are now available to for use from any Montage Window. The Montage Window needs to be selected for the keys to work.

That is great advise, forget the losses and let's focus on the process not the outcome on future trades you take.

@Fernando Samora We've all been there! You are definitely not alone. I would suggest forgetting about that loss. The moment you start thinking about "making it back" is when emotions enter the equation again. Focus on trading small and trading well. Your recovery plan sounds like a good start. Also look into Risk Controls to prevent these types of days from occurring. Best of luck.