I'm An Idiot
It pains me to right this, but in the long run it will make me accountable for my actions and show everyone that day-trading is not all profits and Lambo's.
I messed up.
Thankfully I'm only using $45 to play with, so it's money I've accepted I am willing to lose, but nevertheless it's really a kick in the teeth when I do. I bought 100 contracts to long on 5x leverage, using $20 as a margin. I lost almost 40% of the margin on the trade, so around $8.
So yeah, not the end of the world, but I'm just slightly dissappointed in my actions to be honest. You really need to keep a calm head throughout and it's easier said than done. I'll go through the trade with you guys now.
So firstly, the graph above shows the daily candles, and a longer term analysis of the market. The general upward trend-line, plotted against the downward trend-line, is forming an ascending triangle in which the market remains choppy and is waiting for a big move. If the lower level of support (green line) breaks, then it could free-fall down to the next level of support and vice versa if the red line breaks then it will likely increase up till the next significant level of resistance.
Now let's take a look at more of a micro-scale, relating to my day-trade.
So my first mistake was probably trading in this environment at all, it's rather manipulated right now and BTC prices were very stagnant for a long period of time, with no clear patterns.
That being said, at the time of trading, I had plotted this ascending triangle and it had successfully predicted a couple of the peaks/troughs. I was unsure of my convictions and kept waiting for an entry point.
Straight after the last rise inside the triangle, I decided I would enter at 9150 on a long position to hopefully catch it on the swing down, before exploding upwards past the top line. I had a feeling it was going to go up from here and the sentiment in discord felt the same way.
All of a sudden, within 1 minute the price had sky-rocketed up, me being new I was asking in discord for confirmation as to whether to follow the trend or not (as my 9150 target looked like it wasn't going to happen).
I FOMO'd and went against all my principles, by the time I'd made my decision I managed to go long on the very peak of that candle at 9385.
By this point it was super high on RSI and MACD indicators on the 1 minute candle and I instantly regretted my decision.
It was now really late at night and I held on, hoping it'd go higher so I could sell at 9450 for a small profit, just before the next big resistance at 9500.
Not wanting to sell at a loss, it was now 3AM and I needed to sleep, so I made the next stupid decision to leave my order open during the night.
I thought to myself, it's only $20 worst case scenario, breaking the triangle upwards is a bullish sign and to be honest, I just didn't want to close at a loss.
Waking up today, I closed the order at 8683, losing $8 worth of BTC in the process.
As much as it could go back up, I was only ever meant to scalp the market with short trades, so I decided to cut my losses and learn from this going forward.
It's really annoying because I feel like I do know what to do, but in the heat of the moment it's very easy to get carried away. This stuff is real hard!
Anyway, off to a good start, at least it's easier to improve upon my performance from here haha.
If you enjoyed this post, please don’t forget to up-vote, follow and comment! Thank you for taking the time to give it a read and I hope you have a nice day.
DISCLAIMER: This is NOT financial advice. The cryptocurrency market is volatile and you are at risk of losing your money. Only invest what you can afford to lose.
Donations:
BTC Address - 1JQGxuVLQf1hAz6i2dpitvGNvkTSKD8xAC
LTC Address - LdHvzzi5ZhZZr9Ce5gek9rgmJXbk78tQD7
ETC Address - 0xae041220e640Ca52BCa8644B178682fC12705cBA
NAV Address - NgQtdkT6kQaYNqEMrhc9ainga3eRv9xzXR
When you are playing long term, there are no losses my friend, just leaning experiences. The experience that lost you $8 today could save you $8,000 in the future.
Keep your head up!
Thanks for the kind words man, yeah I guess you're right, all a learning experience!
Coins mentioned in post: