I've had some commissions burn about $300 for 4 months before I found consistency with morning panic dip buys on OTCs and made it all back and some in a couple weeks. The only reason I stopped trading them was because it was kind of cyclical and most of the opportunities dried up.

It hurt losing that much for a while, but I found that learning how the setups played out and how I consistently entered in the wrong spot gave me an opportunity to find where not to enter, saying, "ha, the dibber from yesterday to two weeks ago would've fell for that and look at where all the people are making the same mistakes I made." It was having that in mind that helped me wait for the setup to come to me. And the ones that I would miss, well, it was just the opposite -- "man, why can't I buy where everyone else seems to know when to buy. I knew the bounce was coming. I knew it was right there, but I just didn't know for sure, but I was right there and am becoming more sure of how these work."

Kind of battling with anticipating an entry and delaying my entry (missing it) was the balance that became natural and I would enter a little early with it moving just a little bit against me, but not near enough to have me think it would continue much further because it was a panic and can only have so many selloffs before dip buyers found the opportunity. But that doesn't go on saying I wouldn't still take a loss, even after a hot streak. I would need to see confirmation that the prior dibber would see in hindsight after missing the trade.

So as the real bounce was working in my favor, I would look for signs of continuation. And experiencing how it works until I exit and examining what it did after my exit helps me catch a lot of things that may apply to future plays. The more I see some things working more often than others, the more confidence I have staying in my position and can detect the irregularities that would tell me to get out some to all of my position unless the irregularity doesn’t pose a threat and can take a little more time to let it work out, but not enough where it is going against what I’m used to for a period of time. I give it a small window to become recognizable and if it’s nothing of what I’m used to, I’m out. And sometimes it’s good to take profits into strength because you have experience of knowing the odds of where it can turn.

Lately I’ve been on a losing streak and lost $26.83 today after a couple of failed ideas, but I’ll never forget what it was like being consistently profitable in that cycle. Tim says once you learn one strategy, it’s easier to learn other strategies. So, with my experience in that one strategy, I can say the difference between that and all my other experiences in trading are different in some way.

If you can find setups that are logical to you and can stick with focusing on those consistently and familiarize yourself with the pattern behavior, I feel like that can go a long way of determining what it may do and being okay with being wrong if it doesn’t do what you expected. Just never give up if the strategy is still intact. Because what that means is that all we have to do is enter and exit at the right times to become consistently profitable.

So starting with small size, being wrong and learning where you consistently enter and lose, finding where the upside actually is after it moves without you, and then eventually finding the right place to consistently enter is where the edge can be found if it is still around. But if a trade goes against you and you know you had a great entry area on a setup that has worked time and time again, you know that it was a possible outcome, not a probable one. And as long as you trade probabilities and limit the loss of what can possibly happen, you’ll be green.

And that’s what this journey is all about. It’s like a business. To start up, you’ll need some money. And you may eventually spend all you wanted to put into it (like many successful traders that have blown up their accounts), but you’ll want to limit what you lose to the best of your ability too. A comforting thing to know is that all successful traders say we just need to stick around and by the 2^nd or 3^rd year, we’ll start seeing some results. I’ve even heard of a really successful trader that went on 5 years before becoming consistently profitable.

It’s just frustrating that it can take that long for me, but if that’s what it takes to get me out of where I am, I’ll do it. Blah, lol. Having a hard time enjoying the process, but I know looking back at where I am today that my life would never be the same and I’ll be thankful for that and am thankful to have that in mind too.