Lost £1800 trading

I'm a 20 year old student in my first year at university and I recently started trading forex using the Trading 212 app. I practiced on the demo for a month and managed to turn 10k into 56k. Thinking that I pretty much had it figured out, I deposited £100 into a real account and managed to turn that into 700 over the course of three weeks.

It was going so well, I was hitting a constant target of £200 every week then one day I decided to place a trade without putting in a stop loss, as I was watching the market live (if it were to drop too much, I would just manually sell it). However, the market literally went crazy within a matter of a few minutes and I managed to lose £1600 in one trade. I then lost a further £800 over the course of the following week.

I'm now at minus £1800 of my own money and it is so upsetting. I've even thought about going all in in the casino using my overdraft just to get my money back. If i were to break even i'll never step foot in a casino ever again and I'll only trade when I know my **** properly. It's so depressing, I only just got my first half decent sleep in two weeks. What should I do?

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 1

DiddyDec01

You haven't lost £1800, you have lost £100.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 2

ODES_PDES

It is a zero sum game and it is just "posh" gambling

Reply 3

Reps10

Original post by DiddyDec

You haven't lost £1800, you have lost £100.

Posted from TSR Mobile

I made a mistake, I lost 1.6k not 1k

Reply 4

John Fluffy Bunny

I somehow doubt you'd make that money back in a casino... The odds are always against you in a casino, try the stock market again you've done quite well at the start but then made a mistake which has cost you quite a bit. This time invest more safely perhaps? There's always the alternative of setting up a meth lab in your basement :smile:

Reply 5

Trapz99

If you're 20 years old, why are you in your first year of uni?

Reply 6

cpaige21

Original post by Trapz99

If you're 20 years old, why are you in your first year of uni?

People go to uni later

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 7

Reps10

Original post by John Fluffy Bunny

I would literally go all in on a 50/50 odds game

Reply 8

Fullofsurprises

Original post by Reps10

Casino odds are always stacked in favour of the casino and it is not possible to make long term gains in casinos without cheating (something they are very good at detecting). People who make short term gains usually blow it almost immediately. There's a reason why they say "the house always wins".

It seems to me like you are a little inexperienced and out of your depth to be trying day trading, I've known other people with similar stories. Basically when you enter into these market instant trading things, you are 'playing' with very tough, clever, experienced people who make easy meat of the less experienced and you are also up against formidable algorithmically-driven systems with incredibly fast reaction times (far beyond anything humans can manage) that exploit small errors. Seriously, best avoided, especially if you have limited means, which it sounds as if you do, as the loss of £1800 has obviously been a hard thing for you. I'm sorry it happened, but best stay away and not try to 'double down'.

Reply 9

John85

Never ever skip the Stop Loss. It can save your life.... sometimes literally. :smile:

Reply 10

Retired_Messiah

Original post by Reps10

I've even thought about going all in in the casino using my overdraft just to get my money back [...] What should I do?

Not that. The odds are much more against you in a casino than they are on the stock market. It sounds to me that you've screwed yourself over entirely because you didn't put a stop loss in. Had you done that you would've been (relatively) fine.

Shouldn't have got overconfident, fam.

Original post by ODES_PDES

It is a zero sum game and it is just "posh" gambling