• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Trading Heroes

Trading Heroes

Forex Trading Education

  • About
  • Articles
  • Products
  • Work With Me
  • Login

A Recap Of My Huge 1,095 Pip Loss And Why It Ain’t No Thang

I admit it, I lost 1,095 pips on one trade. Get the details of the trade and why I don't really care. It was just another day at the office.

Home / Trader Life / A Recap Of My Huge 1,095 Pip Loss And Why It Ain’t No Thang

Last updated: August 11, 2022
By Hugh Kimura

Back on May 22nd, I lost precisely 1,095 pips on one trade.  When I first started trading, that was a ridiculous number of pips to lose on a single trade.  The courses that I went through at the time recommended that you keep your stop as tight as possible, usually 20-30 pips at most.

But as you will see in this post, not all pips are created equal.  If you are still concentrating on pips, you are barking up the wrong tree.  Here is what I mean…

The Trade

The trade in question is the AUDJPY trade that I blogged about back on April 25th.  In this trade, I used the long only Pin Bar setup on the daily chart to enter the trade long.

At one point, all of the positions were profitable, but I was looking for price to retest the highs, as the strategy I tested suggested.  I followed the rules of the system and I could have exited earlier, but overall it was a good trade.  I followed the system and it didn't work out…that's trading.  If we never lost, we wouldn't call it trading, we would call it…duh, winning.

The Results

So here is how the trade looked in my Twitter stream.  Every time I close a trade, MyFxBook automatically sends out a tweet with my results. If you want to learn how to do this with your trades, check out this post.  It's really easy to do and it is totally free.

Looks downright catastrophic, right?  How can I afford to lose that many pips?

My "huge" losing trade

RELATED: Positive affirmation tracks to reprogram your subconscious

However, in reality, this is really how it looked on my trading report.  The green bars represent the number of pips gained or lost.  As you can see, ever since I started trading #thebossfx, that is the most number of pips that I have lost on a trade.

Losing Trade

On a percentage basis however (the red graph line), it was just a minor blip.  That one trade only brought the account down by 0.63% or much less than 1%.  I've obviously lost more of the total account in the past, as you can see in about July 2012.

Trades Should Be Reported Differently (my opinion)

That brings me to the point that MyFxBook should give us the option of using % or $, gained or lost, in the tweets because as we can see here, using pips alone is pretty useless.  I could be making 5 pips a day and be killing it or as in this example, I could lose 1,000+ pips and be just fine.

Also, when trade results are reported this way, the pips can be greatly overstated.  For example, let's say that I open a 10,000 currency unit lot size trade in the EURUSD and close out 1,000 units at a time for an average of 10 pips each.  What I really did was close 10,000 units at +10 pips.  But the tweets will show 10 trades closed for a total gain of +100 pips because it will add up the +10 pip gains from each of the 10 exits.

In their defense however, reporting results on a percentage basis is tricky.  In order to report it this way, they would have to take into account deposits/withdrawals, open trades, etc.  Not the easiest thing to do and I don't know if there is really a good solution that would work.  But still, it would be nice to have and I strongly believe that the autotweeting is a great way to show people how your trading is really going.  🙂

Conclusion

So remember, not all pips are created equal.  Keeping your risk small can keep you out of trouble, regardless of how many pips you lose.  If you don't have an account that is big enough to trade micro lots (1,000 currency units each), then consider trading with a broker like Oanda that allows you to trade nano lots (1 currency unit).

I know that I sound like a commercial for them, but I do not make any money by saying that (I wish I did).  To have that option with a top tier broker like Oanda is amazing and you should take advantage of it.

This will allow you to keep your risk small, even with a tiny account.  If you are risking more than 2% on each trade, you should seriously look and tuning down your risk because you are probably more of a cowboy than John Wayne ever though he was.

How much do you risk on each trade?  Let us know in the comments below…

Related Articles

  • Trading screensA Trader Monitor Setup: Why You Need a Huge Screen For Trading
  • Announcing The Official Trading Heroes Charity Partner: KivaAnnouncing The Official Trading Heroes Charity Partner: Kiva
  • Traders Gym Free Backtesting Software: Does It Beat Forex Tester?Traders Gym Free Backtesting Software: Does It Beat Forex Tester?
  • How to hide stop losseesHow to Hide Stop Losses From Your Broker
  • forex trading volumeWhat is Volume in Forex Trading?
  • Buy and send BTC for the first timeHow to Buy and Send Bitcoin for the First Time
  • Oanda Trading ScreensHow to Get Around FIFO and Hedging Forex Trades With a US Broker
  • How To Trade Forex For BeginnersHow To Trade Forex For Beginners

Category: Trader Life Tag: Live Trading Results

About Hugh Kimura

Hi, I'm Hugh. I'm an independent trader and researcher. The real benefit of trading that most people miss is that it's one of the most direct paths to deep personal development.

My goal is to help you master both the technical (strategies) and transpersonal (mindset) sides of trading so you can create more freedom in your life and be your truest expression of I AM.

Learn more about me here.

Nobody understand everything. Double check your assumptions. Double check others.
Financial freedom is probably closer than you think. Stop paying for things that don’t make you truly happy.

Primary Sidebar

Trading Guides

The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Forex Backtesting

How to Figure Out Your Trader Personality Profile

The Forward Testing Guide for Beginners

How to Create a Precise Trading Plan (with PDF worksheet)

 

Learn how to backtest...the right way.

Learn More

FREE Forex Hedging Guide

Forex Hedging Guide
Learn how this blacklisted trading strategy really makes money.

Download Now

Footer

Company

  • Trading Courses and Education
  • Trading Blog
  • About
  • Contact
  • Beware of Imposters

Community

  • YouTube
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Facebook

Tutorials & Guides

  • Best Trading Resources
  • Free Forex Trading Course for Beginners
  • Free Backtesting Guide for Beginners
  • Trader Personality Profile
  • Best Trading Books

Articles

  • Backtesting
  • Etheric Finance Podcast
  • Podcast
  • Trader Life
  • Trading Psychology
  • Trading Software Tutorials
  • Trading Strategies

Trading involves risk and can result in the loss of your investment. Invest at your own risk. Past performance does not guarantee future results. All information on this site is for informational purposes only and is not trading, investment, tax or health advice. The reader bears responsibility for his/her own investment research and decisions. Seek the advice of a qualified finance professional before making any investment and do your own research to understand all risks before investing or trading. TrueLiving Media LLC and Hugh Kimura accept no liability whatsoever for any direct or consequential loss arising from any use of this information. You are 100% responsible for your losses...and gains. You are more powerful than you know, keep expanding.

 

Copyright © 2007–2023 TrueLiving Media LLC | Terms | Privacy | Risk