Appreciate your advantage

Today I made a terrible mistake. I was trading the Dow emini on Tradestation and I had a good day, one of those days when you can really feel where the market is going and you’re cool enough not to chase. You put limit orders in and you have maximum two points risk and then it goes your way. You cover your trade and it immediately reverses.

I was done for the day at about 10:30 EST and closed Tradestation. When I closed it, TS wanted me to upgrade to the newest version and that I did. After the upgrade I wanted to check that everything was working fine and I logged into TS again.

The Dow had been in a range for a while, bouncing back and forward, and I just wanted to fade that bounce. What I didn’t realize at the time was that: 1) I was logged into my live account 2) The size was five times bigger than my normal trading size.
Good thing was that I saw it the second I pushed the button, so that the damage was in control at least.

If you do mistakes, be happy about it. How else will you learn.
If you don’t make mistakes, you’re not honest and will therefore not become better. 

With proper risk and money management, you’re well protected. Many of us have the luxury of eminis and cfd’s with up to 100:1 leverage and an internet connection where we’re able to trade from home. Some have a day job to go to. A day job that take care of putting food on the table and pay the mortgage on the house.

Whatever you do, learn to appreciate your advantages and the luxury of leverage, but manage your risk and learn from your mistakes.

Today’s mistake is perhaps not qualified as a trading mistake, but nevertheless I learned from it. Don’t even trade sim-mode without a proper plan and preparation.

/J