You were not doing good at -25L. Market makes mind play tricks on you. There is no reason to believe that if you had followed rules you would have been profitable until you have done the work. Yes with a stop, you would likely have been much better off but that does not mean you make money. I have seen another guy say the same repeatedly and he never found a real edge.
Why were you trading with full life savings ? Did you have any proof that you can make money ? You have to backtest with large sample size over many years first and then forward test with small money. Keep a tradelog, Follow all rules and check pnl only at the end of testing and check how you did. Only if you are making money does it make sense to add more - in steps.
This need to make back money is very dangerous. Markets don’t care for your past losses. As others have said, just step away from trading completely - atleast until this need goes away.
I have heard many traders say in books that they became good traders only after some blowouts. I don’t know if this is a general pattern, i never did - but this might give hope for future. That said not everyone has to trade. Most people will probably be better off focusing on their career and saving into index funds for retirement.
If you cannot control yourself then stop trading. Emotional control is a basic requirement to trade. Until you have that only trade small money even if you have an edge. One bad mistake can wipe us out but problem is market does not give instant feedback, so market will reward you for that mistake for some time and then bam.
Make sure this is over many years data. And after that forward test with small money too and only scale up in steps once you make money in previous step.
Win rate on its own is completely meaningless as you have found out. My best system for this year has a win rate of mid 30s right now and was lower few weeks back and still doing well.
Most people lose money in trading. You really need to be persistent over many years with perhaps some unjustified hope that things will work out. For some they do, for others they don’t. I have seen both among traders i knew over last 5-10 years. Generally they give up, perhaps justifiably. You have to look at why you want to trade, if its really interesting to you irrespective of money then persist on it, try different things. But don’t commit large money until you have clear proof of edge.
Simple things do work in markets but they require you to be consistent over large sample of trades. And finding what works is just as much work as executing every day, if not more.
And meanwhile you probably should focus on rebuilding your savings through job and investments.
Major problem initially is that you don’t really have a good source to study. There are so many options and most of them don’t really work. For me, turning point was when i starting looking at work of Adam Grimes. That wont lead to instant success, for me it took another 3-4 years but he has published a lot of stuff over more than a decade. Blog is freely available, you can start there. If its interesting, then read up 1st book. Try to apply, don’t expect to turn profitable instantly - you will have to adapt. That’s what worked for me.
Some blog posts for you to get some perspective on how trading works. Good luck.
Also look at the video from Michael Mauboussin in that last post. Gives you a perspective of how its difficult to figure out if you have an edge and whether it will continue in future.
