Erik Novales

A futures trader (apparently still in college) loses 40K, wiping out his account, over the long weekend on Dow futures. There are some YouTube videos on there as well, with a picture-in-picture of him superimposed over his trading software, swearing a lot. From an article linked to in comments elsewhere on his blog:

From my experience, you will fare much better in the long run by implementing a daily loss limit. The numbers just work out that way. However, forcing yourself to adhere to your own rules and actually walking away from trading once a daily loss limit is reached is one of the most challenging steps a trader can take. In my eyes, this ability separates traders from gamblers. As a trader, you must accept risk, understand the risk you have accepted and construct your own parameters of risk, knowing that one single trading day is just a small piece of a much bigger puzzle. I have been assisting clients with day trading online for nine years. I have never witnessed a situation where one single day “made a trader,” but I have witnessed many single trading days that destroyed traders.

This week is going to be very interesting, to say the least.