5 Top Trading Stories of Learning from Big Losses

From Jarratt Davis to Jennifer Thornburg, here are some inspiring stories on how some top traders used to experience losses and how they overcome them.

Forex trading does not only lead to success and amazing profits but also stories of failure that result in enormous losses. Oftentimes, that kind of experience becomes some inspiration, encouragement, and learning tips more valuable than just recommendations from random traders.

What's the reason? The ups and downs of a renowned trader are more relevant and realistic for all traders. They don't sugarcoat things just to attract newbies. Many traders usually find it difficult to draw inspiration from figures that only show profits, because they also need role models to inspire them on how to rise from defeat.

If you are among the traders who are looking to draw inspiration from skilled traders, these 5 interesting stories can give you just what you want:

1. Jarratt Davis: From losing $50,000 to earning $10 million daily
2. Kim Krompass: Becoming a full-time trader after a traumatizing loss.
3. Jonathan Morgan: Trading for a living after losing 2 big-sized accounts.
4. Kiana Danial: From losing 10 million yen to becoming a high-profile analyst in New York.
5. Jennifer Thornburg: Has to spend 10 years of struggle before finding her best strategy and becoming a full-time trader.

How's the full story of each trader above? Let's explore below.

1. Jarratt Davis: Learning from Different Perspectives

Jarratt Davis is the founder of a trading academy as well as a certified investment manager who is quite popular in the forex trading industry. Known for being communicative through his websites and the tutorials he shares, he has had a bitter experience of forex loss, similar to that of novice traders in general.

The story of Jarratt Davis is perhaps the most relatable with the experience of many traders. When he first acquainted with the world of trading, he took in almost all the available knowledge that he could get from various learning resources. But after failing to reach his profit goals, he became interested in following other traders who claimed to be able to get big profits.

When he saw the profit figures shown in the traders' so-called proofs, Jarratt Davis asked his family and friends' helps to collect $50,000, just to follow their trading setups. After putting in his investment, Jarratt Davis' money shrank by more than 20%. The fantastic profits promoted by the traders turned out to be no more than wishful thinking on his part.

Once slumped and felt ashamed by the closest people around him, Jarratt Davis then decided to bounce back after meeting an expert trader from an investment bank. From him, Davis realized that he had learned a lot of unimportant technical things that made him confused in the early days of his trades.

The turning point for Jarratt Davis began when he decided to learn more about trading concepts. This effort was not in vain, because he finally succeeded in becoming a profitable trader who was trusted to manage investment funds in well-known companies.

He became an FCA-regulated fund manager and was able to earn huge daily profits of up to $10 million. But for some unknown reason, he decided to retire from all business related to FX trading in 2019.

2. Kim Krompass: Luck Is Not Your Friend, But Risk Management Is

A successful female trader with 14 years of experience, Kim Krompass is a Price Action follower. Yet, before actually finding her way, she had a bad experience that made her almost give up. It was not mentioned how much money she lost.

What is clear is that her failure at that time was so fatal that she kept away from the forex market for 2 months. After a long period of evaluation, she realized that trading with a better understanding was more important than relying on mere luck.

Kim Krompass is a trader who is keen to trade exotic pairs and believes that a balance between risk management and emotional control is very important. She is also aware and is not ashamed to admit that she is not an expert in technical analysis with indicators.

Instead, she relies on Price Action which she uses today. Kim also follows market trends and maintains risk management according to the trading rules that she sets. With that set of understandings, Kim Krompass has managed to trade for a living.

3. Jonathan Morgan: Family is Key

Not too different from Kim Krompass, Jonathan Morgan is a full-time trader who uses trading profits as his main source of income. However, before reaching that point, he had experienced some devastating losses. Jonathan Morgan spent two trading accounts, both of which had a large sum of deposits.

Instead of feeling hopeless, Jonathan Morgan continues to move forward to improve his trading performance. Unlike Jarratt Davis who felt down and was embarrassed to face his family and friends, he still has a good mentality after his defeat, because he has never risked more than what he can accept, let alone taking loans from the people around him.

In navigating the twists and turns of trading, Jonathan Morgan is not alone. He admitted that his wife has great importance to inspire him to become a successful trader who made a living from trading. Even more, his wife is like a personal consultant who not only provides moral support but also helps with the family's fund when his trading performance is not so reliable.

Thus, according to Jonathan Morgan, the key to success in rising from a worsening mental condition after some big loss is to open up with the people closest to you; they can be family, friends, or even fellow traders who have similar understandings.

Morgan also believes that trading does not require a daily target. Each opportunity in the market is there to take and they are limitless with various degrees of quality; don't force yourself to take bad opportunities just to satiate your desire to earn profits every day.

4. Kiana Danial: New Place, New Beginning

Kiana Danial is a famous trading figure as well as the founder of InvestDiva. She often provides trading education, analysis, and is a speaker in various popular financial media. But before becoming a successful trader with certified recognition that she is today, she once lost 10 million yen in trading.

At that time, Kiana Danial stayed in Japan and was new to forex trading. She traded the USD/JPY pair and after experiencing some beginner luck that brought in 1 million yen in a month, she was caught off guard when the market turned against her, leading to her losing 10x her previous profit in the following month.

Instead of wallowing in despair and giving up FX trading, Kiana Danial is even more curious about the intricacies of forex tips and tricks. Fortunately, she didn't just enter the market again and relied on luck.

Instead, she decided to thoroughly learn everything about the forex market and how it really works in one of the world's financial centers, New York. From there, Kiana continued to learn and practice until she found her best strategy called Forex Diamond Analysis. She still routinely shares market opportunities based on that particular strategy to her followers.

5. Jennifer Thornburg: Past Mistake is a Great Guru

Jennifer Thornburg is another successful trader with an interesting story about overcoming losses. She struggled for a long time with inconsistent results, before actually finding the most suitable system that can produce consistent and satisfying results.

Initially, Jennifer Thornburg painstakingly learned to trade for 6 years, then struggled as a novice trader on real accounts in the following years. She spent about 10 years in total before she found her own trading system.

She did not reveal how much money she lost during her early experience, but she said that the "dark past" was so awful that she once vowed never to return to this business. However, Jennifer Thornburg's persistence to become a successful trader always brings her back. In the end, she managed to become a profitable trader and now has many followers learning from her.

Based on her experience, Jennifer said that everything would be useless if trading is not accompanied by a journal. This is actually what makes her successful in ensuring consistent profit and preventing her from falling into a deadly trap called random trading.

She admits that she once felt excessive euphoria when she got a profit and underestimated risks so that she didn't learn from the mistakes she made. This is the most fatal mistake a forex trader can make, especially one who wants to survive for a long time in the market.

"Win or lose, it's all random, and the end result is usually a poorly developed money management plan, and an account balance that isn't growing. When you have to be great, you are, so the secret to success is to find a way to keep track of what you're doing, so you can do more of what works and less of what doesn't," said Jennifer Thornburg.

Summary

Accounts from the five traders above prove that you shouldn't be embarrassed to admit failure in trading. Even if you experience losses, there is always a way out if you are committed to returning from your slump and learning from past mistakes.

You can try to restart learning from a different perspective like Jarratt Davis, emphasize risk management and emotional control like Kim Krompass, find support from loved ones like Jonathan Morgan, learn from scratch and find inspiration from a new place like Kiana Danial, or prioritize trading evaluations like Jennifer Thornburg.

Whatever the choice is, always remember that when you experience big losses to the point of being hit by a margin call or even stopped out, you are not alone. What separates you from the majority of traders would be how big your will to recuperate.

Are you just like other average traders who don't learn from past mistakes, or follow the footsteps of the top forex traders above who tried to mend their trading mistakes so they don't return to the same abyss of losses?

Similar knowledge about becoming a successful trader can be found in 17 common trading mistakes that result in great loss.