Now most people think that that's crazy but to me it is the price of an education. If I were to go to university to become an engineer, that would take say 4 years and probably cost in excess of 80k without even trying plus there would be lots of cost that I am sure I am unaware of. I compare these two scenarios and in reality they are quite similar as any education cost money and time. Is this engineer straight out of University an expert, NO he now has to gain experience which will probably require many years at a low level of pay. To excel at any given career one must apply themselves whole heartedly and invest a lot of time and energy to gain experience so this makes it quite easy for me to justify these expenses. This is just a comparison and I am in no way saying that I am an expert of any kind.
I have learn t to keep my trading very simple, I don't like to complicate things as I feel the simpler the process the easier it is to replicate. My trading is I would say very similar to many others here at FF, if I had to summarize my trading into a few short sentences it would be as follows.
- Look for price action around strong areas of support and resistance
- Identify a low risk entry point
- Manage my risk with the use of stops
- Identify a target ( again this is based on areas of strong support and resistance)
- Have a concrete plan for adding to my positions and try and build as much position size as possible while maintaining my risk parameters
- Always plan my trades and trade my plan( this is of absolute importance)
Throughout the years I learn t that for me there were three options with trading if I was to succeed.
- The first was to find a style that was right like 80% of the time, this I discovered was pretty tough to do and failed at miserably.
- The second option was to capture long tails(trend trading) but inadvertently have a pretty low strike rate IE: win 30-40% of the time. This was ok but still wasn't really getting the returns I was after(50%+ PA).
- The third option was the one that I eventually found and realized it fits my personality and thus I am comfortable with it and that is to capture large swings but build as much position size as I could while maintaining my risk. A risk that I am very comfortable with and can manage without stressing out and affecting my trading. By the way this still has a low strike rate , like 30-50% but when I am right I make it count.
The basic premise behind my trading is picking tops and bottoms of swings and then riding that swing as long as I can and adding as much size as I can. I trade the 4 hr chart for this style of trading and also trade the major news announcements, my all time favorite is the non-farm payroll which I religiously trade every month. I may go into that later but for now will just be dealing with swing trades.
I have procrastinated over doing this journal for a very long time and have finally decided to commit so I will endeavor to keep it up to date as often as I can.
Feel free to ask any questions as I am sure anyone on this forum is just as passionate about forex trading as I am and I look forward to any comments or constructive criticism.
Perryg