My Forex Story

Z10

Hi,

Thank you for being open and sharing your experience.

I have also traded roughly the same length as you and i see you have also come across the Mark Douglas text in Trading in the Zone.

After all these much trying, i have also seen developments which have also been evident in your journey.

All the best of luck to the both of us.

I have had some breakthroughs.

Lets do it.

Nice to have you back here man.. Remember that trading is not taught anywhere. The successful trading practices are not shown and probably will not be shown, and that is why they work. There are hints here and there but it is just you that can fit all pieces of the puzzle, and even when you think you get it, there is much more to learn.. The more you know , the more you understand that there is so much you don't know and some things you will never learn. This is a business niche like everything else, but it is open entry and everyone can try his best, that is why the competion is fierce. Some books or forum posts can provoke a type of thinking that could slowly push you to the path of success, but just following advice and methods is not going to bring you any good. Conclusion is - it takes brains, it takes luck, it takes other types of specific attitude toward some things in life and it certainly takes years of time and personal sacrifice. There is no business that has large profit potential and can be learned fast and easy. I speak from the presumption that most of us here are not some genious minds, I am speaking for ordinary people. We pay for every cent that the market give us. All the best

Hi, Charts and dreams

Great thread, nice to see some truth on here instead of bullshit.

In my experience of trading, mentoring and teaching traders of all abilities, I have found the following key issues:

1. most traders do not have a trading system that has been created and tested properly
2. do not have the correct expectations about trading and the time that needs to be spent to achieve consistancy
3. do not understand risk management
4. do not understand the returns that are possible- well below what is quoted by idiots around the net

If a trader does not have a trading system that works and keeps jumping from one to another, trading will not improve. Unfortunately, most traders do not know how to create a system and test it and then move to live trading. This piece of work is huge and requires time and focus.

New traders are expecting huge returns with little risk, it does not work like that!

MT

Nice post. Almost nobody understands tose things and they are very logical and the same like many other fields of life. If you wanna have the chance to make consistently say 300k/year with trading, you will need to have that same amount for trading capital, just approx.. And even that rate of return would be very nice. Same goes for any amount. There is no business in the world that gets you started with 100 bucks and can give you millions (well there are some few exceptions of the rich and famous, but they are what they are - exceptions.. and they had massive luck) Yet people come here and think that they will learn to make a killing with their demos and small cent accounts and some stupid strategies that are completely nonsesne and have absolutely no conncetion to the reality of forex. But it is better to not risk any serious money when you dont know what is being done yet. Aiming for 100% per month and thinkin it could be consistent - that is a sure way to blow. Not to mention that it is actually very hard to not lose in trading. First thing to be lerned is how to stop losing everything. It requires not only trading understanding, but some common sense as well. I see it all the time here, people blowing and blowing and keep blowing accounts one after another, and then they come and start "100$ to 5 million"in 2 years" thread.. Nobody can help such people... They do not learn from their own mistakes and from other people mistakes also..

I have decided to use this thread to help me take responsibility for my trading progress every month and to also show real aspiring traders that this journey that they have chosen is not an easy one. Too many clowns on social media are flexing on Forex making it look easy and posting a winning trade here and there giving us this false illusion (+90% of traders lose money yet 100% of traders on Instagram are winners.) If you are serious about Forex like I am, these words will have a real meaning to you. I used the first two weeks of this month to clear my head and to take responsibility for my last three years of trading and to also define which technical rules I will oblige to (derived from my three years of market exposure.) There is no volatility the last week of the year, so I will not trade until the New Year. This thread will represent my blood, sweat and tears I've clocked in behind my future overnight success.

December 2016 Monthly Gain/Loss: +1.09%

Subscribed, wishing you the best in your trading journey.

Nice thread.

I totally agree. Making consistent profit in FX is having the right mindset. I am currently writing a book about it.

This is what keeps me going: I'm beginning to accept the fact that all of my trades won't be winners and everyday I get better dealing with the three M's needed for success: Mindset, Method, and Money (management.)

My intentions for this thread is to help my fellow traders, to educate them that if you keep looking for the Holy Grail it will keep halting your development as a trader for years (like it did for me) and it will make your learning curve more difficult than it needs to be. Develop the proper mindset, master the approach you're comfortable with, and protect your money so you live to fight another day. It took me three years to accept this truth and I hope new aspiring traders see this thread early in their own journey in order for them to start on the right path. After this initial hurdle, you will not be making money consistently just yet. Then comes the phase of desire and repetition. It will take you ten years to become an overnight success in this venture (I'm on my 3rd year.) The best education is your exposure to the market day in, day out. Remember, it's a marathon, not a sprint.

Attached Image (click to enlarge)

Update:
December 2016 Monthly Gain/Loss: +0.59%

Attached Image (click to enlarge)

I said I was not going to trade the last week of the year but saw some setups I liked and traded. I wanted to close the month with $400 in profit and instead of taking the profits I had earned (+$300,) my greed too over and Forex capitalized on it. Now, I'm closing the month with +$100 in profits with a grin on my face and a lesson well-learned.

I created another thread where I post every trade I take. Here is the link for those that would like to see it.
http://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?t=626337

I can't stress this enough: Stop looking for the Holy Trail! It will never let you become a consistent and profitable trader as long as you keep adding external variables to your technical method. Accept now that all of your trades will not be winners because when you lose a trader, the mindset you need to succeed in this game goes out the window. Don't let this happen to you. This is the reason I started these threads. Start with the right mindset from the get-go to reduce the learning curve significantly. Like I said in a previous post: develop the proper mindset, master the technical approach you're comfortable with, and protect your money so you live to fight another day. I admit now that I am not a consistent, profitable trader for these same reasons that all traders go through, yet for some reason we don't listen to this sound advice and must learn through market exposure (osmosis.) Time is our most valuable asset, save yourself the three years of sacrifice. I didn't, but it has lead me to where I am today. I am sharing a folder of three years where I kept looking for the Holy Grail and a folder where I accept all my trades won't be winners and in order to succeed I need to practice "perfect practice" and it clearly defines my Mindset, Method, and Money (management.) Last thing, remember Forex is not a get rich quick scheme. Any idiot can place a few winning trades, there's plenty of them out there. For those that are serious about this take a hard look at your last six months' winners and losers, have you been profitable? Poor money management will destroy even the most talented traders. There's a reason any investment firm will kill for a +5-10% monthly return, don't believe the idiots on Instagram doubling their accounts every two weeks. Access to large capital is a must, a 5% return on a $100K account can provide you with a comfortable living whereas a 5% return on a $5K account will most likely tempt you take more risk for an increase return that will lead to you breaking your money management rules. Forget the dreams of quitting your job and becoming a full-time trader with a $5K account. This is a marathon, not a sprint. Slow and steady wins the race.

Attached Image (click to enlarge)

I want this thread to grow so it reaches out to as many traders as possible. Trading is all mindset. The market structure repeats itself, you can look at a hundred years back and confirm this statement. So why doesn't it change? It doesn't change because it goes against human nature and this is why 90℅ of traders lose. Developing the correct mindset to become a consistent, profitable traders takes years to evolve, and by that time most traders have already given up. So post below, help this thread grow, and help new aspiring traders know they must start from the get-go with the proper mindset because even after this critical component of trading is understood, it is still an arduous journey to success.

Hi Chartsndream the chart caught my eye - nice thread and if it is ok I like to respond and follow along. I fully agree that lines cannot be drawn between support and resist, swing high and low, nor supply and demand traders it actually is part and parcel of the whole picture.

If the swing low and high is advancing we want to long from demand and vice versa for swing high and lows that are falling we want to short from supply. The reason why you would not want to short the retrace is because it is misleading. For a bigger player or institute to get into the market they need to drop price and have the retailers chase it with sell orders, then they will turn price forcing those retailers with sell orders to liquidate. To liquidate they have to place buy orders into the market to close their sell order. The person buying is the one who initiated the drop - never chase the rabbit as it may be a good trade or it may turn sharply against you.

Hey brother. Welcome to the thread. Great contribution to the it. You're welcome to post more pictures with your technical analysis. I know members will like to see it, I'm more focus on sharing the mindset needed in order for any proven technical approach to work over the long run. So with your help, I'm sure this thread will grow. Check out my thread called My Trading System where I put charts of my entries and exits (I don't explain much why I took those trade here in FF, I'm just taking accountability for my trades and using this website to do it.

Hey Chartsndream nice to meet you. Actually I believe this is the mindset that makes most retailers fail. After a high price starts to fall, traders panic and run into the short trade, its a repetitive pattern - the mindset is to be patient. As we can see which way direction is moving with the swing highs and lows means we have controll over our entry. When we hear swing trading we automatically think they are playing price up and down. Those traders often fail. True swing traders are interested in direction because if we trade with direction we have the most profitable trades and least risk/drawdown. This chart again only focuses on the setup. We all saw swiss run down and many said they would have not seen that coming - but as you see we knew direction was short and had plenty of time to place shorts - am I saying we would have caught all that profit - no but I know we would have been in profit and that is important and to take profits. Taking 1 to 2 trades every day for 20 to 40 pips is much more successful as I believe you already mentioned chartsndream opposed to trying to hit the homeruns. Learning to be patient and controll impulse entries is a start to being a better trader. I look forward to more of your posts. Everybody loses trades we just want to win more then we lose

Ill put up a price set up for the pound - anything can happen when market resumes after the holidays - so Ill put this set up with a grain of salt that when volume shows up on the market we will get a better snapshot of where the market wants to go

I have been trading since 1997. I've gone deep into fundamental and technical analysis. What works for me now -- trade price action around support and resistance.