Stay a broke loser or be a professional trader (Journal to a dream)

My attempt on a Trading plan #1.

1. What style (e.g., scalping, day trading, and position) and type (e.g., long or short) of
trading strategies will you be using? PA and SR on H4/D1
2. What securities and instruments (e.g., futures, stocks, options) will you trade? Live Forex, Spot Metal, US Stocks, and Asian Indices
3. In what markets (e.g., NASDAQ, NYSE, and FOREX) will you trade?
4. What are the primary “most favorably traded” instruments (e.g., e-mini(s)) that are traded
by professionals in these markets? EURUSD I guess… and Spot Metal, and the Nikkei
5. Are there any reasons to be concerned about what markets and instruments you are going
to trade (e.g., product expiration, new competing products, etc.)? Metal seems to lack confidence, asian indices, only hang seng futures has monthly expiration.
6. Will your strategies be automated or will they require you to execute them manually? Discretionary

Mission Statement :

I will be a disciplined trader in following my own rules of discretion, taking the best trades only, and risking a fixed amount always, that's why I'll take the best trades only.

Goal and Objectives :

Goal : To be a consistently profitable trader on a monthly/quarterly basis

Objectives : absolute money management which involves 1% risk or fixed percentage risk on every trade, making compounding more obvious
Taking the best trades only
End my month with profits

1. What is required for you as a trader to trade in a stress-free and worry-free manner?
Comfortable Risk and Method
2. What is important to you in trading?
Consistency
3. Are there any tenets that you will follow during your development?
Accept the risk and move on, the trend is your friend.
4. Describe your trading style and how it is consistent with your personal demeanor.
Discretionary, Creative, horizontal, simple, I am a non statistician person and I believe in learning by doing.
5. How will you position yourself to be poised to take advantage of the trading opportunities
associated with your trading style?
Sit on my hands when in doubt
6. Describe your most important trading strengths and core competencies.
Letting trades run
7. What factors will make you succeed at trading? What do you think your major
competitive strengths will be? In what areas do you have insufficiencies?
My major competitive strength is my love of finding a way to trade consistently profitable, and letting trades go, trading with confidence and comfortable risks, I have insufficiencies in consistent position sizing.
8. What background experience, skills, and strengths do you personally bring to your
trading venture? None.
9. Will you be creating a trading business entity? No.
If so, which legal form of ownership:
Sole proprietor
Partnership
Corporation or
Limited liability Corporation (LLC)
10. Why have you selected this form?

I have identified myself as a swing trader, discretionary, and a beginner trader
My stops are placed behind the strongest PPZs that if broken would be a sign that my trade is no longer valid, or the odds are no longer in my favor, stops are solid broker stops, and percentage based.
Share size lots, or position size is in accordance to the %R Risk management system.
Maximum loss policy : Monthly Loss : max 4% in 4 trades.
If lost more than 4% in 4 trades, quit trading that month and go download new data and practice every pair in forextester and review J16 videos and re-read books, and re-evaluate the loss trades.

I use trailing stops for my trades, and I exit when facing a case of certain very strong resistance plus PA to the other side

Break even stops are used quickly when trading counter trend.

Create an Exits post on your journal too, setup type, charts, emotional state.

I swing trade with 4H and Daily PA setups, I don't like weekly, I might try monthly bars with position sizing.

Trade :

Bullish market conditions will be defined by the following :
The last 2-3 years move is bullish, or the trend is up
Draw weekly trendlines from up to the last 3-4 years time.

Bearish market conditions will be defined by the following :
Last 2-3 years move is bearish, or the trend is down.
Draw weekly trendlines from the lows of last 3-4 years.

I don't define neutral market conditions.

Strategy :
Condition 1 : Price is on weekly PPZ
Condition 2 : There's PA showing rejection on the 4H/Daily
Condition 3 : PA is with the weekly trend
Condition 4 : There is SPACE to the left


If condition 1,2,3 and 4 are met, then enter with a stop order on the other side of the PA and put the stop on the opposite side of the PA if the PA is on the highest/lowest peak of the move, else put stop behind weekly PPZ.

Position size are taken from the account size, risking 1% on every trade.

If trade is the last bar on Friday evening, stand on the sidelines.

Trade Management :
Stops will be moved behind the minor PPZ on the timeframe the trades are taken, 4H or D1, all trades will be given leeway to a maximum loss of 1% equity.

Money and Risk Management :
Always use 1% on every trade, using %R, calculate the pip size according to the stop levels.

Taking Profits :
Take profits when trades hit the weekly S/R lines.

Trading Expenses :
Currently all my charts, data feeds, and platforms are free.
Later I might buy stock data feed, and buy Martin Pring's Book on Price Patterns.
Later I might have to count in Interactive Brokers' fees
Internet Connections are currently cheap 64kbps mobile internet
Later I might buy 2Mbps ADSL line when I finally got the money to rent a house.
Phone calls to brokerage has to be dully noted too.
Electricity for future multiple monitors… lol.
Later I will have to take taxes in acccount when my trading size got bigger

To Do :
Find an online free equity curve generator or live trading log
New type of trades will always be taken with a minimal size position possible, on a separate account after the trade type is verified to be profitable on backtesting with forextester
Create a trading performance review every month.

Try to write a "Trading Lesson Learned" on every exit post.





Here's how this thread started on 2008.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Hey. I'm very new on this forum, only started viewing it a year ago and only have started posting this month.
I live in Indonesia where living is cheap and easy and there's everything there is for a man to live with. but there's a major flaw in that setup : the inflation is bigger than what you get from a raise in a year, sure u can live for just $500 a month, but due to the yearly inflation of 10%, u're like 10% poorer every year.

I've worked on a stock futures trading company for a year or so, traded my own life's money of 25K USD, lost them all on asian stock index futures trading, go figure, I lost 25K USD slowly but sure in 3 months, why did I get to that business? the usual slick mouth marketing got me, gotta admit I'm a real fool at that times, not sure if I'm not a fool right now, telling everything to you here, anyways, this is my trade journal, and I've only been trading forex for 3 months, that makes me a complete newbie, while the abundant of people here have experiences like 2 years++ on forex and equities trading, mine is like nil.

to cope with that, I have a stuck up life with a stuck up family, I got no house, got no girlfriend, and only about 2K USD to last for a few months, but that's another story, this is a trading journal, not a diary to share sorrow bedtime-soap-opera-stories

I surely hope to get better support from this forum, as I've seen many rise from rags to riches in years.

My dream, more like my only path, is to become a professional forex trader. and I can't stop learning, not ever.

But while words can be sweet, reality isn't so, everything starts with a bang, and slowly gathered pieces by pieces. I can't use a broom, I have to pick everything by hand and start from scratch.

Well. my choice of trading system goes to FXPrime due to the great community they have, I've been trying out this system for a week, and demo is just not good enough for me, I decide to throw myself to a pit (another one after that 25K feet deep pit I fell into)

a pit worth a thousand dollars

11/6/2008, 11:11 AM
Trading yesterday was a mess, I was too engulfed in emotions and entered a choppy market, missed on few good signals that's placed on the fib lines. I enter trade positions using siobi EA v104, although I'm not sure which fib lines that it calculates, does it calculate s/r lines? If it does, which?

As I suspected, when I trade a real account, however small it is, things get jumbled in a psychological manner, the losts above, especially the ones with multiple lots (e.g. more than 0.1 micro lots) about 80% of them aren't done with FXPrime, most of them are just tryouts, in fact, my largest pip gain is from FXPrime, the one highlighted yellow on yesterday's statement, was 38 pips and 41 pips

I don't follow the rules always and enter on a retracement, that's tryout, should've done tryouts on demo. Don't be greedy

Today is a new day! Set a daily gain of 80 micro pips! After 80 mini pips I will stop trading and just watch with demo from the sidelines
Decided to trade only EURUSD, I'm a newbie and I'm staying that way until I can bring a consistent psychological control and profit.

Micro Lost : 83.6 pips
Mini lost : 16 pips (what amazed me is that my local broker for standard account sets minimum SL for EUR at 15 pips + 3 Spread, this results to a lot smaller R/R ratio, can't get it to 1:1,5. well they do pay on withdrawals, but I'm pretty sure they're charging too much for a trade, not to mention a 5 pips commission on every trade, I'm overpaying them!)

Stick to the rules today, view market sentiments, news, and trade only from 2AM EST to 11AM EST
Today's news shows a rate cut on GBP and Minimum Bid rate set for EUR, I might not be able to fullfill my quota of 80 pips.

Nice journal (thogh you have just started anyway)! I'll pop in as often as i can if you don't mind. I'm a newbie to an extent too and trade the FX Prime system as well and trade only the EURUSD also. Maybe i could learn from you and you from me. I promise not to mess up your journal!!!

Have a nice trading day.

P.S. could you post your current template?

@pipsot
Please do return, I hunger for visitors
my template actually was the 1st FXprime template, only with sidewinders on them, so there's nothing special about it

The next day trading was better, gotten off at a 30 pips profit for the day, but hesitated too much on trades and gotten off one more at -12 pips, so that would only be 18 pips profit, but it's a profit nonetheless, and the rigorous psychological transfer I'm putting myself into requires a lot of effort, but I'll state it clear here that I'm not going to give up chasing this particular skill, because it's the truth every trader must have in order to succeed

I've registered myself to the local trading competition, there's quite a prize on the winners, so I guess I'll give it a shot, trading's is the journey!

I can tell you right now that you wont end up a pro-trader trading the 'FX-Prime system'.

Goodluck.

Leon

Thank you for your concern

Day 3, Monday, November 10, 2008.

I started the day by practicing the fxprime system on some stock index futures, well it went well with just a few minor false signals, and I waited till one o'clock to catch the momentum of the EU and GU pairs.

I traded today until 6:30 PM EST and score a load of 155 pips. well it could've been less than that but actually I'm feeling lucky, there are some false signals that I missed during the day because I'm busy preparing my meal.

I trade with 3 lots, which 2/3 I closed after reaching 10 pips or more, after that I move SL to BE and let it run till TP, which normally I set at 25-30 pips.

it was actually 167 pips, until I opened a 1 lot trade on a false signal that hit my SL
and later that night, after the opening bells of new york markets, I don't really looked at the market, but I find numerous false signals happening, don't know whether that's because of the news, but I find no news at that time, only CAD, and more news actually announced at the time when I was trading.

I guess today I was luckier than ever.

I even found myself reading a few good books about when to trade and how long should I hold a position in a trade, might be useful, but the tables they generate told me not to trade for EU and GU at 1-5AM EST. whether that's true or not, that small suggestion has saved me lots of pips today

My belief shifting works partly today, I hope I can manage to do it better tommorow, now off to bed.

that's a "here goes" huh? Im also in middle east, 500$ a month dam good for a single person enjoying around or even living on. with this fact take very good care of your remained 2K (by trading?), you get no where as a follower in every strategy here, but you get there only as someone who knows wholly what you are doing, the moment you enter the trade you already get the confidence in it that brings the pips for ya and that requires great knowledge of the market itself, other factor which is psychological part of the market and trading which you are yet not responsible in it as long as there is emotion pinching you every now and then, you may be lucky make some returns but can't keep on it. take my post quite positive btw

Thank you very much, well I do need advices on where to start, if I don't start on following a strategy, where can I start? do tell.

I mean "merely" by following a strategy and its given signals, this is to me is to trade blindly, otherwise 95% were winners and only 5% losers. the very first thing to do is to just observe everything. start to see number of strategies and observe their strength and weakness in securing winning entries, how signals come up in any strategy, how their patterns form, how the price movements are in those patterns and finally the Market itself, when you see it in actuality in whole you see it is all the same notes repeating themselves, all of them the movements come and go alike, the art is to know the notes and the instrument is your strategy but it is nothing without you, your awareness to see or listen and your knowledge to trade or play.

Thank you very much for your advice, really appreciate it ^^

Well I certainly hope this isn't the end of it, I overtraded yesterday and it blew my 44 pips profit to a mere 3 pips, and yet I overtrade again but that was a shocking luck to bring back my profit to the 33 level, but it ain't worth it. I can't put myself into "The Zone". I have to put more effort in shifting my beliefs and finishing my trading exercise like I should've done.
any
Today I think I'll trade like a few times to get to a target, 12 pips may not be enough, but it's what you get when you're scalping. I'll pick every signal that came and shot the hell outta it.

Yesterday I came across this 4H system, the OanFX Benkyalate, and to tell you the truth it's quite promising, haven't been able to find any signal for now thought.
And it was yesterday too that I make the time to browse the Broker discussion forum, it was quite worth it, found a handful of very good traders, very, very good, who was trading in the millions, and I don't think they scalp, or do they? why would you need really fast execution for? or with the widening spread, I don't think anyone can scalp with that, besides, once your trade volume were counted in the millions, scalping is virtually impossible because banks detest it.

I did like 5 trades for each pair yesterday, some lose, but most are winning, tend to backout before anything happens, and get nervous too, I guess I have to read my mental rules one more time : I only have to remember "Anything can Happen"

MArcel, u r doing just great!!!!

I'm testing an EA for a 5M swing system.

later will share to public... but not that guy....

Thanks a lot siobi, I'll test it for you later, you're a great programmer

I didn't do a trade today, at least on a live account, but I'm trying my best to relearn everything I know about finance, investing, and of course the currency market trading. I'm picking up every information from the most basic level, knowledge is power anyway, although some psychology books may suggest that what I need is proper attitude and the risk and money management to consistently make money out of forex, I have to give myself time so I can make the best out of it, start from the very basics I guess.

Since 2 days ago I stopped using FXPrime, still it's a very profitable system, much better than everything I've seen before, and it works, if you follow the right discipline, I'm still going to see how it progresses and pay a visit to the thread from time to time, but I'm getting myself back to trading in a higher timeframe, like a minimum of 4H TF, or daily.

I'm a beginner anyway, and should act like a good student and study.
I'll be packing up my things from my boarding house, and be leaving for my hometown in sunday, to reduce living costs, so I'll get to use my savings to trade, not to live.

If everyone will call me a loser for coming back home after losing everything (My Job,My Car,My Apt) So be it, I'll reach for a better success and try my best not to listen to anyone that forbids me from reaching my goal.

I wannabe a pro trader, a financial expert, as well as a manager for my own funds, I will make trading my business, I will be a dedicated system trader that has an edge to use on the market, a rigid risk and money management system, and I will be glad doing it all my life, and even if it takes 10 years to get to it, I'll do it, because I love it (trading).

Don't let anyone put you down, you got a goal just do it

FxPrime system is good, people that say it's not they're fools they didnt follow the strat correctly or just jealous others are succesfull with it, also it will always be free, the community is awesome, in only 1 month the thread has over 2200 posts

anyways, cya later

"There is nothing we cannot live down, rise above, and overcome"
"Our greatest glory is not never falling, but in rising every time we fall"

Well, this morning I read a post about getting a job as a trader in one of the big investment banks, and, or hedge funds, or brokerage firms... it shook the hell out of me, I believe the great replier of that post was trader888, he basically tells that live as a pro-trader, as it is very rewarding financially, are also crippling you personally, you don't get to spent quality time with the family due to constant market analysis, and the list goes on.

Being a trader is highly stressful, as he says, but it fascinates me the most the way that he shows his wife how he suffers such emotion on a daily basis, a semi gambling-trading game, and a rather expensive one on that.
http://www.forexfactory.com/showthre...t=35982&page=3

And the reward as a pro-trader too, is quite small, if you compare to working a day job, but here in indonesia, I should tell, things may be different...

More over technical analysis, this man really doesn't believe any of them, or should I say, he believe people can get profit from TA, but not so much as the real big traders in the bank made with pure fundamental analysis

Nevertheless, I haven't give up, this thread just gave me a large chunk of reality to work with, being a pro trader is as hard as carving your name on granite with a needle, without a hammer. it takes a long time, and a rigorous effort... maybe I'll start a job as an IB in one of the brokerage back home, that way I'll spend less on living costs, and get more time to study forex... financials are very exciting, I know I shouldn't have taken that electrical eng. major in the first place

I should learn everything from the very core : stocks, individual stocks, bonds, options, at least I should know all the basic stuffs first, indicators can come later, price patterns? well... that's one to think of too

I'm better off trading micro first, and I'll use my savings to apply for private membership at the james16 group, although it's a bit pricy for me, for $129 a month... I think I should learn by myself first and then gather the money to join. I've seen many traders success from that thread, and I believe I can be one of them.

A book I read shows me that a great trading mentor is a very accelerating part on your journey, I hope that book is right.
After all, school costs money, why wouldn't learning forex costs money too?

HI mARCEL,
it have been some time u didnt update your status.

are u ok?

all the best.

PS: I had finished my testing on 1M scalping system.

minimum gain 20~50 pip for 7 hours.
total opening trade around 5~15

winning percentage is almost more than 90%.

now I'm doing more testing and hope to hear from u soon...

Hi there siobi,

Yes it has been some time since I've updated my status on my journal, I'm currently back home and working as an IB for a national company, I'm currently working on a gold trading account, and there are 2 more clients ready to invest before the end of the year, as I've said, this will give me more time to study forex and makes money off IB commisions while at it, that way I'll stay focused on my target.

As for my methods right now, fxprime I'm still using but I rarely visit the thread anymore, and I've signed up with james16's group, has only been the 3rd day but I'm well aware of the wealth of successful trading knowledge there, I believe I can achieve my live as a trader with the senior traders there as my mentor.

How is your trading activity going on? It's nice to hear from you

marcel...

1M bouncing system...

http://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?t=139685