Information overload

First off, I'm slightly hesitant to post this to start with as reading the same ridiculous questions over and over can be quite annoying and many good questions are buried somewhere in this Factory forum somewhere, however people are generally just to lazy to look. This question I couldn't find and any input really would be helpful.

So that being said I'll try and make this as non-vague as I can.

I Started reading the forum little over a year ago when I got interesting in the currency market. I had started a small business and was selling some stuff to the U.S (I live in Canada). I got confused why my pay-pal statements constantly had different exchange as I thought currency didn't fluctuate that much, which is of course I now know to be incorrect.

I started searching for a good system that suited my trading style and how much time and effort I could put in. After reading damn near ever thread in the trading systems forum and trying half of them I came to the conclusion that for me two systems worked rather well.

1. The THV system, which is very well though out and has some great traders that put in an awful lot of time and effort into developing it.

and

2. The Jackone 5 min pinbar system, which is a bit more discretionary by its nature but still very good.

I traded on a demo account ( and still do ) and found a fair amount of success (0.5 - 1% daily on average). Then I ran into a problem of sorts.

I find myself constantly second guessing trades from one system because of the other and all the other information I've digested over the last year. Now at this point its all but impossible to unlearn everything I've read in both threads as well as countless others.

I find myself in a state of information overload, or applying two much analysis to my charts. I do understand finding any reason to stay out of a trade is a GOOD thing but lately I find I'm taking no trades at all due to conflicting information. I think, "hey great setup", get ready to put in my order and then I start thinking "To close to a daily pivot, to close to Support or Resistance, the markets closing soon, I shouldn't be trading on a Friday, A candle formation just formed pointing to a trade in the other direction...."

I'm sure any experienced trader can probably see what I'm getting at here.

So I guess my question really is, can to much information cloud a traders judgment by over thinking things way to much? should I just stick to the ONE system and to hell with all the other great stuff I learned, or is this a blessing in disguise and the last few weeks or so just didn't pan out well? Or more importantly is this something ever good trader deals with and its more a psychological problem?

I'm sure there is a simple explanation for all this, but its something I am sincerely having a hard time getting a grip on.

Any input would be helpful.



--- Joe


Edit --- meant to post this in the Rookie section, My bad. Can a mod please move it?

Two potential problems:

1. You don't have enough confidence in your trading methodologies (THV, Jackone5).
2. Your fear of losing money is too big, causing you to second-guess.

Both may be attributed to lack of experience - start small and play with a demo account.

I'm kind of at this stage myself. I took a month off. No looking at charts, no quotes, no news, no forum, absolutely nothing related to Forex. It actually helped clear my head and get things in perspective.


You have to sit down and write down your rules and business plan.


You have to sit down and write down your rules and business plan.


I'm not an experience trader, but I know exactly what you mean. You need to write down your rules.


Yeah, keep it as simple as possible. Pick one system and use it for 3-6 months and then add another one if you want.


I don't know about simple, but sounds like you need some balance in your life. Maybe you need break from Forex and do something else that is productive. Stuff you have been putting off?

I really have no idea what I'm talking about, so take this all with a grain of salt.

Your better off educating yourself with how the interbank, and large financial institutions work and then developing your own system. But of course people who have paid for services to learn how to trade will tell you otherwise.

As much as I'd like to sit back and take a break, I'm a business/political science student in university so global macro economics has a tendency to come up on a daily basis. I am however closing in on exam week then a nice long holiday break at which time I hope to avoid anything that remotely resembles a chart.

Id probably have to agree with you on the whole trading plan concept thou, I know that's one of the foremost things a trader can do to optimize his/her chances and I honestly do try and do that, I really am struggling to ignore other signals thou.

Maybe these will help.

I've got a pretty good grip on how the interbank market works, (did a course last year pretty much on that premise and learned a lot) and I try and read anything I can get my hands about the subject. Some stuff I found on the forum was pretty good, written by DarkStar I think? Either way I'm still learning and try and take in as much as I can.

If I were you, I would forget about everything until the middle of January. The market is crap at the moment and will be until after Christmas and the New Year.

I have never found that anything I do around this time bears any relationship to my performance during the rest of the year. Some say that all the big boys are taking a hard earned break and leaving office juniors to play around. Not sure quite how true that is but I sure do hate December/January.

This gives you several weeks of study time - sit back and re-think what you've done so far. Do as LVG says and write a plan, if you're a student then that shouldn't be hard work - for a dumb-ass like me I could never quite do it so I can't say how long that held me back.

Whatever, have a good Christmas or happy holiday and come back refreshed in the New Year. If things are going to go wrong with your trading this is just the time the market likes to f**k around with a newbies' confidence in his/her own abilities.

Thanks LasVahGoose I think that checklist is really great idea , I think I'm probably somewhere around # 15-16 right about now, maybe not thou.

good point

Anyways ..Good luck!!!