From mediocrity to mastery

This journal is inspired on Xaron. The only guy I know with enough balls to be honest and post his gains and losses without gimmicks and BS.
As part of an "early" new years resolution (since we are still in December) I'm starting this journal as a place where I intend to
publicly record my transition from part time to full-time professional trader.
I'm not a newbie. I've been doing it for almost 6 years. Granted during this period of time 1.5 to 2 years I dedicated little or no time trading
because of circumstances beyond my control, but I never completely stopped watching the markets. So in order to be accurate
I have to count my experience as a full 6 years.
When I started, I had no idea what I was jumping into. I though I would master it in 1 or 2 years. Today after a full margin call ( in my first 4 months)
and quite a few "partial ones" over the years, I understand what I'm dealing with and consequently I'm trading on another level.
Don't be fooled by my nickname. I'm still not the oracle of Forex. I choose this handle as a goal which i believe will be achieved in
the next 12 to 24 months.
Just to save your time and mine, let me make clear by posting it here in the first post that:

I don't discuss my system
I don't mentor
I don't give live calls
I don't answer e-mails or PMs.

The objective of this journal, as its title implies, is to hopefully record my transition from mediocrity to mastery in the science and art of trading.
It is not difficult to find here on Forex Factory and around the internet, people claiming to have mastered Forex. It might seem obvious that
somewhere, somebody is living out of his account, but honestly I'm still to find a "beyond doubt" example of a trader able to "consistently" pull money out of the market. And note that I put quotes around the word consistently.
Consistency is my goal. I don't want to make my money in bursts. My model subscribes to low volatility over a long time span.
Over these 6 long years I pretty much lost my ego. I don't have to show off or prove nothing to anybody anymore.
I don't want people praising or vouching for me. All I need is to complete this transition successfully.
So lets go! My 12 to 24 month journal starts right now.


01-21-2013 6 AM
Ok, from now on I'm going to record my weekly performance starting from today.
I'm up fifty somethings weeks with just one week down (- 7 pips) 20 consecutively, but I'm gonna start from zero right now.
Consistence is my goal, according to my statistics I should do anything from 80 to 120 pips per week. I aim for 20 pips a day.



WEEK - 1 (20 to 25 jan 2013) +20 pips Tough week due to unrelated trading issues beyond my control.

WEEK - 2 (Jan 27 to Feb 1 2013) +82 pips apart from the flu a regular week

WEEK - 3 (Feb 3 to Feb 8 2013) +264 pips AWESOME week.

WEEK - 5 (Feb 10 to Feb 15 2013) +95 pips good week from now on FOCUS is the law.

WEEK - 6 (Feb 17 to Feb 22 2013) +103 pips just a regular week few problems with focus.

WEEK - 7 (Feb 24 to Mar 01 2013) +122 pips Nice clean trading week.

WEEK - 8 ( Mar 03 to Mar 08 2013) +87 New lot size. Bad start but it ended up well.

No trades for me last week. I'm really busy preparing things so I can trade full time starting in January. My wife will leave her job so I can sleep early and trade the London session. My kids will be home schooled in order for me to have uninterrupted mornings and trade the NY session.

My schedule, or should I say "time management" will look more or less like this.

3 AM to 11:30 AM trading
11:50 AM to 12:30 PM gym
1 PM to 5 PM Family time
5 PM to 8 PM miscellaneous activities
8:30 PM sleep.

I'm also re arranging my trading office so it gets more functional. I'm building 2 computers to add to the one I have now because I definitely need 6 monitors.

These kind of things added to the preparation for the holidays is leaving me pretty much not time for trading. Anyways it was expected and I really don't like to trade in December so lets see how next week will go.

No mastery for me. I strive for a high level of mediocrity.

Hi Oracle, it's very well thought through schedule. My situation is a lot like yours although I have less experience but have been on hiatus for a year and a half till last summer July. will be watching your progress with great interest. i know Xaron too. Even used to post my trade sin his Oanda thread some 3 years ago, lol. He has managed to pull of a couple of super trades recently if you do not know. some 1000% trades.

Hey man nice to find you here! You are Shikot the guy from Russia, no? I remember you from the other forum ( forgot the name of the place) I'm the same forexoracle that used to post over there.

I stopped posting there because of the trolls and because I was going through a lot of stuff like house remodeling and the loss of my father.

Well it seems that I was able to catch a break now so lets see if I can pull it this time.

Again nice to see you here.

Hi ForexOracle, I am Chikot form othe rplaces. Here I used it first as Shiko is how Chikot is pronounced in Russian, but I am actually from Canada , originally I am from the former USSR though. I do remember your nick name but it was few years back and could you remind me what forum you mean? Trolls are the fact of life

I think it was myfxbook or something like that. You traded oil if I remember.

I posted there for a few weeks than the trolls took over and I left. I was also dealing with my fathers illness so i was a little over sensible, I guess

No trades for me yesterday, and today it seems that it will be the same. As I mentioned above December will probably be spent getting things ready so January I can concentrate on trading and trading alone.

Last month i did a full revamp on my trading office. I resurfaced the whole thing in hardwood and I worked hard on the ergonomics so now I can trade efficiently sitting, standing and,believe you or not, laying down.

I read somewhere that sitting for long periods of time is similar to smoking. Thats how bad it is to your circulation, so I decided to take some action about it.

The problem is that if you stand for long periods of time is also bad, not as bad as sitting but also bad, so from now on I'm standing for one hour sitting for one hour and lay down for 30 min.

So, back to the ergonomics remodeling, I figured out a way of mounting my monitors and positioning my chair in such a way that I can trade in 3 positions without sacrificing my concentration.

While standing I will be over a "step machine" which will allow me to do some exercise if a decide to. Than i have a nice a puffy recliner chair that I can sit. When the timer beeps I just recline the chair and i can trade laying down.

This set up i believe will prevent me from developing hemorrhoids, varicose veins and other bad stuff over the years

I worked really hard to develop a "day trading " system, and in order to make it work i need to stay glued to the monitors from 3AM to 11:30AM, thats why i spent quite a few time developing and working on the project of making my trading set up functional and comfortable.

Trading that many hours also takes a toll on your eyes. I plan to take frequent breaks but I'm still searching on how to deal with this issue without losing focus.

As I pointed above on my time management, right after my trading hours are done I will go direct to the gym. Which happens to be on my garage.

I spent some money on machines so i don't have to waste time going to the clubhouse or driving to a professional gym place.

Next step on my schedule is FAMILY TIME !!

Due to the 24 hour nature of Forex it can suck all time available in your life. Being there done that.

There was a time in my life that i traded for 18 or 20 hours straight. I don't even like to remember those years!

When you are learning and testing stuff you may have to do it for a period of time, but to live like that indefinitely is just insane. No money in the world is worth it. Thats why i worked so hard for a system that give me fixed hours of work. No more waiting for a signal in the middle of the night or spending the whole sunday testing a strategy.

From 1 PM I just forget that there is a market out there. My wife and my kids have all my attention.

From 5PM till 8PM is the time I have to miscellaneous activities like going to the supermarket, fixing something around the house, walking the dogs or whatever else I need.

8PM is time to take my shower, etc so i can be in bed RELIGIOUSLY 8:30PM.

Experience showed me that I need at list six hours of sleep in order to function the next day. Six hours and a half will be just perfect.

It seems that FEDEX just delivered more parts for my computers, got to check it out, see you guys later.

Usually people ask me why I decided for a "day trading" approach of the market. There are rumors all over that 99% of day traders fail so why go down this route?

Well, over these almost 6 years I'm trading, I tried pretty much everything in my search for something that would work. I started looking for long term trading, based on monthly and weekly charts, but I realized that one can't learn fast enough from these charts. Unless you live for 1000 years there is not time enough to the multiples "trial and error" you need to learn.

I used to develop a strategy that seemed to work just to find 6 months later that it was flawed. Than i would waste 8 more months in another venture just to realize it also did not worked.

Back testing would be a solution for this problem, but for some reason all my back tests when applied to live markets did not work.

Then I dropped to the daily chart. It helped, but i still found myself wasting precious months waiting for set ups that would work for a while and than go busted making me give back all my profits and some.

Than i dropped to the 4 hour and for the hourly. I'm glad i did it because a system based on these lower time frames allows you to test a whole bunch of systems real time in the period of weeks instead of years.

But I was still uncomfortable wasting days on stupid systems.

Then I decide to go extreme and I dropped to the 1 minute time frame!

Let me say beforehand that I was margin called as a scalper. So to go back to a scalping time frame made me really uncomfortable but this time i had a different mindset so i just went ahead with the idea.

My goal was to test the most systems possible (and hopefully find something that would work for me) before I became a 100 year old man .

I'm so glad i took that decision because in a matter of weeks I settled for 2 or 3 final systems that looked really promising.

Over the years i also realized that no system is full in itself. Just like tools, you need a set of them in order to perform a job so now with 2 or 3 approaches for the market my trades started to look really simple and I started trading in another level.


My next goal was to bring down a 24 hour market to more "sane" working hours so I don't have to wake up in the middle of the night to catch a trade and mess up my sleeping cycle.

There was a time when I was trading 20 hours per day. This kind of insanity screws up your family, your health, and at the end it back fires because you end up not trading properly.

After some time in "trial and error" mode I settled for the London and the first half of NY session, or 3AM to 11:30AM east coast time.

I don't trade beyond that. I open my trades whatever I open it but the deadline is 11:30AM. If I'm in profit or if I have to take my losses 11:30 is the line in the sand.

I'm very happy with the decisions I made. It seems that it took forever for me to learn, and even now i know I'm still not the "oracle of forex" but the difference from the guy that started in 2007 to me now is abysmal.

I'm being profitable for a while and I don't have a week down in quite some time so I guess I'm in the right path.

I'm very nervous about january because by the second week I plan to bump my lot sizes and i don't know what this will do to my psychological integrity. I'm gonna increase my lots slowly and if I start to get too nervous I'm gonna go back and re start.

Well I guess time will tell !

My trading office looks really good. It looks really neat and organized and I plan to keep it this way. I noticed that when I start to pile things around my trades suffer, I guess is the "psychological" side taking over .

Ok, now that the end of the year craziness is over and my wife is no longer working i can really kick start my journal and hopefuly pull a smooth transition from mediocrity to MASTERY.

I'm feeling kind of weird, "deja vu" like sensation, because i did the same thing back in 2007. I naively thought that I would master forex in a few months so I left my job and spent my days losing money and dreaming of becoming rich.

After a massive margin call I was forced to face reality. My family had to go through a lower standard of living and I had to go through years of intense study and research with no guaranties of success.

Can't believe I wasted so much time following stupid people and systems, but by 2010 I started to get it. Than life threw so much stuff at me and the break through was delayed.

By 2011 my expertise grew but still things unrelated to trading and beyond my control dragged me down.

Last year with a fully developed system and good experience with it, I thought it would make it. WRONG!

I was unable to conciliate my working hours and a regular family life. After waking up 3 AM, by 6 or 7 PM I was just beat. My wife working hours did not let me sleep before 11 PM so after i while I was too tired and sleepy to trade properly.

WEll, now I believe I have all the ingredients together. Experience, expertise, a proven system and a decent time schedule.

I understand that even with everything together it will not be easy, but for the first time since 2007 i have a real chance.

so what is the difference between now and 2007? I'm asking because it sounds like you go through these epiphanies on a yearly basis, so I'm curious more specifically what you have changed from before?

As pointed on the last post:

Experience, expertise, a proven system and a decent time schedule.

I am asking for specificity. The time thing is easy in terms of understanding, but as for expertise/experience/proven system I just wanted more clarity. You spent years system hopping vs 6 years improving 1 system. So would that not mean that you have 1 years of experience per system, and you tried 6 times? As for expertise, what do you think you learned that is the most applicable that you can apply to your current system, and how did you determine that you have a proven system?

I hope you don't think I'm attacking you, I'm just trying to dig a little more into that mind of yours, since its not often that you have traders that has been doing it for more than a few years (and did not quit)

I don't mind you asking a honest question.

I tried literally hundreds of systems and their variations during 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 not only 6.

By the second half of 2010 I settled for something "system wise" that made sense.

It was the beginning of something but by the time (2010) it was still not fully developed or understood.

2011 was the year I became very proficient using the system or a slightly improved version of it. Despite personal problems.

Last year my knowledge and proficiency in the system deepened but I still didn't have the other factors in harmony like a schedule etc.

2013 seems to be the year when all the ingredients came together for me to trade professionally.

So,to be accurate. the core of the system I use right now was developed in 2010

My trading experience ( expertise, screen time, etc) is since 2007.

My time management ( schedule) just started.

Ok, daily recap.

I woke up around 5 AM which is late by my standards. I have to be up and running by 3 AM but yesterday I found a problem in one of my computers and had to re-install windows. The result was me going to bed at 12:40 AM.

Not cool!

Anyways, In a 100 plus day I was able to make only 8.4 pips. My daily goal is around 20 pips so no need to say that i'm short.

Over all I was sleepy and not focused enough, also Mondays are usually not very good for me so i'm grateful for being positive.

Looking back at the whole session i see 3 or 4 signals that if taken would put me on the 25 to 30 pip range.

Well, I can't trade yesterdays charts, so the correct thing to do is to forget about today and focus on tomorrow. i'm gonna definitely sleep yearly today so i can be alert and catch all the opportunities starting 3 AM.

Today I was able to make 19 pips which is more in line with my daily goal. I still lost the main move just as I did yesterday but considering the overall smaller range I cant complain too much .

Yesterday I was able to sleep around 8 PM but I woke up 12:15 AM with my cats making a mess outside. The result was that by 9 AM I was very sleepy and not focused enough.

Today I also had to take my kids to rehearsal at church meaning that it is 9:45 PM and I'm still not in bed.

Following my schedule is proving more difficult than I thought. Anyways i have to keep pushing on and If i manage to wake up around 4 tomorrow it will still be ok.

27 pips is still low for the week but I'm sure I can still finish around 100 pips by Friday.

Ok I'm tired now direct to bed.

Good luck but keep in mind that a mind thats not at 100% is prone to making mistakes. I will keep reading and hope for your best. nice job on the week btw.

8:20 AM NY time.

I'm currently 9 pips up. Made 2 trades early in the London session for around 5 pips each, than I got hammered for -9 pips in one trade and just closed another one for 8 pips.

Yesterday I went to sleep around 10:30 PM and woke up 2:15 this morning. To my surprise I'm not sleepy at all and I'm being able to keep my focus. As anybody can see keeping my time schedule has being a challenge and I don't think I'm gonna be able to stabilize my sleeping time before the second half of next week.

Despite my low pip amount so far in the session , I'm happy about my tradings. Since I did not trade for almost the whole month of December I'm still getting back my trading reflexes.

Today I was able to identify and trade the main move, the problem is that I got out too soon.

lets see what i can do till 11:30

Not a very good day for me. I was 15 pips positive at some point but ended the day minus 15!

Well my first down day of the year. Down days don't bother me that much, but the reason I got hammered today is what is driving me nuts.

I cheated big time today, and payed the price for it. I took a trade out of nothing, no signal at all, pure gamble, just because I thought price would go somewhere.

The worst is that after I knew I was wrong I delayed taking my losses! One mistake brings the other.

My first margin call was because of this same problem. And countless losses after that all due to the same thing.

I'm definitely doing better but every time I fall on the same mistake again it drives me insane.

Well, I'm also very tired. Nothing justify a stupidity in trading but I have to admit that after 10 AM my focus started to get compromised.

Tomorrow is another day and I have to pick myself up and do it better.

Ok it is 6:45 PM and I'm still trying to digest why I left myself slide to MEDIOCRITY today.

I would like to stress that I'm not talking about my loss in itself but in the fact that I traded outside of my system.

It may have something to do with the fact that I was getting increasingly tired due to only 3 hours of sleep.

This afternoon I went over and over my steps during the trading session. there was no reason to take the trade that went bust, it was pure impulsive trading.

the ironic thing is that right after I took the darn trade I got a signal which would allow me 10 pips at least. than I had another signal which would be good for 5 pips or so than a more tricky signal but perfectly tradeable that would bring me at least 25 pips.

But instead of being able to trade and take advantage of those opportunities I was stuck "hoping" that price would come back to me.

Thats mediocrity!

It just tells me that I still have some work to do against myself. I'm my own nemesis.

Not my broker, not the markets algorithms.

This game is a game against myself!