Hello, I am seeking advice from experienced traders. I'm currently 24 (almost) my "trading" journey started in highschool at the age of 18. I opened an account with about 4k, turned it into 6k in less than a year (trading mostly stocks and some options) and then lost most of it the year after about 5k loss, i had no risk management strategy, no stops, just pretty much gambling.
Fast forward 2 years, i opened a forex account in 2011 with 5k, turned it into 10k over the course of 2 years. Traded sometimes with stops resulting in small gains/losses from time to time account went up a little but it was extremely slow, most of the time i strayed from any kind of plan and just initiated huge positions, averaged down many times which eventually resulted in big profits as currencies bounced back. At about 4-5 points over the last 2 years I was leveraged close to 40x. Then about 3 weeks ago I had several positions go bad all at the same time, and the leverage was too much so I closed all positions resulting in a 5k loss (back to my starting capital of 5k) and closed my position. Over next 2 weeks I watched the same positions i sold work... go figure. ( i was short usdcad the recent run up killed me, i was long gold and silver, and i was short sp500 from 1780 - it fell to 1740 but the rise to 1850 killed me...). This phenomenon happened with ALL the big positions I had, I had a huge position in gbp/usd long last year that i closed with 1k gain but could have been 10x bigger, I closed a long usdcad position last year at over parity with 1k gain and it is WAY under parity at the moment, so i seemed to also have learnt that I don't let winners run at all.
I figure the next step (which i've already done) is to write down a page of rules, and most importantly trade with stops as I could have avoided everything above with the simple use of a stop. I don't have much of an "edge" in the typical sense all the indicators I've ever tried seem useless to me, I just like seeing confluence of moving averages or support resistance which doesn't always work.
I'm kind of lost with what I should focus on at this point having spent alot of time on this and really not accomplishing anything, I could have bought a market/index ETF 5 years ago and been in a better place financially. But regardless I want to keep trying. I'm still in school studying something that should land me a decently paying job when I graduate and I have no student debt as i've worked part time enough to pay off school... but I have always been fascinated by financial markets just can't quite figure them out... it's like an endless pursuit.
Fast forward 2 years, i opened a forex account in 2011 with 5k, turned it into 10k over the course of 2 years. Traded sometimes with stops resulting in small gains/losses from time to time account went up a little but it was extremely slow, most of the time i strayed from any kind of plan and just initiated huge positions, averaged down many times which eventually resulted in big profits as currencies bounced back. At about 4-5 points over the last 2 years I was leveraged close to 40x. Then about 3 weeks ago I had several positions go bad all at the same time, and the leverage was too much so I closed all positions resulting in a 5k loss (back to my starting capital of 5k) and closed my position. Over next 2 weeks I watched the same positions i sold work... go figure. ( i was short usdcad the recent run up killed me, i was long gold and silver, and i was short sp500 from 1780 - it fell to 1740 but the rise to 1850 killed me...). This phenomenon happened with ALL the big positions I had, I had a huge position in gbp/usd long last year that i closed with 1k gain but could have been 10x bigger, I closed a long usdcad position last year at over parity with 1k gain and it is WAY under parity at the moment, so i seemed to also have learnt that I don't let winners run at all.
I figure the next step (which i've already done) is to write down a page of rules, and most importantly trade with stops as I could have avoided everything above with the simple use of a stop. I don't have much of an "edge" in the typical sense all the indicators I've ever tried seem useless to me, I just like seeing confluence of moving averages or support resistance which doesn't always work.
I'm kind of lost with what I should focus on at this point having spent alot of time on this and really not accomplishing anything, I could have bought a market/index ETF 5 years ago and been in a better place financially. But regardless I want to keep trying. I'm still in school studying something that should land me a decently paying job when I graduate and I have no student debt as i've worked part time enough to pay off school... but I have always been fascinated by financial markets just can't quite figure them out... it's like an endless pursuit.