Welcome all, I've been lurking on FF for sometime now and thought it is due time to contribute, if I may call it that. I have read many useful threads packed with knowledge and insight, so I don't know how much this will impact anyone but myself. The reason I call my thread the enlighten trader is for several reasons, which I will get to shortly. But first a bit about myself. I first started trading FX in 2005 with FXCM, my wife was kind enough to invest some funds we received from our wedding. I should not use the words invest since it was quickly blown out along with several thousands of dollars throughout my trading. I came from a background of Ben Graham style value investing, which I did quite well in and continue to due so now. However, this style of investing did not bode well in FX, picking a bottom, which I never of seamed to find was disastrous, the drop never stopped and I was margin called out. BTW back then you could get 500-1 leverage from your broker. Then it was on to MA crossovers, but by the time they crossed over the move was complete and position crossed over to the other side (death). Next was the Bird Watching in Lion Country approach, yes I bought that course, and I was the bird not the lion, quickly devoured by all. Then came the stochastic, cci, blah, blah you get the picture nothing seamed to work, although I did have some pretty runs where I was able to run a few hundred dollars up to 12K, this was during the 2008-2009 and I was buying Yen, and of course that didn't last and I was blown out again for the umpteen time.
Fast forward to 2014, my first profitable year of trading, or so I thought. I bought the Learn to Trade the Market, and The Forex Guy. Both are PA based, I did the course, took notes, kept a journal, participated in their user forum, suddenly I began to make money on a consistent basis, wow! I thought I discovered the Holy Grail, but alas, my dear droogies it was not to last. I began the cycle of self sabotage, a self inflicted assassin. What went wrong how did it fall apart?
Here's how, later that year 2014, I came across the a thread on FF called the centipede trade or something to that effect, some of you may know this thread, I know a thread, who referenced a thread, now you this thread....whoa, back on track. Anyway this thread talked about finding a trend getting on board and adding to your position on pullback and riding the trend until the end. Well guess what? I rode it to the end... of my account that is. None other than USDCHF, that's right the swissy dollar trend and I rode it hard like-------------fill in the blank. Now this one is going well I have to admit and I am feeling pretty good in fact, at the end of the year I am bragging to my friends and showing live position to whomever would listen and there was plenty. I got it all figured out I am gonna keep adding until I get 50k in profits this is it, my ship has come in I'll get on FF and start giving advice, maybe even start a signal service, that how good I thought I was. Jan 20 2015, the SNB decides to let the swissy devalue itself, it will no longer support it. I go to sleep feeling fine, I wake up turn on the laptop and my position was gone, wiped out, in fact not only was my position gone but my stops were jumped and I owned my broker @ 3k. So that whole 6 months of work was gone in a few hours. I was devastated and did not want to payback my broker, luckily FXCM had provided debt forgiveness for anyone who held this position. This was no comfort to me because I was busted out again, when would I learn could I learn, could I recover? I decided to take some time off from trading to reevaluate myself.
2015, my great awakening, I thought long and hard about the last 10 years of trading and how I came so close to being a consistently profitable trader. Here is how I evolved and became enlighten. First off, I decided to lose the extra twenty pounds I gained over the decade, so I became a vegetarian joined the local Y I lost some weight and felt pretty good and people began to notice a change in me, next came spirituality, I began to explore Buddhism and meditation. Being a life long Catholic I like what Buddhism represent, a religion of the mind free of guilt. I also began meditation and found myself relaxed and living in the present. I am not going into a long sermon here for any of the above, this is just my story. I reread the disciplined trader by Mark Douglas, Zen in the markets by Edward Toppler and a few E Books by Yvan Byeajee. Anyway I decided to give trading a try again because I felt mentally I was ready. I developed a PA style with a MA and STOCHASTIC as alerts but not signals or triggers. For the last year and a half I have been profitable and quite relaxed and at peace with losses. I discovered that trading is mostly mental and I could of been profitable on anyone of the system I used in the past if my mind was right. What I mean is this, FEAR is our biggest enemy in trading and in life. We fear taking a loss because when we trade we form an opinion and if we're wrong on that opinion we're wrong on our thought process (Ego takes a hit) so we let losers run and cut winners short. But I have found a way and you can too. Before each trade, when I receive a signal to enter, I ask myself "what can happen" 2 of them are good.
1. My trade is a winner and I hit my TP
2. I break even and live to trade another day
3. I followed my rules and lost
As you can read when you trade you have a 2/3 chance of winning, so why fear the the loss or cut a winner short?
When I put a trade on I set a SL and TP, I will only change either if something drastic happens along the way, otherwise, Win, lose or draw.
TO BE CONTINUED:
Fast forward to 2014, my first profitable year of trading, or so I thought. I bought the Learn to Trade the Market, and The Forex Guy. Both are PA based, I did the course, took notes, kept a journal, participated in their user forum, suddenly I began to make money on a consistent basis, wow! I thought I discovered the Holy Grail, but alas, my dear droogies it was not to last. I began the cycle of self sabotage, a self inflicted assassin. What went wrong how did it fall apart?
Here's how, later that year 2014, I came across the a thread on FF called the centipede trade or something to that effect, some of you may know this thread, I know a thread, who referenced a thread, now you this thread....whoa, back on track. Anyway this thread talked about finding a trend getting on board and adding to your position on pullback and riding the trend until the end. Well guess what? I rode it to the end... of my account that is. None other than USDCHF, that's right the swissy dollar trend and I rode it hard like-------------fill in the blank. Now this one is going well I have to admit and I am feeling pretty good in fact, at the end of the year I am bragging to my friends and showing live position to whomever would listen and there was plenty. I got it all figured out I am gonna keep adding until I get 50k in profits this is it, my ship has come in I'll get on FF and start giving advice, maybe even start a signal service, that how good I thought I was. Jan 20 2015, the SNB decides to let the swissy devalue itself, it will no longer support it. I go to sleep feeling fine, I wake up turn on the laptop and my position was gone, wiped out, in fact not only was my position gone but my stops were jumped and I owned my broker @ 3k. So that whole 6 months of work was gone in a few hours. I was devastated and did not want to payback my broker, luckily FXCM had provided debt forgiveness for anyone who held this position. This was no comfort to me because I was busted out again, when would I learn could I learn, could I recover? I decided to take some time off from trading to reevaluate myself.
2015, my great awakening, I thought long and hard about the last 10 years of trading and how I came so close to being a consistently profitable trader. Here is how I evolved and became enlighten. First off, I decided to lose the extra twenty pounds I gained over the decade, so I became a vegetarian joined the local Y I lost some weight and felt pretty good and people began to notice a change in me, next came spirituality, I began to explore Buddhism and meditation. Being a life long Catholic I like what Buddhism represent, a religion of the mind free of guilt. I also began meditation and found myself relaxed and living in the present. I am not going into a long sermon here for any of the above, this is just my story. I reread the disciplined trader by Mark Douglas, Zen in the markets by Edward Toppler and a few E Books by Yvan Byeajee. Anyway I decided to give trading a try again because I felt mentally I was ready. I developed a PA style with a MA and STOCHASTIC as alerts but not signals or triggers. For the last year and a half I have been profitable and quite relaxed and at peace with losses. I discovered that trading is mostly mental and I could of been profitable on anyone of the system I used in the past if my mind was right. What I mean is this, FEAR is our biggest enemy in trading and in life. We fear taking a loss because when we trade we form an opinion and if we're wrong on that opinion we're wrong on our thought process (Ego takes a hit) so we let losers run and cut winners short. But I have found a way and you can too. Before each trade, when I receive a signal to enter, I ask myself "what can happen" 2 of them are good.
1. My trade is a winner and I hit my TP
2. I break even and live to trade another day
3. I followed my rules and lost
As you can read when you trade you have a 2/3 chance of winning, so why fear the the loss or cut a winner short?
When I put a trade on I set a SL and TP, I will only change either if something drastic happens along the way, otherwise, Win, lose or draw.
TO BE CONTINUED: