Keep Trying

I've had another month of spinning wheels and sliding backwards, so I'm going to have a break from Forex for a while. Hopefully for a few months to have a good reset but we shall see. I have written in my journal and I have written a plan for when I start up again. It's interesting seeing how trading plans evolve with experience reading my journal I agree with a vast majority of what I've written. So why am I not successful?? Well the answer to that is that I lack discipline, and I will not succeed until I get that! I am also guilty of placing too many and too big trades. The only positive aspect of my trading is that I cut losses - in the last month my biggest blow out was an 11pip LOSS, most around 4 which works for me as a tight scalper .
I appreciate the kind words and positive support from members here.
I also have to say I've been recently disappointed with the angst and disharmony on FF too. I guess for me I try to be respectful to others, but I see FF provokes strong opinions and arguments, which recently has become quite pervasive!
Anyway, I love Forex ( I'm wondering if the inherent risk nature has an addictive element to it- actually yes let's be honest it does!)
I will trade again in the future, I have learnt lots about the market and about myself. I am more disappointed in what I've learnt about myself to be honest.
When I return to trading I will trade demo, strongly influenced by oldtradermans simple RR , I will try the 1min , as correct money management and RR is my biggest failing rather than indicators etc. I know UJ, I have spent 3 years studying UJ during Asian, it will remain my focus.
I recognize my failings, I own my losses, the market owes me nothing, I will re group and return !!! ( and probably lurk in the meantime)
Cheers Helena

Be well, Helena. Hope to see you back soon. Drop a pm if you wish to just chew the fat.

Cheers Lem, I very much appreciate your positive and considerate responses and effort you give to assist traders. Thanks so much.

I have been so busy back at work and AirBnB(ing) my house that trading has taken a back seat which has led to impatience and poor decisions when i actually do trade.

Im thinking ill try a $10k demo, .5lot single trades.. something like that just to try work on consistency with execution etc. No point for me doing a $1k demo as I know even restricting to a single. 5lot trade will be a challenge and if I really want to actually try a 1% risk trade to try make possibly avg $100/day then they are ballpark figures. My latest idea is to demo with variables that seem fair for what i hope to achieve as supplemental income and see how my consistency goes. Once upon a time I worked in a factory and I'm still trying to visual a mechanical approach to trading preferably without as much emotional frustration.

Anyway back to the work trenches tomorrow

Cheers h

I woke with a few more thoughts.

Default demo size account is $50k (well it was 3 year ago) which is silly. Didn't take me long to move away from that when I started. I think companies set traders up to fail with that as default.

I opened a live account of $200 at the end of 2015. I injected $200 every couple of months as required until 1 year ago when success kicked in and my account moved above $10k. Starting small at $200 encouraged me to max leverage for a decent return, instead of working on small consistent results. So I learnt the power of leverage . Once my account was at about $12k I started trading multiple 1 lot trades, successfully and my account grew to I think $18.6k within 1 month. Then the shit hit the fan. As controlled exposure had gone from my trading and gambling had taken over with heady success, I thought 2 decent 2lot trades would get me to $20k overnight. Big mistake. Needless to say I found myself <$10K in short order. I then gambled some more thinking my losses were in error. I injected several $5k amounts...

So learning how to max leverage on a small account was quite harmful to my evolution.

In 3.5 years live trading I have never stuck to 1-2% risk .

There is my failure.

So I do think a $10k demo account with max exposure.5lot size at 1% total risk with consistency of account size ie theoretically pay profit regularly to maintain consistent account and exposure sounds like a plan. But not yet. I think I'll also try IC markets over pepperstone. I've found a lot of freeze outs with pepperstone recently, time to check the opposition.

Food for thought..
H

Hi, Helena. Try not to wander off too far. Most can only dream about turning a 3-digit account into 5. If you've done it once, you've got what it takes to make it a habit. The rest is time and experience. 3.5 years is not that long; keep at it at your own pace and it will all start falling into place gradually. But do keep trying. Keep pushing yourself.

As the saying goes, an expert is someone who has made every mistake. Don't beat yourself up too much, and enjoy your break.

P.S. Utmost respect for your ambo work.

Thanks for your kind words, I think about forex all the time and i'm on FF more than FB, so I don't think the break will be protracted. There's a particular study on how best to improve a skill and I'm going to search it and see if I can add it to my journal. Essentially the most important bit is that visualising a skill, actively spending time visualising it, as well as performing it, leads to optimal results. I think spending some more time visualising and assessing with less time doing is good for me ATM. When I trade I play too much. My commission costs have been high. My rules moving forward need to restrict my activity as well as concentrate on MM. It's a pity there aren't more threads here on MM ( money management) over MM (market makers).. for me money management is a far greater issue than market makers, more important than preferred indicator etc.. I tend not to risk more than 5% per trade (not great but not a disaster)... but then go and place 4 trades #inappropriategiggles. simple stuff.

I've always been lucky with investments. I have bought and sold property optimally (lucky timed relationship break ups at peak of property cycle) , I have had managed funds (and cashed them a year before the GFC), I have managed my own accounts instead of paying ridiculous management fees... I have been pro active with my finances and done ok. When I organised to have a year off work to trade I moved in with my partner ( apparently it was about bloody time) and spent months renovating my house to have it as a dedicated holiday house for Airbnb. This meant that while I was off work, as well as savings, I had Airbnb income. This income has offset forex losses . My biggest loss has actually been not working as Ambo for 10 months, but I am VERY happy to tell people that life is about exploration of options, and most Ambos agree with me. Interestingly non ambos have been more reticent about sharing thoughts on risk taking and Forex trading and time off work. It's been interesting chatting to people and getting a measure of risk aversion in the population. Anyway I totally digress because I'm at work with time to write... a quick thought is that Ambo shift work is quite well payed but stressful (and we are at greater risk of physical and mental health issues), and people who earn less money with less stress are possibly less likely to look for risky alternatives that require time and money ????.. another thread idea for FF that I doubt would take off.. which career paths attract most people to forex ??? Higher disposable income?? Shift workers??? Retired athletes looking for any way to earn money??? Lower income earners trying to get ahead ??? All of the above...

Stepping back from the scene momentarily, and looking at my picture financially and in terms of physical effort and emotional requirements, it is glaringly obvious that as Forex is currently a negative return for me, that if instead I simply work full time as an ambo and keep Airbnb going, my finances will start heading back in the right direction at the fastest pace! It's a financial no brainer even for a risk taker.

It's interesting considering that max leverage on small account CAN be amazing, but working out risk management with the chaotic variable of psychology as an account size increases is challenging. When my account grew to $5k my psychology was fine. Once I got above $12k I morphed into a crazy person. Live and learn. Unfortunately I feel with more experience my trading has regressed. Time to stop just for a bit, and that's also the reason why I'd like to demo $10k, and keep account size and lots size stable whilst I get a decent measure of my true stats. Recently my success rate has gone from 52% to 37% with deteriorating account size. Psychology has played a massive part in this decline. Interesting stuff, shame at the same time.

Clearly I have lots of thoughts...

H

The following exerpt was TAKEN FROM www.lifetrainingonline.com it's not exactly what I was looking for, but very good. As I now have a well established bad habit of regressing to gambling when trades don't go my way (and when they do too, TBH) , I'm going to spend time visualising a max 1% risk, as well as acceptance of loss. I'm also visualising a line chart so my sole concentration will be on MM and RR. Then, hopefully in a month or so, I can start trading with a fresh approach (again). When I joined FF there's no way I would've disclosed as much information as this, but now I'm laying some honesty down I feel pretty good about it, and I'm far more accepting that FF, like everywhere else, has it's share of wonderful helpful kind people as well as tossers and I just need to plod along. I've never traded a line chart so when I try that it in reality it will be interesting. I just can't complicate my head with japanese candlesticks for this mental exercise. That would possibly make me stroke out.

Further detail- minimum 1:1.5 RR, enter on reversal at SR, fixed SL ( i swamp my trades too often, I need to accept my trade decisions) I find the FF chart layout fantastic, I always seem to see PA clearly on it, so I will add lines at 5pip spaces like the FF chart, as a guideline for SR battles. I think that's all the rules my head can visualise- also a limit of 4 trades per Asian session, UJ only, max 3 hour trading session.

EXERPT:

How Visualization Works
Before we go into how you can use visualization to re-architect your life, let’s take a quick look into how it works. There are two main theories that explain how this happens:
Psycho-neuromuscular Theory
This theory basically says that vivid, imagined events create the same neuromuscular responses as if you were having the actual experience. The more real you can make it the better. For example, ensure that you engage all the senses, duplicating the emotions you may feel, the background activity that will be going on, the lights, smells, sounds etc.
It seems that these mental images created in the brain actually stimulate muscular contractions so minute that no noticeable movement actually takes place but the same neuro-pathway is used — establishing a ‘memory’ of that action.
Symbolic Learning Theory
The second theory is the symbolic learning theory, which postulates that imagery can actually create a blueprint or a coding system of movement patterns in the central nervous system. This theory is more widely accepted and coincides with positive reinforcement.
How to Apply Visualization in Your Life
Visualization has many applications in personal development. Whether you want to establish new habits, improve your health, remove your fears of public speaking, or learn new skills, visualization will help you achieve those things.
Before you can apply visualization to improve your life, you need to first understand the correct process involved. An effective visualization session must follow these five steps:

1. Relaxed Body & Mind
2. Third-Person View
3. First-Person View
4. Intensity
5. Successful Outcome

Relaxed Body & Mind
Before you set off visualizing what your desired outcome should be, you need to completely relax your body and mind. One of the simplest ways is to simply lie down, close your eyes, and take a few deep breaths, allowing all the tension and stress to leave your body and mind.
Third-Person View
Before you can ever be able to perform your desired action in a real-life scenario, you need to understand what that action looks like. For this reason, you first picture seeing yourself doing it from a third-person perspective. That is, watching yourself do it as if you’re an outside observer. What this does is it helps you understand completely what a correct action looks like.
First-Person View
In order to make visualization work for you, you need to convince the mind that it is YOU doing the action. Here’s where you see yourself doing it as if inside your body.
Intensity
The final step is intensity. Unless you can duplicate in your mind everything that happens in reality, imagery will not be as effective. You must be aware of the environment, the feelings on your skin, the smells around you, the sights and sounds — engaging all of your senses. It also helps to picture yourself in the exact setting/environment where you’d be performing this action.
The more real and vivid you can make it the stronger he neuro-pathways and the clearer the neurological blueprint will become. You can get this to such a high degree that the mind cannot distinguish the difference. For instance, in the book Psycho-Cybernetics, they use several examples of things that happen to a person when under hypnosis that proves the power of the mind. In one example, a person was told they are touching a hot burner but in reality they were touching an ice cube. Their mind was so convinced that they were being burned that their hand developed blisters as if touching what their brain was being told they were touching.
Successful Outcome
This goes without saying, but you need to ensure that you’re picturing yourself succeeding at the action you’re visualizing. So make sure that it is very positive and incredibly successful; again, the more vivid the better.