My way to highway

Congrats exellent

Congratulations on an awesome year Zoltan!! I bet 2020 will be a great one as well!

Happy Holidays!

Dave

Good to see you still around Z!
I just dropped in just to say happy holidays
And an even better next year : ))

Congratulations Zoltan, a gentleman if ever there was one....superb trading. And real!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

warning!
this post is made for motivation for the few who read this journal.
but it isnt a fiction!
kindly try to avoid to discuss personal details from it!
it isnt the point of the post, and anyhow most was mentioned in the journal at the corresponding dates.
thank you!




the forum is so negative overall.
very hard to find threads that are motivating, or spark an idea, or just fun read.
of course forex trading isnt easy.
takes time to find what works or doesnt for the trader.
often hear when i chat with aspiring traders that they will put lots of time and effort in, and expect that the returns will be in line with it.
the bad news that trading is not like a job, that pays overtime for the extra hours worked ( and usually at a higher rate, too!)
i strongly believe that at some point the extra time becoming counterproductive, and causes fatigue, loss of focus, and mistakes, either technically or emotionally.

it is important to stay consistent.
consistent with the chosen approach, to the routine, to making money, to a conductive mindset...
whatever works.
some meditate, others go to run, others again read books, listen to music, whatever.
anything that works to find that niche mindset unique to you.
when you finally sit down to trading, and able to focus to do your best.
remember that mindset!
when things seem to flow naturally, and when your trading is both feel effortless and profitable.
the goal to keep it as long as you can. days, weeks, longer.
and to benefit from that stage.

trading comes with ups and downs.
and it is inevitable to fall once in a while.
but it is always about what to do next once down.
stay down, or get up and fight.

in 2017, my trading was flying.
not only my opinion, at Psy i was in top spot of the leaderboard. for a looooong time. that continued to 2018, too...least the first half.
this was how it looked like in 2018.Jan for example:



then the second half of 2018, all broke down. lost money. not a little bit. nearly let my full time trading 'dream' broke. very demotivating. very disheartening.
but in life there is the choice, stay down, or fight.
i chose the later.
not the easy route.
a fresh account, more work.
and a slow (re-)start. and losses, this time people important for me. in the plural, more than one. talk about that. things are connected, the emotions cant be discarded so easily, and it shows in trading too.
just a year later from the first photo, new acct, and my trading still wasnt back to where i wanted it. the top seemed as far as it can be, i think the acct was ranked as low as around 130-150th. lets just agree, not good. even if about 6 months into trading i was back into profit, it wasnt something of great.
but it was work in progress....



in 2019 then finally things returned to the place where i wanted them to be. people got buried in 2018, and seems that many of my emotional issues too.
once again i was back to work in a stable, positive way, day after day. and the results started to come once again.


and with that come the improvement in the ranks as well.
once i was told that it would make a wonderful story that i was on the top, fell deep back, and then rise back thru the ranks, effectively doing it again.
it would be something special!
agree. it would be.
but easier to say then to do, and i felt that there wasnt much belief behind those words that someone can pull such feast.
no one really have before there.
but anyone who read the journal knows that i like some good self-challenge once in a while, and to have some goals.
although this was a long shot.
a score of 59 and a rank of approx 130th place in Febr, 2019.
the chance is absolute near the zero.

and no, i am not quite there yet, but as of now, neither i am far.
effectively did what was thought impossible by many, including Mike the CEO of Psy.
and yes, it is fun to complete a challenge, even if it is really about beating myself, and to prove wrong naysayers.
our biggest limitation is often no one else but us.
just like that Henry Ford quote says, "whether you think you can or you cant, either way you are right".
the work isnt fully done.
but one day a time, i am making my way.





i know, it is a long post, but i also know some wont mind it.
anyway, i rarely post nowadays, so why not get the most of it!

i really hope one finds motivation in this, and the midst of lots of negative will see that with perseverance and focus, a lot can be achieved.
even one day a time, one trade a time.
it isnt about others to define what is possible for me, or you; it is really what you believe is possible.
if seeing is believing....then believing is seeing!
forgot, but some asked. the day count is @115 consecutive. have passed the magical, dreamlike 100, and then some...and it isnt ended yet!

well, hope someone got the inspiration for the weekend, and next week will work toward some of his/her own goals!
hitting some of those goals is really great!
aim always a little higher!

happy trading!
Zoltan

My most sincere congratulations, Zoltan... Farewell, my friend!

You cant just destroy Zoltan
He will stand up and hit back harder ahahah

Good luck to your future plans
Tamás

It's always amazing to see people come back from a beating, very inspiring and honest for the new traders beginning their journey.
It is indeed true that most threads on this forum go off the rails really quickly and are unspiring and very toxic aswell.

I'm glad you show both the ups and downs in the trading lifestyle!
Keep it up and I hope you achieve many more personal goals this year!

Greetings!

the point.
full time trading isnt that different fundamentally from any other jobs.
has ups and has downs, but performance, in the end, is judged as an overall.

sort just like my last (hospitality) job.
twice a year performance assessment from the department head, which usually come out very well.
that doesnt mean that i never ran into troubles with my boss/es, or had some reprimanding to attend in the office.
quite the contrary.
part of the job, i guess.

but in the end they were happy with my performance.
and in the end i am happy with my full time trading.
accepting that it isnt every day a best day. and that is business as normal.

Zoltan,

What was the one thing that you think helped you get back on the right track you believe?

Risk management? sitting on your hands? more screen time? focus on only specific pairs? sticking to the system not making changes even though it hit a rough patch?

Love reading this journal!

good question.
the loss was emotions related...ignoring loss, taking revenge trades. a destructive mental state in the wrong moment.
subsequently, i was focused more on the emotional side.
and something that became more the focus, breaking down the goals and expectations all the way from months to weeks to days to setups.

the above manifested in 3 forms:

- better acceptance that the market isnt there to please my needs = take what i get and be happy with anything positive. if the return isnt enough, then work on the aspect what i can influence ( more equity) vs what i cant ( dont try to find setups and take trades when there isnt a good one)

- distance myself more from the forum where way too much negative or unproductive posts are present ( and not at all aimed to directly anyone, and especially not on this thread, but that include ppl with negative takes, or just simply a very different level. i found that keeping more distance and being more selective on whom i spend ( or just waste) time on frees up time to spend for my well being. ( for example, 1 hour less forum time a day = 1 hour more to spend in the gym, or turn off forex/work and rest)

- found more consistency than ever thought is possible. also fully realized that often the biggest limitation is nothing but our belief system, or paying too much attention to what others say should or shouldn't be possible. i caught myself in past thinking that after a run of 30-40 good days, it may be increasingly likely to catch a loss, almost in a way creating a self fulfilling prophecy. now what has changed that while in reality, I know that once in a while a loss will still come, my focus os strongly on keeping a positive outlook, and concentrate to execute the trades best without fearing a loss day. seem to work.


this is how it is for me.
of course, everyone may be in a different situation, and may find/need to find a different solution for the issues.
i knew that the main flow was emotional, and not system.
in fact i didnt change much on my approach since 2010. slow evolution would describe it best.

happy weekend!
Zoltan

Great post

Nice work Zoltan!!

You are still leading the way.

Great post Zoltan!

Hi pf or anyone,

What would be the best multiplier selection .
Is it important, if I deposit 5k for master and slave
At 10k. But I select setting 1.0...too conservative

Or slave divided by master and used that setting.
Too low too little...or start slow and feel it up ..

hi jinsen,

if you keep conservative risk on the master, no reason why not use the same risk....going your sample=2.
if you uncertain, and just want to make sure you dont mess the slave, maybe slightly less, 1.9, or 1.8...

where it gets slightly tricky if the master and slave is different base currency.
say master is in USD, and slave in AUD...a realistic scenario at AxiSelect for example.
that case, should do a little conversion,
and find that your 5000usd = approx 7500aud, the best multiplier would be about 1.3x, ( or 1.2 for a slightly more conservative version).

think it addressed everything.
happy weekend!
Zoltan

Thanks Zoltan,

Just an example, if I set 2. It actually be more accurate.
However, if I set 1.5 and placed a 0.03 lot on master. The slave would have 0.045. would it always round off to
0.05 or to 0.04.

Thank you

that is true if using really small and odd lot sizes.
else, the rounding should be downward, and best you make sure in advance it is,
bcos rounding upward can get you into trouble if coming to a drawdown limit/forced stopout point on master account.
just assume this is about an early-round into prop trading so at this point a lot more about showing positive results in itself than hitting the cash register for income.
thus for that reason was the slightly conservative suggestion on the multiplier, vs worrying about the odd times of a micro lot split up on the copying.

mind you,
i didn't even start to go into details regarding different broker for master and slave,
and the implications of limit pending orders, or SL and TP, if some get activated on the slave, while not executed on the master.
a valid issue as well.

just prepare to learn on the go, and be aware that when doing master-slave on different broker and price feed, it isnt always simple, as at the same broker, which when copying is always preferable, if accuracy is important.

and of course, all that said is just my thoughts on the matter, and not in any way a full situation specific advice. i dont remotely claim what in my opinion a correct way that will suit your needs best too

Quoting peterwest

Disliked

Dear Journal Readers, I have also had the opportunity to have a few 1-1 sessions with Profitfarmer .....https://www.forexfactory.com/blob:ht...e-fcbba9fd45f3 Cheers, Peter

Ignored

Dear Fellow Traders,

I finally decided to drop a note on my 3+years experience in and out of the Forex Arena and almost 9 months since I landed on George’s TMA thread where I started random chats with Mr PF.

First of all PF is the ONLY profitable trader I have evidence of. I have seen some of his live accounts and I traded live with him. As a result , my results changed dramatically as you can see at the bottom of this post.

I completely agree with Peter’s post and I just want to enforce some of the ideas with my experience.

1-Acknowledgments

First of all I want to say a big thank you to all the genuine people out there who helped me to open my eyes and see Forex in a different way: ProfitFarmer, George, MoodyBoot, BlueSteel, SunnyCoast, Angelo and others who contributed to share the knowledge and also take the time to reply to so many newbies including myself.

I also want to tell all the frustrated people to stop and do an introspective analysis on your life. I’ve been there, I know what it means when you feel like throwing your time away w/o any results. Patience and keep going!

Finally I feel deeply sorry for all the trolls/shills/scammers who can’t do anything in their lives but cheat and try to make other people miserable like themselves. A word of warning "God sees all of us and what we do".

2- Pitfalls and Scams

During these three years these are the lessons learned and personal opinions:

-don’t trust anyone who is selling you the dream of get rich quick. Anything below $5,000 capital doesn’t work practically, plus as a rule of thumb any capital below 50% of your current salary is not going to pay for your bills unless you are ready to accept major DDs. These figures assume you ARE a GOOD Trader NOW!

-Before paying for courses, go to babypips uni, study, forget 98% (the 2% lot/pips/calcs must you know, Young Padawhan!) and only after that, consider some education. There are very few genuine people and plenty of scammers who boast unbelievable trading results to sell you rubbish for anything between $300 to $10,000.
And many of them are not the FB ads but people who had careers in Banks, Trading Desks and pop up in suits and fancy offices!

Quote from the so called Educators:"Oh I made 300k in two weeks but then I was burnt and it didn't suit my lifestyle"
It is sure as hell that If I can make 300k in two weeks consistently I will find every drop of life in my body to do it for 20 weeks and then RETIRE in a low cost place! Surely I won't waste 1 minute of my life to record an $1000 online course, unless the option above fails! THINK!

As a fact I’m not ashamed to say I spent $3,500 with one of the most known “teachers” from this part of the world and then I invested $10,000 into his fund, got almost into margin call and saved only $2000. I made the call, he didn't because he didn't care!He is banking the broker's introductory fees anyway!

3- My Journey with PF and George

I studied George thread over and over and there is plenty of gold nuggets in his posts and also other’s. I’ve never spoken to George but I have regular conversations with PF who is the one that helped me put things together and show me a direction with clear expectations over the past 2 months.

Start with Geroge's famous 2407! Is it enough? Not at my level! Don’t travel alone get somebody to talk to from time to time to share ideas and if you can, get a mentor.

When I say mentor, I say somebody you can talk to and NOT somebody you suck life out from! This is how it works "give and take", because if you just "take" you will ALWAYS suck from somebody breast and never walk on your feet!

Easy fix and indicators don’t exist, you must do the work once people like PF and George give you hints on their lifetime findings. The real knowledge is in the application. And I am not telling this to patronise, but because I was guilty of it as well!
This is not instant gratification this is entrepreneurship that many people in Full Time positions in corporate don't have a clue of. This is the real world not the 9-5 one!

Thanks to PF and George I am currently using Targets, TMA (fast and slow) and RSI. But this is not enough to be profitable. You need a trading plan and stick to it. You need to play around with baskets, grids, hedging and backtesting. I have spent days on excel to come up with what-if scenarios and 90% of those were thrown into the bin!

Again PF has given me ideas and showed me live trading but I’m not him so I went back to my desk and started thinking what suits me best.


I think this is enough for today, this is my live account after 2 months interaction with PF:

https://www.myfxbook.com/members/Nikt75/diego/4511715

and this is my psyquation link, currently at 85 and 9th in their public leaderboard (for the picky ones psyquation is experiencing refreshing issues , so returns are incorrect in their leaderboard)

https://app.psyquation.com/en/widget/58473?112

Hope this helps the HONESTLY struggling traders in their journey

Cheers

Diego

PS: PF as discussed if the S hits the fan please delete. I don't want this thread to experience the pain levels we had to cope with on George's

been a while, thought to post some updates and few thoughts.

for a start, I would like to thank Diego for the kind review.
while it is very early and only on his second month since we met in person,
i have only one expression jumping to mind jokingly: "i have created a monster"
he has mentioned ranking #9th on Psy, but that was 10 days ago...his score seriously jumped!
there is only 1 more ( +1 not usually visible there) to pass, and you well may be!

i certainly encourage everyone semi-serious about trading to try to build up that 6 months+ track record, the very first step forward.
nothing new there, been writing about that multiple times.
congrats Diego!

trading currently is full of challenges and full of opportunities too.
the markets have been a rollercoaster, with many assets behaving abnormally, see the falling gold prices in face of a pandemic, or the strengthening CAD in face of the rate cut.
on top the week started with a big gap, and a flash crash, things that would damage accounts even separately, but together a deadly combo.
for brokers can and do randomly widen the spreads, yesterday even London hours i could see 6-7-8 pips on minor crosses, like GA, GN, and that on the famously tight spread IC Markets, means others could be worse or a lot worse.
in times like this better to think twice over an entry, and with ADRs jumping up to 2-3x comparing to just a few weeks ago, it can be a wise decision to lower trading risk by lowering the lot size. that should help with the exposure and risk, and the larger ranges as benefit offer a good chance to capture larger TP, the results will be still very good.
at turbulent times the priority should be the protection of capital before the maximizing of profit!
with the larger ranges, it is ever more dangerous to re-categorize failed scalping entries to day trade or swing!
holding over the weekend is always somewhat risky, now it is even more true.
the brokers tend to run a mostly B-book business ( don't get mislead by the ECN or raw spread; B-book is there, and most of the trades are in that, a fact!), and to either protect themself or to their benefit, they will always use the excuse of a weekend gap where they are alone to set the exact opening price.
not once i have seen when between the 2 brokers i use now, one gap a pair up, and the other gapped the same pair somewhat down on a Monday!!
the best way to deal with this: not get yourself exposed to it, ie try to not hold trades over the weekend, especially at really volatile times, when the world is in panic. to a lesser extent, but the same applies to the midnight rollover, the brokers all widen the spread, and now widen even more. just bcos they can.
and with many accounts hitting negative balances for example at ASIC brokers who offer no negative balance protection, just expect more of the games as they try to make up for their booked losses.

At the same time, where there is panic and "blood on the street", there is opportunities.
smartly timed entries could earn a better than average return the past weeks, and there isn't any indication that things to change suddenly.
as above, the only suggestion to choose the right trading size, and try to adjust to the new, wider ranges, and swings that can change direction now regularly up and down within the hour to the tune of 100-150 pips or more on some pairs.
of course, the upside potential is strong too, and i had one of my strongest week this past year, +5.9%, even though Thursday was a 'mere' 0.14% day.
when conditions are good profit will come.
just guard the downside!
and never for a moment forget what your ultimate goal ( or should be the ultimate goal!!) of your trading: MAKING MONEY!
a day without trade is better than a day with loss!
in the past months, i have put lots of thoughts into the dd%, and finetuned a couple of things on lots and grids, and whatnot.
as a result, the drawdown is less, and the results still similar, about.
2 image to show:
note: the dd in this year to date ( if a set of entries has part(s) that close in negative, it shows as "dd" from balance, where in fact equity, of course, is at a high.

and the equity curve this year to date


the same old still apply: one day a time, a lot can be achieved. and yes, there is always another trade, too!
@day#136...and still believe it is possible to extend more.

happy weekend!
Zoltan