Building an equity millipede

I wanted to continue in this thread as I consider it life-changing information for myself, my trading, investing and business.

Therefore, I opened smallest account possible as per Graeme's recomendation: around 300 USD per 0.01 lot so even newbie traders see that trading can be start with small account. Of course, you won't get rich soon by trading that small amount, but it does not matter. Once you are profitable, you can scale up by opening bigger positions. But do not be in rush. Patience is a virtue. Not only in trading.

I started to trade this way while being at the university. One particular day stays in my mind even after so many years. As a student with not much money I traded usually with 200 EUR account, made some money, withdraw it and trade again with 200 EUR.

On that particular day I have built a decent positions (legs as Graeme liked to call them) on EURUSD. It was up around 3K EUR in equity - huge amount for me at that time. I went for run and when I came back I found all my trades closed at break-even. It was so painful experience for me that I decided to stop trading for a long while and since then I was not a huge fan of building equity and waiting indefinitely, at least not in forex market.

I tried many other approaches but did not find them so profitable and comfortable.

Later on in my life, I started a business that suceeded. Trading became hobby and was not relevant in my income part and still is not. I love it, especially when I open position at very good level and it goes my direction immediately after placing it. Profit that it generates is not that interesting anymore as other activities are more profitable, but the freedom that trading offers is just astonishing.

I became back to trading just as a hobby with no expectation of making a lot as I have more time as I had before. Also I learned so much here by reading your posts and it is the only place where you can discuss trading and its challenges and people really understand you.

Keep riding trends and feel free to make this thread live again.

I started to build positions this week on H1 chart. I do not plan to hold it indefinetily, but taking profit on weekly S/R levels. The account has very small balance and is in Czech Korunas (CZK), therefore profit is insignificant and still most trades will just die at BE or in loss. But it does not matter. Once strong trend starts we are going to participate. And of course, we'll take many losses on the way.

In a business, we are paying accountants, advisors, lawyers, salesmen, support people, assistants, managers, and so on. Those are our expenses we have to pay in order to generate profit, and bring value to the client.

In trading, we have to pay the cost of losing trades in order to participate in the market. Do not consider losing trade as a problem or a thing that should be avoided. It is a part of the business. No loss, no profit.

Just be disciplined and do what is important and stop doing everything else. I am not talking only about trading. It applies to any area of your life.

EURJPY could not break through support. Support seemed to be strong enough on weekly so diversification has happened and small profits have been taken in order to grow balance.

Balance grow around 10% and equity is slightly higher than last week.

I found taking profit on supports and resistances on weekly chart makes a huge difference. I tried to follow Graeme's recommendations but in this particular point I could not bear it mentally. I believe Graeme's psychology was very different and holding trades for months and years could work for him. It just does not work for me because I do not like to see my positions dying after hitting XY% return on the account.

However, I have to say that Graeme's way of thinking changed my trading for ever and Im very thankfull to this thread and people who were posting regurarly.

EURUSD is at very interesting level and there might be very good risk to reward ratio. If the position is built and price goes up it could bring hundrends of % return just on this pair.

You can always go down to smaller timeframes and try to catch the move with small risk. That is the beauty of this method.

Keep building your equity.

Do not overtrade

Number one problem when I started to trade this way was overtrading. I thought I could open as many trades as possible just because once I hit a jackpot and it makes my account back and much more. And I was wrong.

I had to learn to trade one setup and stick to it. And only trade when I saw the setup. Today I trade usually 2-3 times per day for about 15min and open new trades if there is a setup or move SL to BE if I find it a good idea. If there is not, I do nothing and close the platform.

I always wanted to make a huge amount fast, but it just does not work. This method that Graeme introduced here is a real power. It should be used with caution.

Do not open trade just because you lie to yourself that your next trade might be a killer and you cant miss it. Just trade what you see on the chart and you become lucky from time to time.

Find very easy setup that works, you can use many threads here in FF that offers very good entry signals, then in a day or so, move SL to BE and wait. Repeat this every day and in about two months you'll discover how easy is to make money.

But I can assure you about one thing. If you keep staring at your platform, you'll think it is difficult and takes too much time and energy. But staring at the chart is a procrastination and does not help you at all.

Learn your entry signal, move SL to BE once profit is let's say 20-30 pip when you come back to the screen in about 4 hours after placing that trade. And keep repeating and taking every signal you find. Some of them you'll miss, it is OK. Just skip that trade and wait for another one. If it hits SL, it is also OK. If you do not move it to BE because you went to see your friends, it is also OK.

Just keep placing your trades when there is a signal.

What to do when you do not feel like opening a new trade is a good idea?

I am opening a new trade because I've got a signal to do it. And I do not feel alright opening a trade because price is around local resistance level. I feel like shorting GBPUSD might be a good idea. With relatively tight SL, of course. But I am not doing it. Let me explain why.

I have mastered my setup. It gives me many good trades and sometimes also bad trades. I mean winning and losing trades. I have also checked if that resistance is meaningful on weekly chart. And it is not. So I have ignored it and opened a trade because it is a signal that I know well. There is a chance that trade won't be a profitable and resistance will be strong.

But sometimes we do not feel like doing something. E.g. going to gym, for run, making a presentation, sales pitch or placing a trade. And it is OK. We should know what is good for us and what is not and then make 80% of time decisions that are right. Sometimes we decide to watch Netflix, eat tiramisu for dinner, skip gym and not placing a trade. We should not punish ourselves for this days where we lack discipline, they are part of our lives.

But definitely, we should come back to track and what is right even we don't feel it that way. We might take attention but do what is not comfortable.

Next time I'll tell you my personal story where you can see that making right choices on daily basis make a huge difference.

I look forward to hearing more about your story AdamO.
I too like to target weekly S/R levels for profit taking. I take my hat off to Graham for being able to run a millipede indefinitely but I found it too hard psychologically. Each of us must find what we are comfortable with and base our trading strategies around that.

I agree 100% with you. I decided to start a new thread so we do not spam it here. Feel free to join me there and also write your story, trades and ideas.

https://www.forexfactory.com/thread/...d-ride-a-trend

Thank you

How will we reconcile it with algo theory?

This is a gratitude post.

Apparently I need to make few posts before I can start my own thread, and I can't think of better way other than to start where it all really started. I registered on FF back in 2012, although my real fascination with markets, trading and anything moving with price attached to it started two years before.

Graeme gave me almost all of the foundation I am building my trading on. The infinite growth and low risk setups are one of the few fundamental truths I think are the real basis of any profitable endeavour. I am not profitable yet, but at this very moment in life it's just a matter of time.

Though we never met and never spoke, and even if I don't know whether you will ever read this, you are in the small group of people who have shaped my views the most - and for that I want to thank you. Your effort was worthwhile.

Anyone actively trading this method?