Old Fashioned Trading - Aimed at First - Two Year Traders

Burn, Baby, Burn - FOR NERDS (risk:reward 5:1)

Original Apollo 11 guidance computer (AGC) source code for Command Module (Comanche055) and Lunar Module (Luminary099). Digitized by the folks at Virtual AGC and MIT Museum. The goal is to be a repo for the original Apollo 11 source code. As such, PRs are welcome for any issues identified between the transcriptions in this repository and the original source scans for Luminary 099 and Comanche 055, as well as any files I may have missed.



BURN_BABY_BURN--MASTER

Was the name NASA engineers called the program, that took them/us to the moon 12,890 kg fuel/oxidiser per second

If you're not a nerd a petrol tanker lorry you see on the road, the contents of that every second, pumped, and burnt

If you're a bit weird and live west of the Atlantic, A gasoline semi, 18-wheeler, big rig, the contents of that every second, pumped, and burnt

28,415 fuel/oxidiser pounds per second


https://github.com/chrislgarry/Apoll...er/Luminary099

Fear - First Attempt at tackling, there will be a follow up: Linked with post#28 Hesitancy

US Medical Disclaimer: Not medical or psychological advice. For discussion only.

The true harm comes from the fear itself, not the event.

This is the big one, incredibly complex and yet quite simple to fix. Fear, it is not true fear; I would describe it more as an anxious feeling. The 'fight' or 'flight' animal instinct. We are experiencing the flight, we want to stop the feeling, we want to run, close the trade, but because of our emotional attachment to money, we have to stay, watch, and it adds to the anxiety. I'm concerned I may sound a little authoritarian on the subject, trying to edit and yet still give usable advice

If you have taken a trade and found you're instinct is to close the trade immediately, or you have closed the trade before the first candle has closed, relieved when the trade is over, or you have had your finger hovering over the mouse button ready to close, experienced sweaty palms or even a slight tremor to your hand, then you are suffering from fear.

There are a few possible reasons and how you got here:

You are trading with money you can not afford to lose. You are over-leveraged, you have other life or money pressures, and that might have been what led you to Google "how to earn money fast" in the first place.

You may have had a hesitant period that you couldn't fix. You may have swapped strategies trying to fix, or you have had a bad experience, a large one-off loss, and you have only recently started trading. I have never taken a funded challenge, but from talking to other traders, with their limits on daily loss, I think this is particularly hard to deal with, and why I am not a fan of funded prop accounts.

Additionally, in nearly all cases, you will not have been following money management rules. The type of detailed structure rules that I have outlined on the previous page (post #60). You are perhaps aware of the rules, but you were not following them at the time the damage was done. The hesitant behaviour, closing trades early, will lead to death by a thousand cuts, and this will lead to fear. The example from risk management (post#60). 50% is all that is required to make a large amount of money, 33% to break even. So, if you are consistently losing money every week, your strategy is worse than a coin toss. 33% may be outperforming you. The reason for this can only be; you are not following the rules. You may have rules, but they are not being followed. The absolute root cause in this example, will be that you are an impatient, impulsive individual.

If you can navigate demo mode, you can make money in demo consistently. By demo, I mean not with crazy, reckless gambling techniques. If you are following the same structure in demo and you are making money, then it is an emotional attachment to money. It is a self-preservation, protection from how it affects you emotionally, and this will be from a large one-off loss. This again is a lack of self-discipline, either not following rules or additionally greed. Large losses are nearly always the result of greed, arrogance, or emotional revenge trading. Do you find yourself taking trades and saying, 'let's see how it goes'? All of these cases can be fixed with money management and following the rules. If you have problems with self-discipline, this will not be a surprise to you.

When it gets severe, with complete honesty, it is going the be a long time to fix. You have to stop live trading immediately; it will only get worse if you don't. Trading your way out, will not be possible, and will only waste more money and time. You need to repair the damage, build trust, and confidence. This can only be completed in a low-pressure environment; the best tool we have for this is the simulator. 100s of hours, days, and weekends are required, and you may need a high win-rate strategy.

It is this reason why I have published my strategy. High win rate strategies are not easy strategies; they unfortunately need a bit of judgement and experience. Pullback needs time devoted to training, not a huge amount, but will need a time investment to become competent. You need to tackle in steps and build confidence in steps. The target, go from the simulator to demo, and then finish three complete months in demo at a profit.

You have to be strict, with strict discipline, and that probably isn't going to be one of your strong points. You need to get aggressive with yourself; it needs to be enforced. If you find in demo, you're not following the rules. You find yourself impulsively taking trades, saying to yourself, 'let's see.' You need to stop trading for the day and resume trading tomorrow. Each time you break a rule, you have to stop. You have to follow the strategy you intend to trade with; trust and confidence have to be there. If you are scientific in the way you think, then stats will help with this trust, and you will become a better trader from the experience in the simulator; it is not wasted time. You are delaying your dream, and there will be a point when the switch flips and you stop breaking the rules.

If you have terrible self-discipline, you will be in an endless cycle of repeated self-destruction behaviour. Nothing I write here will stop this cycle. As horrible as this sounds, you may need to face facts and accept that trading is not for you. Move on with your life, and find something else you are good at. Emotional attachment to money is probably the hardest to fix, depending on your childhood and whether as a family you had money or not. Subconsciously, you inherit your parents' money habits. In mild form, you may remove stops and hope the trade will turn in your favour. When more severe, you will have a particularly bad time getting over a money loss; you hold on to trades. You can't close when in a loss, have feelings of regret after closing trades, and feel you could have had more pips.

This may be a new rookie phase; I have had regrets after closing, and I would describe myself as having no emotional attachment to money, a big zero, and yet I have experienced regret in the first 12 months of trading. I see this topic in the forums quite often. With time, you realise there is always more, and there is so much money on display that in the end, you stop caring. If you find yourself still doing this after a year or so, you may have a problem with greed, and this, I think, perhaps the hardest to fix, because it is so ingrained in your childhood and personality. You will be married to trades, and every disciplined rule will be ignored. Until the emotional attachment to money is resolved, fear from this will never be fixed. A year of losses and repeated losses, my only advice would be to stop trading. Until this emotional attachment to money is removed, you will waste large sums of money and will never be profitable.

Once 3-months of profitable demo is completed, you can then trade live at 0.01 lot, with enough money in the account to make that a maximum 1% risk trade. Place your first trade and turn the computer off. Look back later in the day, this I know for you, is going to be extremely difficult. You may need to find a policeman and punch him in the face, so you are out of the way in jail. You can set an alert, but I think this will encourage you to check and interfere. By this stage, you have completed stats for your strategy. You know the odds, the probability of a fail; if the odds fail, you know that it is RNG. You did nothing wrong. Following a tested strategy, there can be no wrong trade; it doesn't exist.

Depending on how that trade went, it will have made a positive difference, or you will be hiding behind the back of the sofa in 'demo'; You will be more than competent with money management and familiar enough with your strategy to trade again. With money at 1% risk, trade again, and turn computer off, and go out for the day. With high win rate, it's will be unlucky to achieve, 2 losses in a row, is a 1 in 10 chance, just keep repeating. My first two were losses, honestly I wasn't feeling anxious, and because of the probability work I had completed i had confidence. Confidence will return, trade a session, trade a complete day, a week, and then a month. A full month will probably not be required, and after a week or two, you will forget what all the fuss was about.

You are going to feel really good, the sense of achievement will be immense, and you have to watch for the signs of overconfidence. To remind yourself, it's a good idea to have a print displaying the bad one-off loss, your Profit and Loss from your worst moments, a ridiculous impulsive trade, buy the top, sell the bottom entry, the worn out mouse from the tremors, something unique to you, on your desk to remind you, what it cost to get you here.

Also, you will shortly face a test from a consecutive loss period, and you may have a moment. Where the fear returns, not again, not again thoughts. Only you will know how to deal with this at that stage. I had a moment, and after the nearly 12-month delay, the time I had lost and the work, the night shifts and time involved, I knew what I had to do, and I wasn't about to let it happen again. If that isn't enough, a period of restrictive trading may be required. I would resist going to demo at this stage; otherwise, every time you face a problem, you will run to the safety of demo.

From my risk management rules(post#60), I enforce a limit of max trades per day if I'm not satisfied with the previous week's performance. This is my way of reminding myself where I have been and what I have been through to get here; it reminds me of the importance of self-discipline.

Summary; Nearly all I've listed, discussed above are the direct emotional result from bad habits, behaviours from psychology. Following strict money management rules will prevent you from detouring down this cul-de-sac for 12-months. Due to ego, and perhaps trying to avoid shame, the topic of 'fear', and it's link and frequency to trading, especially with new traders, and it's damage to trader performance, is not discussed as often as it should be in this forum. There is an element of 'fun vacuum' about the topic on a forum. I've seen it mentioned, once or twice in the last twelve months. It is more common than is admitted, because of our initial rushed, lack of knowledge approach to trading. The initial familiar first big win trade story (see post#17) and how it results in over confidence, and then ultimately, over the following months, leads to 'fear'.

You are not on your own with this, you are not unique. Responses to posts, I've seen such as "there is nothing to be scared of", will not fix this, this is usually the reply from someone who has not experienced the feeling and has no knowledge on the subject. They are either trying to help or showing off and displaying how strong and capable they believe they are. It needs a common sense approach, once it gets past a certain stage, a break from trading with training time is the only long term permanent fix... It takes real guts to step out of the crowd, admit you're struggling, and need help, it is not weakness, but I acknowledge that not everyone wants this level of personal feelings, broadcast on a forum for everyone to read. No one is laughing or smiling reading these posts, but if you can't speak up, and yet you want advice, or to ask a question, send me a 'pm'. I'm not lucking for students or money, but if you don't want to discuss it here in public, then you can pm/dm me, I will never share knowledge or discuss you with anyone other than my dog, and her english is shit.

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit," - Aristotle

Trading as a Game - Training Exercises

This will not be a detailed post, but I’ll mention a few of the games and exercises I’ve used over the years. As you may know from my previous posts, I’m a strong supporter of using the simulator. However, it has one limitation: if your memory is fairly good and you replay the same data often enough, you begin to recognise market patterns from memory. On the 15-minute timeframe, when I replay random data from this year, after a few hours or days I start to remember what comes next.

There are a few exercises you can try using a demo or live account. I think they are useful training tools. One of them is especially effective and worth repeating regularly. These exercises also help manage boredom and reduce the urge to trade impulsively.

Game 1

Reset an account down to $50-$100, no rules, no money rules, and try to beat last week's score and your all-time score. It doesn't encourage bad behaviour; if anything, the opposite is true. You have to risk large amounts to be the all-time high score, and then manage risk to the end of the week. It's good practice with entries; trading frequency is increased - I do this every week.

Game 2

Place $50-$100 in an isolated account, and practice 5:1 rounder number, hedge trades. - Practicing hedging, I got bored with this as similar to the above, and dropped this.

Game 3

$50-$100 in a demo account, and every morning at 9 am UTC (London) or 10:30 US EST (New York), or, Asia times, need to be after manipulation hour, and as little input from you as possible, it should be purely random but structured, toss a coin or use a random generator.

https://www.random.org/coins/

RANDOM.ORG’s numbers come from natural atmospheric noise, radio static. (They are truly random).

Place a 2:1 or 3:1 trade. In the direction of the random outcome, heads - buy. Try and get the stop under a recent low or high. If not, a fixed 1.5-2.8 x ATR stop to allow for volatility. Track results

I did this for a period, and haven't since. It wiped the floor with my performance. The result of this took me to demo and simulator for quite some time; it's humbling

Edit: These games are alongside your normal trading; these are not replacements or strategies. They are training exercises. Game 3, For you to be outplayed/outperformed by static radio noise - it can only be from bad habits. You need n = greater than 20 to be meaningful, > 1000 to be scientific. I've had this match or beat most RSI-based systems - It shows the importance of money management/randomness, RNG chaos side of markets. Most indicators are comparable to a coin toss. If you react badly to the idea of this, or its results. You have tested strong for 'ego' bigger than your head.

Hey M I do read all your posts with much interest just think from my perspective wouldn’t I have gotten bored flipping coins all these years ? My intention was pure to help people understand and take anything what’s helpful I didn’t realize that things were being broadcasted on a 4 dimensional screen I would have been more prepared and avoided being agnostic. Now we both know what passion and safety means. Pick any sport you’ll put all the energy for an hour or two consider it a tournament one has to conserve energy for even longer, In trading it has more to do with skills and understanding less with energy stuff!sometimes I worn out yet my muscles memory turns the auto pilot on, there are always hundred reasons to contradict though I just need one solid reason to move forward with head held high.
i had some weird days I hope you understand how things are from my end when all I wanted to just share, knowing I would made feel criminal about it I would have never joined FF in the first place. I have defined what wealth means to me and I’ll be working on conserving and growing it along.

I wish you the best. Hope we will keep working on improving our trading and grow in this journey of life.

Not sure if I'm understanding. Are you using a translator? Is the English translated from your native language?

A Game huh... I like that!

An Ufo shoots a light beam towards my Target!

I'm a big gamer, loads of nerdy titles KSP, Satisfactory, transport fever 2. Red Dead 2 my favourite, gaming since the 80's Atari, C64, Amiga, Windows 95

oh boy! Dont get me started with Satisfactory

I used my moral compass

Buddy...I don't understand 90-95% of your message..Writing this as neutrally as possible for the translator, and hopefully it still is friendly.


just think from my perspective wouldn’t I have gotten bored flipping coins all these years ?

You think the coin flipping is not a useful exercise, not sure?


My intention was pure to help people understand and take anything what’s helpful I didn’t realize that things were being broadcasted on a 4 dimensional screen

I don't understand 4-dimensional screen?


I would have been more prepared and avoided being agnostic.

Agnostic/atheist religion, or is this translation?


Now we both know what passion and safety means. Pick any sport you’ll put all the energy for an hour or two consider it a tournament one has to conserve energy for even longer,

Not sure on this bit either?


In trading it has more to do with skills and understanding less with energy stuff!sometimes I worn out yet my muscles memory turns the auto pilot on, there are always hundred reasons to contradict though I just need one solid reason to move forward with head held high.

You trade on autopilot muscle memory, because trading for so long, again I'm not sure?


i had some weird days I hope you understand how things are from my end when all I wanted to just share, knowing I would made feel criminal about it I would have never joined FF in the first place. I have defined what wealth means to me and I’ll be working on conserving and growing it along.

I think you're saying - you have weird days, but you get through it, because of the above maybe?


Are you Hindi, Bengali / Telugu, Tamil?

You like?

I have played it tons when it came out! Its very addicting to optimise your stuff.

I'm a big fan, developers are brilliant too.

I'm going to do a coin toss Training Exercise as an extra game for a month, and I'll publish stats at the end of the month.

The 15-minute timeframe and the expected results will be close to TDI performance. 1-hour TDI is slightly better.

Trades will be 3:1 R:R, under a recent low/high. 2.5% Account Balance Risk.

Asia 23:00 US EST time 1st trade, I'll show the first day results and the results at the month's end.
Target n, 3 trades a day, n =60 at the end of the month, but Thanksgiving might end it early.

I'd write a cbot for this, but computers generate pseudorandom numbers, not truly random ones...

www.random.org will be the source

This form allows you to flip virtual coins. The randomness comes from atmospheric noise, which for many purposes is better than the pseudo-random number algorithms typically used in computer programs.

Every Day, 3 trades a day, times will be the same for all & the following:

Asia 22:00 EST

London 04:00 EST

New York 09:30 EST

Starting Balance £1000

Trade 1 (Asia) SELL = Loss -77pip -£23.48

Trade 2 (London) BUY = Loss -100pip -£22.84

Trade 3 (New York) SELL = Loss -£22.28

End Day Balance £931.4

Best thread to look at for hedging around/random

Forum Dynamics

The irony of this topic is large, but I think the distraction is worth a warning topic. In your search for knowledge, you can become a little 'head down' - but limit your time on Forex Factory during trading hours, and get your 'head up'.

It's human psychology that brings us here to this forum. There are a few categories of members who register:


Show off - Here to impress, believe trading is like the movies, post $$$ account balances, maybe a secret commercial - selling the dream.
Boredom - Arse about, make jokes & entertain.
Learn - Newish members, looking to learn, hoping to be able to show off at some stage or be a romantic, they don't like posting in case stamped on by the boredom group or show off group.
Lurkers - Most common, looking to read and learn, and get free signals - generally all free, nothing back, take, take, take.
Romantic/idealistic - Sharing of knowledge, reading content, learn something new, and generally from a science or similar background, and are used to sharing knowledge concepts. Sing to their dog, and lookout of their window with heart-shaped eyes.
Secret Commercial - Hiding in secret, looking for customers. These are more common than you think, I guess at 10-15%, leave bread-crumbs to follow, looking for pm, Discord groups, get you away from the forum, signals - Like the 'Pied Piper'.
Commercial - Actual commercial, end up here by force. After being discovered as a secret commercial.
Dummy spoof - These are owned by commercial secret, commercial, show off, or boredom members.

Lots believe that for themselves to win at trading, you have to lose, and so they don't like to share information. This belief is true, but *retail is so tiny that if we all took a trade in the same direction and place a trade now, the market would move ever so slightly, maybe nothing observable.


Trading hours & Forum.

Personally, if I'm free to take unlimited trades and I have no self-discipline restrictions, then between the session times that I trade, I don't read or post on the forum.

It affects your judgement from all the outside noise, from the categories of members who register, and consequently, you are unable to be in a situation to completely trust their intentions. It adversely affects your internal bias, manipulation, doubt, hesitation, and fear.


I think, in my opinion, if you are actively looking for a trade, time on the Interactive boards should be limited, and read as part of your training time later.

* Retail traders make up a very small portion of the Forex market, with an estimated share of only 2.5% of the total daily turnover

Gartley Example - Linked to AB=CD (post #48)

I don't trade these; they are high probability, but the trade from these will be a corrective wave. With the way I target impulse moves, they don't usually pass the criteria, and the R:R with these are usually terrible. You trade from D take profit at B and/or C. Stop loss is way under/over D. They are almost 1:1, proper sizing for these, and I generally don't bother. If you see these frequently, you are in or are entering 'ranging' market conditions. The market is consolidating, Wyckoff' Accumulation' phase and start looking for a spring.

The pass-out, gauge and measure your training development hours. If you spot these before they complete. You are rank sergeant

Tip: To spot look for AB=CD pattern and then look back for XA leg.

https://harmonictrader.com/harmonic-...rtley-pattern/
My example is bullish
First is bullish, second bearish,
Last image TradingView with harmonic indicator 1-hour XAUUSD & settings


A good TradingView indicator - https://www.tradingview.com/script/l...ktesting-Tool/

I have a cheat sheet of all the harmonic patterns if you like......................

Example Trade - A Near Miss (Nearly Losing Trade)

1. Shooting Star
2. Bearish Engulfing
3. Volume is up


There was a break. Under the London 'POC'. Volume is up for that candle, volume delta is up, and candle time was 09:15 EST. If not so close to the open, I would have taken the trade. The shooting star is not reliable; it's better when there is a longer top wick and with volume. However, it is sufficient for a trade, and if not near the open, I would have taken the trade.

10:15 EST, the bearish engulfing candle time, good momentum wick, low bottom wick. It was not quite over that line I have drawn. Volume has decreased (volume is the blue line before the two double yellow lines). The candle volume before the 10:15 EST was up, delta is down. It's this reason I track the delta; I didn't take trade with delta down, and in combination with the candle not quite over that line.

It's reasons like this that I brought in the volume delta (the final polish 1/2 trades a week) post #8


It has been a low-volume day, with lots of below-average volume. Will be finishing the day without a trade, with it getting so close to the previous day high and volume the way it is, it is now a bullish break. However, I'm going to play it safe and skip the rest of the day, and will be back for the Asia Open.

From experience, if volume is down like this from the open, it will carry on reducing until the close, and is essentially trading background noise.

I've linked to the front page, thanks.

Wckoff Spring - Equal Low/Equal High

Short version (abbreviated): EQL EQH


Wyckoff Explanation:

In Wyckoff’s model (1920s–30s), a spring occurs at the end of an accumulation range, just before an uptrend begins. His explanation focused on supply and demand dynamics, not liquidity or stop hunts, although the outcome is the same.

Here’s how he described: A spring happens when price briefly breaks below the established support level, draws in sellers, and then quickly reverses upward, showing that large operators have absorbed the remaining supply.


Modern language SMC/ICT Explanation:

It has a couple of meanings; It shows that price has been rejected from that level more than once, meaning it’s an area of resistance/support. Equal highs/lows are seen as liquidity pools, and places where stop orders accumulate above/below them. In smart money or institutional trading concepts (ICT, SMC), equal highs/lows = liquidity target, not a strong resistance/support. You wait and trade after price breaks above/below them to “grab liquidity” before reversing.

You will commonly see this at market open and in the first hour. Usually a weak kicker candle, pushing down or up to sweep, and then a 'mallet to your face' and the switcheroo - Reversal.

Like a magician, asking me to look into his eyes. "Look into my eyes, what am I holding in my hand"? You look at his hand, you look back at the magician and say "An Ace, you are holding an ACE"! He smiles, he slowly starts to grin, and then hits you in the face with a mallet.

With break pullback style trading, and the way you mark highs/lows, you will notice these quite often, as they don't quite break a line. You are looking for an area that is relatively close together, separated by no more than a couple of days, and the wick to push up or below, and end a little bit higher or lower. In Confluence, a high amount of volume on either side, it doesn't have to be on both.

Classic Language: Wyckoff spring, end of an accumulation phase, and starting to build towards the disruption phase.
The SMC/ICT style language: These are liquidity sweeps. Stops/limit orders - a high number will be here.


How To Trade

With waiting for a pullback as the first stage, I don't generally trade these every time; I use them more as Confluence. However, if these are on a whole round number, I trade as 5:1.


Examples

Yesterday afternoon was a good example, 'Bear', and last Thursday for a 'Bull'. You are looking for one side to have a large amount of volume.

Three image examples: Last Thursday 30/10/25 (if weird -10/30/25) and yesterday 03/11/25 (11/03/25). Last image is the 5-minute version of last Thursday, with every 200pip round numbers marked - these I trade.

Also, in the images, you can see why I like a fib zig-zag indicator - It helps me spot AB=CD and equal lows and highs (0.9 -1.0). Although if you can't spot these, you need a visit to Specsavers (opticians)