One day

Hey Reamasesa,

I just wanted to take a minute to say thank you.

I found your journal and realized you’ve been keeping it since 2016. It’s really rare to see someone document their journey for that long, honestly and consistently, with both the highs and the lows. The fact that this journal is still alive today gives a real view of what the trading path actually looks like not just PnL screenshots, but the evolution of a human over time. Strangers like me can show up years later and still learn from it. That deserves a lot of respect.

I’d love to ask you something (no pressure to answer if it’s too personal): after all this time, what are the core principles or rules that have become non-negotiable for you? The things you truly earned through experience and wish you had known from the start.
I’m also curious where you are now in terms of consistency/profitability: are you trading your own capital, or did you go through prop firms at some point? And if you’re still trading your own money, what kind of account size are you working with these days (rough ballpark, nothing specific)?

Again, thank you for keeping this going for so long. Reading your journey really helps me see trading more in terms of time and discipline instead of instant adrenaline. It’s super valuable.

All the best, and good trading

Hi Eamda,
Thank you for stopping by and the kind words, these days they mean much

I love writing so keeping a journal was natural once I started trading (both demo and live), it helped me focus, keep my mistakes visible to me, not just in my memory, keep an eye on the way I have already travelled, the one I am travelling now and the one I'd like to travel when the time comes for it to reveal itself

There are trades that didn't make it to the journal, mostly because they were.... well, me testing strategies and realizing fast, very very fast, they are not for me and truly not representing myself and how I wish to be trading but other than those I tried documenting both my demo live trades

My core principles? That is a really good question, I can tell you that today I'm filled with fear and doubt so I'm trying to shed everything I know and think I know to become a better person in every aspect of life I can. So, I can tell you about old rules and principles but it would be just that, old and not so relevant to the now because the now is suffering from FOMO, especially since I moved to trading live (again), if you wish I can delve into the Old Ones with you, some of them were good (place a SL), some were not (reverse your trades) and many others
I think that the one rule I'd like to work on today, would be to not get attached to my trades and positions, it is, alas, a work in progress and doesn't come easily or naturally to me

I'm not profitable today, I don't have a lot of capital so all my accounts, both live and demo started at 100$ and I worked my way from there, there were times I took a 100$ (live) account to 4000$ or 1000$ per account and handled a swarm of five accounts (has its own benefits than one huge accounts, sometimes) other times I burnt through accounts, both live and demo, like a summer fire
I still don't have my edge, some of it is related to the fact I'm scared, put a lot of pressure on my trading results since everything here is so expensive and we're living off one salary so everything is stressed and found its way into my trading these days, I used to be careless and much more relaxed in my trading but now I feel the pressure to do well and this is something I'm working on

I never considered going through a prop firm, even when I was successful in my trading and toyed with the idea of providing signals, that, too, blew up in smoke as the laws around here changed and we only have like three trading companies complying with the new laws, I chose FXCM as they allow opening a small trading account but I can't say I'm pleased with them, the overall expenses are huge, in my opinion (paid 16$ as rollover fees on a 113$ account that and the losses didn't do good to my account or self esteem) and while I understand the fees, the margin for a 0.01 position is around 15$ which limits what I can do with my small account, but it's all on me because I chose to open and use a small account so I can't complain to anyone but myself about it

Time and discipline are crucial here, when I traded stocks it was very different in every aspect, now, I have to pace myself, not react and grow a bit more confidence
And learn to cut my losses, even though it means 20 losing trades burn my small account, I need to trade like I would have traded without the fear
Work in progress *SIGH*

Thank you for the good wishes, my your path through life be an interesting one

USDCAD, 1H

Decided to add to this position, lots of knocking on local support, nice IB and Mother Bar, up down "pattern" repeated two times within the Mother Bar range
Entered a bit early so I'm anxious, tightened the SL of the new trades, both will eat away the current open profit but I tell myself a nice story about price moving down and I'm waiting for the happy end of it
It might travel up a bit before going down, I hope I can stomach it, though

Thank you for your honest answer. Thank you for being unfiltered, for showing the good and the ugly.

The journal. You say it like it’s natural, but keeping something that consistent, that clear, for that long… that’s huge discipline. And it’s exactly what people like me need. You’re not writing it to “show that you know,” you’re doing it to stay true to yourself, to confront your own mistakes, to keep a record of the path you’ve already walked.

You talk about attachment to positions, and that really hits me too. It’s not just technical, it’s not just about having an “edge,” it’s emotional. People always say trading is 80% psychology and 20% strategy. You can really feel it: the calm you have in demo turns into something dark and heavy the moment you’re live. It shows that the goal isn’t only to “win,” it’s to evolve as a person.

I just want to tell you something simple: even if today you say “I’m not profitable,” from the outside what you’re building has value. The journaling, the honesty, the self-reflection, the refusal to dress up the story, that helps strangers. Literally. So thank you for continuing to write all these years. Thank you for leaving a trace instead of disappearing when it got hard.

And thank you for keeping the light on for others while you’re still looking for your own.

Took me several days to fully digest this wonderfully heart warming message, thank you. It came at a time of great turmoil and hardship and was much appreciated

We have a saying here that roughly translates to something like "You can't sharpen a knife only against itself", you need to sharpen it against something else.
It's not that I'm establishing myself as a trading master through this journal, I'm not, but sharing my journal, path and various aspects of my life is part of how I view and live life in general, at a very basic and fundamental level, all of us individuals are connected, this site is part of it, allowing strangers like us to connect

Thank you again for your message, it did more than simple good

EURGBP, 1H

I actually had a very nice profit and decided to the compound and add to the position when price broke the previous interesting level. I was asleep when price hit area "1" which should have alerted me to be cautious of my profit, I was also asleep when price hit area "2", which was where I would have exited(*) but, alas, I was sleeping on my new and very comfortable new mattress an overslept like crazy so, as always in these kind of situations, I grudgingly let price behave as it will and I roll with it

(*) - That was the adult, mature thing to do, which I, obviously, am still only thinking about and not actually acting upon *SIGH* attachments to trades and hope are something I'm working on, still not a lot of progress

EURGBP 1H

A shining example of how I trade *NOT HAPPY**AT ALL*
I thought price would push down but it didn't, instead I was offered multitude of prices/points in time to exist my position in a reasonable loss and even some, albeit very small, profit
Honestly, I don't know why I hang on to such trades, especially when I know they are failing, I think it's the hope that I will not have to lose, which is ridiculous, if I lose I lose, but perhaps the underlining fear is that my small account will reach a point I can't trade it no more because of margin requirements, well, I'm nearly there so what's the point of this fear, eyh?

NZDJPY 1H

OK, that was a hate trade, in a matter of seconds I convinced myself all is well and, of course, lost, stupid, I know, got angry for losing and with myself, which only lead to more misery

GBPJPY 1H

So I waited patiently for 10 whole minutes (yey for "adult" me) before opening this FOMO position which lost in a matter of minutes

USDJPY 1H

Another FOMO trade, can't say much more about it, looking at it, other than telling myself a nice story, I can't understand why I opened this

EURUSD, 10 pip Renko

That was a slow burn, waited for this setup to cook for a few days, 1st TP was hit, I secured some pips and went to bed thinking the slow burn would continue, price went up, took my SL and went down merrily without me

Still got some profit out of it so all is well, could've been better, maybe next time

EURNZD, 10 pip Renko

Looks messy but failed to break highest high, up move looks exhausted when zooming out and a nice fractal formation
1st TP was hit, moved SL to lock a few more pips, would probably trail it by 25 pips just for the fun of it

USDJPY, 10 pip Renko

Was watching this yesterday and got convinced it was a false breakout, even though it was very apparent that resistance because support and that spot I placed my pending orders became an interesting area, sheer dumb luck didn't trigger my position and as usual, instead of looking truth in the face and riding that nice upward move, I benched myself with fear and later on, anger


[EDIT]
And now this is happening, super exciting even if I won't take any position as I'm doing the adult thing here of actually getting up from my chair after a very long day at the office and head home, hopefully when I get there, there would have been a nice pull back of sorts and I'd enter a short position but with my luck price will drop like a stone and I'd get scared to join the train :S
Will see what give in about an hour when I'm in front of my PC

USDJPY, 10 pip Renko

Shortly after taking the last screenshot for this pair, my PC crashed and took its sweet time reviving so I missed the initial move on this
I'll keep an eye on it, if it doesn't reverse I might join the bear train on this one

USDJPY, 10 pip Renko

Managed to hop on the bear train after the last higher high, first TP hit, I wanted to add to the position but missed the ideal price and price never returned there so cancelled the pending orders and moved the SL so now it's a ride free trade
If it takes out the SL, I might open another short position but we'll see

EURGBP, 10 pip Renko

This is where my interest lies now, if I had enough margin to trade it I would have been more interested but even as a mental exercise, this is a great opportunity



[UPDATE]
And we're on, first TP got filled, moved SL to secure some profit so now it's a ride free, which, I hope, will not spike up to take my SL and continue downward without me

GBPJPY, 10 pip Renko

Thought this one was going down, it probably will but I didn't calculate the margin properly and didn't want a margin call closing my positions, tight trailed price and I got at least the swap for it

USDCAD, 10 pip Renko

One of the things with small accounts is, when you have several consecutive losses you reach a point where opening a trade requires too much margin and puts a strain on the account and, of course, on me
I had four pending orders, thinking that when one position triggers I'll cancel the other, well, they both got triggered when I was away and the margin left my account struggling, since I had more faith in the EURGBP position, I closed one of the trades in this position for a loss to allow the other trades to have enough wriggle room
Trailed SL by 25 pips and now it's about to close so I will get a bit of profit from this even after the forced close of the first trade

EURGBP, 10 pip Renko

Joined the joy ride again, not sure how low it would go this time, I hope it would reach the last support, at least but TP1 was hit and SL was moved to secure a bit of profit, gotta love the pairs with point value of more than 1, and they actually pay back a (very) small swap at rollover (not sure what it's called, hmmmm)
Anyways, I'm happy with what is even if it wasn't a fast trade and somewhat scarry when it zoomed up with that huge nasty rollover swap, still good, profit is profit

I am pleased to see that you continue to trade Renko.....Most move on after a a short time as Renko is not as simple as it looks.
These days I just trade Gold and only try to find 1-2 trades a day.
I do like Pending orders but not multiple orders like you have done in the past but I am sure you have learnt from this.
Just took a Sell order but I consider this to be a "B" Class trade but in saying this I do trade like a Fisherman at times eg casting a net at certain levels...T/P set at 300 pips but this is not set in stone as you can see...A Bird in the hand is better than 2 in the Bush
One member posted that waiting for a trade can be 90% of the time and this is so true...Boredom is the Enemy.

Ronnies Ramblings.