Update 07.21.2019--------I started learning to trade in 2007. I currently trade with fibs and price action that I learned from the James16 group and I am grateful for those years of studying with such a solid pack of traders. I also must say that the idea of using the fib tool in such a way that I could set parameters and look at this device here on my MT4 platform in a whole different light than 99% of the traders teach out there came from time spent on the Skunny thread. Since then, I have been developing a way of measuring oversold and overbought markets with the fib tool. My success rate is pretty impressive and Im very grateful. The journey that I have documented here is probably not of much help to anyone. It is my legacy for my children should they decide to use it. I don't want anyone who might come across this journal to waste time trying to figure out what is real. If you feel inclined to study the material here, my posts from about p57 would be of the most value. I started to develop my most successful trading from the ideas that appear there forward. Best of luck to all. It's way more fun to win than lose.
Update 03.09.2010--------If you have stumbled across my journal and want to read some on how I trade, please start at page 51. I started this journal as a new trader and the material up to that point is more about my journey as a trader. I trade for a living now and am more than happy to assist new traders with questions on my style of trading. Thank you and best of luck to you in the markets.
Advice for new students to Forex Factory
I know about price action because of the James16 Chart thread
....Most of my posts are directed at the newer traders/students here and this one is no different. I have been trading for 3 years now. The knowledge that I have recieved was not only due to my own efforts but was paid for by others in lost sleep, lost time with loved ones, pain, divorce, lost money, guilt, second guessing, lost self esteem, frustration and for some that I have read and know the lost a part of themselves. I feel an obligation to write today a straight forward and hopefully a sobering but positive message as I have felt some of these things myself. I will not be able to learn this stuff for you but maybe I can appeal to your present state of mind on whatever level you are on in your learning to trade journey. With all that said I will now make a statement that many who I respect will disagree with. I believe that just about anyone has the potential to be a profitable professional day trader. The obvious variable is how?
Just like my trading style is nothing new -all borrowed and assembled from some really good parts-I am going to borrow many things already said here and just say them a little differently. You see I realized that what we are doing on the J16 thread is pretty much all the same stuff just a different way of looking at it based on our own personalities. The basic "Dirt Simple" material doesn't change, it is just applied according to your comfort level and personal style. I personally do not trade the daily charts much. If you are a beginner you should--period. It's a Dirt Simple commandment.
Now I'm 43 yrs old and haven't been trading as long as I'd like but I know some stuff and you new ladies and gents listen good to the following or don't waste your time here or your family's time there.
These are the CRUCIAL elements that make trading into a consistent money making business rather than a fruitless gambling exercise.
1.Business: Treat trading like it is a business. Your government is treating your trading like a business from day 1 if you are using bonafide funds to trade with. Approaching your trading like a business is mandatory in every single trade, day or year that you trade.
2.Education: In any successful business, the proprietor needs to know what he is doing. In our business, it is about learning the technical aspects of trading. You don’t get fully educated by reading a book, watching videos or trading your own "fully funded" account. Trying to trade your own "fully funded" account as a newbie in a “trial and error setting” can only do one thing, defeat you. I don't care what your path to learning might be. Demo trade several months or however long it takes for you to get comfortable with the material before trading with real money; when you begin to trade with money, keep your position sizes small. ‘Hands-on’ education is what is needed to even begin to understand the complexity of trading. You are fortunate enough to have found this material and get the benefit of many posts left here 7 days a week. You will learn THE correct basics on trading at J16. Education during a real time setting allows you to keep your learning curve small and protect your capital through the long and treacherous process. Once you understand then you can commit funds to a live account.
3.Psychology: To be a consistently profitable day trader you must have the proper mind set; I got my mind right way before I was able to understand the material. For some, it is the other way around. Without the proper mindset you might as well head to a casino. You will find almost as many people willing to take your money there as you will find trading forex. Simply put, you must be immune to losing money and must forget your last trade regardless of whether you made or lost money. Losing money is a reality in this business.
4.Methodology: You must learn the proper way to trade the basic technicals of forex as taught here and never deviate from these basic foundations. Go astray from this advice and you will find the the second guessing yourself and the 20/20 hindsight as uninvited guests who are in no hurry to leave. Accepting that losses are a part of the business and getting the proper mindframe will insure that you will never second guess yourself because every single trade will only be placed when certain conditions are met, the same way, all of the time, regardless of the market environment.
5.Focus/Commitment: At all times, you must keep your eye on the prize, making money. This sounds so simple, yet you will find yourself while learning allowing perfectly profitable trades turn into losers for innumerable reasons. You must convince yourself that there is no option for longterm failure. Failure over the longterm means that you gave money to the winners. I don't want to be THAT guy.
6.Patience: Patience comes in many forms when it comes to trading. We must wait for our trade to come, wait for the proper tome to close a trade, wait until we know our material, wait for tomorrow, next week etc. Never force a trade. Wait for the proper technical setup. Let the trades come to you the same as any "conventional" business lets the customers come to them. It's ok to pass on a trade I promise. There will be more. I promise again.
7.Discipline: Develop your own rules based on th material taught here and your own defineable observations and stick to them ALL the time. Forgetting or ignoring your rules will make someone else a profitable trader and spiral your psycology down into bottomless mind traps. Use proper money management do not overleverage yourself. USE STOP LOSSES.
8.Stop Losses: Use them as if your life depended on them, they are an ABSOLUTE MUST; they allow you to manage the trade the right way and maximize gains. If you do not use stops, stop trading right now! Seriously. Never assume a trade has to come back to your entry price to get you out at breakeven. Now if you don’t believe me? Try it and see what it does to your head. When you play for breakeven without a stop it is game over. Try philanthropy instead of trading. It's your calling. The minute you do not use stops, this immediately throws you into the category of the vast majority of "traders" who are doing nothing more than giving their money away. Remember this too, a few winning trades can easily lead you into false sense of security. Always use stops, they are there to protect you!
9.Risk/reward ratio: Not many beginners use this to their advantage. You should never trade unless you have a defined and profitable risk/reward ratio. By doing this, believe it or not, you can be a very successful trader if you are only correct a fraction of the time on your trades. You are probably asking how is this possible? It is all about trading the right way and managing the trade effectively. Using proper entry and exit prices along with using stops effectively allows one to make money on a consistent basis.
WHY A JOURNAL: I have been debating this for several weeks now and so here goes. I am starting my Forex traing journal as of today 02.13.2008. This journal is for the purposes of documenting all of my trades with the short term goal of improving my trading skills. The longer term goal is that within 5 years, I will trade as a full time and profitable business.
TRADING: I trade using price action and a fib tool that I modified for my own use. The fib tool is a precision instrument.
SPECIAL THANKS: Bob for introducing me to forex. Mike W and Tiki-Trader for answering my dumb questions and sending me some excellent reading material. Thanks also to my new friend Zoopy who always seems to be lurking on the factory and is right there when I need him to explain something to me.
CHEAT NOTES:
NZD/USD 94-47 GBP/USD 156-78 USD/JPY 119-60 EUR/USD 129-65
USD/CHF 148-74 AUD/CAD 98-49 EUR/JPY 130-65 GBP/JPY 199-99
DIBS: 1)EUR/USD 15 Pips 2)AUD/USD 15 Pips 3)AUD/JPY 15 Pips
BEOB Bearish Outside Bar
BUOB Bullish Outside Bar
DBHLC Double High Lower Close
PPZ Price Pivot Zone means different things to different traders. My PPZ is wherever the 200ema is.
New York 8 A.M.---Sydney 3 P.M.---Tokyo 7 P.M.---London 3 A.M. DIBS Trades "Line in the sand" 2:00AM Central
I am a professional trader. My job is to take risk. If I manage my losses and let my profits run I will be successful. Because I am a professional trader, I will forgive myself easily for making mistakes and move on to new opportunity's. I feel great that I have the discipline to control my emotions and the patience required to be a professional trader. I am a professional trader and will make $40,000 by December 31,2008. I will achieve this by following my trading plan , setting achievable goals, and controlling my emotions. I am confident and believe in my own ability to be consistently profitable because I AM a professional trader.
Update 03.09.2010--------If you have stumbled across my journal and want to read some on how I trade, please start at page 51. I started this journal as a new trader and the material up to that point is more about my journey as a trader. I trade for a living now and am more than happy to assist new traders with questions on my style of trading. Thank you and best of luck to you in the markets.
Advice for new students to Forex Factory
I know about price action because of the James16 Chart thread
....Most of my posts are directed at the newer traders/students here and this one is no different. I have been trading for 3 years now. The knowledge that I have recieved was not only due to my own efforts but was paid for by others in lost sleep, lost time with loved ones, pain, divorce, lost money, guilt, second guessing, lost self esteem, frustration and for some that I have read and know the lost a part of themselves. I feel an obligation to write today a straight forward and hopefully a sobering but positive message as I have felt some of these things myself. I will not be able to learn this stuff for you but maybe I can appeal to your present state of mind on whatever level you are on in your learning to trade journey. With all that said I will now make a statement that many who I respect will disagree with. I believe that just about anyone has the potential to be a profitable professional day trader. The obvious variable is how?
Just like my trading style is nothing new -all borrowed and assembled from some really good parts-I am going to borrow many things already said here and just say them a little differently. You see I realized that what we are doing on the J16 thread is pretty much all the same stuff just a different way of looking at it based on our own personalities. The basic "Dirt Simple" material doesn't change, it is just applied according to your comfort level and personal style. I personally do not trade the daily charts much. If you are a beginner you should--period. It's a Dirt Simple commandment.
Now I'm 43 yrs old and haven't been trading as long as I'd like but I know some stuff and you new ladies and gents listen good to the following or don't waste your time here or your family's time there.
These are the CRUCIAL elements that make trading into a consistent money making business rather than a fruitless gambling exercise.
1.Business: Treat trading like it is a business. Your government is treating your trading like a business from day 1 if you are using bonafide funds to trade with. Approaching your trading like a business is mandatory in every single trade, day or year that you trade.
2.Education: In any successful business, the proprietor needs to know what he is doing. In our business, it is about learning the technical aspects of trading. You don’t get fully educated by reading a book, watching videos or trading your own "fully funded" account. Trying to trade your own "fully funded" account as a newbie in a “trial and error setting” can only do one thing, defeat you. I don't care what your path to learning might be. Demo trade several months or however long it takes for you to get comfortable with the material before trading with real money; when you begin to trade with money, keep your position sizes small. ‘Hands-on’ education is what is needed to even begin to understand the complexity of trading. You are fortunate enough to have found this material and get the benefit of many posts left here 7 days a week. You will learn THE correct basics on trading at J16. Education during a real time setting allows you to keep your learning curve small and protect your capital through the long and treacherous process. Once you understand then you can commit funds to a live account.
3.Psychology: To be a consistently profitable day trader you must have the proper mind set; I got my mind right way before I was able to understand the material. For some, it is the other way around. Without the proper mindset you might as well head to a casino. You will find almost as many people willing to take your money there as you will find trading forex. Simply put, you must be immune to losing money and must forget your last trade regardless of whether you made or lost money. Losing money is a reality in this business.
4.Methodology: You must learn the proper way to trade the basic technicals of forex as taught here and never deviate from these basic foundations. Go astray from this advice and you will find the the second guessing yourself and the 20/20 hindsight as uninvited guests who are in no hurry to leave. Accepting that losses are a part of the business and getting the proper mindframe will insure that you will never second guess yourself because every single trade will only be placed when certain conditions are met, the same way, all of the time, regardless of the market environment.
5.Focus/Commitment: At all times, you must keep your eye on the prize, making money. This sounds so simple, yet you will find yourself while learning allowing perfectly profitable trades turn into losers for innumerable reasons. You must convince yourself that there is no option for longterm failure. Failure over the longterm means that you gave money to the winners. I don't want to be THAT guy.
6.Patience: Patience comes in many forms when it comes to trading. We must wait for our trade to come, wait for the proper tome to close a trade, wait until we know our material, wait for tomorrow, next week etc. Never force a trade. Wait for the proper technical setup. Let the trades come to you the same as any "conventional" business lets the customers come to them. It's ok to pass on a trade I promise. There will be more. I promise again.
7.Discipline: Develop your own rules based on th material taught here and your own defineable observations and stick to them ALL the time. Forgetting or ignoring your rules will make someone else a profitable trader and spiral your psycology down into bottomless mind traps. Use proper money management do not overleverage yourself. USE STOP LOSSES.
8.Stop Losses: Use them as if your life depended on them, they are an ABSOLUTE MUST; they allow you to manage the trade the right way and maximize gains. If you do not use stops, stop trading right now! Seriously. Never assume a trade has to come back to your entry price to get you out at breakeven. Now if you don’t believe me? Try it and see what it does to your head. When you play for breakeven without a stop it is game over. Try philanthropy instead of trading. It's your calling. The minute you do not use stops, this immediately throws you into the category of the vast majority of "traders" who are doing nothing more than giving their money away. Remember this too, a few winning trades can easily lead you into false sense of security. Always use stops, they are there to protect you!
9.Risk/reward ratio: Not many beginners use this to their advantage. You should never trade unless you have a defined and profitable risk/reward ratio. By doing this, believe it or not, you can be a very successful trader if you are only correct a fraction of the time on your trades. You are probably asking how is this possible? It is all about trading the right way and managing the trade effectively. Using proper entry and exit prices along with using stops effectively allows one to make money on a consistent basis.
WHY A JOURNAL: I have been debating this for several weeks now and so here goes. I am starting my Forex traing journal as of today 02.13.2008. This journal is for the purposes of documenting all of my trades with the short term goal of improving my trading skills. The longer term goal is that within 5 years, I will trade as a full time and profitable business.
TRADING: I trade using price action and a fib tool that I modified for my own use. The fib tool is a precision instrument.
SPECIAL THANKS: Bob for introducing me to forex. Mike W and Tiki-Trader for answering my dumb questions and sending me some excellent reading material. Thanks also to my new friend Zoopy who always seems to be lurking on the factory and is right there when I need him to explain something to me.
CHEAT NOTES:
NZD/USD 94-47 GBP/USD 156-78 USD/JPY 119-60 EUR/USD 129-65
USD/CHF 148-74 AUD/CAD 98-49 EUR/JPY 130-65 GBP/JPY 199-99
DIBS: 1)EUR/USD 15 Pips 2)AUD/USD 15 Pips 3)AUD/JPY 15 Pips
BEOB Bearish Outside Bar
• Bar 2 engulfs bar 1
• Close of bar 2 is lower than open and
close of bar 1, preferably two thirds of
way down or more
BUOB Bullish Outside Bar
• Bar 2 engulfs bar 1
• Close of bar 2 is higher than open and
close of bar 1, preferably two thirds of
way up or moreDBHLC Double High Lower Close
• Double highs
• Bar 2 closes lower than bar 1’s lowDBLHC Double Low/Higher Close
• Double lows
• Bar 2 closes higher than bar 1’s highIB Inside Bar
• Long bar 1, bar 2 (ib) is within bar 1’s length
• Bar 3 MUST break bar 1 and bar 2’s
high or low to be a valid setup
• Direction is up or down depending on
which side breaks firstPPZ Price Pivot Zone means different things to different traders. My PPZ is wherever the 200ema is.
New York 8 A.M.---Sydney 3 P.M.---Tokyo 7 P.M.---London 3 A.M. DIBS Trades "Line in the sand" 2:00AM Central
I am a professional trader. My job is to take risk. If I manage my losses and let my profits run I will be successful. Because I am a professional trader, I will forgive myself easily for making mistakes and move on to new opportunity's. I feel great that I have the discipline to control my emotions and the patience required to be a professional trader. I am a professional trader and will make $40,000 by December 31,2008. I will achieve this by following my trading plan , setting achievable goals, and controlling my emotions. I am confident and believe in my own ability to be consistently profitable because I AM a professional trader.
. This is my first step of that proverbial 1000 mile journey. There is a pot of gold at the end!
Thanks for the good wishes. Now let's go harvest some pips!
