DislikedHi LuSan,
I have experienced these strong moves (that we have been calling market "tsunamis") with real money 4 times. God pitied me (or my family, probably I don't deserve His protection), they were all in my favour!! Not large money, but real. Two times I went after it, but that is not prudent. If I had taken the wrong side...
It is very hard for me to find something useful to tell you. I know now that you are aware of the risks (I confess I thought that was not the case, I apologize for my error). But I would never tell you something that could risk discourage you from experimenting. I began in the stock market in 1997. Forex in 2006. Though surviving (I never wiped out an account), I was a net loser. After finding this thread I turned into positive territory and I am holding there. But I don't think my results are convincing. I keep track of weekly and monthly equity changes and perform statistics on them in an Excel spreadsheet.
I am curious to know the average return you have been obtaining but I don't want to lead you astray or take time from your search. I made some experiments trading for 1 to 2 hours a day. Still make some short raids into the market, but not systematically...
Don't know what more to say. I wish you continued success in the markets..Ignored
@ Jairo,
I hear you.
If I may, be so arrogant, as to tell you.
I see clearly where your status is at this moment.
In the pro circles, we call it "burnt out".You are quite finished as a trader.
I have seen very many such cases in my lifetime and some of them are very profitable traders.
There's many causes, some just burns out after deep protracted battle, some just snap, because of mental stress, even after successful campaigning. In so many ways, I am there too. Thats one of the reasons why I have given my most treasured trading ways to this thread in public. Hoping that someone can pick it up.
Someone, not to mention names, sent me email proposing for me to handle 100 traders accounts as a business proposition. I have been laughing, thinking, what promted that I would consider doing that.
I can easily go back into the banks or funds managing, with my credentials and profitability, but will not.
The reason is that I still feel "burnt out" and in r & r. What I used to make in income for being in work for one year, I can safely sit back for 10 years just spending it. Just to suggest my nestings. There's only so much 6 stars corp perks that it become meaningless. In effects, I have become very simple in my living, that even my family wonders where i am at mentally.Whats on my mind is to trade sparingly when I feel like it, and take good supplement money monthly to compliment my nestings and live simply, instead of subjecting myself to boards directives or unnecessary pressure on carrying books, or training new front lines. Not withstanding being accused of intentionally suppressing the books performance.
Why am I telling you this?
It may become clear if you can understand.
You are burnt out because of the battles that have spooked your bicam mind, and there is no way to erase that. Its a scar, you have to learn to adjust to.
The possible direction that you can go, is this, that I have done for some of my best men who had burnt out. What I did to preserve their ability to trade, was to cut their trading lines to half their normal. And to further halfing it until I find that they are operating, without pain until they had recovered. In the banks, its a little difficult , as there is minimim performance to account for. And there's only so much off their behind that I can try to cover. For people trading their own funds, it just a matter of parking your dreams for the "pot of gold" ( put it on hold) and being contented with small profitability to sustain your lifestyle and to accumulated "rainy day wood" in case of difficult times. Try if this may help you. Re-access your pain threshold objectively. In some cases, it helps revive a new trader. If this cannot help you, I then suggest a "change of life" towards different directions.
Rest assured that in a burnt out state, if you force it, it will get ugly, and I have seen it happen to many of my peers. I seriously ask for you to reflect on what I have said. To be a successful trader, the mindset hold is paramount, inability to sustain peak, can take your book to very dark cold and hard places. The traders life is very lonely, usually between him and himself.
So if you insist to be functional, slow down, "smell the roses" and glide along s.....slow, until you are numb to your mental state. I cannot be absolutely sure where you are on the scale, but I get a fuuny feel from reading your post , that 1 more "tsunami" as you call it , it may just push you off the edge.
Like I said, in trading "the spirit" has to be strong,
never allow that to be broken.
In the room , I alway tell my boys,
"its ok to lose money, we can make it back, but lose the balls, and its game over."
When I retired , when I felt burnt out, my boys kept asking, why?.
I told them,
When I am there, I motivate and held them up when they fall,
But when the motivator burns out, who can motivate the motivator?
till this day, the reply I constantly get is, that they are sure that I will return, its a mot (matter of time).
So here I am, you are not all alone. But only you can help yourself, and only if you want to, bad enough.
Take time off, if you must. Even the strongest can fall. Just ponder, why even legends like WD Gann ultimately turned to selling advisory. Its called re-adjustment.
Another alternative , if suits, is to learn to trade using option model ( Black Scholes ), its called theoritical edge trading. That isn't so stressful. I coined a word for that, "educated trading". And if you think spot trading is ants work, thats like working at bacterial levels. LOL. Safest profitable methodology in the world, and even nick can screw up doing that. Tells heaps about mindset & risk, doesn't it.
So i repeat, RE-ADJUST or REST the balls. ( no vulgarity intended)
@ Lusan,
And for you, whenever you are in "total darkness and the path forward is not visible". You better know who's in command. Blind warriors don't go places.
regards
PS: lusan, actually your book seems very healthy. just add zeros behund the pL and you can ride clouds of possibilities. You are doing 90%+ accuracy in less than a quarter, quite impressive. now the only problem is, will your mindset agree with you in your quest, If its negative, then you have to go slowly to build. But stay with new levels at least 1 or 2 quarters before going up the ladder. And be comfortable in terms of foreign capital before climbing that ladder. Don't waste the ant hill.
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A sales representative of my broker said that 2 to 5% monthly on equity is a "professional level" result. Indeed? 
My average is above that but I am not consistent. Statistics says I may have been only lucky recently.
