Stay a broke loser or be a professional trader (Journal to a dream)

hi marcel, it had been some time you turn off from FF.

just to let you know the V104 of bouncing system is almost ready...

how is your journey to chase your dream?

Yo Everyone, It has been some time since I've updated my status, it is true and strange yet I am still following the same path to chase the same dream.

The Pro Trader dream, I currently have 2 clients which I trade their money for on asian futures contracts, therefore I only live off commission money, while there are zero risks for me.

Another person also ask me to trade their forex account for them, this way I will be able to apply what I learn without risking any wealth of my own, and doing it with real money, too, it's not demo money folks... I'm going to trade this account with a daily or H4 chart to take swing positions, and might scalp some profit here and there in intraday trading, I'll give details later on

the james16 group has given me alot of knowledge not to rely on indicators, but to create a good system that consists of merely price actions, pivot points and support/resistance, it has proven well so far on my demo account, it's time I test it with OPMs

And Siobi, I'll be more than happy to test your bounce system on a micro account. please let me know when it is done.

I've joined both Jacko, and James16 group, due to a day job, I've accumulated enough fund to live and trade a small micro account to practice as well.

Jacko's method has proven to be a really great method, but I think I'm still light years away from understanding how the great man thinks, I was having financial difficulities the first time I joined his group, but due to some luck and following his method with a bit overleveraging, I manage to survive, something I don't think I'll do again... why? I'll tell you why.

James16 group has made a groundbreaking change to my way of viewing trades and as a trader, although I'm still in the learning process of 3 months now, I'm trading the micro account with their method, and haven't had a losing month since january, it's a slow but steady growth to my account, there have been 15 trades, and 5 out of 10 went breakeven, 9 profitable trades and only 1 full loss recorded.

I only trade 1% of my micro account, maybe adding more in the future, but in account size rather than risk, I only view daily charts and weekly charts to take trades, the best trades possible, most of my online time is for reading the forums (I'm still trying to read the 1700 page thread from the beginning)

To say it simply, I'm now quite confident I will make it as a trader to make a living, although I won't get all the money in my account from my own trades, rather I'll add more from my own pocket from time to time.

My goal is to add $10,000 in 6 months time, and trade with it, of course the amount of money wouldn't be from trading, it's from other businesses and OPMs.

Bear with me, you haven't seen the last of me yet.

James16 made me profitable, and Jacko just never stops amazes me with how he views the markets.

Just mampir here. It is a rare to see Indonesian people hanging round in this big community and STILL be a perpetual student of the market. You made a good point to be J16 and Jacko member. Just post your result here. I'm curious to know your trading progress.

Hi dude....

long time no news.....

hope u remember me....

keep update your status!!!!

Making a living from trading would be ridiculous... at least even the professional thinks so, most of us would be making more money selling used cars than from trading... while this statement contains a lot of negativity, it was stated by a well known trader, Joel Rensink, which posted a few posts in FF under the alias TheRealThing.

Truth is lately I've been having difficulities supporting my life through trading, because I haven't got the balance to go with it yet, and the markets has gone sideways for a few weeks now, I initially thought a few percent every few months would be enough, but apparently I was wrong, because it needs a bigger account, while I'm already beginning to trade correctly in my opinion, the percentage of an account that small is just simply not enough.
And as for my job on the brokerage firm, my current job is client-dependent, I currently have no clients due to my firm's traders being such a smart-ass, trading without any money management method, imagine that... well what would I know? I'm just an account salesman.

Hopefully, in a few weeks, I'll be able to open a small restaurant to support my life while continue to trade my micro account for now, it's not hoping, this is planning and strategy ... oh yeah, whatever you'd like to call it...

Still, trading for living became my number one goal, and above all that, I've set myself another goal, when my restaurant is finished, I can finally add some amounts to my main trading account, little by little, I think I can manage $30,000 in 1-2 years, at least not 6 months like I said before though, this job I'm is good paying while I still have clients, I have to work double-triple time to get clients, or else I won't get paid, there's no basic salary... well, that's life!

The Big Goal :
Collect $2 Million in 12-15 years, and then apply for an investor's immigration to the United states, buy a business worth at least 1 mio USD, pay down payment for a house, and hopefully, still got at least $500,000 for a rainy day's fund.

The goal above can be achieved if I can collect an account balance of $40.000 and from there seek a return of 40-50% a year, compounding the risk every week.

Trading wise.

Everything's fine and dandy on the J16 front, there hasn't been really great trades, some like the EUR/AUD Pinbar had a lot of potential and profited me handsomely, but it's all about picking the right price action setup and letting the trade run it's course.

About Jacko's method... it's been very difficult for me to follow Jacko's methodology, due to the large discretion on his part, he's been trading longer than I've lived... I know nothing other than 50% Fib Ret and the Trendline on 4H, I have no idea how he felt the trend either, but I'm counting on understanding still.

Lately, I've been reading and trying the DIBS method, which for me is another type of trading that utilizes a volatility breakout on the market, with limited risk and a mediocre winning trade probability, we hold our position long enough and have the big chunks of winners over the many-many small losses, adapting yourself to face the drawdown of the account is the hardest thing to do in trading, at least that's what Joel Rensink said in his blog (http://infiniteyieldforex.blogspot.com). He also is the creator of the DIBS method.

I've read his blog and decided to tryout his trading system, the First Strike Plus and One Night Stand, because it is very simple, and while waiting for the trades to closeout, I can still trade daily PA in the middle.

The main drawback for me is my very basic Money Management Algorithm, the %R which I originally got from Fijitrader's posts on position sizing, I uses about 0.5-2% risk on every trade I take, but currently trying to hold 1% on every trade to keep the equity curve smooth and constant.

Meanwhile my trading method got simpler, my Money Management should compensate on the trades I make, I'll start by re-reading Money Managemet books by Van Tharp, and some by Ralph Vince, I really have a bad math-brain, so it's going to be a challenge... I'm particularly interested in Kelly Criterion.

I was born to live in America! Yeah!

Wish me many luck guys

Contra Felicem vix deus vires habet.
(against a lucky man a god scarcely has power.)

Pasted from <http://infiniteyieldforex.blogspot.c...1_archive.html>

Marcel.

always wishing the best for you Marcel

marcel:
I have one idea while reading half way through your restaurant & trading plan.

you can probably add an area of internet cafe with typical broker software and charting setup,
where people could come and trade in your restaurant uninterrupted for a fixed hour where no one eats. (like 21-24pm asia time there is usually lot of news come out)

best cases, this would give local forex traders a place to gather and discuss and they will be addicted to your place eventually.
worst case, people can open acc and deposit 10$ to trade to kill time... it serve as an alternative to gambling when economy is not good and may have market.

this is probably how 1+1 could >2

10yrs ago I read of the 1st internet cafe in US from news paper and up till now they(*bucks) still survive I think.
if forex don't ever disappear you could continue your legend as 1st forex trading cafe in the country into the follow 100 yrs... can even be a broker yourself.

[edit] oh I read your later half of post talking about imm... I am not familar so cannot comment on that.

Welcome to my humble abode Mike! you surprised me man, seriously!

Thanks for the support from the beginning

Hi there Billy, and Welcome.

Man, I hope I didn't put you off with the whole immigration thing, really, I felt it's like preparing myself for a whole new enterprise while I've been a restauran owner for 15 years... sounds rather silly now that I think of it... but I might as well reach for the stars initially

You're idea is much appreciated, but the truth remains there aren't that many forex traders here, I might be able to build a large enough community though (anything's possible)... if I can get people to be interested enough.

That's a wonderful idea IMO because that would mean I won't be wasting my 24-7 high-speed connection (the only best thing you need to trade).

Thanks a lot!

Do come again from time to time (although I rarely update this place).

Sincerely,

Marcel.

Quoting myself.

I thanked a few people to remind me to further research the discussed methods namely DIBS and FS-ONS from TRT's blog.

from my researches, I conclude now that I believe if a trading method doesn't have an edge on the market, then any form of MM won't be of any help, the method would still lose big time in the long run.

Furthermore, some people here has stated the fact that decades of backtesting provided with TRT's system is inaccurate at best, and the martingale weighting money management algorithm that he applies to his system might be too advanced for me to follow. That put me down immediately.

I'll focus myself on learning breakouts and 4H Pins right now... I were planning on october to start, but right now is no better time than ever, focus on what works, Marcel!

Correcting yourself from time to time is neccessary

Cheers everybody!

Marcel.

Always great to read your thoughts Marcel. You have more to share than you can imagine.

Z

Keep it up Marcel

I admire what you've been through and your tenacity thus far.

Life's Hard, but I gotta live it like never before.

My path as a private trader and IB has taken turn to the worse, 6 months has passed already since I lost my clients due to their supposedly several "lucky guesses" and their overwhelming generosity to the market, providing liquidity, we all know how that ends, me losing my clients because of themselves... geez... it has been 6 months after that, another matter is just around the corner.

Due to lack of screen time and looking for side-jobs here and there, I haven't been able to make a single meaningful trade in these months, or even sufficient backtesting and forward testing... my feel for PPZs dropped drastically, and I was pretty glad when I finally see that I can still identify a good PA I'd like to trade... lucky for me, I finally have no more money to trade and even in a large debt, lucky for me, I can still eat and feed my family.

Why? because of trading? no... duh... legal fees...

Let me tell you guys another chapter of my sorry excuse for a life, I'm having legal problems with some ex-friends of the families, and the lawyer, and all the third world country police-judge mumbo jumbo has crooked my life down the drain, I can't tell stories in details here, but all I can say is well... I'm finally dirt poor... but there are some bright side in it, I didn't trade myself to oblivion...

But luckily, I haven't lost my case yet, I'm at the winning edge right now and if everything goes well as planned, I'll be receiving a settlement that will turn the wheel of life back up again, or so I hope.

On another bright side, my in-laws's business are picking up, and my mother in law is preparing a place for me and my girl to stay and open that food business I was talking about... seems like we will be ready to open the business next year... if we have the money to do it (which I sincerely believe we will providing I won the case), and I can't certainly tell my inlaws about my debts and situation, she borrowed me an entire house to do business in for God's Sake! what else could I ask of her? more than ever, what I have in front of my in-laws is a mere illusion of a normal, paid bills life, if I lost that too, I doubt I'll be able to get back on my feet the next time, this one is hard enough.

I'm living on the edges currently of minimally paid bills and what might be another record of bad credit in my life.

Life never goes as we plan, they say, but this is ridiculous, well... that is life I guess, but I'm still in sync with my dreams of going to the US through EB-5 Visa Immigration, in fact, I'm pretty sure I can do it even earlier than 15 years now.

Oh, and I've ended my subscription to the J16 Group a few months ago, since the bills are becoming heavy enough then, but I think I've got much more than I can chew already from there.

Maybe all this would sound stupid from a few other prespectives, dealing with lawsuits to the end, even to debt, but if I don't win, I don't think I'll give up either, I've been through too many and I won't give up this time too.

Today the situation is stabilizing, and although I haven't ended my legal matters, I believe things are coming to an end soon enough.

Love you guys, still love trading too. Wish me (more) luck fellas

Thanks for reading.

Sincerely,

Marcel.

Hey Marcel,
just want to drop by & say:
PPZs/roadblocks are everywhere, specially in LIFE.
i have a totally different personal situation than yours, but i still believe mine is worse. hope that helps u cheer up a bit.
Good luck!

hi Marcel,
siobi is still around to support u!!!!!

all the best!!!

Hi guys; great thread and good work all.

Just a side note, credit is due to Leonlorenzo for his comment on the Fxprime system.

and keep in mind that he did not say that the system does not work, he just said you cannot become a Pro trader using it. So, no offence to the system or its users.

Good luck to all of you;

Seboileroom

Happy New Year to everyone at FF.

And to everyone else that has supported me on my journey... although not a very smooth one.

Okay, from this year on, I'll treat this journal as a journal of trading. I will note all of my trades here and the percentage of risk and return, before and after charts, and notes on why it succeed/failed.

This year will be a pivotal year of my life. I'm sure of it

This year will be a pivotal year of my life. I'm sure of it[/quote]

A big amen to that and wishing you a properous new year

Good journal, even more dramatic than my own. You have definetly taken the right path with your j16 subscription, I wish I had started that way. It is great to see you trading properly and profitably. I would love to see some charts with your j16 trades and it would make your journal even more interesting and help light the way for those that follow.
Have a great year
Doug