What Was Your "Ahaa!" Moment

Ok, let me put the 2 instances where I experienced real "Ahaa..."...

The moment I made my largest loss ever (This was several years ago in stocks) was an "Aha" moment...At this moment, I told myself, so this is how people really lose money in the markets, so if I don't do this once again, I would be fine preserving my capital...

The second "Aha" was the moment I made my largest win ever..At this moment, I told myself, so this is how people manage to make BIG money out of the markets, so if I can do this several times, I would be fine growing my account...

Since then, I always almost, Cut my losses short & ride profits, both aggressively...


Thanks,

Nader

The first one was pretty common- Learning to let your winning trades run and not letting your losses run.

I had a couple weeks where I was over 80% on winners to losers, and lost money... Reading- "Trading in the Zone" helped a lot, and some personal tutoring from a long time Options trader got me over that.


For technique, learning pivot trading completed my trade system... I actually prefer sideways markets now.

How come everytime I think "ahaa, I got it!" the next day I feel like i'm still missing something.
I had an ahaa moment recently remembering an ahaa moment I had for the stock market. I decided to do the same thing. It involves trading events, or heavy momentum breaking highs or lows. But in Forex, I'm still working on 5 min entry...or 15min candle? And a lot of these events have one major pop, and a lot of consolidation.
Soo close I can feel it....

I do not trade until I have a "ahaaa" moment. The first one must occur after watching the market for a while to get the "Feel" of the instrument (currency pair). ( I currently only trade 2 pairs) Then an "ahaaa" for each and every trade thereafter. Occasionally I get an "ahaaa" for an exit signal. BTW, all my trading "ahaaa" 's are based on technical analysis, fundamental awareness, instrument (currency pair) price behavior.


<Deep Thoughts>
No man is an Island ....
No Trading system is an Island ...
</Deep Thoughts>

When I opened my eyes to the idea that patience is a needed virtue to trade, good setups will come to you. Slow down and relax


RSQ

You have said what I wanted to say.

Another "aha.." was when I discover that big stop-loss that got hit once a while can save a lot of money than small stop-loss.

Up until now, I have had more "duh!" moments than "ahaa!". Like everyone else my "ahaa!" moment is learning to cut my losses and letting the profits run.

Noe


"An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest." Benjamin Franklin

I believe at a certain point, aquiring more knowledge - with the idea that learning more is what will make you a successful trader - can be counterproductive in trading. Since I was already seeing this, when I started reading Trading in the Zone and it was introduced fairly quickly in the book, I instantly felt like this book was going to be very enlightening, and it is.

The big one for me as far as life in general goes is when I figured out that advice from other people is usually worthless. People toss around advice and usually they're talking out of their ass.

No one knows what you need to do better than you. Always weigh any advice you get against what you already know to be true and do your own homework.

Also be very slow to change your mind once you have made a decision. Don't let some jackass come along and put a bug in your ear about how you should be doing things differently. Odds are he doesn't know what the hell he's talking about and doesn't give two shits about you anyway.

My Aha moments were 2:

1. Indicators are a bunch of BS.
2. Fund Manager are another bunch of BS. (Realised after losing over $40k by fund managers. It motivated me to learn trading myself.)

when i blew my account and learned a lesson of "not be greedy"

I am a day trader. After 3 months of paper I started trading live on Oct 4, 2006. I had been "advised" by a broker that 10% of my acct was a good leverage for each trade so that's what I did. I am a great chart reader, and I NEVER lost even 1 trade. I would have as many as 6 out at a time (during news!) == no sweat! Between Oct 4 and Dec 29 -- despite two major holidays, and all the lame pre-election rehtoric via BloomBerg that disrupted trades, I had more than doubled my accout size in 2 1/2 months. I had stopped trading before Christmas, and completed the last one before New Years, so I drew out my U.S. quarterly income tax pmt, tithe and a little something for myself. I really thought I knew it all so I planned to be a millionaire by June at that rate!

Then came Jan 4, 2007 -- The first major unwinding of the carry trade began! Since I had no idea of what the Carry Trade was, I lost 80% of my account that week! What REALLY bit was that I made BIG $$$ in 1 yr, and lost it all the next week -- so in the US I still owed taxes on money I had already lost!!!!

The carry trade kept going wild for the next two weeks, so I foolishly kept waiting for the upheval in the market to be over. Fianlly, a very kind and experienced trader on this forem advised me that the carry trade fluctuations might NEVER end -- and that I had been leveraging my account all wrong.

3% tops per trade he said --- and no more than 2 trades (3 in RARE circumstances) at a time -- and watch which pairs! Learn to deal with IT -- Carry Trade surprises happen at any time.

I thought it would take a year or more to make my money back at that rate. But I also learned to be aware of ALL Market factors -- and learned how to work that Carry Trade sitch both ways by paper trading for the next week. I put what was left of my account into 2 accounts so I could hedge, too. Then I rode what was left of the Carry Trade rises and corrections up and down all day! With more knowlege and better methods, I had made back 95% of my account before the BOJ raised their interest rates -- even with MUCH smaller trades -- (but MORE pips!) I have more than made back the rest since, and am keeping up a pretty steady profit and equity growth.

My Ahaa moment came when I realized that NOBODY can EVER know it all -- there's plenty more to learn from great senior traders -- like you guys! Good leveraging is a MUST no matter HOW juicy things look! And charts don't tell the whole story -- Market Trends are ALWAYS subject to change!

The BOJ rate change has evened out their market corretions a lot, so my profits have slowed down, but my profits are still steady. I am glad to accept what I an earn SAFELY, avoid greed and wait for any other major opportunity that arises.

TG

nice going Tradergurl! care to share your trading methods?

Interestingly, this ebook caused my first aha moment as well. Actually there were a few of them in there. One being... a loss is not a loss until I make it one. Another.. A position is not: one trade at X number of lots. Or how about.... take (cut) your profits and let your losses run.

Lou

1. when i know that i have some fund that i don't know what for, can be invested.
2. that my 1st broker is even less confidence than me, ....& greedy too
3. that forex can be done online
4. that there is micro lot
5. there is more can be read on the net than on the book store.
6. that i survived 3 month in Break even point with mostly doing 1 way trade.
7. the most important news, is japan interest rate.
8. http://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?t=26748

My ahaa moment came when I realized price movement is random, there are no trends, TA is useless.