A Cautionary Tale

Yeah I'm 18 currently and I discovered forex when I was a sophomore in High School (About 16) so I'd like to think I've got some years of "experience" lol

just to give u a little more motivation... in case u are unaware yet, there are other members here with a similar/near-similar age. benji533, ghous, Ronald Raygun are just some. they have been FF members for a few months/years.

hey Interceptor,
this is a touching story indeed,i actually had a long post but deleted it.
u feel the worse has happened,the question now is what do you want to do?
only u can truly answer this question, do you want them back?....u kno sacrifices wld hav to be made either way,
theres no need for me to advice u on what to do, cant do the thinking for u but i kno if i were in ur shoes ...MY FAMILY wld be no 1
goodluck with ur decision, sincerely hope that whatever path u choose to take that U wld be happy at the end.
cheers

Thanks for sharing, it's good to have perspective. Everything about this market is enticing, the patterns, the probability, the risk, the reward, etc. etc. etc.

I wish you the best on your journey.

I guess I could consider myself a minimalist trader in that I use the K.I.S.S. method (Keep It Simple Stupid). I use only multiple time frames and support resistance. Even with this though I find myself spending extra hours learning about the markets.

I spent the past 7 years doing something 180 degrees out from trading however, I draw a lot of parallels from that, which help me stay consistent.

Add me to that list, LOL I'm 18 too!

Awesome

It is always easy to be smart about someones elses life and actions,but I just want to say that from what I've picked up from your story is that 3 years is not very much in my opinion for your family to become so unsatisfied to leave you just because of that,or they must be very inpatient. So my sense is things were not so pretty even before your trading,and this just hit the bottom of a barrel. Try to think about that.

Brilliant post and brilliant thread. I am one of the lucky ones but did damage my health slightly.

It is so difficult to quantify the risk/reward ratio (really) in life and you see it happening all the time. My ex wife and I used to work too hard and didn't have the energy to care for each other, to cut as long story short.

Anyway, thank you.

Interceptor, I'm very sorry to hear about that-I can totally relate to you.
I'm lucky that I do not have a family as i would most likely have had a similar situation.
But I can relate to you as I find it hard to explain what I do to other people, and I also think they don't take it too seriously. They seem to think that their 9-5 (or longer) jobs are exactly the same, and that the risk is the same for them (getting fired etc). They just see random charts and yawn, and don't understand the passion that is involved, and the commitment that is required.
Of course your situation is different, so I apologise if I've made inaccurate presumptions.

What I content myself with is that trading has taught me about ebb and flow, ying and yang, whatever you want to call it.

What I mean is-the rewards are great if you succeed.
But because of ebb and flow/ying and yang there is always a trade off. For me, it's starting work at 6.45am, working at home by myself, my friends/family not really being interested/trying to understand what i do and why. Oh, and the fact that if you have a bad day, then you've lost your own money, and all you can do is look in the mirror to see who is responsible.

In other words, if it was easy, everyone would be doing it. With the potential for great reward, there is always equal potential for the opposite too, which seems to be life in general.
So to achieve success, there is always a cost.
Having said all that, I hope that things work out with you, and wish you the best of luck.

“If you are really thankful, what do you do? You share."- W.Clement Stone

http://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?t=202939

Plenty of interesting responses for me to mull over.
Thank you.

I'm lucky enough that it was my partner who got me into it, and he's whole-heartedly intent on trading too. Don't give up though, I don't know what the background with your family is, but if you did it for them, bring them back so you can SHARE it with them! otherwise what's the point in trading?

Be strong! It may take a bit of time, but it's your wife, your children. You're still a family.

Well interceptor, interesting post.
if your trading is starting to make some serious gains then maybe trade off a few days a week with the family, i mean monday is pretty flat then you have sat and sunday, and friday afternoon sessions in the US can also be flat sometimes to a certain degree

so there is already 4 days or 3.5 days you can focus on the Family. it may not be enough for some but as you progress to higher yields you may not even require so much time to trade....

i'm only starting to break even again in my trading which was a huge mountain for me to conquer.

perhaps place some these emotional values to your trading plan. you never trade with out a stop loss right, so your stop loss is already in place for the week end. (emotional stoploss)

this thread is a REAL eye opener for a student like myself, as i have a job now where i work only 9 hours a day, where as in previous jobs or locations i would work normally 12-16 hour days, but my health is the main factor why i wanted to do somthing else with my time. i KNOW i cant work these hours as i progress in age, with a health condition also evolving. (shudders)!!!!

i have put off children with my girl until i have got a good account and some stock that is returning a minimum wage i can live off (in dividends).

everything else from trading will be gravy!!! and the GRAVY is obviously what we all are hunting for......


so i still have alot of learning curves ahead i am sure, but i welcome them whole heartedly.

my girl too is a wee bit annoyed that we can sit in the same room and not talk so much coz i focus on the charts when i am home, however i do have a emotional stoploss in place, i trade when i am home, but not on mondays, and seldom look at friday afternoon US sessions, and also heavy news days can have me sitting in a resturant with my girl enjoying the simple pleasures of having a spouse.....

for these sacrifices i spose i will take longer to get to the point of no longer needing to work for coin, but when i first got my head into trading i ALWAYS thought i just want to work a few hours aday and this is what i thought trading could be, however i do know NOW it will take more than that intially however this is not the goal long term.....

i rationalize it this way.

i am a Chef ok, and when i was a student of cooking some tasks would take HOURS sometimes days!, but now that i have many years of experience, many of these tasks take minutes or even 1/10 of what they used to take me.

so i want to belive this can be achieved with trading also.. no no this is my GOAL!

Captain i certainly hope you can figure out a new emotional system for your family, and focus your aim for the that!

i am a new reader of your blog and your are in some great profits of late. and i salute you for conquering the task we all have set out to achive!
great going and look forward to hearing about your NEW emotional stoploss system.

Jase

...

Interceptor
This is good stuff from Chocol8Elvis. Move to trading on the Daily timeframes and you will have a much better balanced lifestyle.
NOW GO AND GET YOUR FAMILY BACK!

I nowadays set my weekly levels off a daily chart, and then 'fine tune' them in on the hourly. I also use the hourly for stops.
That's the deepest irony, I suppose. I actually feel as though, at long last, I've arrived at the stage where I no longer have to spend 50+ hours a week staring at charts. In fact, doing so would probably be a regressive move.
Just a bit too late, that's all.

Bullshit. Its never too late.
Get away from your hourly charts and forums and go and get your family back. Or is the fine tuning on the hourly charts that much more important to you?