Hit A Trading Wall

Hi everyone,
been a while since I posted anything. I started out with a bang (not the good kind) then I was on a roll, bring in money on a daily basis with minimal lots while I was in the USDJPY a while back. Then things started getting topsy turvey and suddenly my tight stops were being booted or it was choppy so much that I never had a chance.

I seem to have hit some kind of a block now. I'm not going backwards, but I'm not going forwards either. It's quite frustrating, and I feel rather blind in these markets at the moment because they all seem to be at pivotal points where they're actually reversing thanks to a weakening euro and a strengthening dollar (I did note stocks rose and $ weakened last night though, minimally).

I was curious as to advice others who have been in my place before me have - is it time to perhaps do something a little more drastic? My analysis involves S/R, Fibonacci, MA's for general trend. I am in the middle of developing a strategy/system with set rules and such, but I'm just not hitting it. I've dropped back to demo these new things but the days are ticking by and I seem to see less and less opportunity. Perhaps it's caution or fear, or maybe I've just lost my edge...

in times of doubt go back to the basics...

use only the best setups...

also markets go through different stages.. this may be one ur system isnt able to handle ... maybe you should just wait and only take the best of the best setups the ones that scream Im awesome. Also the market has been a trending market for almost a year... learning to tell what type of market u are in will save u money... i label them as running trend... volatile trend... running chop or volatile chop..

I had a really long down stretch for the last 4 months, I was getting picked apart on too tight of stop losses, and I had gotten over confident (...prior to that I was banking 1,200-3,500 per week.)

Then when I started a losing streak I became WAY too protective of my capital, as in I was entering trades to NOT LOSE, instead of focusing on Winning.


Here's what I did to break the downturn-

Cut my lot size by HALF...so 100K lots were now 50K (at one point I went back to 10K lots for a few trades) What I achieved was a new found respect for just how much money I was actually making, as I had become de-sensitized to the money...In my previous career I was making 2,400 every two weeks (Military Officer) now in Forex I had a multiple single trades that netted more than that in a day or few hours.

Re-focus on what your goals are... whether its the$ or a % of your account...frame it in a perspective like: "I need to make $340.00 to pay my car payment this month"

DO NOT DEMO it out...that will not help you with your SL situation etc... it only lulls you into a feeling of security, but you don't want to "feel" good, you want to have a trading "edge" Demo's only dull your edge, because deep down in your sub conscious you know the money doesn't count.

So to summarize what I did:

1. Re-learn the value of a dollar (car payment, kids clothes, food)
2. Cut your lot size in half (for a couple of weeks)
3. Set a Pip target before moving SL to Break Even (on GJ for me...as soon as I was up 20 pips, I was at BE and playing on their money)
4. Once you commit to a SL level, leave it and don't take yourself out of a trade early! (This was the catalyst for my losing streak)

5. We trade to WIN. Do not Trade to minimize loss.

That sounds quite a bit like me! I hate demo trading, unless it's for a new strategy. I found that they were exactly that - demo. You make nothing, you don't really fear anything, and in the end you just sort of blob there. I did gain more respect for what I did lose/gain in it, but nothing compared to the live one.

Smallest lot size I can go with my broker is 50k at the moment, which is a new development - 100k used to be the bare minimum. I'm quite capable of handling the smaller lot sizes, so I think that will be my plan - I found my 10p stop losses were sometimes too tight too. They'd JUST get hit.

In regards to different market conditions - I want to broaden my horizons and be capable of handling myself in all of them, instead of just one! So I'll stay in this game and just be cautious (hopefully not too cautious though) and see what I learn.