The turing point in becoming a successful trader

For all you experienced traders, what was the turning point(s) that made you
a successful trader? I am referring more along the lines of trading style, not
specific mechanics of trading.

Quoting mmills4x

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For all you experienced traders, what was the turning point(s) that made you

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It would be very difficult to put a finger on a single turning point. I strongly believe that success comes by doing small things over a long period of time. Most people tend to give up too soon and end up walking away from a fortune.



Here is a story from a book called "Good to Great" by Jim Collins which I think is one of the best examples of how breakthroughs are achieved:



Picture a huge, heavy flywheel - a massive metal disk mounted horizontally on an axle, about 50 feet, 3 feet thick and weighing 3 tons. Now imagine that your job is to get this flywheel rotating on its axle as fast as you can and to maintain this speed for as long as possible.



This is brand new channel, so you’re stoked! You are pumped up! You push the flywheel with all your energy in your body, and you actually get it to inch forward, barely moving at first. You keep pushing, and after 8 hours of sheer determination, you get the flywheel to complete one rotation!



You're getting tired and starting to feel disappointed because after all this time, this is all you've accomplished...one rotation. But you decide to press on. You keep pushing. The flywheel begins to move a bit faster, and with Iron Will and laser-beam focused concentration, you manage to move it a second rotation!



You don't give up and keep pushing. Three turns...four....five..eight..the flywheel builds up speed...nine....ten...twelve...it builds up more momentum...fifteen...sixteen...nineteen...it moves faster with each rotation...thirty....fifty...hundred...then BAM!



BREAKTHROUGH! The momentum kicks in and the flywheel turns and turns...its own weight working for you. You're pushing no harder than you pushed during the first rotation, but the flywheel goes faster and faster.



Each turn of the flywheel build upon work done earlier, compounding your investment of effort. A thousand times faster, then ten thousand, then a hundred thousand. The huge disc flies forward with almost unstoppable momentum.



Now suppose someone came along and asked, "What was the big push that caused the thing to go so fast?"



You wouldn't be able to answer. Was it the first push? The second? The hundredth? NOPE!



It was ALL of them added together in an overall accumulation of effort applied in a consistent direction. Some pushes may been bigger than others, but any single heave - no matter how large - reflects a small fraction of the entire cumulative effect upon the flywheel.



The point is no matter how dramatic the end result, the transformation never happened in one fell swoop. There's no single defining action, no grand system, no one killer indicator or trading style. It comes about by a cumulative process - step by step, action by action, decision by decision, turn by turn of the flywheel - that adds up to the sustained and spectacular results.



The journey to becoming a profitable trader will be different for every person but I believe if one maintains a flywheel concept of learning and working hard, the journey will not necessarily be easier or shorter, but it'll help you to be more patient and continue to persevere rather than quitting too soon.



That said, you can't just think all you need to do is read lots of books, learn different systems, read Forex Factory posts, lose money on trades, etc. and automatically become an expert trader.



John Maxwell says "Experience is not the best teacher - evaluated experience is."



This means you better take 100% responsibility for your decisions and actions, analyze them and learn from your mistakes and successes, so you can improve and grow as a trader, and get the flywheel turning faster.



I'm sorry I couldn't give you a cut and dry answer for my turning point except that (at least for me) there isn't one.



I would like to end this though by saying it doesn't matter what trading style you have, in order to be a successful trader you better have (1) an edge. Whether it be simply an information advantage over the general market or your Nostradamus indicator or even having the freedom to not have to trade and expose your capital unnecessarily, you better have some kind of edge(s). (2) sound money management and risk control. These are the keys to being a profitable trader. You've probably heard this a million times but it’s true. Even if you have a kick ass edge, it's how you apply rock solid trading discipline with superior cash management and risk control that makes the difference between success and failure.



Aside from working your butt off, I've learned you need at least two of these things. So roll up them sleeves and give that flywheel a big push.

Wow! Pip Daddy, that was an outstanding reply. Far, far better that what I was going to say. So all I'll say in reply is to tell of a few of my more significant flywheel pushes:

Quitting the use of high leverage and making all of my trades with single digit leverage with an absolute upper limit of 10:1 (okay, that's two digits)

Switching to higher timeframes: 4h and longer.

Moving stops to breakeven as quickly as possible.

Cherry picking only the best trades.

Finding ONE system with an edge and learn every nuance of that system by trading it exclusively.

Turning point for me: nailing down the PATIENCE factor and wait only for perfect set ups. Up until then, I was taking less-than-optimum signals and, of course, my win/loss ratio was being hurt.

Patience is very difficult to control as we traders are always happy to pull the trigger. However, if one wants to be successful in the long run, you OUGHT to master it.

Lol, When I blew up 2 minis

I am not sure when I started to become successful trader because I have accounts with which I am successful in long-run from the beginning and I have doing bad with other accounts (basically not my money). But final result is + sign.
I believe all traders success has begun when they became mentally free, trading for pips and not for money, focusing on setups rather than on money.

Okay.. I can't really say that I'm successful, but I have a feeling that I'll be..

Anyway, here's my take on this.. Since it's a turning point that you asked... Then I think the analogy is that you were heading on one direction, came to a certain point, and then turned from that point.. either completely or just a degree to the left or right..

So I think that it's the same with PD's analogy that it's the little pushes (or turns in my story), that contributes to being successful..

But anyway, two of the little turns I made was not to overtrade and to calculate my positions given a fixed risk.. <- I think this is just the meat of what I wrote... the others are just nothing.. sorry about that, just had to include the turning story part..

Hope this helps..

I read the flying wheel. A good story I think. To markets I would say it means, that you should make your pips, doesn't matter how small they are, just make them constantly. This will add to exponential growth. And that is what gets you rich.

But I would like to add another part to the story:

"You're pushing the wheel. You believe you will make it, all your strength will sum up to get the wheel rotating. Ok. But HOW MUCH TIME will this take you?

Your first rotation could be 10 years.
Your second 5 years.
Your third 2.5 years.

Okay, you're getting faster, but is putting almost 20 years into, is it that worth? In markets it means that you're getting older and older until you're a 90 year old man with a million dollars. WoW. Lit a fire!

It isn't only needed to keep on doing, no. It is also needed to think while you put your strength into it, how you could get it faster!
Maybe stopping a week and traveling and gathering ideas and making an invention will help you to shorten the time you need to push this flying wheel.
"

Well, yes, that's it.

Qweet, just keep in mind that the flywheel thing is just a metaphor...Real life is another thing...The metaphor perfectly fits, but some differences apply..

Most handsome and professional investing books always say that you should start investing as young as possible to save some good money for your retirement, that's the main goal, retirement and not youth riches or wealth..

If you are having trading as your daily job, your approach to the markets would have been different than someone else who is saving $200-$500 every year to invest regularly in the stock market...You are looking for an income + a saving for your retirement as well...This is a hard job, but you have all day to work it out...

It's not how many years it will take you to start the wheel and get it running...It's how much effort are you willing to exert at the beginning to get the wheel running...If you make more effort, you will get the wheel running faster and smoother, and probably will reach the wheel stability in less time than you expected....


Thanks,

Nader

I bet those who wrote such books are already old and grey. They couldn't stand the fact, if someone would be rich when he/she is young.

retirement....how many years do you have to live then? 30 more years, I guess. retirement with 60 years. Well, the beatiful chicks are 20 years old.

No. Go as stable as possible, but also as quick as possible.

1.) stability
2.) speed

Hi folks,
My first post on this forum that I just dicovered and spent the morning reading.

Flywheel;
After I had turned the wheel once and was exhausted both mentally & physicly AND was right back where I started except I was now tired. I decided to hire a great big burly guy that supposedly had extensive expertise at turning flywheels.

Turn the flywheel he did. But only a little more than me. That plus, now he had to turn it 1 1/4 revs before I got the benifit of only 1 full rev.

Breakthrough;
Realizing that I would have to turn the wheel myself but that there hade to be a better way.
Fired the big guy and Studied the problem.
Travelled around the world at the speed of Net and gatherd all information I could about flywheels.
Discovered If I could only TILT THE WHEEL, even just slightly, then balance the best jewel I had discovered on my travels at a stratigic point on the wheel It was easier to push on the downward side, I now had Gravity as an ally. As the the wheel got a little easier to turn I added Inertia. Soon I had the aerodynamics of the Vortex... and so on.
---

Also understanding that it WILL take more than one BIG push and therefore I best save some energy to continue pushing. Money Management !!!

You will hear Students of Trading tell you that they have Heard that MM is Important. They heard it form Graduates. Why do you think that would be.
Because Grads will Tell you it is crucial.

$0.02
B

Turning point for me? Once I had discovered how the currencies move and applied my framework, it's just the limitations and baggage in my own head. Get that out of the way, trade as simple a system as possible, and you can trade profitably and sleep at night as well!

Hello,

I'm totally new to fx trading and before I can find my turning point I need some education, so is there anybody having any good suggestions?

I have found a DVD course, Currency Trading Made Easy, made by a pro trader and I wonder if it's a good start?

/RF

Falkr: I haven't even come close to finding a turning point, but from my limited experience so far as good places to start (not necess. in order):
1) Read the posts in this forum. or other 4x forums.
2) Research brokers that suit your trading goals. Get a demo account, wait at least 6 mo. to a year before going live, but not until you are consistently profitable.
3) Get Kathy Lien's book, Day Trading the Currency Market. It has alot
of useful info. even if you don't plan on day trading. It is the one of the best books about the currency market I have read.
4) Find an area you are interested in, such as technicals or fundamentals and learn as much as you can, focus on it, and find an "edge".
5) Learn when to trade, what to trade, how to trade, and don't overtrade.
6) Read books on trading psychology, money management, and trading plans.
7) Develop a good trading plan based on what you learned.
8) During your progress, search the forum, and if you don't find an answer, just ask.

Good question. When I was playing chess and just starting out it was hard to keep track of all the pieces. There were 32 pieces altogether. I would focus on my pawns and lose my Knights or Bishops. As I got better I could coordinate pawns and knights, later pawns,knights and bishops. Until one day you don't see individual pieces you see the whole board in one swoop. You can take in everything in seconds, you can access the game in an instant. You know what to do and when to do it, and why. You play your best knowing that because of you, not the pieces that you will win more than you will lose. You get better after each lost game because they are the ones you most learn from and benifit from not your wins. And lo and behold it's happening to me in the forex markets. I'm not where I want to be but I'm on my way.
Take care.

The only person who can make trading easy is you.

Take a look at my website.
There's no pressure, no hype, no outlandish promises, but you will learn to trade a live account reasonably quickly. If you then want to take the education process further, we are shortly to be adding a powerful Elliott Wave course as well.

niceguy,

where is yr website ?

It's in my profile. Just click on my name in this thread.

Cheers.

Turning point is when you start looking at higher time frames stick to one trading style.

Turning point is when you can buy your first Mercedes S600, Audi A8, BMW 760 (or equivalent) from your Forex profits ...

Do you have one in your garage...??

Before that don't even entertain the idea of "being a pro"...

Turning points :
- If you find a profitable system
- apply a good money management

that's all what you need ....