My trip from amateur to proficient forex trader

Trading plan

Me and my goals

Why do I want to be a trader?
I love the Intelligence challenge and I want to see if I can handle it. As a student I don’t have nothing to lose and I have the possibility to devote every hour of every day to forex, the whole summer, and I believe that it the perfect time to try to become a trader. Risk is low and the reward is unlimited, a perfect “trade” =D. By studying to best and learn to think like them I have confidence in that I will become like them.

Trading style
I love speed and I have whole day every day to trade so I will choose scalping. It something magical about listen to Mozart and watching the chart, tick, tick. (try it =D)

My goal
To take every opportunity the market gives me and to do it emotion free. I will not have any other goals.

What I BELIEVE about the market:
Anything can happen in any given moment in the market and every moment in the market is unique. Trading is a numbers game and concepts like right and wrong or win and lose have no significance. You have to have an edge and an edge is nothing more than an indication of a higher probability of one thing happening over another and you only need to know that you have an edge and with sufficient sample size, you will win the game.

Money management
This part is the most important part and it the foundation to become a constant trader. I believe that forex is a probability game and I only need to have an edge to reach my goal. But I also need to make sure that I am protected against 20 to 30 long lose streaks and that I compound my wins and losses in the correct way.

The system is very easy but I think very smart. The MM system is divided in different classes. Every class have specific rules to protect me against “me” =P. Every time the balance make a now high, the classes will start from the new point (look pics)

All classes have the same basic rules:
•Leverage: 50:1
•Full marginal use
•Approximate 2-4 pips stop lose
• R/R more than or 2:1
•Take profit: base on candlestick signal and S/R, when approach an important level I will take 50% of the trade.

Class 100-90%, rules:
•Maximum risk per trade: 0.5%
•21 loses in a row

Class 90-80%, rules:
•Maximum risk per trade: 0.25%
•47 loses in a row

Class 80-70%, rules:
•Maximum risk per trade: 0.125%
•107 loses in a row
Etc…

I will not have a daily goal of ex % per day. It’s depending on how many opportunities the market gives me every day. But I will compound every trade to take the biggest advantage of the compounding effect.

Let get into my trading system….

PS:I trade with Oanda so I don't use lots instead I use units so I can compund every trade.

My trading system

Goal:
•Have many opportunities and have good R/R
•Follow the KISS rule!

Time frame
Use daily to get the most important S/R. Use the 30min to understand the current market condition and get the less important S/R. Use 1min and 5min to calculate R/R and find nice spot to get into the trade, trade from the 10sec chart.

Trading tools

My main tools are:
•Support and resistance
•Candlesticks signals
•1,x and 1,xx numbers
•Bollinger bands (270,2,close)

My secondary tools are:
•Daily Pivot points
•Stochastic at the 1 and 5min chart (300, 9, 9)

Entry
When the price gets close to an S/R, calculate the R/R and focus on candlestick signals. Use even numbers to see what the temporary trend is going. Never trade against the trend and if the price is in the extreme zone (Bollinger bands) be very careful.

Exit
When price is close to now S/R and the candles show bad news, get out. If the trend is strong take 50% of the trade.

Rules
•Always take the stoploss to BE when the price has moved.
•Always calculate the R/R and only get in of the R/R is bigger or is 2:1
•Take profit and move stoploss
•Have an eye on the news

Balance: $442.04
Next MM class: $423.03 (D $19.01)

What happens today?
Looks like the eur/usd is in a short down trend I thing till will continue until 16.00 GMT when the “CB Consumer Confidence” comes out.

How I’m feeling today?
My diet is killing me! I eat this special food that only has 500kacl PER DAY. And I also run every day and train in a gym every other day. I have like over 3000kacl minus every day and I will have it in the next 14 day to get down over 5kg. And the big question is WHY? I made a bet with a friend that I could get my abs in two weeks =D. but same good news, I have studied Steven Nilson’s candle stick ideas and I looked at the chart whole day yesterday and that worked very good. =D so I am excited to test them in real trading.

Now let’s read this text ten times and play same Mozart to relax and get into trading =D

Anything can happen in any given moment in the market and every moment in the market is unique. Trading is a numbers game and concepts like right and wrong or win and lose have no significance. You have to have an edge and an edge is nothing more than an indication of a higher probability of one thing happening over another and you only need to know that you have an edge and with sufficient sample size, you will win the game.

Happy trading
@materyb

Good luck to you!

Cheers

Hehe thanks =D

A little update:
Not going really good, at $424 and 1 more dollar and will need to go down to 90-80% class in my MM strategy. But a funny thing is that I don fell anything! I am only feeling a small irritation because I need to go down next time I have a loss. But no stress as I was felling last Friday, when I was playing around without any trading strategy. That’s why I lose like $30 from my original $470. I have a little problem when I am in a trade and I see like $4+ but my profit line is like 30 pips away I feel little uneasy. So I need to work on that!

I will wait in for the price to go down to the 1.43 level before I try to get in again

Happy trading
@materyb

Balance: $422.56
Loss/win: -19.48

My first real day in forex was a lose My problem was that I believe that the market was going down but it continued to go up. I was too bearish and it led to many problems. I am very glad because next to all of my trade I didn’t feel the stress or fear that many traders seem to experience. My huge mistake was that I EXPCTED the market to go down! I didn’t see the signals how screamed “the market is going up you moron” =P. But I made a very good trade today. Even if the trade didn’t turned out as I expected and hit my BE I was very happy with the analyze.

Made the trade at 13.46 when the price hit a big residence area, the price have tried to break it past five day and because I believe that the market was going down I thought it was going to be the today’s high. The R/R was great like 30:1 and stochastic was over 90% and big news was going out in 16min (the news was out 15:43,but I didn’t know that it could come out before it’s time) and the price started to go down slowly, but down and I thought that the price was whiting for the news. At the residence area two hammers and two bearish engulfing patterns evolved mmmm I really love this trade, everything was perfect but it ended at break even. =(

What I learn today:
DO not expect the market to do anything and don’t take sides. Also with for the trade to go to a S/R line before trading and don’t jump in, even of not a big problem I lose 2 trades that way.

Balance: $422.56

In the 90-80% MM class

100-90% class: $470-423.03

What happens today?
Hehe today will be a very exciting day! I expect very big moves because the Greek parliament will vote on the new austerity (read more http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austerity) It now or never! If voted down the euro will rally down and if excepted will happened, the euro will rally up =D I also will change my strategy a little. Many of my trade wear good of I had an R/R of 2:1. Instead of chasing a 15-30:1 I will focus on little R/R but many trades. I also am reading the book: Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. Very good book, many people have recommended it but I never took the time to pick it up and read. (You can find it if you Google: Rich Dad, Poor Dad pdf).

How I’m feeling today?
Really good, have sleep well and I am ready for today’s battle. Will start my trading in 2 hour I am reday as I can be =D

Happy trading
@materyb

Balance: $ 420.07
Loss/win: -2.5

To second day was not bad at first. I started my trading day well, but I was trading at too large spreads (1.4). This was not a good move by me, even if I get in profit I will not trade at this high spread. Only at 0.9 or at very special times at 1.2<. 1 hour later the market change mod and it started to range. This was not good because it was extreme small movement and I didn’t understand why. In the last minutes I did recognize that very big news was going out any moment, so I ended the trading day. Don’t want to trade at this extreme times.

What I learn today:
I need to learn how to see what market condition the market is in at the moment. Today I learn the hard way and I will try to be better prepared next time. But my system seem to work, and I will try again tomorrow.

Happy trading
@materyb

Balance: $420.07
In the 90-80% MM class
100-90% class: $470-423.03

What happens today?
Yee many rapports and everything come out today, feeling little tired and will only focus to study the chart. In this weekend I will learn VSA but today I have taken the Stochastic away and instead added a VSA indicator. The Stochastic didn’t help because I never looked at it to trade. I feeling that I start to become a trader that change system every day and I need to get myself together and start to trust my system.

How I’m feeling today?
Tired and I will not trade that much today.

Happy trading
@materyb

Thanks for posting the summaries for each chapter in "Trading in the Zone".

Just curious, if you had a good career at poker why give it up? Was it due to the US market dropping out? A decent poker player who plays it full time makes about 50-60k per year with proper bankroll management. 6BB/100 at 100NL or L. The good ones make about 100k+ per year that play above 200. This is from years of experience of being involved with the poker community and the fact that players can't hide their performance unlike Forex. Poker is FARRRRRR more easy than Forex due the fact you can gradually move up in stakes, which is why I don't see the reason you are switching if you have a good career in it. In Forex, you're already going against the Phil Ivys and Tom Dwans of the forex world.

Hallo Chipstopips, what I mean with a good experience is a couple of things. First I started my poker journey when I was 13 or 14 years (don’t remember which year). Now when I look back, by being young and stupid I actually never play without a strategy. I use a strategy called SSS or short stack strategy, I thing.
I have going up and down but I ended it after plying couple of months. My reason was that I didn’t get rich and that my grandmother didn’t like me playing poker etc. I was never really successful but I learn the important of a good MM and why a strategy is important. Good experience doesn’t equal successful =).

“Poker is FARRRRRR more easy than Forex due the fact you can gradually move up in stakes”
what do you mean by that?

Happy trading
@materyb

I haven’t posted in a while but I will start again. I just forget to post because I was not trading. This week I have read three books and all three are very good.

Jesse Livermore: World's Greatest Stock Trader

First we have the biography of the best stock trader in the world. An excellent book, I will start to read his trading books soon. Much better then trading in the zone, and after reading a other book I start to doubt the idea “trading in the zone” gives.

Master the Markets

OHHH really get you to understand how the market works. You should read this book first before reading the biography because you will understand much more about how this great trader was trading. I say You will never be successful in forex of you don’t read this book or get a friend to explain how the market really works.

Think and Grow Rich

One of the most famous books, which most millionaires have read. It has nothing to do with trading but really explains why desire and faith is so important to be successful in trading or life. I thing this books is what most trader miss, they have all things, a trading plan, good strategy, etc. But they don’t believe that they can succeed in forex. There is a thing back of their head that says that they will fail and if you don’t believe in the deepest hole in your soul that you can do it, you will fail.

That it for now, I will not summaries this books, maybe only the master the markets but all books need to be read from the first page to the last, specially the last book. When I read I can really read for days and I get in this wired mood and I stop doing anything else. But I will start trading again next week, this week I will read fast true all the books to puff up my memory and get the key point and figurate how to apply them to my trading.

Happy trading
@materyb

i´m reading "think and grow rich" at the moment. a really great book.. i can recommend you "the alchemist" paul coelho... it´s my favorite

happy trading

Andrey

Today I have get a good seen of what trading is and I have enough information to create my own philosophy about trading and how to get good at it. This last weeks I have read and tried to understand how to become good trader and my conclusion is this.

Trading is more as a sport than business. As a trader you are trying to play the world biggest mental sport and only the top 5% of the athletes can support their living by trading. As an athlete you not only need to have the knowledge how to perform a specific action but you also need the experience and the mental stability to perform good in a race. I things many trader fail because they have this wrong perspective of what trading really is. Of you have general poor health and maybe unemployed or you have a many children and need to stay at home it’s still possible for you to open up a business. Many people have done it and it not very difficult because you have the knowledge and you can always employ people to do the work. The only thing you really need is a plan and leadership to make it work.

Now of you look from the sport perspective you would never thing to start trading even of you know how to place a trade and have a good strategy. Why? Because everyone knows how to play football but it docent mean that you will succeed by having the knowledge. You need to put your whole soul into the game and be mentally and physically great to even have a chance. This way of thinking explains why many people fail even when having an excellent plan. And this way of thinking opens up new doors and new ways to trading and I will follow this road and see where I end up.

Happy trading
@materyb

Balance: $415
In the 90-80% MM class
100-90% class: $470-423.03

How I’m feeling today?
Started trading late and I fell little afraid can’t really make sense of the market today. A bad start but I will start focus on trading and I will find sense and make a nice profit day!

Happy trading
@materyb

Balance: $418 (+$2)
In the 90-80% MM class
100-90% class: $470-423.03

Yesterday:
It was a good Tuesday and I cached a good 60pips trade. I start get better and better at analyzing the market, and I’m reading much about mental training. I really fell a difference after trying out same technics. Have no problem anymore to placing order, and I thing that real progress.

How I’m feeling today?
I fell ready! Today will be an excellent day

Happy trading
@materyb

Balance: $418 (+$0)
In the 90-80% MM class
100-90% class: $470-423.03

Yesterday:
I didn’t trade because a felt restless. After I eat lunch yesterday I started to eat sweet things and it made me to have too much energy. A disaster in discipline, so do day I decided to trade from a Library instead.

How I’m feeling today?
I thing I will be more focuses today because I am in a new place a new atmosphere.

Happy trading
@materyb

Balance: $417 (-$1)
In the 90-80% MM class
100-90% class: $470-423.03

Yesterday:
Yesterday was not a bad day, I did make same mistakes that lead to losses but overall it was a good day. But I am a bit angry because I made this sloppy analyze of EUR/USD and I started to trade against the trend, So today I will get a EMA 50 to not make this mistake again!

How I’m feeling today?
I will do as last day, go to the Library and trade there. It peaceful and I am much more focuses there.

Happy trading
@materyb

Balance: $420 (+$2)
In the 90-80% MM class
100-90% class: $470-423.03

Last Friday:
Last week I ended the week with a nice profit which I feel really good about. By using VSA I did find that the big news on Friday wore going the other way around even if all news showed good for the dollar. I did not have courage to let the profit run of the fear that I will end my day before the weekend with a loss. Stupid? Of course but what can you do except learn from your mistakes!

How I’m feeling today?
I have read the book “Investing with Volume Analysis” by Buff Dormeier and the Idea was that I will feel more confident about volume because I have read a great deal about it, but I don’t. I don’t feel that I have learn anything, I need probably read it again and it will come to me when I trade but it a weird feeling. Today is my goal to get out of 80-90% MM class and for that I need $3.

Happy trading
@materyb