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Attachments: $500 to $100,000... The Inspiration Thread
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$500 to $100,000... The Inspiration Thread

  • #1
  • First Post: Edited Apr 1, 2013 12:36am Dec 6, 2012 6:50pm | Edited Apr 1, 2013 12:36am
Update: It's been a very bumpy first few months. I jumped around from idea to idea at first and lost some money doing it. Now I'm trying to settle into a style/routine, prove to myself that it's profitable, and then keep at it while.

The first 8 pages are a lot of talk, but I need to monitor my trades for the next month with a 2:1 risk/reward ratio that I'm trying out so I'll finally be using this journal for what it should be used for, to document trades.

Introduction

I was introduced to Forex back in 2009 and spent about 3-4 months doing a lot of research and draining a couple hundred dollars in a live account. Then I was introduced to internet marketing and decided to go that route because it seemed like a quicker way to become self employed (my ultimate goal at the time)...

...and it worked. A little over a year later I was self employed making more than the average person, and was loving it. I moved down to South Carolina with a friend and let the money get to my head. I won't go into detail, and don't want to for that matter, but basically I ran my business into the ground, ran out of money, and moved back in with my parents. This was over a year ago.

For the last year or so I've been trying to get back into internet marketing but it just hasn't been working out, and I've come to realize now that it really isn't right for me.

I'm at the stage now where I'm ready to build a career, and build a million dollar empire out of something... choose one thing and become world class at it (something that's always been a core dream of mine).

Forex is my medium that I choose to base my career and life around, and conquering the forex market is my challenge that I have for myself.


[Edits to original post]

The Challenge

This thread is devoted to charting my trades, reasoning behind those trades, my ideas, collaboration with other traders, and to provide inspiration to those who seek to conquer the forex market.

I will trace my steps as I take a $500 trading account and turn it into $100,000 over time. The live trading account will be opened in the first week of January 2013.

Throughout the year I will also take money from my day job, and the small amount I still make from internet marketing, and begin to pay off debt that I have acquired.


The Goal

To be consistently positive in my account by the end of 2013, and have at least $10,000 in the account (through a combination of profitable trading and being able to deposit more $$$ into the account as my debt decreases to $0.

To go into 2014 knowing that I am debt free, have over $10,000 in a live trading account, and know that I can take that $10,000 and consistently add to it on a month to month basis through systematic trading and good money management.


In Conclusion

This journey will be long and hard to accomplish these goals. With $20,000 in debt to pay off, a full time job, a part time online job, and learning to trade forex profitably in a live trading account... I've got my hands full. But I know I'm the one for the job.

Anthony Robbins turned his life around 360 degrees in no time at all, and so can I.

Wish me luck, I start today.
"If you won't risk the usual, you'll have to settle for the ordinary."
  • #2
  • Dec 6, 2012 7:01pm Dec 6, 2012 7:01pm
I'm currently trading a 50k demo account with FXCM. Yesterday I opened and closed 3 different trades. It won't let me see the trades I'd done, but I profited about $16 on those trades. I will keep a running total of the demo account profit/loss from here on out. To make things easy I'll keep track of it from $50,000 even though there's been some random trading done on it.

Current Demo Account Balance: $50,004.40


These are my current open trades for the day.

USD/JPY: Buy@ 82.394
Limit: 82.500
Stop: 82.250

GBP/USD: Buy@ 1.60543
Limit: 1.61000
Stop: 1.60200

AUD/USD: Buy@ 4.04843
Limit: 1.05000
Stop: 1.04650

NZD/USD: Buy@ 0.83242
Limit: 0.83500
Stop: 0.83000

GBP/JPY: Buy@ 132.305
Limit: 132.700
Stop: 132.000


I'll go into detail later about my trading strategy etc... and why I have so many open trades.
"If you won't risk the usual, you'll have to settle for the ordinary."
  • #3
  • Dec 6, 2012 9:16pm Dec 6, 2012 9:16pm
Trading Philosophy

So after having some forex background and coming back into it, here's the philosophy I've adopted toward it that I'm going to trade with the next month.

Basically I see trades as a 50/50 chance. It's either going to go up, or go down, simple as that. I enter each trade with a 1:1 risk/reward ratio (close to it, not exactly though, I'll make them slightly different to satisfy different support/resistance levels on the chart).

So if i enter each trade with a 1:1 risk/reward, then winning half of my trades will break me even. So all I need to do is get a little bit of an edge to make sure I win 60% or more of my trades to make some profit.

I get this edge by simply following the trend.


Trading Strategy

I'll open up a chart and look at the 1 day candlesticks just to see where the trend is going. After I've identified either an upward trend, downward trend, or a ranging market, I will then open up the 1 hour candlestick chart and analyze that. I will look for an entry signal on the 1 hour chart to enter into a position based on the current trend of the daily chart. My entry signals is based on current candlestick formation and formations of the previous bars to identify where the market is going to go.

I will then enter appropriate stop and limit points based on psychological levels, previous resistance, support levels, fib levels, etc...

And that's basically it. No indicators or anything at all, just simplicity.

I'm testing to see if simply using the absolute essentials of forex is enough to make educated decisions on where the next 8-10 hourly bars are going to go.

I don't see why it has to be hard if one must simply figure out whether the market is going to go up or down... it's a 50-50 chance. So let's see if my super simple method of trading does me good or not.
"If you won't risk the usual, you'll have to settle for the ordinary."
  • #4
  • Dec 6, 2012 10:54pm Dec 6, 2012 10:54pm
Quoting livethedream
Trading Philosophy

So after having some forex background and coming back into it, here's the philosophy I've adopted toward it that I'm going to trade with the next month.

Basically I see trades as a 50/50 chance. It's either going to go up, or go down, simple as that. I enter each trade with a 1:1 risk/reward ratio (close to it, not exactly though, I'll make them slightly different to satisfy different support/resistance levels on the chart).

So if i enter each trade with a 1:1 risk/reward, then winning half of my trades will...
place 10ema and 200ema. Both very important floating S/R
Notice that strongest trends are when both are going same direction.If price is under 10EMA but above 200EMA then simply wait or practice counter trend towards 200ema then exist.
Trends never go up or down in straight manner so you could buy or sell in dips.
Demo trading in my opinion is useless.It teaches you unrealistic behaviors and unrealistic account size.50k demo is not the same as 500 live account.
80% of trading success is not the method but psychology and that you won't learn from demo.No matter how you pretend to care about the demo account, it will never be live psychologically therefore when you do go live you might have already brainwashed yourself in negative habits not conducive to real trading.
Regards
My plan is to take 5k into a million in 5years.
In trading, you have to be defensive and aggressive at the same time
  • #5
  • Dec 7, 2012 1:57pm Dec 7, 2012 1:57pm
im a 26 years old, im start the trade from time to time. much i loss money and much i profit from trading, but i just wanna says, " if you wanna have much profit, so open positions and get the profit from 4 to 8 point every open positions, i beleive you can get much. its REAL !!
knowing yourself... and take action.
ahdts
  • #6
  • Dec 7, 2012 4:26pm Dec 7, 2012 4:26pm
Quoting Davit
place 10ema and 200ema. Both very important floating S/R
Notice that strongest trends are when both are going same direction.If price is under 10EMA but above 200EMA then simply wait or practice counter trend towards 200ema then exist.
Trends never go up or down in straight manner so you could buy or sell in dips.
Demo trading in my opinion is useless.It teaches you unrealistic behaviors and unrealistic account size.50k demo is not the same as 500 live account.
80% of trading success is not the method but psychology and that you won't learn...
Thanks Davit. Some very solid advice. I'll go ahead and put those ema's onto my chart.
"If you won't risk the usual, you'll have to settle for the ordinary."
  • #7
  • Dec 7, 2012 9:22pm Dec 7, 2012 9:22pm
Quoting livethedream
Introduction

My name is Scott. I'm a 22 (soon to be 23) year old from Maryland.

I was introduced to Forex back in 2009 and spent about 3-4 months doing a lot of research and draining a couple hundred dollars in a live account. Then I was introduced to internet marketing and decided to go that route because it seemed like a quicker way to become self employed (my ultimate goal at the time)...

...and it worked. A little over a year later I was self employed making more than the average person, and was loving it. I moved...
Nice threat ,I wish you good luck
Sic Transit Gloria Mundi ~ Thus passes the glory of the world
  • #8
  • Dec 7, 2012 9:38pm Dec 7, 2012 9:38pm
Quoting Davit
place 10ema and 200ema. Both very important floating S/R
Notice that strongest trends are when both are going same direction.If price is under 10EMA but above 200EMA then simply wait or practice counter trend towards 200ema then exist.
Trends never go up or down in straight manner so you could buy or sell in dips.
Demo trading in my opinion is useless.It teaches you unrealistic behaviors and unrealistic account size.50k demo is not the same as 500 live account.
[b]80% of trading success is not the method but...
very good advices i agree with everything but i would rather recommend SMA 10,50,100,200 (if you prefer EMA then use Fibo number for period 9,21,34,...,89,144.....)
Sic Transit Gloria Mundi ~ Thus passes the glory of the world
  • #9
  • Dec 7, 2012 11:25pm Dec 7, 2012 11:25pm
I wish u luck and all the best, but having ambitions and goals to achieve, i hope u properly lay out all the possibilities in this event of venture of possiblities of losses, how u climb up from losses, how u manage ur losses, how u manage ur winnings and etc etc, important how u manage urself as a trader. Forex trading on brokers is a leverage form of investment, can be label as the highest risks, and actually almost no difference from gambling or if better poker. Just 1 step wrong, u can fall into gambling - addictions = more debts. Poker- > u play with probability and money management, eventually u may succeed if ur determined to improve and improve everytime from ur mistakes/failures. To eventually attain that 500-100,000, that would classified u as a good trader/successful trader, but things may go choppy in the mid way. Don't get me wrong.

I done the same before, 20 dollar to 1000 within 3 weeks,. 1000 to 10,000 within 3 months, eventually someway at some point u can lose everything u accumulated, if u lack of proper planning and risk management. U don't want to end up topping up the account to trying to salvage ur losses/ profits losses. U will get there, i will watch ur growth . Eventually u will have to climb over that obstacles, i do see that ur determined in the way u composed and write out, i can see ambitions in u, but u have to experience it then u will know.

If u ever hit ur first bench mark , start withdrawing ur profits/winnings and start more small accounts.

I rem this fellow on instaforex, probably using EA, a live account of $1000 grew to 1 M within 1 month, and probably because of greeds, he don't want to close, next moments, 1m dropped to 750k, he still refused, dropped to 500k refused, eventually. 1 m before stopped out! margin call!. And the best part of his excuse was that he was not at home watching the trade and in a meeting. If a commoner can make 1 M from forex trading, the next best thing to do is to QUIT FOREX TRADING and quit ur day job, why bother to be in a meeting when theres a million dollar running.

then go into investment as an smart investor, u can invest ur 1m in many 10k with many pamms/ traders out there to trade for ur to grow money, if that pamm/trader can grow money, so be it stick with him, if he can't even make money out of 10k by time reach 8k, get him stop out, lose 2k only, invest in other steady trader.


why bother trading urself??? When i even know of some corporations gauranteed 100% growth per annum, and knowing their investors makes 1m out of 1m investment per year and even more. Some way down the road, u will eventually know that u probably don't want to trade anymore, and let this thing be done/stressed by others.



So at some point at ur curve stage of gains, please start to slow down and withdraw, learn to take money out and further watch ur risk over ur gains.
  • #10
  • Dec 7, 2012 11:38pm Dec 7, 2012 11:38pm
Quoting Davit
place 10ema and 200ema. Both very important floating S/R
Notice that strongest trends are when both are going same direction.If price is under 10EMA but above 200EMA then simply wait or practice counter trend towards 200ema then exist.
Trends never go up or down in straight manner so you could buy or sell in dips.
Demo trading in my opinion is useless.It teaches you unrealistic behaviors and unrealistic account size.50k demo is not the same as 500 live account.
80% of trading success is not the method but psychology and that you won't learn...
correct . too many beginners come into this arena, even those market experts failed, gurus come and goes, let alone new ones, even experienced traders keep failing, let alone the new ones. Look at these " BK " so called market experts, also not making money now, and losing even more , managing other's money.

If u have only 2k in ur saving, 500 will mean alot to u, watching that 0.1 @ 1 dollar per pip moves u will also feel excited and scared. 500 is too little, u probably will blow a few times, unless u tell me that u are using 0.01 on 500. then u will be safer and last longer and will catch up eventually to grow that account.

But if u ever try to do 1 dollar per point on a 500 account, its just a matter of time u lose everything, unless ur system and stop loss and rr is so good. that u can make 20 dollar for every 10/15/20dollar u invested.

Experience will be ur edge, not the system. If i want to trade 500, i will open a demo 500. If i want to trade 100k, i will open a demo 100k. Try to be real as possible, ur decision making on that seconds will decide everything on just 1 CLICK.

i would advice to master a single trading pair before u jump to too many pairs, u need to know the pair itself, the behavior, its fundamental and etc etc, trading too many pairs may seems as risk diversification but also means randomness/not focus. My experience tells me 1 single pair can make enough money from 4-20 pairs that people are doing.

The very one guy u may want to learn from in this FF is : vennd . search for him. If u can master that level of emotionally detached trading, and swing trading with long and shorts, u may get there. 80%-90% on FF are probably medium trader, with losses, breakeven and etc etc some times good gains, sometimes heavy losses., from the way i see their trades and replies.
  • #11
  • Dec 8, 2012 12:46pm Dec 8, 2012 12:46pm
Quoting aerotrade
very good advices i agree with everything but i would rather recommend SMA 10,50,100,200 (if you prefer EMA then use Fibo number for period 9,21,34,...,89,144.....)
Thanks for the advice. Will look into SMA as well. I'm going to spend the weekend developing a proper trading strategy for the week. My trades I opened up Saturday didn't go very well. I'll post about them later.
"If you won't risk the usual, you'll have to settle for the ordinary."
  • #12
  • Dec 8, 2012 12:48pm Dec 8, 2012 12:48pm
Quoting 5percent
correct . too many beginners come into this arena, even those market experts failed, gurus come and goes, let alone new ones, even experienced traders keep failing, let alone the new ones. Look at these " BK " so called market experts, also not making money now, and losing even more , managing other's money.

If u have only 2k in ur saving, 500 will mean alot to u, watching that 0.1 @ 1 dollar per pip moves u will also feel excited and scared. 500 is too little, u probably will blow a few...
Wow, thanks for all of the advice and insight! When I do finally open up a small live account I'm going to trade the smallest amount that my broker will allow as to keep the account open and not blow through it. I would rather have extremely small winnings or losses the first few months than blow through the account. The live trading experience should be a great first hand experience even if I win/loss very small amounts.
"If you won't risk the usual, you'll have to settle for the ordinary."
  • #13
  • Dec 8, 2012 1:10pm Dec 8, 2012 1:10pm
Quoting livethedream
Wow, thanks for all of the advice and insight! When I do finally open up a small live account I'm going to trade the smallest amount that my broker will allow as to keep the account open and not blow through it. I would rather have extremely small winnings or losses the first few months than blow through the account. The live trading experience should be a great first hand experience even if I win/loss very small amounts.
Just except that you will make mistakes.There is no way around it however how one deals with mistakes makes the difference.
Let me illustrate an example.Probably everyone has done this at some point.
formed a wrong bias

Entered a trade short
Price goes higher 10pips
Hesitated to exist thinking it is just a spike
Waited and price goes up 25pips higher now entered 2nd short thinking if price drops 10pips you may get out with less damage
Price goes 50pips higher and now got 2trades collecting losses or compounding losses.
Now instead of just getting out entered 3rd short then 4th then 5th
Before knowing 50% account loss.

This is typical.Problem is right from the start formulating a wrong bias.Price is obviously is in up trend but all the time in your head thinking its about to turn down trend because that was my bias.
Unable to admit defeat at 10pips caused loss of 400pips.
Most important lesson in trading is how to take a loss and be able to take a loss.We are hardwired by nature to resist a loss,animals freeze in panicky situations and same happens to us.
This is rather counter intuitive but to make money in forex one must focus on how to deal with losses and how to keep money instead of making money.
Professional traders attach importance to risk lot more then profits.Where amateurs only think and dream about profits which feed the ego and which causes you to resist taking losses until its too late.
One of the best videos you can watch about this from 20+year experience trader
Inserted Video

You won't get what you want quickly however if you love trading and motivated you can overcome anything.Problems are within you 1st.Overcome your weaknesses-lack of discipline,greed,revenge etc.
In trading, you have to be defensive and aggressive at the same time
  • #14
  • Dec 8, 2012 1:38pm Dec 8, 2012 1:38pm
Quoting livethedream
Wow, thanks for all of the advice and insight! When I do finally open up a small live account I'm going to trade the smallest amount that my broker will allow as to keep the account open and not blow through it. I would rather have extremely small winnings or losses the first few months than blow through the account. The live trading experience should be a great first hand experience even if I win/loss very small amounts.

Hi livethedream

I have a similar idea - I'm starting (again!) with $200 and have the same goal.

Looking forward to seeing what system you're going to use.

Subscribed!
  • #15
  • Dec 8, 2012 3:27pm Dec 8, 2012 3:27pm
Quoting Davit
Just except that you will make mistakes.There is no way around it however how one deals with mistakes makes the difference.
Let me illustrate an example.Probably everyone has done this at some point.
formed a wrong bias

Entered a trade short
Price goes higher 10pips
Hesitated to exist thinking it is just a spike
Waited and price goes up 25pips higher now entered 2nd short thinking if price drops 10pips you may get out with less damage
Price goes 50pips higher and now got 2trades collecting losses or compounding losses.
Now instead of...
This: "Price is obviously is in up trend but all the time in your head thinking its about to turn down trend because that was my bias."
and this: "Most important lesson in trading is how to take a loss and be able to take a loss"

... was great to read, along with everything else as well. Thanks for the example too.

I'll be sure to watch that video sometime tonight.
"If you won't risk the usual, you'll have to settle for the ordinary."
  • #16
  • Dec 8, 2012 3:28pm Dec 8, 2012 3:28pm
Quoting jmtini
Hi livethedream

I have a similar idea - I'm starting (again!) with $200 and have the same goal.

Looking forward to seeing what system you're going to use.

Subscribed!
Sounds great! Good luck to you!
"If you won't risk the usual, you'll have to settle for the ordinary."
  • #17
  • Dec 8, 2012 10:29pm Dec 8, 2012 10:29pm
So as I said earlier. I didn't do too well on the trades I opened up Thursday. But I honestly opened them up kind of blindly. Since I'm just getting back into things I really wanted to open some trades just to get that "feeling" again of watching it go up or down. So no harm done.

I've been doing a lot of research and reading, still need to watch the video posted earlier but I plan on doing that tomorrow... I'm sure it'll be beneficial.

Still trying to figure out a trading plan for the week.

Demo Account Balance: 49,926.74



http://scottbprice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/0.png
"If you won't risk the usual, you'll have to settle for the ordinary."
  • #18
  • Dec 9, 2012 3:20am Dec 9, 2012 3:20am
Fallacy of lot of beginner traders think trading many pairs is profitable.Opposite is true.
It takes time mastering 1 pair knowing its cycles,fundamentals (interest rates,micro-economics,news etc) and once understanding Euro other correlated pairs become side kicks like Euro/Yen or Euro/Cad
Observe that sidekick pairs often move faster.For example during Asian session if Euro/USD falls Euro/Yen falls on average 20-30% more.
Point I am trying to make is by being all over the place you can have below average results mastering none however by focusing on 1 pair and its side-kicks you will master not only that pair but trading itself.

Regards
In trading, you have to be defensive and aggressive at the same time
  • #19
  • Dec 9, 2012 7:07am Dec 9, 2012 7:07am
Quoting Davit
Fallacy of lot of beginner traders think trading many pairs is profitable.Opposite is true.
It takes time mastering 1 pair knowing its cycles,fundamentals (interest rates,micro-economics,news etc) and once understanding Euro other correlated pairs become side kicks like Euro/Yen or Euro/Cad
Observe that sidekick pairs often move faster.For example during Asian session if Euro/USD falls Euro/Yen falls on average 20-30% more.
Point I am trying to make is by being all over the place you can have below average results mastering none however by focusing...
I would have to say not really true. It really depends on what system you're trading. If it's a system which relies on the higher time frames (at least 4 hr or daily chart) then you have time to keep a check on 5 or 6 pairs. As an example, if you look at GBPNZD (tends to have a huge range at times) it dropped 150 pips in just over two days. If you are solely concentrating on cable for instance, you can end up wiping out your account balance pretty quick. My advice would be to avoid trading GBPUSD unless you have been trading it for years.
  • #20
  • Dec 9, 2012 10:42am Dec 9, 2012 10:42am
Hello livethedream.

Reading your thread made me login to come here actually say something. I'm 19y old and I finished college last year, started to have interest in forex along with Anthony Robbins stuff for 3 years, and decided along the way in those years to made the decision this would be my life. I intend going in to 7 figures. I search the internet sometimes trying to find people like me, but the only thing I see is people risking 1% saying they try to make 20% a year, and who dares to try to make more is stupid and will lose all his money. That's why I don't bother to discuss in forums. But from all the influence I had from traders I saw interviews and some I talked, forex has infinite possibilities. The max i saw was 12000% in a month, in an fxcm live contest.

Reading your thread was almost as seeing myself talking, I read and apply Anthony Robbins stuff everyday. Now that I'm free from college, having only a part time, I want to change my life doing everything I can to improve in forex, and I do believe I can make enormous amounts in a small time. But sometimes I get caught up in life, and I have no one in my life that really understands what forex is, so I stop trading for a week or 2 sometimes. I forget what I'm working for. My goals. But my decision is done and I'm getting more focused on my goal than I ever been in my life and I just can't conform myself with any other result. I will work as much as I can with my existence to make my family and generations live a different and better life. I know it's possible, as everything is possible, life rewards those who make such effort always believing, but you must already know that

About forex and trading systems, I started like you, I still have that phrase on my system "It's as easy as to get 60% chance, just an edge.". Altough it motivates, the truth is, if you risk X% of your account winning and losing 50% of the time, it will make you lose money. But fear not, with some mastery, 70% will definitly make huge amounts compounding

The last 2 months there was brutal changes in my system since i now devote 8h a day to forex. I no longer search for this perfect indicator, I search for tools, everything i can get my hand to predict either direction, reversals, entry spots, exit spots. I met online very good traders that had 5-8 pips stops, traders that usually got 150 pips moves with 12 pips stops and winning more than 70% of the time. I saw them trading live. Most people will tell you this is impossible but you chose what you will want to believe, and what you do Need to believe if you really want to make huge amounts and be a really good trader. I myself made killing entries with 2 pips against me, though my system was poor with no exit rules and lost most times. To be profitable we need to know the direction of the next hours/minutes/days, right spot to enter, conditions that means we're wrong and we must leave, right spot to exit, and filters to know what are the best situations to trade. That's the logic behind my system.

Sorry for the huge text, but if you ever want to share stuff, talk or try to improve together, tell me, Because I have the same goal right here with the same beliefs
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