The Trader Behind the Trade™

Cool. Do UCL and LCL stand for Upper and Lower confidence levels?

Upper/Lower control limits

I first got introduced to poker back in 2010 when they used to have the "Poker after Dark" show right at the start of my trading session. (before the show shut down due to money laundering or some shit)

I love that show. I actually started learning poker then.

I learned a lot from that show; particularly about having the proper mindset when dealing with losses or drawdown. I also learn about being aggressive but in control.

Phil Ivey is my favorite. I always pay attention when he's on the show. Paying attention to how he reacts to big pots or from bad beats. This guy reacts the same way for both outcomes it's almost robotic.

“People frequently ask me what amount of money is at risk before I begin to be nervous: there is no amount of money that makes me sweat. You must remember that I don’t come from money. To me, when I’m gambling, it’s what I do — it’s who I am. I don’t get nervous when I’m betting big money. I just try to make good decisions. I feel that no matter how much I lose, I can always recoup it — without exception. I might have to play a little smaller or a little harder, but I always know that if I lose it, I’ll get it back. That’s how I’ve always felt, my whole life. So if I have it and I’m able to bet it, I will.“

In order to be one of the best poker players in the world, it’s important to be able to put everything on the line — that’s gambling. To be really good at poker, you can’t be too tight or cautious with your money. No one is saying you should play recklessly, but too much caution can cost you as much as being too reckless. The overly cautious player will lose just as much as a reckless player — just more slowly. Because you’re always gambling for big amounts of money, you have to have a certain disregard for money. You have to believe that you will get it back if you lose.”

Broker reviews.


Oanda - no minimum deposit and min of 1 cent lot allowed. This is very flexible since as a newbie you can try multitudes of strategies without burning through the account too fast. The reason I chose them because i'm able to trade off the chart and the position sizing fits my strategy well. They also got a strong capital base out of all the market makers (based on the FCM report)

MBTrading - great spreads with commissions. Plus you can get back some of that comission in rebates using limit orders (which i use for TPs most of the time). But I'm wondering why for a company like this to have such a small capital base (according to their FCM report)

Interactive brokers- the "god" of forex brokers. The ONLY reason I didn't go with this company was it took me a while to get used to the trading platform. However you can use 3rd party platforms and I guess I overlooked that. The only thing i dont like is 25k minimum trade size. But this is definitely a great choice if I ever decide to move away from Oanda. Unfortunately, there will be no more trade explorer....

When I didn't work for couple of weeks before starting my new job, i was bored after 3 days. Now that I'm at work, I'm tired of it after 1 week.

freakin life man. Nothing satisfies me.

Just took the personality test and found that I'm an INTJ

http://www.personalitypage.com/INTJ.html

Trading is truly a game of "inches"


Question of the day:

Knowing my TP is a around 1.33745, what would you have done at 2:27? at 2:33? or 2:47? I think that psychology can contribute to a positive edge. Cause I know not a lot of people can do what I do when it comes to holding a position.

How Weight-lifting Shaped my Trading Approach

I started lifting weights on and off back in middle school (around 10-11 years old). But I was first introduced to it by my brother who used to lift stone grinders (these things were used to grind ingredients for cooking) and doing forearm grip training with those resistance grippers. When I was that young, I lifted not to impress the opposite sex, not for health reasons, but for the love of the routine.

I took weight lifitng to the next level in high school. I started learning about work out splits, diets, and motivation techniques from various websites. It was the first time that I decided to use "supplements". I started out with protein shakes. To increase my protein intake (1g per 1lb of bodyweight they say), I started consuming meals at 2-3 hour intervals. I was eating so much that my mom got mad at me for having to cook so much.

I took weight lifiting to another level in college. I started using more advanced supplements like creatine and whey protein supplements.I grew to about 200lbs-and standing at 5'8", that was massive growth for my structure. I lifted regularly and developed my discipline. I would keep track of my lifts for each excercise, by set, by rep. All through 4 years of college. I was "that guy" in the gym sporting a bodybuilder physique.

Shortly after graduation, I got married. Stopped lifitng about 1-2 years-due to lack of motivation. But started picking it up again. Now My focus is more on lifting for aesthetics rather than for size alone. I started incorporating sprint training for cardio to speed up my fat burning process. Even tried intermittent fasting training which helped me lose close to 20 lbs.

I found forex right about a year after college. I started out reading books and going online for information. I started small and made little progress here and there. It was difficult in the beginning, but one thing I had was discipline. I kept track of my trades and used a journal to document what things were working and what didn't. Over the years, I realize that trading is like weight lifiting. It's all about the grind. There are few basic strategies out there available to retail traders that can make money. But you have to put in the time and let your numbers play out. If you break your routine, you will lose out on potential gains.

One thing that also helped me in trading is having that passion for trading-just as I had passion for lifting. I didn't trade for the sake of money alone-but I enjoyed the routine of being in the market and and being rewarded for your efforts instantly by it. If your only passion in anyting is money alone-you wouldn't last long in anything.

Very rare my trades ever last this long

Long@ 1.31801, S/L 1.31558, TP 1.33312.

At one point I was just about < 10 pips away from my target. But getting out early will just reenforce bad habits of getting out early. And at one point,i was about 2 pips away from my S/L (so what aobut broker stop hunting? )

So maybe if i'm lucky asian session will push this up to Target or at least allow me to close at a profit before my next trading session (according to my rules to close out any open trades).

Looks like asian traders are making a push upwards-which is good for me-the more i am in profit, the less chance i am going to be stopped out by london tonite. Wonder if they'll push it past 1.3330.

You trade manually and discretionary right? How do you handle the 24 hours forex day? Do you trade according to your American timezone or do you adjust your sleep to actually trade the London session? When do you take a break?

yes i trade manually, but i would say i am 95% mechanical trader. My trade session starts at 2am CST according to the US time-always.

My system only takes 1-2 trades a day and it's a set and forget type trades. So once i make a trade-i'm free to do whatever i wish and take a break.

One of those nights I just cannot fall asleep. Not sure if anything to do with this open trade that I have. If this trade is stopped out, it's just another trade-but at the same time, my mind is all over this trade.

I hope today's trading session is a short one unlike yesterday-so i can catch some sleep earlier. I really don't want to walk in to work feeling like a zombie.

2amCST is converted to 3amEST or 8am UK time right? At the London bank open. For Americans that's a bit hard on the sleep pattern. But you are right, once you found and entered 1-2 trades either let it hit stop or reach target. No point staring at the screen and wasting precious life away. Then check on the trade at the next session.

Do you think eventually you will move in to automated trading? I see many people developing or offering trading EAs and robots on VPS. But all the good traders I know preferred discretionary manual trading.

No i probably would not move to automated trading. Like i said my method is 95% mechanical, so 5% is still discretionary.

Sometimes you got to flip and join the herd. To switch your market sentiment on the fly is very crucial.

Still negative in pip count for the year, even though I've made a new account high. As you can see, pips don't mean a thang

I wonder if you will consider rambling about trading books that made an impact on your trading success. Have you read (or listen to audio versions) of:
1. The Disciplined Trader - Mark Douglas.
2. Trading In The Zone - Mark Douglas.
3. Trading For A Living - Dr Alexander Elder.
4. Trade Your Way To Financial Freedom - Van K Tharp.

1, The disciplined Trader - Never read it

2. Trading in the zone - I read this 3 or 4 years ago. Nothing really sticks out for me from this book. I think it's pretty useless.

3. Trading for a living - I remember reading this from the local library. Good basic info on some technical setups. I remember the 3 trading screen method from that book which i tried in the early years..never worked for me.

4. Trade your way to financial freedom - Probably the best from this list. It talks about psychology, statistics, and trading methods. I learned quite a bit from this book.

I also would recommend poker books like

The Poker Mindset
Tao of Poker

I noticed you liked 24pips stop loss. I've been experimenting with using tighter stop loss of 12pips. But my dilemma is whether to re-enter the position if I was stopped out too quickly but still think I'm correct, or to use to a larger stop loss of 24pips. In the earlier case, if I re-entered with 12pips and got stopped again, I would be losing 12+12. I might as well just trade with 24pips stop by default.

But I wanted to use a tighter stop of 12pips with plan to re-enter if stopped. What do you suggest? I'm assuming a 20 to 40pips take profit so using 12pips stop would improve my risk-reward.