Reminiscences of a gentleman speculator 2006-2014

This is the story of my FX adventure which, to my great surprise, FF has been right at the heart of.

I say great surprise because at the time of signing up I had no idea where this rabbit hole would lead to.

I have made,lost,re made and lost again friends.I have been in constant contact with some members here for years(all hours of the day and night) which now,much later, I have no idea what happened to them.

This story is there's as much as it is mine.All characters, which I shall not name, have all played there part and even though we may not be in-touch anymore I thank you all for your time.

So why am I writing this? am I selling dreams or another system? am I trying to get your money for my 1000000pip trades or off FF web site just "33.75 a month" .....No I wanna share my story because it is OUR story!

Yes,you,me them, we all share the same hope,have the same dreams and suffer the same loss's cause we are all human's and we all have the same emotions.

I now understand when a wiser man than I said"you only ever trade yourself".

Now standing where I am a million miles away from where I was with a system I love that's right me with a new profession, trading is now in its place.

As the title say's I'm a Gentleman speculator which is an old fashioned way of saying ""amateur" meaning I have an occupation.For the record I'm a Paramedic and I love it and if I had never become a trader I would never have become a Paramedic.

I would like this thread to be a place where we can share our personal stories as i will share mine and if your systems need a bit of Emergency Medicine and I cant help I may be able to point you in the right direction.

So I shall begin.....

Its 2005 and Ive just split up from a bad relationship and I'm looking for a new start............TBC

Hi G..nice to see you again !

When my nursing job will allow me some time I will be happy to read and put some charts !

Subscribed

Welcome both of you please please please feel free to add whatever you feel is appropriate.I'm very interested in how you make trading work for you!!.

So we left off in late 2005 and at this point I'm living in W. London just got my EX out of my house(finally) and I'm looking for a change.

I'm working for a corporate events company and,may I add this is before the world CRASHHHHH.

The budgets on the events I did had NO limit.Money money Money everywhere!!!.

I wouldn't say "wolf of wall street" but compered to after the crash which, with all due respect, conjures images of the Somme circa 1915(god bless um!!) it was more the former than the later.

I had "friends" that worked in the city and they really were masters of the universe.All very smug,all really RICH.

I realize now just how jealous I was.Being brought up in W.London In the circles i moved in as a child i kind of thought I was "chosen" to be a millionaire.

I couldn't help comparing myself to the city boys."If they can why can't I". So I spoke to them and they were like "sure its a strong market" and other good noises.You see the world,that world,(b)efore the (c)rash (BC) was a yes world.

Way before Obama brought "yes" back,yes was all you heard.

So naturally with a BC pre crash devil may care attitude I thought "YES I CAN.

Fortunately(I said to myself) I had always had a healthy interest in world politics and "how hard can It be?",besides all those city boys aren't all that clever are they........are they?

So I bought books literally spend thousands of GBP's on books about trading and Econ indicators,psychology of trading.....bull markets,bear markets trending V's Ozzing V's chop V's all the colors in between.Biographies of CEO's of banks,bad trader's,trading superstars.........Lehman/goldman/morgan/citi,UBS(as I write these names they conjure a different image now) and spent the next 11 months just reading.

Question "can i be a trader and be a master of the universe"

Answer " Y E S! I! C A N!

And despite all this,8 odd years later, I can still hear in my ears the closing paragraph of a former CEO of a private investment comp(which did well i may add during the crash) in regards to risk.

"It takes a lot of money to make a lot of money" but at the time with all the hope rushing in my ears I pretended she hadn't said it.I was gonna be a millionaire with a starting cap of 500 quid.Youth you see is wasted on the young.......TBC

At this point I hadn't even heard of the FF or even mentioned it to any one. I just got my head down and read.

I can honestly say I have never placed one ticket or moved a stop as a result of what I learnt in the books I read but I can say it has opened my gaze in terms of global economic understanding and I definitely recommend a similar study or even a formal degree or course.Nowadays I love to keep an eye on the business news and as it happens I do keep a sharp eye on indices and commodities and I have been known to.....well if the price is right why not.

The single biggest thing I learnt in the book's I read was MONEY MANAGEMENT a.k.a RISK.

That,the above, deserves a line all to itself cause I am of the opinion that its risk(not truth) that sets you free.... lol
Risk is the first and last and when conjoined with compounding has a thunderous effect.Even with a very slightly profitable system risk management and compounding will be a beacon of light on those dark nights of system development(knee hugging anyone? ......) that we all must do.

In fact I would recommend that before you even start to develop a trading system you sit down and write out your TRADING PLAN.If you casually read this and think NAWWWW think again!!!!!Dont let the rush to trade make you not do this.

I must say I have been working on my PLAN as long as I have been developing my(our )system.That I should say was another thing I learnt in the books I read.

To Recap:
1: Risk management 2: Trading plan 3: anyone guess the last...........Trading psychology.Yes that's right Trading psych!

Once upon a time there was a whole thread on it in the FF,there may still be,but it really cannot be over estimated the importance of your state of mind/lifestyle/who you are.And I mean who you really are not who you think you are.But if you have the right risk it may just set you free.............TBC

So where were we?...... Yes that first summer of dreams and hope and books!!

All the books I got were published by "The Economist" which I have a subscription for so I got a bit of a discount.Like I said in my previous post you cant be ready enough with the Plan.

For instance I've had 4 trading systems over the years but always the same "plan"......5 if you count the last changes I made to my "Exit strategy".

You see there are 3 parts to a trade apart from the Plan(risk,yield curve,compounding etc)

They are Entry,Management and Exit.

Each one one of them deserves a complete investigation because unless you can get consistent results in all these areas you can't maximize your profits.Take a mo and read that again.

I'm sorry if I come across as a smug Bas+++d while I sit here giggling to myself but i have sweat blood on this you see and, my fellow dreamers, it is the hope of reward that sweetens the labor and Im sorry but my life is sweet these day's in fact I'm not sorry at all.

Anyway I digress.The key word before my diatribe was CONSISTENCY.

For instance I know exactly out of ten trades how many will win and I can set the correct position size according to both Closed capital and Risk profiles.That's how it should be.

Also once my order is placed I know exactly how to manage and finally where to exit.Every time is the same.
And I like that"like watching paint dry".

All these concepts are not new and i didn't invent the wheel but I do remember having a disregard for them when I started out.

That's the thing about these reminiscences.If I had not had the pressures that were self imposed I may have got here sooner.It does take time but you can maximize your time if you follow the rules.That's why I write so I remember how far I've come.....tbc

Today I wanna write on Risk Reward Ratio(RRR).

RRR is the amount of profit you get compared to the size of the stop loss or how much your prepared to lose in order to win.

example; If I risk 100 pips(my stop is 100 pips away from my entry) and my take profit is 100 the other way I have a RRR of 1:1.

In other words potential risk 100, potential win 100=1:1

This is a very important part in fact integral part of a winning trading system.Essential as all the previously mentioned pieces of the trading system puzzle.

I cannot express enough how important all these aspects(Money management,trade management,RRR,entry/exit trigger,psychology) are to finding your voice in the emptiness of the markets.

And It takes years to arrange and sort into place.One of my mentors back in the day said about 8 years, of course I didn't listen at the time but if you think about it that's not long compared to the RRR of a successful trading system.

Which is as follow's
8 years:lifetime of untold riches and your children's children.(ad infinitem) So try and take a longer term view.

So I have a RRR of 1:1.

I could have more up to 3:1 but that means I have more capital tide up in margin,cutting opportunity to open new positions, and my position may be open for weeks which has pshyc issues.

So as I may have less profit: I have better peace of mind=RRR

To recap;
1. Consistent entry/manage/exit stratergy
2. Uniform stop loss criterion
3. Consistent % risk profile
4. Pre-arranged RRR
5. No adverse trading psych issues

Now all these aspect's need demoing like a sword needs hammering,over and over...........tbc

Right then so on we go,where are we..........

Right about this time I start talking about this crazy plan of mine....trading that is, and it turns out that a few other friends of mine are dipping there toes in as well....and I didn't even know!!!!

Well I thought it was a sign from the gods of trading and it really was!!!!!!

....then it really wasn't........then it nearly killed us......then I don't know what happened..

...now on insight it REALLY IS!!!!!

They introduced me to the FF and charting in particular.Back then I/we were so privileged cause we had practically one on one with some very wise old owls of the markets.

And what did we learn Price Action.

That's OHLC bars and the shapes they make on there own and in relation to each other.And there went another year of my life trying to read the bars.Which I must say I have mastered now(8 years) later.

Ive got some old snaps gonna try to post them back in a mo....

There's some nice Price action from back in the day I will have to dig out some more..........tbc

Well how about that more than a month away.Wow how time flies.I was on the British Colombia/Yukon border on my day job.

Just in passing if you ever have chance to visit the North Peace region(Canada) you should, it is so beautiful and wild.Wolverines,Moose and I saw the Northern Lights and stars that make you cry!!

At the virtual office I had 3 trades all done by the book and in accordance with all the stuff I spoke of above which is why I spoke of it cause that's how it should be.You set your traps(orders) in the right place-sit back and live.

Now today I'm gonna tell you a little secret that's not a secret its just in the small print.All the brokers can put there price 2-3 pips "around" the ask and bid price set by the interbank.So the price your broker offers you can be 7 pips different from the interbank price WHICH can cause havoc to price action/lines etc AND day bar close is the end of NY and the beginning of SYDNEY.I'm not gonna tell you what to do about that just factor it in that's all.

The devil is in the detail.

Right back to the main story.....

I was expecting/hoping trading to fill so many parts of my life.Emotionally/spiritually etc etc etc and most of all FINANCIALLY but really it was just another means to fill the voids of loneliness that is generic to the human condition.These same voids,essential to all that is human,is what is attempted to be filled by materialism-advertising and the concept of "self" which some, more wise than I, would say was a post war concept invented to expand a middle class and stabilize a battered world.

FX trading and the allure of riches, and that concept of "self" previously mentioned, is what MUST be overcome in order to view the market place with an eye to profit.Or in more plain speak less time with your head up your ass and more time at the charts!!........tbc

Interested to hear the journey..

The last few months have been great on the high seas of FX,I love and need the volatility and the long weekends have been nice too.

Margin.
This is how you work out your margin.

price of base currency so lets say gbp v usd, start with gbp's price @ 1.69876(for example) x 10000 x volume (1.0) / leverage (500) = margin needed.

Now I trade on margin but I have a rock solid system but I think that margin makes FX the best business in the world and worth all the hours of charting and system development.But it needs to be handled with respect,which reminds me....


The day I nearly made 89 000 pounds and bottled it.......

At the time driven by a mad desire to make as much money as possible and feeling that I had a mastery of price action bars I decided to go hard and heavy on the 15 min chart.I was working a price box consolidation system which needed me to be at the charts at 5 am gmt without fail in order to set up the system requirements.Also I was taking my knowledge of the higher time frame analysis/trend bias from price and going with that flow.

So I demoed that set up for a good 4-5 months and then used a little monkey money on it and built my confidence till It felt good.

That was when the voices started to just go go go.At the end of the 6 months I was ready.Now my exit strategy was to drop down below the 15 mins to the 5 and exit the trade if I saw an adverse price action bar coming the other way BUT only when that bar engages NOT just at the formation.......right....can you see where this is going.......

So it 5:45 am on my 3rd double shot latte,adrenaline like a 100 meters runner and I get the box brake and a price action bar all system indicators are go go go !!!!

I hit the instant exe button on my NDD ECN and BANG Im in(here comes the rushhhhhhh)

She floats....a little negative and bounce's off the box(good I say market will add) and it roars in profit.......

As Im watching the naughts add up I think I went mad,really I had a spontaneous burst of insanity because I remember laughing like a mad man........

At this point I should be locking in a trailing stop but i lost my mind.....like golum when he gets the ring in mount doom...meanwhile the first 5 min bar had shut and it was an adverse pattern......

The bar engaged and I know I have to do something so I try to exit,order bounce,AGAIN..........no.............again.....now I am crying like a baby but really I was angry/crying oOMGGGGG...If it goes negative I will......

Eventually I get out with how much profit,like a dog to a bone.....well not what it was,The time was 6 am.

That was when I realized if I carry on like this I will die.

6 months washed down the toilet because of the psychology was not there.And the sleep deprivation,the coffee just the whole thing was terrible.

Then the guilt started "if only I stuck to my rules and locked in profit I would have had(I did the sums) 89000 gbp"

I was depressed,so dark and so alone then, fortunately for me, the sunrise came over the forest and it was misty and breath taking.....

I turned the screens off and turned a page,back the daily's I said it may take a little longer but I least I will be alive........my precious tbc

Ive had 3 trades since I posted last,3 wins,1 loss but not a full line loss("what is that?)

Well the system I use has a few exit triggers before price gets to the full Stop loss.

First I have the rejection of resistance I'm betting on price breaking through.

Then I have adverse price action in the opposite direction with the rejection of the resistance.

All in all I can cut my losses early.

Now that has taken years to get just right but I swear its worth it in the end.

It took me so long to get my exit strategy just right probably a good year I think until I was totally happy.......Lay not up your treasures where moth and markets can corrupt!.....

10 years!!

I have been in FX ten years and I have not posted for 2 years on here.....wow

So I have had 2 great years on the FX seas.

Just implementing what I have learn t and yes still refining,mostly adjusting my risk exposure in order to reflect my win/loss ratio.

The funny thing is that I feel as fresh as the first day.I love charting and the global journey it took me on.

Just the other day someone put up a great post about the 5 stages of trading and again this Forum has proved its weight in gold..Literally

Happy trading G

MORE BALLS PLEASE!

Unfortunately you can't ignore him

Blast from the past. You still alive Hermano?
I day trade oil futures these days.
Still in Sussoix & Antigua

Boy's..... I have nailed it.

PM me if you wanna talk x