How to make €100k

I am trading now since nearly 10 years and begun to trade fx, cfds and futures more than 5 years ago. Since then it was an up and down. I needed some time to find a usuable and profitable way to trade and i think that i even found one. On october 2012 my account was down for about 5.000 €. At that point i considered to stop trading, bcoz i simple didnt want to lose even more money and said myself " give it a last try and trade my strategy on a lower leverage". My target was to reduce my loss until the end of the year. For my own surprise i was very lucky and managed to cover all losses within little more than a month and i even had some weeks to go until the end of the year. My luck kept going until April/May 2013. I made a lot of money until this time and, how should it be different, got overconfident. I begun to trade more risky and of course one day i begun to build up a position in Brent oil and widely crashed my account. Seen that i still had a lot of money from my earlier gains i kept trading but somehow i wasnt able to get so successful anymore. In the remaining months of 2013 sometimes i won sometimes i lost and at the end of the year my account was down for several 1000 €.
Anyway i still kept doing and until the mid of 2014 i was able to recover a huge part of my losses, but again in the summer months i begun to struggle and begun to lose a lot of money in the following months. Until this month, were i again made some mistrade first with wti and then also with the dax and widely destroyed my account again.
So far i lost a lot of money in 2013 and also 2014. Obviously that i am massively down with my trading so far.
as a wannabe good trader i focused out why i wasnt able to keep my gains and its clear that my money management fails from time to time and therefore i lost so much money in the last months.
I should maybe also add, that i can "afford" to lose this money. I mean of course it hurts to lose it, but at the end it doesnt changes my lifestyle - i am not a person who spends 5000 € a year for non necessary things.

So i want to try a little "project". It is simple, basically i want to make 100 k € in the next 3 years ^^. I know that it will get hard, but i strongly believe that it is possible.

Why 100 k €?
My unofficial daily target is to make 1% a day on average. On good weeks i made also far more than 20% and on average weeks back in my "good old days" i made around 10-15% a week. So i think that this should be possible. I will start my account with 1500 €. So make the calc it should be on ~500 k € if everything goes perfect in the next 600 trading days (~3 years). As surely not every will go well i am more than satisfied with "already" 100 k€. (to say the truth i will be alreay satisfied with less, but well)

whats the trading style?
i will mostly trade the dax and also currencies. I will reduce trading on oil and other commodities bcoz they seemed to be to volatil for my strategy. Anyway, it could be that i will trade oil and so on with a lower leverage. Basically i will use some technical indicators (and also experience) to find some good trading points and then i will open my first position. if the trade keeps going against me i will add positions (always the same amount) and in this way i will average my entry (i know - i shouldnt to this and on other accounts i will also use a strict sl with just one position). When the position will still go against me i will search a good exit point, which can surely also be with a loss. My positions will be always 5 times my account. So if i have 2000 € in my acc i will trade with 10.000 € per position (of course with the dax it wont be always perfectly 5 times). From my experience i would say that it happens about once a month that there will be a "killing trend" where my entry is totally wrong and i will face huge losses. I think that i will be able to see such events in about 50-60% early enough and so i can avoid them. in the remaining 40-50% i will face losses, which hopefully won't be too high. Another measurement to reduce my losses is to put 50% of the weekly gains in another account. With my second account i will trade on a much longer term and without leverage (my target there is to make 10-20% a year), but it can also be that i just let the money there without trading.
i like to trade the daily openings and i often trade against the trade, which makes it of course risky (and therefore i surely lost in the last months). i have to be more carefully about that too.

Why am i doing this?
thats indeed a good question - lol. basically i think that to writing here publicly about this will help me to be more careful and to avoid too risky trades. it will basically be a kind of trading dairy and so i will force myself to rethink about my trading which hopefully will help me to avoid overconfidence and other things. if i wont be able to make gains in 2015 i will stop trading.

Is it really possible?
well, theoretically yes. we will see if its also pratically ^^

basically i will trade on 2 accounts
the first "wm" with a target of 1% daily and the second "Riserva" as kind of reserve with a mach lower target (basically the target is not to lose money, and in best case i want to make 10-20% a year)
from tiem to time i will write here also about a third account on which i will mostly trade the nq future with a clear sl and a totally different strategy.

finally, wish me luck

No offence but surely history is destined to repeat itself unless you have made fundamental changes to your strategy? It sounds like again you will be trading where if the long term trend goes against you you will suffer big losses - a system where the potential drawdown has a high chance of wiping out or severely damaging your account (even if it gives short term success) isn't an acceptable system at all.

"From my experience i would say that it happens about once a month that there will be a "killing trend" where my entry is totally wrong and i will face huge losses. I think that i will be able to see such events in about 50-60% early enough and so i can avoid them."
- Imo this sounds like you need to have a big rethink about the way you are trading, can you really see events that are going to change the trend? + 50-60% chance of being right or risking "huge losses" is never going to give you a successful path.

It's not a system I use but if you like to build up positions in a trend have you looked at the 'Building an Equity Millipede' thread? This seems like potentially a good way to build up positions and picking entries like you describe without exposing yourself to the large risks of the past.

i think constructive critic is always helpful :-)

i dont generally trade against the long term trend but indeed often against the short term trend and short term exaggerations.
i wouldnt say that the strategy itself is wrong, but indeed i often traded far to aggressive and risked often too much

thx for the hint with the millipede thread - so far it sounds interesting and i will maybe give it a try with an other acc.

anyway, we will see how its going to work

Good Luck wm-eu

Now,
i have serious doubts about this new try of yours! Been on the same boat that you are, well maybe i am still there but i can see that you are not going very far with a failed set of rules. I do not know you but i feel that you are doing the same hoping to get a different result? What changed? You need to improve! Yourself or the method...

Let me ask you a few questions:
- do you have strict entry and exit rules?
- do you have the discipline to follow those rules no matter what?
- can you babysit your trades for as long as they are running?
- do you have a positive expectancy for each trade?
- do you have a win to loss ration above 1 ?

Just one "no" to one of these questions will blow your account sooner or later

yes, you are basically right. i have to improve! the most important thing what i have to improve is my money management and my greed/overconfidence (greed is not totally the right word, but i think you understand what i mean by it)

- do you have strict entry and exit rules?
they are not 100% strict. i like to trade gaps, but of course i will take care how big they are and the reason why they came up. furthermore i often entry on support/restistance lines. but i catched myself often that i closed a trade too early, when a trend just begun i was sometimes already out of it. anyway, i am free to change my system, even if right now i dont see a reason for it.

- do you have the discipline to follow those rules no matter what?
not always, but therefor i am here to improve it

- can you babysit your trades for as long as they are running?
yes, if not i will close them

- do you have a positive expectancy for each trade?
yes, but i am fully avare that there will be losers

- do you have a win to loss ration above 1?
yes, i do

thank you - i wish you also good luck in the new year

a little update:
on 01/01/2015 i deposit the money - 1500 and 3000 € and made some trade on friday. mostly on the dax and one on natural gas with the half leverage. it was a successful day and all trades ened in a gain - maybe at least one position i closed to early, but i didnt wanted to keep them over the weekend and so it was ok.

on 05/01/2015 the new week initially begun with a down gap in the dax which i bought and seen that the gap got closed shortly after opening i could close the position with a gain. some hours later the dax fall again to a small support line and close to it i bought again. for about one hour it seemed that the line could hold but in the early afternoon there came a lot selling pressure and the index fall like a rock about additional 2% in 2 hours. i didnt expect that and this are exactly those movements which i hate - lol. at the end my position is in a loss so far. i will look for a retracement to close it.

little updte about the last 2 days.
on 06/01/2015 i effectively closed my dax long which was strongly "under water". i closed the position a little bit to early. after the close as on the 06/01/2015 as on the 07/01/2015 i was able to make some trades on the dax as also € on the long as also on the short side. i could close them in profit, but anyway i still am far away to recover my losses from monday
over all i can be happy with the last 2 days

as long as i dont see any strong upmoves i will wait for good short entrance in the dax and good buy opportunities in the € - i really think that we will see there an upmove (as reaction of the last weeks) soon.

On wednesday i was able to make some profitable trades. On thursday the morning was good, but in the afternoon stocks rocketed - Dax ended this day with ~3,xx % in +. Thats a lot. I wasnt able to trade this uprun profitable and closed my short on the next day - i never expected such an uprun and was looking for short entries. On Friday the market lost around 2% - lol. Its a high volatility in the market right now. I closed my short a little bit too early, but still could book some profits on my friday trades.
overall, thanks to the monday, it was a bad week - i could have done it much better, but well, its a part of the game.

for next week i am still overall bearish. I think we could see a recovery on €, but the dax i think will rise on monday morning, but fall then to new lows of this year.

so right now i have
1003 € on my main trading account and
2806 € on my second account

Don't listen to that bullcrap that others give you! They are probably losers and you bow to them? Don't do it man.
Just make those 100k and enjoy doing it.

Sconcha is a negative prick who also was a "smart" in my journal so....believe in your self, you don't need approval from these idi##s.

Well sorry if i sounded negative, that was not the idea.

I was only trying to help, raising questions that somehow helped me.

I guess my contribution ends here.

Thank you and good luck on your journey wm-eu.

thank you - i will try my best ^^

i didnt see your comment that negative
anyway thank you

Today was basically a good day, even if also today very volatile. The Nasdaq lost about 2,7 % from the high and could recover a part of it again. Anyway, the dax had overall a bullish day and it basically closed above some resistance line, which makes me think more optimistic for the next days. When we dont see a kind of small crash in the US indizes it should go up.
I am a little bit worrying about the Euro since it couldnt recover a lot and lost today again. The EURJPY had also a very bad day. I added some longs there, but i think that i will close them soon.
On my second account i have still a long position in WTI, which at least built a bullish candle in the daily chart - it let think me optimistic.
Also silver and gold look bullish for me, anyway i will wait for a retrace and maybe open some long in gold there (i usually dont trade silver with my leveradged accounts bcoz its to volatile)

short update. My expectations werent totally wrong *happy* ^^ i could close my wti long and gold and silver had also a short rally. As also the dax made a new ath. Unlickily the euro had some very bad days. Due of the decision of the SNB there was a lot volatility and i have to admit that it was maybe just luck that i didnt opened a long position shortly before the dax crashed on this thursday temporarily for more then 3% in a few minutes. It would have most probably brought me a margin call. Anyway, i didnt opened the long on the dax and so i nearly didnt got hit by the SNB moves. Just my euro position (vs. $ and yen) got hit and today i realized some losses there. So it seems that i wont be able to close this month with a gain.

so at the moment (on monday) i have:
635 Euro on my trading account - lost ~400 € last week
3.080 Euro on my second account - about 250 € gain

Even if the move after the snb decision was fast i should have used a sl to cover my trading account from more losses on eur/jpy

in the next days i will look to short the dax (i am pretty sure that we will see a correction in the next days, also bcoz the US indices right now dont look very super bullish) and i am further looking to get long in the Eur (mostly vs. $).
also for this thursday i expect that the market may be little bit disappointed by the ECB move and therefore we could see such moves.

I am sorry, i said i was going to stay on the sidelines, but what the heck

wm-eu: i see you are pretty sure about where the market will go. You have a bias! You are not allowed to have a bias !! Do not try to predict, just go with it!

You say you are sure the dax will fall, but what if the dax does not fall ? Do not try to look to short it, until it really falls first! Let the dax break some supports on the way down, and then, only then !! shorty it!

And that loss on the trading account of more than 50% was too much.. you need to revise your money management

Good luck!

dont worry - i meant i expect the dax to fall. for me that means that i am looking for some opportunity to get a good short entry - not that i will short all-in immediately ^^

i usually try to get some scenarios like if the market is going there, then the next stop should be... if its going somewhere else the next stop could be...
thats the way i try to trade

about the MM - yes, you are right. i know that i have to get "better" there (i think its basically my main problem so far...). anyway, therefore i have 2 accounts as a kind of MM strategy and to reduce risk. all together the loss is far not that big

thank you

Today firstly i stayed mostly out and missed also some good opportunities, which, i think, is neither bad and nothing wrong with it.

at the end there was some higher volatility its said due of a speculation about tomorrows ECB move - anyway i was able to make some more or less good trades.

about tomorrow i will maybe look for a short entry at the morning (depends where it will open) and then i think its better to stay out of the market. i dont like news and strong moves after it. it can be very profitable but also an "account killer" so i usually wait until it calmed down and then i will see

last friday i closed all my positions and withdrawed the money. so basically i closed my accounts for january^^
anyway i will fund them in february again. I simple do so bcoz they money got deposit through my credit card and so (with the withrawal) i avoid that the amount get debited to my bank account. Effectively this month i lost about 1050 € and my accounts are down from together 4500 € to ~3500 € and just the 1050 € get debited from my account now (anyway its no problem).

last friday i was still bearish and made some mistrades and lost some money there.

anyway this week i will think a bit about my trading in january and will try to find some errors which i made (like missing money management and lack of discipline - sometimes i traded the same products on both accounts. Anyway it went well, but the idea behind to have two accounts is to diversify.)

i dont know why but somehow on the trade explorers there get shown some wrong numbers

Keep you head up wm-eu!

You lost one battle but not the war !

Show the market you can beat it!!

Have you thought about using an Expert Adviser (bot) to help your trading ? I think it would be helpful . Your discipline problems for one would go away instantly

SC