What is your secret and edge?

Unfortunately not - you are. I'm not suggesting that the things you listed are bad habits: on the contrary they're all extremely good habits, and I strongly endorse and commend all three of them. But it's also important to understand that none of them in itself will give you an "edge". An edge is something completely different from money-management, and while those are principles of good money-management and common sense, and they'll certainly help anyone who already has an edge, they won't in themselves provide one. I'm just distinguishing between two separate issues, since you failed to. Sorry about that.

eating healthy

my secret is patience... waiting for ONLY the right moment

discipline and momentum !

Wait for something to happen.

Hitch a ride until the gas runs out.

Constantly update your stops.

my secret is using leading indicator to earn profit not lagers

Definetly good sleep and a cup of mocca. Need to stay fresh and not sleepy in order to trade well.

secret - if you're in bullish mood - go bear and vice versa.
edge - don't use secret, before gap. it doesn't work always((

I am Newbie in Forex Trader but I think the secret is Trust Your System based from Careful Back Test Result and Let's Profit Run Longer / Cut your Loss Quicker.

Secret

1. Forget 'systems' the market is a moving beast with so much emotion, trying to wrap if/then statements around that is very hard. Systems generally only work for big money managers because they can offer 10%returns and still make a fortune as they might be running big big money.

2. Use 2 screens, more looks very impressive but your mind won't be able to focus hence you'll lose concentration very easily, see next point.

3. Concentration is a MASSIVE edge, better than your strategy. Give me a weak strategy and maximum concentration and I'll beat everyone who trades a brilliant strategy with lousy concentration. And I'll beat them twice on Sundays.

4. Fully understand the nastiest stat/equation in ALL of trading - the size of your stop plays a MASSIVE role in your overall profitability. Risk 10 ticks to make 30 (3:1) etc. Double the risk to 20 ticks and the 3:1 (or whatever profit potential you're after) also doubles to 60 ticks, ouch! Double the stop again to 4 ticks and now you're looking at 120 ticks just to get to 3:1. Moral of the story, use the smallest stop you can but this is only possible if you're patient and that all relates to CONCENTRATION.

5. Get your mind in order. THE best book in my opinion is What I learned from losing $1million. Amazon of course has it.

6. Trade really small, risk 10-20 basis points per trade, then losses won't hinder you too much. Risking 1% is probably a death wish for most people.

7. This game is a simple game if you think about it (simple doesn't mean easy) so try to keep your strategy as simple as possible.

8. Always use a stop, if you don't use a stop then you don't understand point 4 and if you don't understand that you're odds on to either lose or break even.

9. Forget about robots messing with the market, if you didn't know they exist chances are you wouldn't see them in operation. Anyway, what exactly can you do about robots, they're there and they're not going away. Would you prefer we went back 20 years when to trade you had to call up a dealer and your quote system cost $1500+ a month (in 20 years ago money)?

I'll post some more if I think of any.

10. If you commit to a trade with a stop, NEVER move that stop the wrong way, only move it the right way. Buy Euro at 1.1050, stop say 1.1038 so never move it lower than 38, moving it greater than 38 is fine.

11. I've found a simple parabolic stop to be really valuable in forcing me to take a sort of systematic approach to stops rather than thinking too much. A parabolic stop also moves with the market. Is it perfect,far from it,nothing will ever be perfect, but it's pretty good and that's fine with me. It's also simple and this is a simple game.

12. Trading the news is a crap shoot, go to Vegas if you want to gamble, the drinks are free as well.

14. No 13, it's unlucky. Sleep is an edge, if you need 10 hours GET 10 hours because the good people you're up against WILL have made sure they're well rested. Personally I get 8 minimum, although 9 is always better.

15. Consider using Ensign for Windows charting software, I love it, it's as simple or complex as you want. $50 a month, use their free FX feed or IB's. Ensign has a playback feature, learn to use it an love it.

16. The lower the timeframe you go the easier it is to CONCENTRATE. The higher the timeframe the harder, that's what I've found anyway.

17. If you're struggling, then only look to trade 2 patterns, one is re-tests (market makes a move, gets everyone in, many move stops to unchanged, market goes to get those stops, price then makes the real move), the second is indicator failures, pick a well known indicator, understand how everyone follows it, wait for it to give a classic buy, hit it hard on the short side if that signal starts to fail.

18. Don't trade FX after 5pm London time, yes there are still some good trades but many many times you'll wish you were watching TV etc. If you're in the wrong timezone, this is a hard game to make a profit as the dealers normally control the price and believe me, they know how most people trade hence pick them off like coconuts at the fair.

19. 7am -9am London time is tricky, it's normally better to go against the first move, but of course not always. Concentration will help you.

20. This is a really big one- LOOK FOR TIMES WHEN THE CHARACTER OF PRICE CHANGES. For example, up price goes through an indicator, then it goes down, then it goes up etc, price is dicking around etc. Then we go up again but HOLD, then we move a touch higher and again HOLD. Price has changed 'character' so try to go with it. This is a hard one to explain, but if you put the work in, you'll see it. Like I said it's a big one.

21. This is one I heard recently and am trying to implement it myself, it relates to CONCENTRATION. A big time Chicago trader once saidto a newbie, the secret to using charts is to trade FAR to the right, ie wait, wait and wait, that big easy trade is coming, but first the market has to deal with the traders that got in too quickly, ie it needs to stop them out.

22. It really is amazing how often we are wrong when 'thinking' about where price is going, ie having no position but saying it's going up. I therefore ALWAYS consider the other side of the market, doing that really helps me get on good short positions when my mind is bullish.

23. Thrust is used as a weapon to scare people out of their positions and into the market the wrong way. Yes, thrust sometimes means we're going in the way of the thrust, but more often than not it's a slick plan by the boys to steal our good positions.

24. Don't risk proper money in this game until you prove to yourself that you can make. Someone here mentioned a profitable 200-250+ trades (minus costs) and that looks good advice. Risking small money is always better than dummy trading so pick a broker where you can risk say $1 a trade, FXCM offers £0.06 a tick, that's great.

25. You better be a slick operator of your order entry software, that's another reason to only risk small money when starting out.

26. If you like using Hotkeys, get a Logitech G13, it's amazing.

- show me a leading indicator, then watch it repaint. I have spent 5 years watching charts. It takes It takes time to learn the moves of bars and volumes (for those about to comment on Volume, yes I know, i use at as an indicator as well (not true volume)).
Letting your profit run and cut your losses, might work, but how about when the price reverses and moves to your entry point? do you hold, close or hold your breath? Stop losses are nice, moving SL's nicer, but how about that small reverse that tips you out by 1 point, then flies away in your direction without you?
Trust your system, but only trust it so far! conditions change over the years, and a system that is being sold today for $1000 might be back tested when the MM's used it, but now they sell that system to you - it works, 5 years ago. Systems are dynamic along with the market, if you don't change with the times, your still driving that Model T when the person at the lights next to you drives something newer and more reliable.
Learn - everyday, read, you stop reading about the market, what other people are testing on there systems, looking at Futures for the early start (works best with indexes), then you get left behind.
Don't use emotions - this is the hard part. You are not earning or expensing money, you are dealing with pips, your assets, don't see it as money - it's fun to earn 100 pips, it not fun to lose 100 pips.

My edge is my experience and screen time, and really has only kicked in this year. All I can do is get better (positive thinking!)
These are not my secrets, these are learning points. Get to a learning point, which way do you turn?

PS. I just trade off my old Dell XPS 17 inch laptop in front of the tv and dinner.

Actually, this is the right thing to do...

Unchanged stops, how to handle them?

Many years ago I was one of the brokers for one of the largest independent traders in London, I used to handle his T-Bond and S&P business. 100 lot T-Bond positions were just a snack for him, 1000-2000 was more like it.

I cannot tell you how many times he got into a good position, up say 10 ticks or so and moved his stop to u/c only for the market to come back, stop him out AT THE LOW, and then boom, price then took off like a Saturn moon rocket.

Of course, this also happened a lot on my 1-5 lot positions as well and I always thought it was my lousy analysis. But then one day I woke up and realised if this guy gets fucked a lot of the time with u/c stops then he can't blame his analysis because on balance it was great and he had the multiple millions to prove it. basically it's the market, the market is PERVERSE, get used to it because it happens to everyone. But then it doesn't always happen, remember that.

What I've found that';s really useful is don't move stops to unchanged if the FLOW is up, give the market more room so let it come back to unchanged (or below) and there's a good chance that will be the right move to make. Then, if price moves back up, move stop to u/c.

But if price is not FLOWING, then be agressive, don't fuck around, move to unchanged when it's warranted.

Here's what I mean by change of character.

The chart is CAD-USD. FXCM using Ensign offers all the pairs in reverse so I look at both USD-CAD and the reverse because I can spot longs so much easier.

If I get a 'long' trade on CAD-USD I then short USD-CAD.

On re-test trades.

Price OFTEN acts EXACTLY the same way AFTER a re-test (especially on short trades).

Learn to identify those moves and jump on board.

Look to cover on the THRUST move back down (assuming short), wait be patient because it's coming (unless you get stopped out first)...

If the trade is going to work, weakness will be EVERYWHERE, so if there's any strength,get the hell out. You'll see this if you do the research.

PS. Also note, how the market 'got' the unchanged stops, if it was a thrust move up, all the better.