How did trading change your life Joined Jan 2008 Status: Member 286 Posts It passed three years since i started trading and finally i can call myself a trader, im not full time im not a pro, but im making (little) money day after day with my daytrading philosophy and pretty big money with my long term philosophy (notice: philosophy not strategy). Those 3 years completely changed my life, i can say that im awaken after a big sleep (Anthony DeMello words), in the beginning i felt lost, i didnt know anymore who i was, all my certainty collapse like a paper wall. All the icon that i was following blindly now where showing for what they were: quotnothingquot absolutely hollow. Targets for my life were in order: 1) find a good job (so i could make money) 2) making good money (so i could pay for big villa, luxury cars, have money for myself and my family, school insurance, ecc. ) 3) marry childfamily 4) dying happy with nephew. My life story could have been used for an advertisement on TV. I already was on that road, took a dentist degree, starting to make good bucks, having a beautiful girlfriend (that ill marry on july ), already bought a nice car and looking out for my dream house. But then one day i went on yahoo finance opened a demo account bought 10008364 shares (dont remember which company, i think google) just to find out a 60-70 gain three days later, wow great. i thought why in the hell im not doing it everyday. So i discovered forex, forex factory, many fancy indicator strategy who worked for 1 week and then no more studied hours and hours after job, i remember going at bed at 5 AM waking up at 8 AM working all day long, did that many many times. But even if my efforts where huge i was consistently. losing money. Then one day (again) about a year and a half ago i started to think: lets stop all those BS price doesnt move because support resistance ecc. they move randomly. so i completely changed my perspective about trading and i started to trade in my way, yes, i dont have a strategy, i dont have a plan, i have 1 rule: Stop Loss thats it. There are days where i feel euphoric so i place my Sl at 30-40 pips and i try to TP at 10-15 pips, other days where i place a 10 SL and i wait 100-200 pips profit, my long term strategy is more or less like this: place a quotsmall SL 100 pipsquot and wait 2-3 months (i would wait 5-10 years, but im not able to do it, i struggle waiting too much). Said that i dont mean to say that technical analysis is garbage, i mean that it wasnt good for me i couldnt make money with those fixed rules, now that im free i have just one rule: stop loss, stop loss, stop loss again. The fact is this: im conscious about what im doing, my mind tells me what to do everyday, so it doesnt take effort trading, its not stressing. Ok, lets go back to the question: How did trading change your life In my case trading set me free, i broke all the mental chains i had, i stopped to listen to others (my icons an icon could be also your father or mother) and i started to live my life, doing what i like, i almost stopped to work as a dentist (not at all, i dont have so much money). I started to follow my dreams, sometimes i pass my days doing absolutely nothing, just reading books and taking long walks in the park with my dog. And you know what i DONT FEEL GUILTY, once doing nothing for 3 hours would meant to feel guilty for the rest of the day. More has to come, (the negative effect trading had in my life) its very difficult to explain those emotions because they arent completely clear, even in my mind, sometimes i grasp one of them, i try to write it, but then i realize it is to cloudy to explain it. I still have a lot to say so stay tuned if you like. leave your experience thats the purpose of this log and tell me what you likedislike, about what im saying, id like to start a polite debate on the subject, my goal is to learn from you, from your experience while telling mine Joined Nov 2009 Status: Cofee, Music, Trade 115 Posts FX is just as my hobby. I couldnt manage to trade for living, not because its not possible, but it would be to much of bore for me. I see FX as poker. Just to spend some time, win some money. How trading changed my life Well, i gain extra money, which allow me to do extra curricular activities. May the Force be with You It passed three years since i started trading and finally i can call myself a trader, im not full time im not a pro, but im making (little) money day after day with my daytrading philosophy and pretty big money with my long term philosophy (notice: philosophy not strategy). Those 3 years completely changed my life, i can say that im awaken after a big sleep (Anthony DeMello words), in the beginning i felt lost, i didnt know anymore who i was, all my certainty collapse like a paper wall. All the icon that i was following blindly now where showing. Interesting experience. I must say that I have the same experience with regards to Technical Analysis. Price is random enough for it to not work consistently over the long-term. At least from my experience. However, this led me to a more overall study about the functioning of the markets and mass behavior which in turn led me to finally finding profitable approaches, which work over the long haul. Well, what I learned throughout the years: everybody talks about psychology being the main problem in trading. I think that is completely wrong. Most systems are just garbage and no matter how psychologically grounded you are, they will never ever work in the long-term (yes, and also 99 of systems found here on ff are net-unprofitable over the long-term). Finding systems that are a bit out-side the box is the real challenge and actually following the ideas layed out in this forum holds you back in finding the real profitable niches. The blind leading the blind. And finally, it taught me to accept that each trade is uncertain, but a large number of trades will give a certain outcome. Interesting experience. I must say that I have the same experience with regards to Technical Analysis. Price is random enough for it to not work consistently over the long-term. At least from my experience. However, this led me to a more overall study about the functioning of the markets and mass behavior which in turn led me to finally finding profitable approaches, which work over the long haul. Well, what I learned throughout the years: everybody talks about psychology being the main problem in trading. I think that is completely wrong. I just dont agree with one statement with your post, quotthe psychology isnt importantquot for me unprofitable systems does exist, but they arent so many, even a coin approach can be profitable (the eternal debate ), how Scenario: Trader A tries the coin system for 1 week it isnt profitable, stops, tries another one Trader B tries the same system, it gave him a net loss for a month, the 2nd month it goes to BE, the third month it earns money, at that point trader B stops the coin system with a profit, at the same time Trader A tried another 5 systems he lost with all of them. I think 99 of the systems goes to break even over the long haul, traders just dont have the patience to wait for the BE to come. I just dont agree with one statement with your post, quotthe psychology isnt importantquot for me unprofitable systems does exist, but they arent so many, even a coin approach can be profitable (the eternal debate ), how Scenario: Trader A tries the coin system for 1 week it isnt profitable, stops, tries another one Trader B tries the same system, it gave him a net loss for a month, the 2nd month it goes to BE, the third month it earns money, at that point trader B stops the coin system with a profit, at the same time Trader A tried another. God, any system can be profitable for a while. When I speak of net-profitable systems over the long haul, I mean systems with 10,000 trades per instrument on at least 50 uncorrelated instruments. If 90 of those instruments are profitable, we talk about a system with an edge, or a real profitable system. And not many systems can fulfill that requirement. Thats why I still say: 99 of systems are losers in the long-term. Your example with 3 months of trading a system is a bit newbish. And if you try the coin-toss strategy over 10,000 trades it will be a net loser, except you curve-fit it, which is definitely not what one should do. Why 10,000 Cause in statistics that is the minimum requirement until you can say that something is statistically significant. And yes, science like statistics even can be and should be applied to trading. Anyways, enough of the rant. Not here to convince anybody, so find out what works for yourself. God, any system can be profitable for a while. When I speak of net-profitable systems over the long haul, I mean systems with 10,000 trades per instrument on at least 50 uncorrelated instruments. If 90 of those instruments are profitable, we talk about a system with an edge, or a real profitable system. And not many systems can fulfill that requirement. Thats why I still say: 99 of systems are losers in the long-term. Your example with 3 months of trading a system is a bit newbish. And if you try the coin-toss strategy over 10,000 trades. Probably its me that im dumb, but didnt you say price are random one post ago so whats the sense to test them I said most systems goes to BE, if you test a coin cross over 10.000 you will probably get to BE passing trough long winning streek (trader B wins) and long losing streek (trader A lose) Joined Jul 2010 Status: Pip farmer 888 Posts I know how your rule works (i think). Its almost the reverse of a cardinal trading error. This error is not placing a stoploss at all and refusing to exit the trade in the hope it comes back. we all know that controlling risk is the number one rule, and those who dont control thier risk lose. A lot of traders make money without stops untill one day the market moves against them and keeps moving against them so they end up wiping out half their account. What you are in a sense doing it seems is trading the opposite of this and not controlling your profits. this means the market can move infinatly in your favour but not against you. If i was to start trading with a 5 pip take profit and no stoploss and just waited for the target to be hit, i would have a lot of small wins. Most of the trades i got in would give me a win. But this one time would be different and the market would go against me, perhaps for years. By reversing this and trading with a 5 pip stop should then produce the opposite affect. loads of small losers but then 1 massive win. i know perhaps this is not exactly how yu are looking at it, but i think i understand where you are comming from. it dawned on me sometime last year that if i did no place a take profit on my trades, some of the wins would be monsters because the market can move hugely in my favour. sadly my psychology does not allow for this. but i did consider asking a family member (with no experience) to trade with out stops on demo account(or small micro account for added fear value), and i would trade against him(take the opposite position at the same time and exit when they did). in theory he should eventually make a right mess, and when they did i would be in . This post has got out of hand, but i love talking about this sort of stuff. Am i somewhere in the same ball park as you with my thoughts More than 600 people read this, now i pretend some one criticize me. it cant be you all agree with me ive even presented a coin trading system. people get mad when saw this If you dont criticize we cant get better together, your opinions are important, if we discuss we learn something each other, ill try to understand your point of view, doing that i learn something more. It doesnt mean i have to completely agree on what you say nor the countrary, luckily we are all different (Cool New charts) Its a rat race, and all people think of each other is where to draw the personal boundary lines: What to do, what others have done, and who to do over. With this kind of pressure, I wish Id considered when the chips may be down, since lifes fortunes change like a chart. Your story tells how people forget to embrace the moment with others close and instead race to the next step in their own life plan. How Price Action Trading Changed My life - Full Time Forex Trading My success in forex trading started when I finally started to recognise the repetitive behaviors of the daily forex price charts. This article will talk briefly about my trading journey and where I am today as a result. In the first 3 years of forex trading, I feel I had been an extremely motivated market student, undergoing intense forex training and study as I could fit into my life. My focus was to learn trading as many trading strategies, with the common goal to make money and quit my job. Like most traders, my early forex trading account statements where poor, in fact, I blew up many small accounts whilst learning the does and donrsquots. The tables only turned when I discovered an extremely simple methodology to identify trading setups from daily price charts. When My Forex Trading Changed There was a transition period in my forex trading career when I started to move from the 1 hour charts to the 4 hour charts and then finally to the daily charts. I couldnrsquot believe I had been overlooking the higher timeframes for so long, and yet they offered some very clear, very simple trading setups which repeated often enough to recognise easily. After watching just the daily charts for several months, I began documenting the price patterns, and my observations. What started as an exercise became my trading method and plan. Everything was now revolving around the higher timeframes which made the chart clear and clean. Things in that initial trading plan included, basic trend definition, plotting key levels, finding single and multiple bar price signals. Over time, I found that the largest players in the market where also using horizontal lines to trade from very often, in fact, It was when I also started to trade based off simple horizontal levels that my account started to soar. Keeping it simple Whilst there is no way a trader can trade just horizontal levels or just trade one price action signal and make money, the core foundation of my success lies in learning how markets react and trade around key chart levels and specific price action signals. I can certainly deduce that all traders who make serious money think in a very simple manner, me included. The daily chart allowed me to live a healthy life, with less stress, thus increasing my trading performance as well. So the message is very clear, continue to keep it simple, and keep using the same method, donrsquot deviate to another method, just keep mastering it and believing in it. Thatrsquos how I did it. Why Price Action Price Action removed all the noise and mess of the charts. I now look at raw price charts with only 1 or 2 longer term moving averages to asset with trend definition. The entire method is based around simple, concise trading rules. I learned that markets rotate very often, and rarely move in one direction for very long, thus why I have learned to work within the market true structure. I let trades come to me as I wait in ambush for the perfect setup. Price Action is not only your ability to read a chart itrsquos your ability to maintain a simplistic outlook on price and its expected direction. Patience is required, because daily charts move slowly Where I am today The journey for a trader is long, it canrsquot ever be easy, however, there is a serious argument to what can and canrsquot work in terms of a trading style. You need to learn to ldquoread price actionrdquo, not just learn a system or method. The trick is to keep it simple, but also keep learning to read price charts. Now that I am doing well in my trading endeavors, it is my duty to educate aspiring traders, to guide and assist them. I feel that if you just start to clean up your chart, remove the indicators, and look at the raw daily price charts, yoursquore going to discover a world that you never knew existed. Nial Fuller is a Full time Forex Trader, and Market Coach. To know more about price action, forex price action. Learn Forex trade, learn to trade visit learntotradethemarket
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