Well it’s been a year since I started learning. Nine months on a small live account. Took about 6 months to completely blow but I expected it, why? Because I always had trouble closing bad trades. I remember within two weeks of going live I was nearly 10% up BUT I wasn’t happy. I knew my trading was unsustainable...that eventually I would lose it all because I had no clear approach, every single trade at the time was different. I was hoping to make some profit whilst learning but having an amateur mind-set makes it impossible, elements like stops & targets were completely flexible & random...quite often I would say ‘to hell with it! I either win it all or lose it all, not interested in this middle ground shit!’
Haha, so I lost it all LOL!
One year on. What have I learnt?
- Demo’s are only good for a short period.
- Impossible to trade consistently without a plan or an approach.
- Stop Loss is a must. But it will kill an account if not used properly.
- Keep everything simple. Price Action is king.
- Always trade with the Trend.
- I prefer 10 pips today than 100 pips in 5 days. Much can happen in 5 days.
- I prefer higher leverage. Make 10 pips worth 100 pips.
- 4h & Daily charts are more reliable BUT day trading makes more sense.
- London morning session is the best session to start the day with.
These days I feel like a veteran, still not profitable by any means but certainly not the puny innocent trader of a year ago. Today I don’t care much for indicator’s & I’m not impressed by over complicated technical analysis. I’ve seen all sorts of PA behaviour. How a good trade can turn into a disaster... closing bad trades only to see Price immediately reverse all the way back into profit...seeing Price drop like a stone after an excellent news release...or seeing Price move 100 pips because President Trump tweets that the USD is too strong. I stopped trying to ‘predict’ the market.
Now I prefer facts on my charts. Price, the open, highs, lows, obvious S/R & round numbers, ATR etc. With this in mind I hope I can take a significant step forward by developing my own ‘strategy’ or approach over the next 12 months. I might even post more often as this might help overall.
Peace out