#OPINIONLEADER# #mytradingstory#  #FollowmeFanFestival#

I noticed this #FollowmeFanFestival#offer to share your trading story and took a couple of weeks to refect upon this, in order to come up with a condensed version that doesn't skip on the key details. That saw me progress with my trading and the learning points I'd like to share to hopefully help with others out there to appreaciate what is required in order to participate in speculating in the markets for a living.

When I first learnt about the possibilities that trading could bring I immediately imagained of how I could make lots of money, and relax and make trading my new career. Oh if it was that simple and after five years of toiling away I'd like to discuss the key learnings I've picked up to help beginner traders avoid the speed humps and prevent unnessary losses. It should be noted that I'm far from a great trader but somone who enjoys this game and is passionate about sharing information that I feel is helpful to the trading community.

Below are the methods I have used and helped me progress as a trader:

1). Treat this like a business/work don’t be undisciplined with your trading, get too relaxed have a routine pre market open and don’t become complacent.

2). Stick to your rules and don’t trade with real money until you learn what systems suit your personality best, such as break outs or dip buying.

3). Have a good understanding of risk management and be strict do not risk too much.

4). If you are not in a good place mentally such as work stress, family or relationships don’t trade you must be able to have a focused mind when trading to pick up on the patterns you have been studying.

5). If you have a loss walk away and personally I don’t trade anymore that day. If have three losing trades in a row I stop for the week and recalibrate.

6). It is human nature that being a consistently profitable trader is very difficult, losing is always going to happen how you react to this is what separates the good traders from the 90% of retail traders who continually throw money away by not LEARNING from their mistakes.

7). Learning how to trade takes time it’s like being a pilot they ain’t going to let you captain a 747 straight away.

8). I know Tim says this a lot but study the past these patterns come up time and time again.

9). Learn to read price action, just watch the markets live and see how price interacts with support/resistance zones. If you have no idea what I’m talking about here please research this and don’t trade with real money until you understand the basics.

10). Don’t have any expectations of the markets owing you money and if you trade your plan and you still lose suck it up and move on. DON’T revenge trade this will only result in you exasperating the issue and make recovering the account extremely difficult.

11). These are just my thoughts but from being in the Tim Alerts chat room I thought I would take the time on Saturday night to put this together as these things have helped me in my trading journey in Forex, yes Forex 10 months of demo trading and trading a small live account recently has meant I am profitable but only slightly since these markets don’t move as aggressively as penny stocks especially when you trade with 1% positions on the 4 hour time frames.

Being a consistently profitable trader is against human nature my thoughts on how to combat this

IMPORTANCE OF RISK MANAGEMENT

1). NEVER RISK MORE THAN 1% PER TRADE.

2). TRADING LIKE A HERO WILL END BADLY LONG TERM.

3). DON’T TREAT TRADING LIKE A SOURCE OF EXCITEMENT OR RUSH.

4). THINK OF YOURSELF AS THE CASINO AND REALISE YOU CAN’T WIN ALL THE TIME BUT PLAY THE PROBABILITIES IN YOUR FAVOR.

5). UNDERSTAND THE POWER OF COMPOUNDING YOUR ACCOUNT OVER THE LONG TERM.

6). HAVE A TRADING PLAN AND NO WHEN TO STOP TRADING WHEN YOUR EMTIONAL AND NOT THINKING CLEARLY.

7). DON’T EXCEED 20% DRAW DOWN.

TRADING PSYCHOLOGY

1). BE AWARE OF YOURSELF AND NEVER TRADE WHEN YOUR EMTIONALLY UNSETTLED DUE TO WORK, FAMILY OR RELATIONSHIP ISSUES.

2). WHEN YOUR AT YOUR TRADING STATION LOOK AT YOURSELF FROM A THRID PERSON PERSPECTIVE. LOOK AT YOURSELF IS EVERYTHING OK ARE YOU FOLLOWING THE RULES ?

3). BE HONEST WITH YOURSELF AND DON’T COMPLICATE THINGS WHEN A TRADE TURNS AGAINST YOU. DON’T SECOND GUESS YOURSELF. DETACH YOURSELF FROM THE POSITION. DON’T INTERFERE WITH THE TRADE ONCE IT’S ON.

4). AVOID CONFIRMATION BIAS AND INVOLVING YOURSELF IN TOO MANY GROUP AND PARALYSING YOURSELF WITH TOO MUCH INFORMAITON.

5). TRADING IS EXTREMELY DIFFICULT DON’T BE TOO HARSH ON YOURSELF. MOVE ON AND LEARN FROM YOUR MISTAKES. DON’T REVENGE TRADE.

6). AVOID THE CYCLE OF DOOM AND KEEP YOURSELF ACCOUNTABLE.

7). MEDITATE, PRACTICE MINDFULLNESS AND WORK ON DEVELOPING YOUR EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE.

HOW TO BECOME A SUCCESSFUL TRADER

1). NO NEED TO CHASE HUGE PERCETAGE GAINS MONTHLY, ONLY 0.0001% OF TRADERS CAN DO THIS.

2). IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO APPLY STRATEGIES OF AVERAGING DOWN AND ADDING TO A LOSING POSITIONS WITH INCREASED VOLUME, SUCH AS MARTINGALE.

3). YOU SHOULD STRIVE FOR 5% PER MONTH WITH A MAXIMUM DRAWDOWN OF 20%.

4). AS AN OPTION KEEP RECORDS OF YOUR TRADES AND SHARE ON YOUR CHANNEL WITH ANALYTICS, PROVIDE SIGNALS AND TAKE MONEY UNDER MANGEMENT.

5). IF YOU CAN SHOW A CONSISTENT RETURN OF 5% MONTHLY WITH A DRAWDOWN OF MAXIMUM 8%, THEY WILL GIVE YOU MORE AND MORE MONEY TO MANAGE. THIS CAN ACCUMUALTE TO MILLIONS OF DOLLARS.

6). DO NOT USE INDICATORS. THEY ARE DIFFICULT FOR BEGINNING TRADERS TO UNDERSTAND. RISK MANGEMENT BOTS (EXPERT ADVISIORS) CAN BE USED TO CONTROL MONTHLY DRAW DOWN.

7). YOU MUST OBERSVE AND RESPECT THE 1% RISK PER TRADE, DON’T LOSE MORE THAN 1% PER TRADE.

BACK TESTING

1). BACK TESTING BUILDS CONFICDENCE IN A SYSTEM.

2). IT OFFERS STATISTICS WHICH YOU CAN LOOK TO WHEN YOUR TRADING IT IN THE LIVE MARKETS SO YOU KNOW WHAT TO EXPECT.

3). BUILD YOUR ABILITY TO READ PRICE ACTION.

4). IMPROVE YOUR SUPPORT AND RESISTANCE IDENFITICATION.

5). HONE YOUR SKILLS WHEN THE MARKETS ARE FLAT AND UNEVENTFUL.

6). IT IS A FAST WAY TO IDENTIFY THE EFFECTVENESS OF A SYSTEM.

7). IT CAN’T BUILD EMTIONAL INTELLGENCE AND ONCE YOU IDENTIFY A PROFITABLE SYSTEM MAKE SURE YOU TAKE IT TO LIVE TRADING AS SOON AS POSSIBLE TO BUILD YOUR LIVE TRADING SKILLS AS YOU SLOWLY INCREASE CAPTIAL.