Most traders lose money. It’s important for me to be honest and upfront with you about that fact if you aren’t already experienced in forex and/or trading. Traders are in it for the money, but it is important to understand that for most traders that money never comes.
The great majority of traders give up trading before they become profitable, and I think it is important that you decide for yourself if you are up for the challenge. Asking yourself why you trade is also a good idea, because if your motivation for trading isn’t strong enough, you probably won’t achieve success - because it is most likely that you won’t give the trading journey enough of your time or effort.
It is also my view that trading can’t be ‘the homework you don’t want to do’. What I mean by that is you have to find a way to engage with it and enjoy it. From my experience - if you can’t find a way to make trading fun - you are much more likely at some point not to continue.
Unfortunately when I began my trading journey, I wasn’t as smart about my development as I should have been, and because of that - the journey to profitability took much longer than it should have. I tried to copy profitable traders, but unfortunately the products and support they provided was not adequate.
After a couple of years my routine was well established. I would focus intensely for several months on my learning and trading - blow up a small account - then take a few months off. This process would then repeat over and over.
What I was guarding against was giving myself a period of time within which I had to have the trading game ‘won’ - because after that period I would have to give up.
I decided also that if I didn’t take time off, then I would become much more frustrated about my failure to - be the trader I needed to be - and this frustration and added pressure would make the trading journey even more difficult.
So here I was - a number of years down the track - and I was finally starting to hit some good patches of profit and discipline. I was finally getting to a point where I could be proud about my progress, and happyish with my profitability.
And I had been profitable for a while, but then something else entirely happened...
The hairs on the back of my neck stood to attention and my palms heated up as i tapped nervously on the desk with my index finger.
I could almost taste the adrenalin coursing through my veins where blood used to flow.
I may be giving it more credit than is due but I hadn’t seen a run of trades like it, except for those ‘outsiders’ that risked much more on a trade than they took in profit.
Risking a lot to make a little was a strategy that I had tried - certainly for long enough to know it was a complete loser, and that i needed to always try and made sure my profit covered my initial risk.
But here i was - after planning today’s trade on the back of a great run of 18 trades with only one half loss. 18 trades with only half a loss, and I couldn’t believe my luck.
They say that a profitable trade can set off similar reactions in the brain to cocaine use. I can attest to that fact because at the time I was feeling amazing - this was a high like I hadn’t previously experienced.
Not surprisingly i was more nervous at that point than i had been at any time in my trading past - even when i had a lot more money on the line.
The money wasn’t the thing that I was focussed on, my focus was solely on what i had to lose - which was my 18 trade winning streak - when I should have just been glad that all of my work had paid off.
For many years in the past I was much more accustomed to a large string of losses than wins - even up to 9 straight losses in my previous trading life a couple of times.
But here it was. Vindication.
Here finally was the indisputable proof that i had become more than just a slightly profitable trader, that my edge wasn’t so small that I would lose it sometime down the track. But in that moment none of it seemed to matter as much as not losing my next trade.
Thankfully it was also that moment I realised that I was falling back into one of the largest strategic traps of my past - the trap where a trader cares most about NOT losing his next trade rather than about trading his system accurately and systematically. The trap where a trader then uses that motivation as an excuse to break his rules.
The trap which most often produces a massive drawdown.
It turned out that remembering the trap was enough to put me back on the right path, and into the mind frame that had more than partly led to the statistical anomaly of my current trading run in which i only took one half loss. Because I took stock at that time, the drawdown that had accompanied my most successful periods previously didn’t happen this time.
At the end of the streak, i was able to achieve ½ a loss in 22 trades over a 22 day period, and my trading has never been the same since.
Up to that point and for many years I had been tweaking every aspect of my system to find the optimal set of settings and rules.
The problem with always tweaking a system though is that it doesn’t provide you with the consistency and focus that are so necessary to trade a system most effectively.
At that point, I decided to draw a line in the sand, and stop searching or changing my system.
I spent time thoroughly analysing that relatively short trading period, pulling it apart, and distilling all of the important wisdom within it, so that I could double down and use the system to change my fortunes forever.
I have trading systems to trade almost any market, but I decided at that point that I needed to simplify everything and just focus on what worked best for me.
What follows are the best tips and most important strategic considerations I learned from trading that system.
Prior to achieving such good results, I had been on a 7 year pilgrimage to profitability, and though i had achieved profitability sometime in the latter part of that period, I was not happy with my statistical edge.
I kept asking myself what good was only making 1-2% on your account after 20 trades if one mistake could wipe it all out? How could i build a trading career from a relatively small edge?
Because of these considerations - I struggled, I fought, I studied and busted plenty of accounts over those years until I finally achieved my goal.
I finally had an edge large enough I could take to the bank, and I finally had the skills and discipline to consistently trade it.
Thank you for giving me your time, i am so pleased that you are on the same journey that consumed so many years for me.
What I hope is that your journey to profitability isn’t anywhere as long as mine, and if you are yet not a profitable trader, I hope you find what you are searching for in these pages and from my upcoming trading videos.
Life is short, too short to waste spinning your wheels for years and years because you refused to take the more difficult path of action.