Frustrated!!

[Pukey]

Is anyone else pulling there hair out? I've been trading for about a year with no real success to speak of, and fading hope that this can actually be done for a living without already having enough money to make trading a fun passtime. It seems that everyone on all of these forums is either still searching for a magic system, holding their ground with a tiny account, proclaiming to be a guru without actually teaching anything, or trading with an account that they started with more money than I've ever seen (james 16 at FF, for examlpe).

Every system I've tried seems to work for a little while before falling apart for no reason I can ever put my finger on. I think I'm a reasonably smart guy, business owner, family man. I've gone through times when I have invested as much as 4 hours per day to the charts. Indicators, no indicators, S&R, fibs, I've tried them all for as long as I could stand it. I've seen the same names in these posts for the last year without anyone ever saying that they have finally made it. Did we all start at the same time and it just takes longer than this? What about the "95% fail" rule? Where are the 5%? I really need to here from them if I'm going to stay sane. I need to believe that a person can make alot of money, in whatever time necessary, without already having alot of money. Yes, I understand compounding. What I don't understand is consistant winning. Who's doing that?

Thanks

Jason

[dobro]

I'm with you on this topic; I closed both my small funded accounts as nothing seemed to work. I do know this from extensive reading - since the bailouts/Wall St. fiasco, the financial world has not been the same. And this past June-July-August saw exceptionally thin markets so one bank's jump in or out of the forex could skew things unreasonably. I wanted to test a couple of strategies but with this kind of a market I couldn't trust the results. I'm hoping this fall sees a return to normalcy, whatever that is!

[Pukey]

You make good sense Dobro, I'm just not sure I know what normal looks like.

I don't feel like I've even figured out what kind of trader I am. I really like the pace of the shorter time frames, but they usually just amount to more opportunities to donate to my broker. The longer TFs are easier to manage, but the problems are atill the same (entry, stop loss, take profit, risk/reward, move to break even?, etc., etc., aaaaargh!).

Indicators seem to be mostly inconsistant and require instincts anyway, so most of my focus lately has been on price action, which is just about enough to make a person want to jump off of something tall.

Just when you think someone might actually have some real knowledge to share, they want to sell it to you or they tell you they can't tell you everything because they are professionals and I'm not in the cult.

Is a year too soon to expect the account bleeding to stop?

[rhodytrader]

A year in trading is nothing. Heck, I think it took me at least that long to realize I shouldn't be trading off other people's ideas.

Originally Posted by rhodytrader

A year in trading is nothing. Heck, I think it took me at least that long to realize I shouldn't be trading off other people's ideas.

That's a brilliant post in my humble opinion.

[Pukey]

Originally Posted by rhodytrader

A year in trading is nothing. Heck, I think it took me at least that long to realize I shouldn't be trading off other people's ideas.

There in lies the magic, but when did you start coming up with your own ideas? And are you successful now? It's not that I want someone esle to make me successful. I just want to know that others are finding the path.

[soul786]

From what I've seen, others have found a path. Some trade for a living and it's a goal one has to set for himself. Those traders didn't become successful overnight, let alone a year I may add. I am in my first months and honestly speaking, in 6 months of trading if I can even have a $10 profit I know I'll have made some progress.

It takes time and dedication like other things. I don't speak from experience but rather from what I've read along with what I expect to happen

[flir]

One year is nothing but you are heading in the right direction. Price action is the most important indicator to look at and you're heading that way. Trade smaller or go back to paper for awhile.

You're looking at a personal investment in yourself for 1 to 5 years if you're serious.

Don't give up.

[Pukey]

Originally Posted by flir

One year is nothing but you are heading in the right direction. Price action is the most important indicator to look at and you're heading that way. Trade smaller or go back to paper for awhile.

You're looking at a personal investment in yourself for 1 to 5 years if you're serious.

Don't give up.

Thanks for the advice. I'm hanging in there. It's just nice to hear from the like minded ones. How did some of you successful people know when you were making progress and not just creating bad habits?

[flir]

Just like how you watch a price chart, always do a spreadsheet chart (Excel or use a free service like myfxbook.com) of your account balance at the end of your trading day. If your acct bal is in a downtrend, whatever you're doing is not right and you need to figure out how to change it.

Once you try different things and observe the chart of your acct bal, you will be able to see what works from what doesn't. You'll know you're going in the right direction when you're acct bal becomes choppy. From there it's usually psychological and/or tightening your stops and letting your profits ride.

Most successful trades use price action alone or price action and 1 indicator. I use price action 1 moving average. 30 min for direction 5 minute from trend and 1 minute for entry. Keep it simple. Stick with one direction.