It is worse than that, MrQuickBuy: the banks are, basically, encouraged not to lend money,
or rather, they are better off taking money from the central banks than giving it to lenders/consumers on
the high streetā¦ This is why the rates they are offering, below the BoE interest rate, are criminal!!
Well, what a journey it has been since that Christmas of 2013!
I gained a lot of money, lost even more, blew up one account and reduced the other one to a very small thing indeedā¦
The good news is that I learnt a lot in the processā¦
I managed to up my (significantly diminished) surviving account by 59% from December of last year to now, which
is about six monthsā¦ This has been done thanks to careful managing of open trades, using stop losses and not over-
leveragingā¦ I also started using more frequently my still-open demo account, which I had used since my very first month
in Forex, back in September 2012: by doing so, I have been able to test trading ideas safely, and increasingly the probability
of their success in the live environment.
I am very happy with FXCM and DailyFX, and it is very much thanks to them that I have kept up this activity and starting
to treat it more like a small but managed business, rather than a slot-machine roundā¦
Thanks for listening!
I just read through this thread. It is an incredibly interesting account of the ups and downs and stresses that are faced by traders as they try and find their own niche in the markets. A beautiful account, stretching over a period of time, of the battle between market logic and personal emotions and ambitions.
A great read - thankyou PMH! 
Thank you, Manxx!
I am still trading one of the two accounts that I discussed on this thread (having closed the other
account after it went bust), and I have recently started a thread showing how it is progressing:
http://forums.babypips.com/forextown/77580-my-fxbook.html
You can immediately see, as you open that link, that the account graph rocked up through aggressive
trading and then back down (due to the inevitable losses)ā¦ 2015 looks like a gentler slope up, as I
slowly rebuilt my account from almost nothing, only adding funds to it this Christmas (first time that I
added funds to it since February 2014, so I felt it was justified, also given my good work).
Please feel free to add your MyFXBook link on that thread, if you have one and wish to make it
visible (except your account personal details).
Thanks for the comments: it certainly has been a journey!
Hello my friend PipMe!
Happy New Year. I am glad to see that you are still trading. Yes, it is definitely a journey! Just keep at itā¦ New Year a New beginning
Hello PipNRoll!!
I will e.mail you again, but while I am here let me wish you too a prosperous and fulfilling 2016 in your career (and in your life), as well as your trading.
Oh, how things change!!
I have recently been wondering about the long-term approachā¦ Truly, my 2015 trading (first half) was good, but since the summer of that year, when I switched to long-term positioning, I had to endure endless perioeds of drawdownā¦
Did I choose the wrong trades for my long-term approach and my vision?
The answer is: not really. I have a fundamental view and price fluctuations have not altered that: I believe equities and Yen currency pairs ripe for a rinse-out, and I believe the Pound to be a winning currency against some counterparts, in the medium futureā¦ Even large drawdowns have not altered this view, which is why I have not taken off my positions: they are being managed, as time will ultimately turn these themes up to their full volume, and then I will start planning my profit takingā¦
Self-belief is the difficult art of balancing price analysis and future forecasts, so if price + time = bias then the time element cannot be taken out of the equation.
Happy trading
Ahā¦ so my drawdown in the last ten months went up to -5,400 pips,
then in the last two months it lightened up to -2,800 pips,
and this week has deepened again, reaching -5,100 pips.
Slow progressā¦
More meditation and waitingā¦
Buddha buttocks shaping up nicelyā¦
I will reach the second state of enlightenment, eventually,
when (or if) my plan will come to its fruitful end.
Scrap thatā¦
Thanks to the RBNZ, tonight I have peaked to -5,660 ā¦
Watch that M1 20EMAā¦if we maintain and can book JUN above it- Iād start to cover if youāre trading NZDUSD.
It is a buggeration of a situationā¦
Unless the Fed surprises all with a hike next week,
nothing will stop NZD/USD in the medium term, except
the apocalypse haha
i feel some desperation. am i right?
just close the position and forget abput it. if u close it now in a week you will forget about it if you keep it up youll only be more stressed for much longer time. isnt buddha about not beeing stressed or something like that?
I have waited this long, Turbo, I honestly think this kind of thing take timeā¦ a 3.0 target is not much to ask, it just takes timeā¦ I am not stressed from a risk/account point of view, just frustrated by the fundamentals taking their sweet time to play out.
i completely understand you and assure you im experiencing the same problem a lot of times. it is frustrating very frustrating to wait for things to allign. everytime i have such an experience i tell myself ādont lead! follow!!!ā. in long term positioning like you do i think the follow-approach is very usefull.
having a loosing strike aswell since a month i simply cant find my way out of it. maybe a brake of a week or two and playibg with newborn helps a bit. who knows. inner peace is key i guess.
I like it: donāt lead, followā¦ Maybe I jumped in too soon (although even my ājumping inā was based on months of waiting for āthe right momentā haha)ā¦
How old is your baby? When was it born? Have we all missed this?? Or is it due any time soon?
was born on 22nd. noo noone missed it, i didnt make a post about it. i became a bit quiet the last few weeks on babypips. focusing on coming up on top of things again and a lot of stress in my work/business outside of trading.
the name is Gabriel was born with exact 3 kilos next friday is christening 
but didnt spend much time with him yet. simoly to overworked, thats why a brake would do good i guess.
Congratulations, and may this baby bring a beautiful Dow break below the current floor!!
haha good one
thank you bro
Try to think: Discipline trumps conviction.
One thing that became evident to me over the years, is that you have to try to approach trading w/ as little as a personal bias as possible. I know itās tough, but hear me outā¦
A lot of pit traders back in the day would talk about guys whoād make a killing, who werenāt exactly, the sharpest tool in the shed. What I mean- they werenāt too intelligent. Theyād come in, w/ a neutral mindset, and just react to what the market gives them. Highly intelligent folks have the likelihood of over-thinking situations b/c they are aware of the variables. Add in emotions, and youāre at a disadvantage.
They say the market can remain irrational longer than you or I can remain solvent for a reason!
Trying to predict movements in price is one of the hardest tasks possible and for the most part weāre all in the same boat.
Just try to be as consistent as possible and trade what you see, not what you want to see. Literally try to dumb yourself down (as stupid as that sounds).
And one other thing Iāll sayā¦and Iām not taking a personal stab @ you. You and I have some history on this thread and I just want to provide my opinion on what I seeā¦
I know youāre a huge fan of Kicklighter and that whole crew- they do GREAT things, there is no denying that. But, that groupās main function is not to trade. Itās to analyze the markets and tell you what has happened already then provide context. They are all analysts. They donāt run funds and likely donāt have millions of dollars worth of capital under management. Again, Iām not knocking them, but, I just question how much of an influence their opinions have on your trading decisions.
I could be speaking out of place very easily, as we donāt interact as often anymore. But, from what I rmrbr I know you were following them very closely, and us retailers can easily get caught up in taking their words for gospel, inadvertently planting a seed of subjectivity when we then go to analyze the charts. At the end of the day, their job is to provide content, not provide returns to a portfolio. Youāre a smart dude, and I know my game was elevated when I completely disconnected from all the talking heads.
Iāll tune into CNBC / Bloomberg just to keep up w/ news, but when it comes to making trading decisions I completely tune them out.