Hello fellow traders, its been a while since the last time I was here, so I’ve been trading for a little more than a year now, I have made research on candlesticks and indicators but I still get beat up terribly by the market.
So I was hoping you guys could give some advices on how to improve my trading skills, what motivated you or worked for you, would be nice to read it from experienced traders.
Thank you very much in advance.
In that case, welcome back, and wishing you happier outcomes in future.
I did, also - a lot of it, but have actually ended up using neither.
Not trying to be evasive, but it’s really difficult to do that, knowing nothing about someone’s existing trading skills, let alone their aspirations. All I can do is tell you what worked for me.
If it helps, I firmly believe that these are the five classic mistakes that you - and everyone else - needs to avoid, in order to be able to trade profitably.
The desire to be self-employed and independent and not to have to “go out to work” for someone else.
Five things, really …
Reading well-recommended, well-established, mainstream, orthodox trading textbooks, published by well-recommended, well-established, mainstream, orthodox publishers (i.e. “peer-reviewed” and “quality controlled”) and avoiding internet “information”;
Getting in thousands of hours of screen-time after understanding all the basics of probability and statistics that any trader has to learn, to become profitable (so that my first 3 years’ experience was genuinely 3 years’ experience rather than the same one month’s experience repeated 36 times over!);
Not trading with real money until I’d proven, repeatedly and exhaustively and exhaustingly, on demo accounts, that I could avoid all five of those classic mistakes linked to just above;
Remaining aware, at all times, that in a field of endeavour with a huge turnover of participants very few of whom ever achieve profitability, most of the readily available “information”, and especially the apparent consensuses of opinion, are always far more likely to be misguided than helpful;
Having expert tuition available (from a successful family member in the trade - unfortunately not duplicable by most people).
These are the books that helped me, and enabled me to trade profitably …
Profitability & Systematic Trading (Michael Harris)
[I]Trade Your Way to Financial Freedom[/I] (Van K. Tharp) - an outstanding starting-point
[I]Beyond Technical Analysis[/I] (Tushar S. Chande)
[I]Understanding Price Action[/I] (Bob Volman)
[I]Naked Forex: High-Probability Techniques for Trading Without Indicators[/I] (Alex Nekritin & Walter Peters)
[I]Daytrading[/I] (Joe Ross)
[I]Trading The Ross Hook[/I] (Joe Ross)
[I]A Mathematician Plays The Market[/I] (John Allen Paulos)
[I]Fooled By Randomness[/I] (Nassim Nicholas Taleb - [B][U]really[/U][/B] worthwhile!)
[I]Why People Believe Weird Things[/I] (Michael Shermer) - this book and Taleb’s, just above, are hugely helpful - albeit indirectly - for “understanding what’s going on in forums”!
Trading Price Action Trends - Technical Analysis of Price Charts Bar by Bar for the Serious Trader (Al Brooks)
[I]
Trading Price Action Trading Ranges - Technical Analysis of Price Charts Bar by Bar for the Serious Trader[/I] (Al Brooks)
[I]
Trading Price Action Reversals - Technical Analysis of Price Charts Bar by Bar for the Serious Trader[/I] (Al Brooks)
These three books by Al Brooks are not well-written and not particularly easy to read, and probably not for complete beginners; their content, however, is outstanding.
One thing’s for sure: it isn’t quick or easy. I don’t even agree with the people who say “Anyone can do it” (some people have a really deep-seated blind spot with anything mathematical, and they probably “just can’t”). But - by many people - it can be done. Good luck!
Wow lexys! thank you very much for replying! This has been very helpful. I will look into those books!