Judging by the response to my reply to you no one read the part that said:
“yes I have zero experience so anything I say on here at such an early stage in this quest will be soooooooooo green it may very well be amusing :-D”
Sooo, your answers are great. I like the 4hr session overlap for london/Newyork. The most volatile trading period
Regarding the risk reward ratio, i will be applying that to no more than 3 trades per week at this stage as i will be selecting swing trades and waiting until i can see setups that meet the criteria.
Order flow ok. on the list to checkout
I notice you dont trade gold or silver in your pairs. Any reason or just that one has to draw the line somewhere?
I am assuming the english isn’t your first language.
Anyhoo, maybe you should read my original post my friend. I am not claiming to make $1mil in a year merely to make consistent trades of $2739.72 after 12 months of “full time” learning…and really if you cant pull that together after 12 months of full time work on your craft…your in the wrong game… aren’t you?
And the fact that i said pass a question and answered a few questions (after 3 days of learning from never ever touching FX trading info) that probably took you a year or so to work out i find very interesting.
Anyway, i am not here to put egg on anyones face, as that is a fruitless pursuit by empty souls that so many seem to want to see. Rather I would like to engage in some stimulating FX talk that benefits you, me and future readers of this thread.
So with that said, lets talk about pairs. What are your preferred?
Majors, Crosses, maybe your a risk taker with the exotics?
Yes mate…i agree with what you said about the blog. It is something that I feel attached to and keen to nurture. At the end of the day when its all said and done, its all there to see in black and white. I am quite looking forward to adding to it. Feel free to make any suggestions about different things to add to it if you like. I am open to everything. BTW, what platform do you use to monitor your charts?
Having read your posts, I got a feeling you may just do it. I use Nial Fullers methods too. And I have to say he has turned my trading around. So you are starting on the right track. I wasted a lot of time and money looking for what worked for me. And it’s plain vanilla price action.
You will not achieve much from Demo Trading. Brokers, for the most part, give better treatment to Demo traders trying to entice you to trade with them. Also, without real money on the line, it is absolutely a falsehood to think you will trade the same way with real money as you will with monopoly money. There is such a difference between Demo trading and real trading that I would suggest forgettig about the Demo and start an account where you are risking a very minimum amount of real capital per trade. Regardless, the best to you in your quest and if it works, please trade my account also.
66Trader66
That’s not very nice - I don’t know bobmaninc personally, but he has posted some great advice on this site, and is often helpful to newer traders. He’s a very positive contributor.
And I realize that you have clarified it since, but I also read your original post as saying that you intended to make $1m in your first year, and others did, too. Obviously that is not what you meant, but it was sufficiently ambiguously worded to give that impression, so no need to imply that people did not read your post correctly. If you want constructive advice, you should take all input for what it is, learn from it and move on, rather than snipe at the ones you don’t like, imho.
For my own part, I think that your target is very ambitious, it is possible if you work at it full time and have an aptitude for it, but personally I think that you are adding pressure to yourself. If you are consistently profitable at the end of your first year’s trading then you are in the top percentage bracket of traders. Your long-term finances will be secure. So I would not worry too much about an ambitious target - even missing the target by a fair margin could still give you a very successful year with many reasons to be optimistic about the future.
The market fluctuates, there are months when it pays out amazingly consistent pips, and others when it makes us work harder for less. I don’t think that a consistent financial return is an accurate way to gauge success. Some months just give more setups than others, and those setups sometimes run better than others, in my opinion.
NIce to meet you. Yes, i think Nials Fullers stuff is great. I havnt had much time to look around at all of the others on the net but if you type in price action trading on google, his stuff is everywhere. Yes, one could argue he spends alot of time on search engine optimisation (for the last two years i have been heavily involved in the internet). There is sooooo much stuff on his site. Have you taken his advanced course? I have read a few threads about it but i havnt started it yet.
So, day 5 and I m ready to write a trading plan to have something to keep me honest.
Yes, i agree, totally different between trading a demo account to trading a live one. For me tho, the method i am using to get through this 12 months in a leveraged way (80/20) is to cover my bases on the way through so i am not second guessing myself on the way when the times of doubt and despair come knocking…and they will…any endeavour that one sets out on in an extreme way has the doubt and despair demons sitting on the side of the road travelled.
So for me, I have spent 5 full days educating myself on the very basics of price action trading which fortunately for me gelled with me straight away. (simple, clean price action sheets, no flashing lights and crap, use a handful of trading methods and master them, use swing trading so i only look at the computer twice a day (when i get up and at the close of the NY session), be patient and wait for well defined setups that have 3 to 4 confluent signals, use a set and forget method when i place the trade to remove temptation to meddle with my trades and let the trade either stop out or get filled. (wow, i digress)
The reason i want to trade a demo account is that I can really build my confidence levels with this and then move onto a micro account and repeat the same process over again this time being more aware of the emotional risk now that it is live.
Again, for two months i will trade with this account, still using only the clean price action trading, still with the same handful of trading methods eg: pinbar reversal, fakey, inside bar (these are just examples, i have not yet chosen my methods) and still with the same discipline as before, removing temptation with the set and forget…and master trading with real mney.
To me, there is no difference trading a micro lot to a mini lot to a standard lot to a variable lot. The only thing that moves is the decimal place (or volume size in the case of the variable lot). Your trading on the same market with the same pairs under the same external circumstances, the only difference now being ones awareness of the leveraged margin at risk. That little demon will need some work to be kept at bay.
Anyway, i have digressed somewhat in this post but my main point is that I will trade with a demo the move to where you sugest I start from just for the extra confidence.
In relation to where you say “Brokers, for the most part, give better treatment to Demo traders trying to entice you to trade with them”, would that not be a good thing, wether I give them any money or not would be another story? Maybe I am missing something there in relation to the way brokers work, which is “very” possible. I dont intend to trade of the advice of brokers or hot tips, etc, only what setups i see on the chart that fulfil the criteria set in the trading plan that i set.
If you dont mind me asking, which broker/s do you use as I have not selected one as of yet and am interested in your opinion.
Thanks again for your advice 66, it means alot :21:
Yes, i agree, totally different between trading a demo account to trading a live one. For me tho, the method i am using to get through this 12 months in a leveraged way (80/20) is to cover my bases on the way through so i am not second guessing myself on the way when the times of doubt and despair come knocking…and they will…any endeavour that one sets out on in an extreme way has the doubt and despair demons sitting on the side of the road travelled.
So for me, I have spent 5 full days educating myself on the very basics of price action trading which fortunately for me gelled with me straight away. (simple, clean price action sheets, no flashing lights and crap, use a handful of trading methods and master them, use swing trading so i only look at the computer twice a day (when i get up and at the close of the NY session), be patient and wait for well defined setups that have 3 to 4 confluent signals, use a set and forget method when i place the trade to remove temptation to meddle with my trades and let the trade either stop out or get filled. (wow, i digress)
The reason i want to trade a demo account is that I can really build my confidence levels with this and then move onto a micro account and repeat the same process over again this time being more aware of the emotional risk now that it is live.
Again, for two months i will trade with this account, still using only the clean price action trading, still with the same handful of trading methods eg: pinbar reversal, fakey, inside bar (these are just examples, i have not yet chosen my methods) and still with the same discipline as before, removing temptation with the set and forget…and master trading with real mney.
To me, there is no difference trading a micro lot to a mini lot to a standard lot to a variable lot. The only thing that moves is the decimal place (or volume size in the case of the variable lot). Your trading on the same market with the same pairs under the same external circumstances, the only difference now being ones awareness of the leveraged margin at risk. That little demon will need some work to be kept at bay.
Anyway, i have digressed somewhat in this post but my main point is that I will trade with a demo the move to where you sugest I start from just for the extra confidence.
In relation to where you say “Brokers, for the most part, give better treatment to Demo traders trying to entice you to trade with them”, would that not be a good thing, wether I give them any money or not would be another story? Maybe I am missing something there in relation to the way brokers work, which is “very” possible. I dont intend to trade of the advice of brokers or hot tips, etc, only what setups i see on the chart that fulfil the criteria set in the trading plan that i set.
If you dont mind me asking, which broker/s do you use as I have not selected one as of yet and am interested in your opinion.
Thanks again for your advice 66, it means alot :21:
Great to meet you…That quite a title you have there
You mention about the market fluctuating with good months and bad months, is there historical trends that at certain times of year in certain pairs and session Zones that trend? eg: Chinese newyear, soccer world cup, presidential election of a country, holiday seasons, etc?
Well, first rule of trading - associate yourself with winners!
I don’t view seasonal market fluctuations that scientifically, to be honest, and I don’t really break it down into specific Pairs that often. In my experience, August is much quieter than other months of the year, the volume is just not there for decisive moves. I always figured that the market movers are just off sunning themselves on yachts! The market gives odd spikes, trends don’t follow through with much conviction. I know some traders avoid it, I do trade it but it never goes as well as other months, so I do tread carefully.
Christmas is pretty dead, obviously, so I bail out a week before and come back in the first week of January (avoiding the NFP on the Friday).
Other than that I won’t trade USD the week of the US election, or GBP the week of a UK General Election - others do, but to me that is only a fortnight every few years so it’s no biggy in the grand scheme of things.
So seasonally I just keep my guard up in August (and tend to time my own holiday to be around then, although I still trade a little when away) and take some time off at Christmas - which is a pretty nice way to preserve capital.
Interesting thread, look forward to following it - you have certainly demonstrated the resilience to succeed lol!!
I just wanted to say that I absolutely disagree with the person who said there is no point in using a demo account. There is a huge learning curve with forex…why make your biggest mistakes with real money? While it is true that a live account is not exactly the same as demo, in my opinion if you cannot prove profitability in demo, you shouldn’t be live trading. That said, the amount of time spent demoing is a personal decision…I don’t know what kind of funds you have to put at stake, but to some people with whom money isn’t really an issue, they find that they learn faster when they have real money on the line. Not the way I would choose to go, but that’s what some people say…
I will suggest not making your aim $2740, but making your aim making from Positive 0 to a certain number of pips daily, (taking what the market gives you.) As warren buffet says, first rule of making money is not to lose money. We all know you will definitely have losing trades at certain point so basically its more like minimizing your lost and trying to stay above the negative consistently everyday. That can be quite a hard achievement for a newbie despite how easy it sounds.
And when you are consistant, it all depends on the pips. With a huge capital, 3 pips can mean $2740. Conversely on a small account, 300 pips can mean $2740. Put your emphasis on the consistancy of pips and the $ will compound sensibly. At least thats how forex work for most people; compounding.
First off, best of luck. I wish you the very best and I hope that you can prove everyone wrong and hit the million within a year. I look forward to follow your journey.
That being said, I think you should your daily set your daily goal to around 5000 $ instead, since at best you can only trade 240 days a year.
Yes i absolutely keep a trading journal. I have a notepad i write all my trades down on, and a thread i share all my wins and losses here on baby pips. However recently i haven’t had internet at the house so i haven’t been able to post charts like i used to. But the point is yes absolutely. I don’t trade gold or silver through spot Forex because the spreads are massive and i would prefer to use futures for them. But commodity futures aside. I have gone through Nail Fullers Price action course myself recently. I thought parts of it were interesting, took bits and pieces here in there. But overall i don’t think its worth the ‘hype.’ At least it didn’t help me as much. Now if your brand new and don’t have a system yet then go for it, it is definitely much better than most of them out there.
Regarding a post where you said there is no difference between lot sizes, i disagree. For me the fill time is completely different, unless you are with a market maker. If you have an odd lot its going to take longer to find fill and you will incur more slippage. This will continually contribute to losses, on both sides. Anyway i will keep popping in to see whats up. Cheers and good pippin.
I have absolutely no idea why someone would even have a logical explanation as to why they would say you don’t need to use a demo account. EVERY single profession in the world requires training and the BEST form of training is on-the-job training which is EXACTLY what a demo account is. As someone above said there’s already a steep learning curve at forex as it is so you should spend as much time as you need on your demo account until you are comfortable risking your real money and until you are consistently profitable. Every single top broker will tell you to spend a minimum of 2 months on a demo account until you are even considered to be ready to trade real money profitably.
When I started I spent 2 months trading on my demo account and was trading consistently so I forced myself to be patient and once I got to the 2 month mark I put $1,000 in a real live account and within 2 weeks it had gone. I obviously wasn’t ready after all. All top brokers will also tell you it’s very likely that you will blow your first real account and will (hopefully) have learnt valuable lessons in the process - and I did. I went back to demo trading for another month and was trading profitably and came up with a better strategy based on my style of trading and my preferences. I put $1,000 into my real live account again and for the last 10 months have been earning between $2-3,000 a month, earning on average a minimum of $500 a week.
Therefore, I believe the demo account to be completely necessary and would be shocked to discover someone earning large amounts of money through forex without having trained on a demo account.
My other point I made earlier is that although this guys goal is very difficult it is not impossible but he has got to have everything sorted out as soon as possible regarding his strategy, plans, etc and has got to have an answer for everything because things hardly ever go your own way. Remember, in forex, you are only as good as your last trade…So good luck everyone!
I’m having a big problem with my account, on the practice account I turned 50k into 100k in 13 days . I get into my real account I’m loosing 200 a day.
Some people suit demo, and find it a great preparation for live trading. Others just don’t get along with it. I preferred to go live with small amounts of money, rather than demo, as I felt that demo didn’t replicate the psychological side of trading, of backing my opinion with cash. Trading is not complicated - the actual mechanism of learning a strategy, spotting a setup and placing the trade is something that can be learned and is pretty straightforward. Trade management, letting trades run, various other things associated with having one’s own money tied up in the market - that is something that for me, demo can’t teach.
For instance, it is easy to let a trade run according to the rules of the strategy on demo. In real life, however, when x% of one’s account is on the line, it is much harder to leave a trade open when the market twitches in the wrong direction. In demo, it is easy to leave a Stop where it is, in live trading it can be tempting to rookies to move a Stop to protect against a ‘temporary’ move in the ‘wrong’ direction. In demo trading, it is easy to dive back in after three losses in a row - in live, maybe not so easy.
I am not saying that there is no place for demo, there most certainly is (although I did not demo personally). However, I am not surprised that many people struggle with the jump from demo to live and find their results not as strong. It is easy, in demo land, to throw around tens of thousands of pounds/dollars because one has a good strategy. When live trading, throwing around a few hundred can cause nerves, hesitation, poor decision-making…
Mechanical execution of strategy is, imho, the most important element to trading (assuming that the strategy is sound in the first place lol!). That is the bit that is hardest in live trading, and simply a matter of practice in demo.
So stick with it, keep practising and refining, but don’t expect the real thing to be as straightforward as the simulator straight out of the box.
I can get within a few tenths of Jenson Button’s lap time around Spa in a simulator, and am pretty handy with an assault rifle taking on multiple enemies on my Xbox 360. In real life, in either situation, I imagine that fear, nerves, pressure etc would take an edge off my performance. At least at first…!!
We’re in danger of hijacking the thread. The simple answer is that there are various strategies that all work, they just suit different people. Personally, I combine trend, Price Action and Support & Resistance and find that it works consistently and enables me to trade a number of Pairs at different times of day. But other scalp, or trade news, or whatever. There are some good threads on here that outline several of the options.
Anyway, apologies to Long & Short for hijacking the thread, back to topic now, perhaps!
