Hey guys, im currently on my forex trading journey and Im just feeling completely lost. Ive learnt alot of concepts such as support and resistance zones, supply & demand zones, market structure shifts, trendlines, price action ect. I already bought a 50k FTMO challenge with no trades currently on it. I rely mostly on forward testing. I have a strategy where I use trendline channels on the 1hr/15m tf and aim for support and resistance zones as take profit targets entering on market structure shifts on the lower 5min timeframe. although I don’t trade any particular session or pair. just a range of them excluding gold and indicies. any advice if possible please.
Trading is a business, not a professional discipline like medicine or law or physics. Which means that success is not limited to the guys who know the most. In fact, it’s possible that trading success isn’t even directly proportional to trading knowledge.
Trends are good to follow. A trend channel is a useful guide for this. You immediately have an edge over taking random trades.
Support and resistance zones are vague and often ignored by price. Most traders cannot define why today they will put s/r zones here and guarantee tomorrow they will not put them somewhere else on the same chart.
The smaller the time-frame the noisier the picture.
If you’re trend-following, what are your reasons for setting TP’s?
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What exactly are you feeling lost about?
Perhaps, start here
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hi, do you really think you will be profitable after 4 months? basically, you didn’t even start. Check this topic before you go forward Program your success @tommor I am still waiting for you answer
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It wasn’t something I wanted to get into. I will respond shortly.
4 months into the journey but you’re not lost. You can’t be lost in something you havent been immersed to. 4months is definitely a good step but not into the whole step.
Take it easy and slowly. You’re just starting, enjoy the fun.
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Hi MannyM, 4 months in trading are nothing! This is the reality, my friend! But you are right that it’s a journey, and this one takes much more time and effort than all of us think, especially at the beginning. Each journey starts with preparation, so prepare your mind for a long-term journey. The next step of your mindset preparation is that trading is one of the hardest businesses. Trading is risky and rewardable, and much money is transacting there. If you make money, somebody loses it. This means it’s a very competitive environment at all. One of the perfidy of this business is the easy access. With a few clicks of the mouse a few hours later, you are in the big game. This is not because you will easily get your hands on this money but because it will be easily snatched from your hands. This is your first goal - to not fall into this trap, as this will help you to survive. You can achieve it with the mindset mentioned above: It’s a long-term journey, and one of the hardest businesses requires responsibility, patience, dedication, and perseverance. Generally, the process of achieving whatever you want is based on three phases. 1. Gathering information, 2. Building knowledge, and 3. Developing skills by applying the knowledge in practice. By the way, it is a feedback looping cycle because there is so much information, and it is impossible to get the full information at once, learn all of it, and then start practicing. To not lose yourself, explore the environment and take notes!
You have clearly learnt a lot so far and that is great. I note that you are talking about direction and targets but you make no mention of risk/money management in your trade size and R:R.
It is good to remember that trading is all about probabilities and you will always have both losing and winning trades. The main goal is to ensure your overall gains exceed your overall losses - as with any business.
You mention that you have a 50k FTMO challenge. But remember that your account size from a trading perspective is not 50k at all - from a practical POV your account size is actually only the size of your max drawdown. If you hit level that then your acc is blown.
So your position sizing and R:R should be geared to a percentage of your max drawdown and not the 50k. The only function of the 50k is to determine your max allowed position size with respect to the account leverage.
Do not be afraid of losses. Anticipate them and build your risk management to accommodate them. Its all about 2/3 steps forward one step back - not 2 steps back and one step forward. It is worth remembering that if you have a 50% success rate and a 1:1 risk/reward, you are only just about standing still…
Trading is not about the individual trade, it is about the overall performance over a number of trades. Number one rule is to stay in the game so your risk management should ensure that, in your enthusiasm to pass the challenge, a string of a few losses is not going to wipe you out…
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Strange!
I don’t understand, why are purchasing a 50k FTMO challenge when you are still confused?
Sort out a reliable strategy that you can test on 50k demo for 10 times meeting the challenge criteria and pass 10 times in a row before trying the challenge.
Otherwise you will fail.
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Hey! It sounds like you’ve got a solid foundation with all those concepts under your belt. The journey can feel overwhelming, but it’s all part of the process. Your strategy using trendline channels and focusing on S&R zones sounds legit. Maybe consider narrowing down to a few pairs that resonate with your trading style; it could help you get more familiar and comfortable. Also, sticking to one or two sessions might improve your focus and results since market behavior can vary. Keep tweaking and forward testing; that’s key to refining your approach. Remember, every trader finds their groove with time and persistence. You’ve got this! 
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Hey! Sounds like you’re well-equipped with knowledge! Maybe focus on refining and consistently applying your strategy to a few pairs to see how it performs. Remember, it’s okay to start small and adjust as you learn. Keep at it, and don’t be afraid to seek feedback from more experienced traders.
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Don’t feel so lost because I don’t think 4 months is a journey though! You will find people fighting even for years.
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As practice shows, it is impossible to learn profitable trading in 4 months. A profitable trading strategy is created over the years by trial and error, by analyzing other people’s strategies and choosing profitable moments from them. You can create your own trading strategy only by combining this. Therefore, do not give up; those who seek will always find.
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I am in my sixth month and in the past two months I restarted. I am positive so you should!
Create a view that ignores trade entry level. It’s a waste of time to focus on entries. Once you realize that trade entries don’t matter, all timeframes are just a fractal of the larger ones, and no indicator can refine a sample set more than random, then you can get past the beginner phase. This phase can last a few days or a lifetime. There are no secrets, no shortcuts, and a lot of misguided information. Good luck.
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The statistical fact that most traders do not become profitable within 4 months does not prove it’s impossible. There are other major causes which are more probable.
I would estimate it’s possible to understand a trading platform, learn a strategy, practice it in demo and then put it into profitable use in maximum 4 weeks.
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i suggest you use demo account first to trade and after you find your trading strategy and by that i mean something that you can write it on paper and use it. then u can start spending real money for your trading. weather it be spent on buying a plan or challange or charging you account to trade
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Can you please elaborate on “It’s a waste of time to focus on entries.” How can I make a strategy without focusing on where to enter?
By focusing mostly on risk-management and trade-management instead.
Most retail traders - especially forex traders - go wrong by imagining that if they just get the entry right by “predicting” which way the market will move, then everything else will more or less work itself out and they’ll be able to trade profitably.
The helpful, meaningful trading education process doesn’t really begin until after seeing that belief for what it is, and abandoning it.
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What EmeraldEyes means is… trading FX is all about the stop to profit ratio. For example if you have a 20 pip stop and a 20 pip profits target, no matter what setup you use for trade entry, you will end up with a 50% win ratio, minus costs. This is referred to as the “Expected Rate”, as you change the stop and profit ratio the expected rate will change accordingly eg: a 10 pip stop with a 20 pip profit will end up with a 33% win rate. You can prove this statistic by creating a random entry trade generator and adjusting the ratios accordingly, adding various indictors or trade setup rules will not change this outcome. Therefore your trade strategy is effectively random entry and your trade strategy must now focus on risk management and the various ways of exploiting a winning position and minimising a losing position. Once you change your focus to the risk management side of the trade it can become quite elaborate.Your choice of how to manage the strategy of trade risk comes down to testing using random entry simulations and then making an assessment based on personnel preference. You will also realise the probability of success is quite low for the majority.
Regards
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