We’ll that’s weird I’m the real one posting trades
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Why did you copy me ?
Talking of processes, one way that I try to avoid becoming overly obsessed with what markets are doing is to always start the week with drawing up a plan of what to anticipate during the coming week. This way, my thoughts are not thrown from one side to the other every time price reverses and prevents (or would it be more honest to say, reduces) the risk of chasing the market like a mad hare across the field. Ask my dog, she knows too well all about chasing squirrels and rabbits! 
In forex, my favourite pair is GBPUSD. We are all aware that the US elections are only less than a month away now and anything dollar based will become susceptible to sudden reactions as we approach it.
But that aside, I think the end of the week will be the more immediate focus point with the FOMC mins and inflation data. So until then, I am looking for 15-20 pip opportunities.
My personal approach is to wait for a signal and then place my trade with a fixed TL and SL and then walk away and resume my life as a human. I never sit staring at the screen. My results are purely geared to a high win rate together with an R:R approximating to roughly 1:1
I draw the high,low and midpoint from the previous week’s range and use a couple of EMA’s and 50% RSI to gauge the current bias within or beyond last week’s range.
I usually skip the early hours on Monday’s as the mkt is generally feeling its way after the weekend unless something eventful has happened in the mean time.
I am not suggesting this is a good approach for others. I am only illustrating that my humanity remains intact outside of the trading environment by having a clear, decisive strategy and analytical process.
I have now had a good breakfast and done my analysis work for this Mon morning, I know what I am looking for later today on the charts and now it is time to spend an hour out in the local forests with my dog before the rest of the daily routines start.
I am convinced that taking care of physical and mental fitness are very important in retaining a balance between trading and living. If losses are contained and accepted as part of the process then there is no stress even though it is always a disappointment emotionally. We just move on.
You cannot make gains if you are not in the markets, but if you are in the market you will make losses as well. The key is in selecting when to actually be in the markets - and deciding beforehand when and where to get out!
Happy trading for the week all you humans!
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Hi, @TYGMedia, thks for the comments and views! 
When I read the above quotes from your post I thought isn’t this a little negative? Do people really see things so critically? Are there parts of our globe where people really are just looking to con one another?
Certainly, there are elements of all these things in most places, but can we simply generalise based on a few experiences and/or heresay?
I know several Youtubers who are genuine full-time traders and their motive is nothing more than to share their experiences and earn a little extra from advertising fees. But I do know there are also many Youtubers that are just out to con money from the unaware.
But I don’t see any predator activity in the forex market per se, excluding any scammy brokers or mentors, etc. In fact, the beauty of the forex market is its accessibility and uniform price movement around the globe due to its decentralised format.
I do not have to think there is any specific counterparty to my trades, the other side is just the market, that’s all. There is no one to get angry with or blame when things go wrong. The market is neutral and moves without any individual input from anyone. (again, excluding malpractices such as spread widening, etc).
You know, the “Friday the 13th” syndrome is a typical example of how what we see can be distorted into some kind of universal “truth”. Once it becomes established then anything that goes wrong on Fri 13th only serves to prove the pudding!
I think the same mechanism also applies to humans in other areas of life including trading. If we only focus on the bad things and losing trades then we only see these and they take on a distorted role in our perception of things. Focussing only on one’s losing trades will distract attention away from why good trades are working. However, the opposite is also true…
Personally, I think the best role is to adopt the attitude of a pragmatic optimistic:
" Pragmatic optimists combine both optimism and realism to deal with the negative effects of life. They recognise the harsh realities and struggles of making progress or moving forward. Pragmatic optimists do not deny the difficulties and problems but believe that there are many opportunities in life."
In other words, always look for the good opportunities in life, and assume the best in other humans - but watch your back! 
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Hi @Dollar_McGavin , again, thks for you thoughts here 
The reason why I suggested you were being a little harsh (I didn’t say “insulting”) was because your statements are very sweeping in their coverage as in:
Whilst, you are totally correct that these are all examples of where traders can go wrong, I think we shouldn’t assume that ALL losing traders make ALL these mistakes and are ALL just gamblers. Some, yes, surely are very big gamblers. But there are also, I’m sure, those that are making every effort to learn to trade and are only grateful when experienced people like you point out the pitfalls and the possible black holes in their path - and do learn from them. So thks for pointing some of these out here!
I don’t think it is necessarily gambling. No trade is ever a 100% certainty. There is always the risk of a loss. Consistency comes from managing this risk, as you say. I think the error with losing traders is not understanding risk/money management.
It is often said that one “should only trade with money one can afford to lose”. But that gives a false impression of security. In fact, one should realise that in order to stay in the “game”, one’s account balance is money that you cannot afford to lose…
As you say:
Precisely, although risk/money management is perhaps a more comprehensive (but less understandable) way of saying the same thing!
My only query here is, (back to the start of the thread! 
) why the need to eliminate emotions? The only thing that I would say here is to eliminate the rash and irrational actions that sometimes arise as the consequence of our emotions. The emotional aspect is who we are, controlling it is how well we know ourselves and can deal with it - but maybe that is just splitting hairs! That is for each to decide for themselves, I think…
Good stuff @Dollar_McGavin, thanks! 
Hi @SovoS, this is the ugly part of the world. I have seen the dark side.
Probably our environments are different. I have to deal with so many white collar crime. I don’t feel negativity with them. Let say I have made peace with my surrounding. I’m a very detail person, so I tend to learn everything, that made me discover many things black and white.
I agree not every youtuber is bad, some are good. I know some good trading mentor, like Kathy Lien. She is an outstanding trader and mentor.
As CFD, you are correct. Almost no counterpart in CFD. Unless we use a non regulated broker, a black market broker 
The situation is different for other market such as stock and crypto market. Let talk only cypto market, in particular alt coin. Most alt coin are being played by market maker. The market maker itself is the coin developer. I met some developers before. Most of them meme coin. When they succesfully traded in an exchange, will do buy and sell by themselves. They try to “attract” others to buy the coin. The more people buy it, the developer will gain more. Until the developers have enough, they just abandon the coin. The fate of the coin will be uncertain.
The developer is our counterpart. And most meme coin used by the developer to get money and leave. The developer I met, have been launching their token for 6th times. I can see how the old token are wandering lifelessly, trapping the owner with uncertainty. We are the victim of our ignorance.
Many other things, such as, I was asked, many times, to help money laundering dirty money through CFD. They promised me 30% cut for each time. I still love my freedom. I rejected them always.
Finally, I don’t see thing in a negative way. I accept this life with all the goods and evils. I will always be realistic and honest. Everything comes with intention. As long as the intention isn’t involving with harming or hurting others, that will be very good enough.
It’s really fun to have conversation with you … you earn my respect 
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That is interesting! I have little experience of crypto expect for some earlier Bitcoin investments - and I guess it is best to keep it that way!
Yep, wherever there is money there is a sordid side as well, that’s for sure.
But I feel that the proper regulators nowadays have come a long way in cleaning up the broker industry compared with where we used to be. The offshore market is another story to a certain extent but I think even there the offshore subsidiaries of big, regulated brokers are reasonably safe. They cater for those that want/need the bigger leverage offered there.
We talked earlier about the high capital requirements if traders want to trade full-time (not something I would ever recommend!). And I wondered what is your view of the current surge in prop firm business?
In theory, these offer an ideal opportunity for talented traders with low capital availability. Since a trader is not using their own capital, the potential loss is limited to non-receipt of their earnings. And the earnings can be quite substantial if a trader is consistent.
However, it is an industry that is currently pretty much unregulated - and that is somewhat disturbing in principle.
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Didn’t see anything to trade in the morning on GU - and not really anything all day so far! We did manage to revisit the lows from last week (Friday) but it seems there is little impetus to push lower (yet).
I tried a short position earlier but just now closed it for a small gain. Certainly not enough volume to support going long, rather it is just languishing in a pool of disinterest.
Tread with care - like eating mushrooms
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Hi @SovoS, I agree with you. I met some of them, the money is still managed by the parent company. So we can only rely on the reputation of the parent company.
The safest way to increase our capital is by splitting to different brokers. For example, when we want to trade with 100k, we can split them to 3-5 trusted brokers. Don’t put them in one broker. It will safe you when one of them having trouble. This is the reason I’m using more than one brokers.
It’s still too early to conclude how this industry will become. But, I know most of them start up. So they have no profit in the early phase. Most of them, or can I correctly say, all of them let us trading in fake account.
This make them suffer lot, since so many “non trader” also join and pass the challenge. The non traders are usually using EA (in the past), many positions can’t be copied for some reason. This will create discrepancy between corporate and trader account. They have to pay trader base on trader account, but the real profit is in corporate account.
As I know they are still lacking good traders to trade on their behalf. In the process to have enough profitable trader, will let these prop firms to lost a lot of money. As informed by some brokers, it’s about time they will stop one by one. Unless, there is new concept for this industry.
For us, the “user”, don’t think to much. As long as it makes money … bang!!! Don’t think too much Pass the challenge, try to make profit as much as possible. No attachment. When the firm is finally bankrupt, so be it, find another
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Ensure your priorities are still in order…
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@ Thanks @TYGMedia for you reply about prop firms
That is really interesting to hear! Makes good sense! and seems to tie in with what we are seeing in this newish industry nowadays. Thks for the input
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Nothing much has changed on GU since yesterday morning. The longer TF’s still have a remnant of a short bias whereas the shorter TFs are neutral. The daily chart over the last week or so seems to reflect a pull-back rather than a downtrend. So it is not surprising that there is a lack of impetus at present until a new stimulus appears.
Price has so far this week dipped a few pips below last week’s lows on a few occasions but has not closed below yet. Small range and converging/flattening MA’s suggest a continuing pause in momentum.
The next major new input that I can see is the FOMC minutes tomorrow in the evening after the much of the day has gone.
So I continue looking for small trades but its been a lean week so far - but it is still only Tuesday…!
The temperature has dropped noticeably now, only about 4 degs C outside, and the autumn skies are showing some powerful patterns. We are passed the best of the autumn colours here as most of the leaves from the deciduous trees, in contrast to the pines and spruces, are already on the ground and fading rapidly.
The forests are also so much quieter now. Most of those birds that migrate have already left. The last of the swans were flying overhead yesterday. Seems a long time til we see them again…snow has already landed in the North and the daylight hours are getting shorter…
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GU unusually docile all day. Managed a “magnificent” 2.5 pips with a short trade 
and that has been it for another day…
If one talks about managing emotions, then this is one typical situation where the eagerness to trade can lead to rash decisions and inevitable losses.
At such times it is beneficial to have other interests to turn one’s attention to while “the stalker awaits its prey”:
“When stalking one’s prey, it is best to take one’s time. Say nothing, and as sure as eggs he will become curious and emerge.” - Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)
For me that means the four seasons…
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I don’t think sitting in a chair, staring at a screen for hours is healthy, but… if it eventually impact my life in a positive financial way, then I’m willing to make that trade right now.
The stop loss. It’s all about the stop loss, right?
I agree here. Partly about the money you have, but also about emotion, about being impatient and wanting success right away. It’s the YouTube generation.
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This is a really good point to help newbies like me distinguish between the different approaches to trading.
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That is really good to hear - and what makes it all worthwhile!
@Dollar_McGavin raised the point about process v. P/L so all credit to him for it!
The point being that we are all different, and all have varying ambitions, and all have different personal benefits and hindrances, and we all develop our own preferred personal strategies - but we are all on the same side!
I fall in this trap. Maybe more overtrading than gambling. And not that it’s boring at all, but more so like the P&L comment you made. I’m driven more by green/number go up than fine tuning what it is I’m doing right/wrong when I trade.
A lot if times I question whether I’m just on the right side of a gamble.
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I guess the core question to ask before “pressing the button” is whether there is a specific strategic reason behind the position - or am I just taking a bet on which way price may go next?
An interesting point behind this is what kind of trading we are doing. We are assuming here that traders are all discretionary traders where they ultimately decide themselves on every entry, exit, and position size, even when they have a mechanical- based system. I trade like that and I like it. I want the personal “final say” in what happens - but only within the constraints of what my method allows.
But nowadays, a number of traders, including Newbies, are trading either EA’s or automated systems. In these cases, there is little room to be accused of gambling since the system generates the signals based on its internal logic processes.
But I don’t know much about those types of trading methods so I don’t know how much personal input there actually is. And I guess this area is likely to change fairly dramatically with the increasing application of AI in trading strategies.
That is another topic indeed! If technical analysis becomes increasingly controlled by AI input then we could imagine greater volatility but more predictability as well - equals more profits for everyone!
But if we imagine AI also becoming increasingly active in the fundamentals that ultimately drive price then we are in an entirely different environment. Can we imagine the actions of governments, Central Banks, investment/pension funds, int’l companies, and import/export traders all being driven by AI? 
Regards GU, as expected no change overnight in the Far East. We have mentioned here a few times that much later today the FOMC minutes will be released.
This can often create USD-based reaction, as described in the notes on the BP calendar: “The minutes provide a summary of discussions, debates and policy determinations from these private meetings… They offer insights into the Committee’s assessment of economic conditions, risks to growth and employment, policy effectiveness, as well as debates around appropriate policy responses.”)
However, it is worth remembering that any such reaction may be short-lived since markets will be quickly shifting focus onto tomorrow’s US inflation data releases.
As far as GU is concerned, Friday also sees a batch of UK core economic data releases as well as some more US stuff later in the day just to shake up any exhausted day-traders already wishing for the weekend to start!!!
That’s a recipe for some highly volatile intraday moves - so trade carefully all you humans.
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SP500 has been doing great today but GU is still riveted to that level of last week’s low. Three brief trades today: long SP500, short XAU, and another short on GU. All gains but little to show for it!
Autumn storms here tonight but nothing compared with what is fast approaching Florida. Hopefully, everyone survives the night there and the damage is not as great as feared… 
Well, its been a dry, colourless week so far - maybe tomorrow’s inflation data can add some colour to the landscape…
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