Hello, been on a rollercoaster, hoping to get off! :)

Community Introduce Yourself
1

Hi folks, I joined back in June 16 but have been quiet until now. Followed school which was really helpful.

I demo traded for about 8 months; some before I joined here, and then live traded for about 4 months. The first 3 months of live trading I made consistent profits adding about 9% to my account, albeit a small account. I then lost all my profit so my account is back to square 1! At least I still have all my initial capital and all my trades and results are on myfxbook so still there to learn from.

My thoughts on where I went wrong are,

  1. I had some beginners luck which ran out that led to overconfidence.
  2. I was trading reversals using S and R lines and while I had some ability to trade these my entries were not specific enough and so it became to easy to be impulsive because I had no clear confirmation criteria to confirm the reversal before entering.

So, this is why I’ve decided to engage more in this community to hopefully help me iron out these difficulties and hopefully become profitable, long term.

2

[I]February[/I] 16, according to your profile - doesn’t time fly? :wink:

That all sounds good, and slow/steady/sensible, and encouraging … :cool:

Sorry to hear it (but glad that it was a small account and you still have your initial capital). For what it’s worth, huge numbers of aspiring traders have “been there, done that”, of course, for quite a variety of reasons.

My own first thought, when I read accounts of this happening, never varies: your [B]risk-management[/B] let you down somewhere along the line, [I]usually[/I] because your position-sizing was inappropriate to what you were doing. (Whenever I ask people, in these circumstances, what the maximum proportion of their account was, which they were exposing to risk in any individual trade, either the answer is (far) more than 1% or it turns out that they had multiple positions open simultaneously, so they were actually risking far more than 1% at a time, perhaps not quite appreciating the significance of correlations between currency-pairs.)

It may well also be, of course, as you say, that you had some temporary “beginners’ luck” which made you overconfident.

Well, that’s [U]certainly[/U] a good and valid approach, combined with appropriate risk-management.

I think it’s an unusual and a [I]very good[/I] way for people to “get started”.

I’ve always thought - for example - that trading genuine pin-bars touching or very close to recent/significant S/R levels is an excellent way for people to get started. [B]With correct position-sizing and post-entry trade-management[/B], it’s [I][U]really difficult[/U][/I] to lose money, doing that, and it’s an outstanding way to acclimatise to the patience and discipline that all successful traders need to develop.

Welcome to the forum (as a posting member!) and good luck … :cool:

3

Hi lexys,

Thanks for your response, exactly what I was looking for by beginning to post.

Your exactly right about the position sizing, my positions were all 1%; apart form one mistake, but often I would end up with up to 3 trades open and then I would end up cancelling all my profits. I realised I should have chosen the most likely trade and stuck with it but probably due to my impulsiveness this happened often.

really appreciate your input,

Milo.