I’m from the chicago area. In 2003 a friend of mine starting taking stock investing/trading classes and asked me to join him. To date I’ve invested and lost about $50k in trading and classes… more than that if I include the choice I made to take a fixed job retirement account and use it to invest with… worst financial decision I’ve ever made… My journey has been through stocks, options, futures, ETFs and now FOREX. Over the past 8 years I’ve been passive… not doing any real investing/trading, but watching and trying to learn more about the market via demo accounts. About 4 years ago a made a commitment and a 5 year goal, to try and replace my retirement account in 5 years, by 2019, and my focus vehicles for doing this would be would be FOREX and Stock Options.
How close am I? Well, I’ve learned a lot using demo accounts. I’m looking to begin sticking my toe back in the waters at the beginning of 2019. My experience has taught me to be conservative and to start off by risking only 1% of my account at any time. I’ve learned a few strategy with FOREX and Options that I will slowly put into play. BabyPips caught my attention as I started going through the School of Pipsology… good educational program.
About me… married with children. Like music, and even play my sax every once in a while. Not retiring anytime soon. Looking to go on my first vacation cruise in 2019. Been blessed by the Lord and enjoying life.
You should be the only person to answer this question
I personally don’t know any profitable trader that has started amateur They are very rare There’s only one that I read here to me that may be on their way Even more rare is one that isn’t facilitated by outside help somehow
Your story isn’t a new one I appreciate your candidness and you’ve been at it for a decent amt of time I don’t know your financial situation regardless 50k to lose is impressive for an amateur
More profound is the time you spent I don’t want to tell you should stop There should never be the cute ass patting I see here so much
My advice The one percent thing shows me where you are still at this point
Rein in your goal to just being profitable
Trading is trading regardless of vehicle without reasons forget the options If you have to just one or the other
Concentrate on one pair this does not mean not watch the others
Common sense if you don’t have it forget it So many here lack it
Most important I see the cliche but never anything reg the meaning This is a market not an atm Figure what this cliche really means then you are on a correct foot You are not a player it is not about you
While the odds are stacked against a trader as with any gambling situation let’s ask ourselves why?
The Beck, you state you have lost 50K on investing and classes. WHAT do you say is the main reason why your losing?? It’s the market’s fault? I don’t have a system that works? All my courses were a BS ripoff? Gee Forex is a zero sum game, there must be losers just not me? Get honest?
Why are there some winners and mostly losers? Why do you think or did you think you could be different? You may think I am not being serious, but I am serious as a heart attack.
It is in your personality, between your ears, yep there are many excuses but at the end of the day it comes down to trade and cash management which comes down to your personal psychology.
You can blame it on mom/dad, school, sociality, religion and so on, what you were taught but it’s what you believe inside your subconscious. Easy to fix, NOT, you just spent years a 50K figuring that out.
We traders must develop a set of rules to play the odds without hesitation or emotion, that is called an edge. Once we come to grips with that we can become consistently profitable.