Absolutely agree!
If you treat this like gambling, you’ll end up a loser. No exceptions
I agree with you (except I use 2%). What I was trying to say is that since it appears he can afford to lose the money, and that he’s not going to listen to us, that he should keep on doing what he’s doing.
He’ll blow it, learn from his mistakes, and be a great trader some day. I threw the “get rich quick” possibility in because he thinks it could happen. And technically it [I]could [/I]happen, it’s just not very probable. 
Yes, it can absolutely happen. It’s just that, right after that, he’ll get poor again quick
But as you suggest, sometimes life/experience itself is the only teacher that can force you to listen.
This gave me a pretty good laugh…I never said I’m treating this as a get rich quick type of thing. I’m not even treating this like gambling, just seeing how things go and learning on the way. The original poster was curious how I was able to double my money and I told him how I did it, I never said follow what I do and you’ll double up quick. What I’m doing mostly isn’t even a system, its just learning.
I know I have several flaws in what I do and hence why I said I don’t advocate following what I do in my original post. Some of the flaws are lack of stoploss, use of S/R lines, lot sizes, risks, etc…
I’ll listen to advice as long as it makes sense and I haven’t really disagreed with any of you on the way I’m using forex right now. There are problems on what I do and they are expected being that I’ve been trading for less than 2 weeks. I’m not worried about the money, but the experience/learning so I don’t get what the hubbub is about.
If you have advice I’m willing to hear it.
So far the information on stoploss has been pretty helpful in giving me an idea on where to place stoplosses. It has also given me a clearer idea on how to use them in the various time frames. Much thanks!
I think we’re just concerned about the way you’re learning. We want you to be successful, and we’ve seen a lot of trader come here and trade this way, then they blow it all and disappear.
To go back to R Carter’s medical analogy, what you’re doing is trying to learn surgery by chopping away wildly with a machete.
Like I’ve said, if you’re ok with blowing the money in the end then I think it will be a good learning experience. And you’re right, you never said you’re trying to get rich quick, but you are [I]trading [/I]like you’re trying to get rich quick. I just think it would be better to learn to trade the right way from the beginning, but if this is working for you then great! 
In my opinion, the actual placing of trades is only about 20% of a trader’s success, the other 80% is money management and trader psychology. You are learning how to place good trades, but nothing about MM or trader psychology.
No insult was intended, so I hope I didn’t offend you. Just trying to help
Since it’s Saturday eve maybe I can get away with some really poor humor:
Ahh, you mean the Rwandan school of medicine?
Knowing what I know now about trading, I would give anything to go back to my first two weeks of trading and implement the things people are suggesting in this thread. When you’re new to trading, in my opinion, you’re like a clean slate, and if you can start with good trading habits from the get-go, you’ll have a much better chance of making it into the small percentage of profitable traders. If you start risking big, not using stops, getting used to the market coming back to you and all these other things, you’re just forming bad habits that become VERY hard to break.
I’ve tripled my account before with these same bad habits, and lost all the gains in just a few days. It’s not that hard to boom and bust. If you start with good habits however, they’ll become solid and ingrained in you relatively easy. You’ll thank yourself later. I’ll end by saying again that bad habits in trading can be extremely hard to break.
phil, currently most of my learning was in the decision making process associated with technical and fundamental information. I feel like I have a pretty good grasp of this aspect, but when it comes to other aspects of forex trading I know I’m lacking.
I’m not offended at all bout what anyone has said.
Expand on MM and trader psychology if you could please
Money Management refers to a plan to keep you from going broke during a losing steak. The most common method of doing this is to do like R Carter and I do, and risk a set percentage of your account per trade.
A trader that is trading the way you are only needs one or two bad trades to wipe out his account, but at 2% risk per trade I would have to have 114 losing trades in a row to lose 90% of my money.
Do you gain money slower that way?? Sure! But like Lavaman pointed out, what good does it do you to triple your account if you’re just going to lose it in a day?
With proper MM you will always live to trade another day, even after a big losing streak.
And losing streaks do happen! I had a massive one earlier this month. In my 1.5 years of live trading this is my worse month ever, but I still made money due to my MM rules.
As for trader psychology, that simply means a trader needs to control his greed and fear so he doesn’t make bad trading decisions. A lot of people will make revenge trades after they lose so they can “make up those lost pips,” or not trade with a stop loss (wink, wink) because “they know their trade will come back.”
It’s a recipe for disaster!!
I had a pretty decent MM technique at the beginning of my account where I’d only trade $10 max. Had a fair share of wins/loss that I’d say was 50-50. Spent alot of time on how to make good decisions on which positions to take, when, for how long, etc. I’ve kinda veered off of the MM platform and do notice this issue. Is there any online references to MM you (or anyone else) could guide me toward?
The trader psych is something I need to fix with not using any stop loss. I plan to working on that tomorrow when the market opens from what I’ve reread on this site and NickB’s method.
As for greed/fear aspect…maybe you could shed some wise words on the way I’m thinking right now. I’m at a point where I can fairly prove why I should take a long or short position in a currency (not perfect but so far its been helpful in my trading). I don’t get why the use of small lots can’t be substituted for the use of larger lots. I see how this plays into MM, but when all my positions put me into what translated to -$600; I didn’t have any real fear cause through what I observed in my data I knew it would come back up.
Now I know the use of a stop loss could have been very helpful in preventing that large of a floating drop…but since the positions weren’t closed out then nothing was realized.
Is my thought process fizzled?
I’d start with the section of the Babypip’s school on Money Management
In that instance you [I][B]should [/B][/I]have had real fear, because you could have lost your entire account. You don’t “know” it’s going to come back up unless your trading system works 100% of the time, and no system is 100%
Overconfidence is an psychological issue some traders have to overcome. Getting rid of fear is done by using conservative risk and stoploss levels. Getting rid over overconfidence just comes with time… Once you hit a losing streak you’ll see what I mean. The trick is to use proper MM techniques so your account survives once you learn that lesson.
It’s all good, no hard feelings taken. So how do I get into a program like that? What happens to winners? Any future in forex through what they do?
I’m actually enjoying forex for now and wouldn’t mind expanding on it in the future. I’m waiting to see how things go when the water gets rough…I think I’ll be able to judge my knowledge better then.
Working on the MM was a priority this past weekend. The psych. I have a hard time justifying cause I justify the positions I take based on the data I review and I’m pretty confident that things will go in the way that I make the position. In the end the MM comes into play about when should I close the position(s). I had a around a 150 floating pip total which I was considering closing, but I figured it would do any harm to leave it open and learn from the ups and downs of making/losing money.
I was curious about making trading a career, but right now I’m still in the learning mode
Good stuff in this thread just now.
Glad [B]R Carter[/B] and [B]Phil838 [/B]and giving you, [B]thelearner[/B] good info based on their experience.
I will just use this chance to welcome you [B]R Carter [/B]and [B]Phil838 [/B]and of course, [B]thelearner [/B]to this forum.
I can see quality contributions coming here.
And we need them too.
There has been a fair share of rubbish on this forum lately. 
I think thats where I’m actually ahead of some people. I really don’t have much going on in my life. No girl (divorced for some time now), no kids, got a 8 hour a day job (looking for a new one), just finished my MBA, not a party animal of any kind at my age (26)…thats part of the reason why I like the forex, it gives me something to do, I’m learning something very useful, and its profitable as long as good decisions are made. Part of the reason why I’ve been able to learn a lot is because I’ve been taking most of my free time with reading/learning about forex.
I could see trading long term, but there are still plenty of things I need to learn about the ins & outs of forex.
Good stuff indeed tymen1
Thanks for all the good info guys (and gals if any of you were in the discussion)
Yeah, we even had some nut on here a week ago telling people to trade based on weather patterns.
Just joking with you Tymen… :D:D
But it works!!!
Just emailed you
I do see your point…I’m also playing with fire not using stops on many of my current open positions (total…floating around 3700 pips…872k lot size). I’m coming more and more aware of this risk and the impacts it can have in the event of a negative incident.
One thing I have learned much about not having stops and following major trends is patience. I remember last night I was -$2k USD (the account readjusts after every trading day so it isn’t a good indication of my balance, just daily P/L)…re-examined at all my positions/charts/data and just looked away. Woke up this morning to have found it increased (to positive numbers) considerably.
Hells teeth indeed! A gamble…I wouldn’t call it that but it may seem that way. I’ve justified my positions before I made them so I’m pretty confident in it.
I’ve thought about closing them considerably. It keeps running through my head…but 2 negative aspects of closing:
-
Reviewing data says that they will continue to grow (in pips). I’ve held on to some of the positions since 5/29/09. I even forecasted my account yesterday when it was -$2k equity and hit it right in the range I came to…my little brother didn’t believe me but he does now
(and don’t worry…I’ve already given him the “don’t do what I do” talk) -
If my balance is/goes over $5k USD, my micro account won’t let me make any more positions. But I’ve found a little…break in the rules. As long as my balance isn’t at or over $5k USD I can keep making new positions and playing the market as usual. So thats another reason I have so much floating around.
True I didn’t post my account size…but in exactly 2 weeks of beginning the micro account with $1250 and trading…I’ve left my balance at a few dollars short of the $5k limit with enough floating to close out several more micro accounts.
The better way of doing it is exactly what I’m trying to focus on now. Like I said I’m realizing the riskiness of what I’m doing more and more as I see the price fluctuate and as it is the profit and more importantly the loss that it creates. My main issue right now is figuring out how to transfer the money and which broker to use. I’m considering using FXCM Standard account as I can close the positions and “upgrade” my micro account to a standard account with a good amount over the $10k suggested beginning balance to work with. Plus it says it takes 3-4 days before the upgrade takes effect.
I’ve made good decisions (or maybe it is luck/gambling) to come to where the account has…I need to make better decisions to stay consistent.
I’ll be waiting for that email on Thursday