How to start with $100 and turn it into 1 Million in 100 trading days!

Beginner Questions
407

Hi Jay, again, thanks for your input, and again, your valuable time to write it all out.

Very gratefull…

Ok, I fully understand everything you layed out.

Every weekend, I have to “gather myself”, like a personal huddle, and hit the field running again.

Every weekend, I tweek the plan, or something of that nature. This weekend, I worked on Personal Mental actions.

So, I have made a game plan for this week. One being, clean up my basement, and build a dresser or something. Im a self taught wood craftsman, I like to make things like poker tables, or whatever comes to mind, but it gives me something to do, rather then sit here. But Ive put off cleaning and sorting out my tools for, Ummm, a year moreless, since starting FOrex.

So, now, I dont have free time, or, “nothing to do”, and its going to help me in the long run.

As far as my trading, Well, I dont really scalp anymore. Scalping, to me, is holding fear of lossing a pip. Cant be afraid… If my strat says, " 40 pips coming up", well, I need to get he 40 pips, in one run, and not take profit when I hit 2 pips in the bank,… It all boils down to “fear” of losing what I have, and that has to stop…

The 5 pip SL? Sounds great, and I tryed it… 5,7,9,11,13, pips even and trying that trick with Oanda, LOL, I get stopped out every time, its odd, but not…

and, thats basicly how I lost alot of my account, from SL hits and hunts.

I traded best, when I didnt use a SL… But, it seems to be a factor…

But also, my trading hasnt been the best as of late, concidering Thanksgiving, ( I cook it all ) and car problems, and neighborhood problems, ( 5 shootings average a week with-in blocks of my family) Not o mention the parking problems, Xmas is comin, just alot of crap, that shouldnt play a role in my success, but does. I dont have years, or Im going to crash. I need to move out of this place, and relocate my family to a safe place, and alot will ease off my mind. Im just gratefull my wife works, and stands by my side thru this. Its so bad around here, I dont even let my kids play outisde.

So, you see, this is why, I try 10% or 25% or whatever. Because I know the factors of Money, and it adds up fast, and I see the numbers. And its just out of reach…

The game isnt impossible, but when it seems life or death, everything gets a litle heavy, and Its on my shoulders right now, to make a change, because we live pay check to paycheck… Not o mention, my wife is a manager at a grocery store, and every gas station has been robbed at gun point in the area this month, so I have to worry about that everyday.

Now, one can say, WOW, thats motivating to " get my crap togehter", but really, its not that easy. Its like opening a 30 digit safe with a gun to your head, and you got 3 minutes to do it, in the dark…

I can make $1 million before May, and I will, Im confident in that. I just need to rewire my brain for the situation.

Yeah, Im strung out, You have no idea… Winter is setting in, Im not feeling so bad about it being 80 degrees outside, but My family is couped up in this 500sqft APT…

Im almost here Jay, I can taste it…And, if you Knew ME, You might be able to say" you know, you do have a chance,"

Im not your average “Joe”, I leave an impression when I meet people, You can kind of say, Im a throwback from the 1930’s and 40’s, you know, when people actually were human, If I could time travel, thats my date,

Im just really struglin Mentally right now,

408

Money,

Forgive me for being presumptuous, but if I may be allowed to throw in my two pips. I am in a vaguely similar situation, although not to the extreme that you describe yours, and I am a new trader, trying to make it somewhere just like you, hence my feeling of wanting to just throw a few points in your direction that may be helpful.

You are in a bad place, physically and mentally. That is not conducive to wise decision making in trying to make trades, limit risk, and do good money management. For full disclosure, I’m not sure I’m going to be any good at those things either, but you seem to be taking it to an extreme. You need to ratchet things down a few notches, and deal with your mental state in order to improve your chances of success. Yes, there are obviously factors in your life that are beyond your control, but that is just it, they are beyond your control. However, in your scenario you described, YOU are the one who can reach over and turn the light switch on, YOU are the one holding the gun to your head, and if you put the gun down and looked in your hand, you would see you have a piece of paper that has the first 25 of the 30 digits you need for the safe, because trust me, the last 5 are gonna be plenty difficult enough all on their own. And lastly, YOU are the one who set the stopwatch at 3 minutes. Turn the stopwatch off!

You are reading a thread about an experienced trader who is starting with 50 times the amount of money you are starting with (I think you said $20 for you, right?) who has a three year time frame to reach his goal, and he still acknowledges that there is a long road ahead of him. That is a massive percentage of gain just to get to where he is at, and it might take a trader like him weeks or months (or more) to bring it to that level, and more importantly, the market can take it all back from him much quicker.

Which brings me to my last point, not to be depressing about it, but just so that you have realistic parameters of what you are working with. The market doesn’t care if you are a throwback to a different time, perhaps the most gentlemanly person on the planet. The market doesn’t care if your children eat or do not eat. The market does not care how many square feet your living space is. The market does not care if that is gunfire or fireworks outside your window. The market DOES NOT care if you win or lose. You have to limit the effect of all of those extraneous factors in your life on how you conduct your trading, because the market has discounted them entirely.

I sincerely wish you well, but please keep in mind that in life (and probably especially in trading) we are our own worst enemy.

I know it is possibly for both you and I to be successful, otherwise I would quit now, but there is not going to be any quick fix for the situation we are in. There is no easy money for people like us.

Take a deep breath, and good luck!

sean

EDIT: edited to reflect the difference in starting amounts for the trading account, and the unreasonable gain needed to bring the two levels to parity in such a short timeframe

409

Hey guys…I have another trade i’m scaling into. A eur/usd long

long at 1.3283, risking 0.15%
21 pip stop, 62 pip target

long at 1.3283, risking 0.15%
60 pip stop, 100 pip target

long at 1.3253, risking 0.35%,
60 pip stop, 120 pip target

long at 1.3222, risking 0.30%
50 pip stop, 150 pip target

410

Hi Jay
I see that your account is over $1000.
How much did you start with …1000, or 100?
How many days so far?

411

also… long 1.3295 (i’m in now)

35 pip stop, 70 pip target
risking 0.10%

412

i know the title of the thread says 100, but somewhere in there I saw 1000, hence my confusion

413

pip…i started with $1000.

It’s really a very small gain… but as you notice, io’m only risking about 0.10% - 0.35% per trade. most of my trades are around 0.20%-0.25%

So, had I been risking the typical 1% per trade… i’d be up about $1060 - $1070

it’s about a 6R return for the month of november so far… I’m hoping to push that up to about 8R-10R by the end of the month in 2 days…

It’s nothing near what ICT is pulling in right now with his own “mushroom” account, but I’m using this primarily to develop my own trading…the goal is secondary (though I am very confident I will acheive it).

I expect this to start of slow…as it has, and then after month 6 - month 12…really ramp it up as I flesh out additional rules, filters, and gain a cushion of profits so I can start risking 1%-2% per trade without risk of a drawdown cutting into my starting capital.

For the 1st rule of investing is don’t lose money. the 2nd rule is never forget rule #1. Even if I fall short of my goal…it will be at very least a great expose’ of the advantage of NOT losing.

Jay

414

But your’e a Pro right? I mean you do this for a living?
Is this an account on the side you have just to prove that something can be done?
what I’m getting at is this: How is this different from how you would trade on your “real” account?

415

Pip…ya, i do this full time. And it’s substantially different then i trade in my primary account. I trade futures in my primary account, including forex futures. I “scalp” there…quickly moving stops to BE… taking 5-30 trades a day. I have posted up some screen shots of my futures trading on here…i typically average between $1500- $3500 a week there.

Go back to some of the previous postings over the last 10-15 pages, and you’ll see what i’m talking about.

Not decided yet whether I will continue to post up my own personal trading account records, but there are a few up for you to see if you like.

In fact, one of the reasons I’m doing this thread is I have hit a “glass ceiling” in my own trading. I would like to start taking more planned out, long term trades that go for more than 10-25 pips at a time. It’s actually fairly delicate in my own futures trading…I have to be in the right mindset, and be ready to “take on” the market that night. It’s not as relaxing or as laid back as I would like…and I don’t believe I would want to spend the next 10 years, night after night, on such an intense, instinctual, and fast paced style of trading.

So, this thread is how I will develop to the next level…while showing what’s possible. As I said I think on the first post…it’s more about me.

I will be posting more up in my “pro trader mentorship” thread regarding trades I will be taking using that method. Use that thread to learn how to find very high probability trades… and this thread to see what the journey of a growing and improving a professional trader goes though.

Jay

416

Hey Jay I just wanted in on the webinar coming up. Nice thread!

417

ok Hoiwoon…I got you down

418

Hey guys…I am posting all RSVP confirmations for the webinar in about 6 hours over on my mentorship thread:

Please refer to it here:

http://forums.babypips.com/newbie-island/39827-professional-trader-offering-free-mentorship-via-babypips-chat-room-57.html

Jay

419

Took half of the entry at 1.3283 with a 21 pip stop off at 20 pips.

0.075% profit so far.

Jay

P.S. Correction: 0.0714% profit

420

closed eur/usd from 1.3283 at 1.3304 for 21 pips

0.075% profit taken.

New order placed at 1.3283 for a long, risking 0.15%

Jay

421

So… I have another order at 1.3283 long, risking 0.15%

35 pip stop

65 pip target

Jay

EDIT: order moved up 3 pips to long at 1.3286

422

When you call those trades you are always talking about limit orders, right? For example, you are waiting for the market to come back down to 1.3283 so you can go long? I’m presuming it is not a market order that you were already in…just curious.

423

I’ll try to specify whether i’m entering at market or limit from here on out Pax… but yes…i’m waiting for the market to retrace back down to enter.

Genreally speaking, if I input an order where price is within 0-5 pips at the time of my post…i’m in it right then.

if the price is not close…say, more than 5 pips away… it’s a limit order.

Jay

And P.S…it’s at 1.3286 :wink:

425

Hey all…IMO…we are gonna push back down on eur/usd to about 1.3280ish… maybe even 1.3250ish… and then we should see london push the market back up to make some new highs for the week.

Reason is… london buyers will want to get as good a price as possible on this…and if they are able to push it down into the stops below the asian session lows…they will do so to get good fills. And then up, up and away we go :wink:

Of course… they could whip it up to right around 1.3350ish popping all short stops as they fill up on short orders…and then back down to some short term swing low…and pop THOSE stops to refill long.

This is enitrely possible, though I doubt this is going to be the likely move…because I think everyone kinda knows at this point (big money anyway) taht we are likely about to corrrect a bit to the upside…and this fear of comitting to a overextended short position to try to maximize the drop, and therefore gain a better entry price… might prevent such a course of action.

In this case, they will likely just take it down first… get what they can get, before they lose the opportunity to cover or even go long a bit as the market runs away to the upside.

I could be wrong of course… and we may even drop below last weeks low…but I really firmly believe we are much more likley to move up to at least 1.3430 before we make a new low from last week.

Jay

426

Long gbp/usd at 1.5480

40 pip stop
80 pip target

risking 0.20%

just got in

Jay

427

ong more long on gbp/usd at 1.5459.

just filled

stop 25 pips
risking 0.10%

target 50 pips

P.S. filled actually at 1.5461