Inner Circle Trader's Pro Traders Club 2012 - 2013 Series

Beginner Questions
474

Yo PIPHanger!

I’ve been at this for 1.5 years now. Blown 1 demo and 1 live account, now on my 2nd live account and now it’s left with 40% of my original capital (was down to 20% before I bounced back to 40%). How worse can it be right? Well, I’ve looking for a job for 2 years now!

What’s been keeping me trading? Well, I know this is a [B]life skill[/B] that [B]nothing can take away from me[/B], job or no job!!

Take it from me, [B]baby steps helps[/B]. I was trading with an average of 1 win to 5-10 losses (continuous losing trades for weeks). Now it’s 50/50.

Read on if you want to continue this business:

When I suffer a string of losses, I take a break for a few days, weeks if necessary. During those breaks, I read books on trading to stay in touch, do chores/repair works, start a short routine to spend more time with my kid.

When I return to trade, I start like a newbie - risk 0.x% of my capital, 20 pips per trade, 50 pips a week, set a target for CPT (Consistently Profitable Trades) before graduating to more trades and/or higher targets.

This routine has helped me a lot. The longest I’ve been away from trading was 2 months. Kiddo complain when I suddenly cut my hours with him. :slight_smile:

A list of things that had helped me, hopefully it helps in your journey:

Psychology:

  • The table in the 16th minute of ICT’s [U]Forex Risk Management[/U] video. This is not a motivational video. But that section somehow gave me a lot of impact even after I’ve been trading for a while.
  • [U]One-Good-Trade[/U] - Book by Mike Bellafiore of SMB Capital.
  • [U]New-Market-Wizards[/U] - Book by Mark Douglas
  • [U]Trading in the zone[/U] - Mark Douglas

Technical:

  1. The ICT videos, especially the lastest TDP series. There may be a number of repeat stories but they are told in different manner (to me) and it helps.
  2. A list of books which I will not bore you with for now.

Just remember: This business is about being very (and [U]extremely strict with oneself[/U]) and it’s me against me. Routine is critical. [B]So take a break if you must, but don’t break yourself[/B]!

475

here’s my 2 cents on the issue - biggest problem with trading is its being sold as ‘the dream’. Here’s a way to achieve your dream, make millions and billions, the simple-easy way, and all marketing aimed at newbie is jam-packed with these ideas. then they give you the 200 leverage and 50k practice accounts to make sure you clean out real quick and make room for the next victim. i’m aware of how this sounds but, you know, take a moment to consider. It can be a dream though, after being a lot of hard work first, like any other business. what is the average rate of return of a good business in America, 15-18%? its about that this other side of the ocean, and that include the one giving the job you consider taking in exchange for trading. i fully respect a man’s decision because he knows best what has to be done, though here’s a thought - with profit taking at every 30pip on every trade and a business mindset, can trading do much better than 18% a year? peace.

476

Good job guys :slight_smile:

I didnt take the trade, 6% reached this week. Thought it was a good time to call it quits :), practising sitting on my hands!

Im also discipling myself to trade Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday as recommended by ICT, but sometimes I just cant help myself :smiley:

477

6% in one week? Nice! Congratz :slight_smile:

And good for you with practicing patience, will surely pay off as well over time.

479

Yea, 2 solid trades at the start of the week to catch the swing up and swing down, then 2 kind of dodgy trades yesterday that still worked out OK.

Plenty of lessons learned this week and definitely reinforces further the high time frame analysis and waiting for price to come to you.

These past 2 weeks have been the best weeks ever in my short trading career… I forced myself to make a major shift in how I was trading (based on everything I was watching and learning in ICTs videos), and its paying off big time. And Im trading a lot less than I was before…

480

Shorted Fiber on the Judas and I already feel like this is the first bad trade (just to do sth before the week’s end) I took in the last two weeks or so… I’m tightening the SL and going for a walk with my dog, let’s see if this works out whatsoever :wink:

481

Hello all

I was hoping if someone could help with more information on the “ICT Asia-NY Session” indicator as it looks very interesting but just not sure on how its setup and its application?

Thanks for the feedback in advance

GLGT

482

25% off @ 1.62220

17.5% off @ 1.61900

and leaving the rest on with a stop loss @ 1.6200 which is looking at being hit any minute.

[B]Stop just been hit on that last portion as I type[/B]

Was looking for 1.6160 so I really should have closed at 1.6180 earlier in the day!

2% for the day. 11% for September.

Lost on Monday & Thursday on trades I know now I shouldn’t have been looking at. (5% loss on those two trades)

Now the hard work - keeping it consistent for more than a month on demo, but still good enough for me for my first month.

483

Anyone taking that grail setup on the 1H GBPUSD?

OTE from yesterdays low to todays high, [email protected]
ADR already reached for the day
trinity buy zone

484

Wasn’t even eyeing it to be honest.

I’ll stay as I am for today now though.

Good luck with it though!

485

I hit 5% this week but Im holding onto another 2% with 1% secured with a Stop

Granted I came back from the hole of -3% from falling asleep with ****ty orders, but in the net of things i am up to 5% :smiley:

486

Hi. Sorry to hear the frustration/resignation. Trying to learn to trade under the pressure of not finding work to sustain oneself makes it even harder. Why, the focus becomes “I have to make money quickly” instead of “I have to learn to trade”. I say this because I’m in the same position as you and in the 1st instalment of the Trading Plan Series, ICT said a very simple thing — “… forget the money, learn to trade…”. I really took that to heart and used it to Unchain my mind because pressure restricts my ability to think freely. So, now, it’s not about the money (as much as I need it) but about being intrigued by the markets and what price is doing; interacting with the charts to unravel the language of price movement armed with what I’m learning here daily. When you’ve rested, hopefully you come back, set your mind free, take ICT’s concepts and apply them in the unique way that “only” you can. Remember, ICT is teaching us concepts (we’ll never ever be able to trade exactly like him – though I wish I could), so the best we can do is unleash our creativity and apply the concepts to suit our uniqueness. Good luck in whatever you decide to do.

487

SPLAT thats the sound of the Euro taking a tumble :slight_smile:

Nice one!

488

Cheers but I quit I while ago and missed that pretty ride :stuck_out_tongue: I have to finish my trading earlier on Fridays usually as I have other things to take care of… Still, made about 1% on the trade. And I hope someone caught that whole move :slight_smile:

489

Not surprising, it had been trading up all morning whilst the Cable was falling. If only I’d had both :slight_smile: Greedy Guts! Ha ha.

490

Well the start of the week was a little rough. But today I am smiling like a loonie. The Cable move was anticipated and had a whole 2.4 pip drawdown. If only every week was much the same…Took a small portion of @ 30 pips with stop at BE. Going to try and fight the demons and hope this turns into a nice position trade. Tonight will be unplugged which will make a nice change!
:57:

491

That’s awesome bro…

493

I’ve been using the COT data in my day trading and find it pretty much useful. Not sure if I’m doing it right or not but i wanted to share it with you guy’s.
As soon as the weekly COT data is released, i see the net position’s of Commercial’s. If they are net short, then I’d look for long opportunities for that week and vice versa for short one’s.
I’ve been trading like this past two week’s and i found it pretty useful. Does anyone use the COT in this way and should i change anything in this trading method ?

Anyone ? ICT ?

495

This is one I’ve been meaning to do for years, but it took a comment on one of ICT videos for me to get off my ar$e and do it, Daily Overlay candle, it’s great on the hourly chart, might need some more tinkering, you need to keep changing the timeframe at weekends to see the candles for some reason, found it on mql4.com and tinkered a bit.

Attached and available to download from the usual.

_PPF_OverlayCandle.zip (2.55 KB)

497

The current Table of ICT Kill Zones appears in Michael’s previous thread, which is now “locked” (meaning we can no longer post to it). So, from now on, as Daylight Saving Time changes occur, affecting the Table, I will post the changes here.

The Table will be updated 4 times over the next 5 weeks. (See this thread for details on the upcoming time changes).

Below is the first of those 4 updates. Current changes are highlighted in yellow.

Note that the switch to DST occurring in New Zealand today affects only traders in New Zealand. For the rest of us, nothing changes this week. The next DST change (next weekend) will affect only traders in southeastern Australia. Changes occurring on October 28 and November 4 will affect all of us.

825×706

Notes:

1. If you happen to be in one of the 7 time zones listed in the left-hand column, you can read the 4 Kill Zone times directly from this table. The times shown are current in your time zone.

2. If your time zone is not listed in the left-hand column, start with the time zone closest to yours, and add or subtract the appropriate number of hours to the Kill Zone times shown.

Examples:

• if you are in any city in India, subtract 2½ hours from all the times on the line labeled “SINGAPORE time”.

• if you are in any city in Greece, add 1 hour to all the times shown on the line labeled “ZURICH time”.

• if you are in Dallas, subtract 1 hour from all the times on the line labeled “NEW YORK time”.

• if you are in Vancouver, subtract 3 hours from all the times on the line labeled “NEW YORK time”.

3. The Kill Zone periods shown in this table are minimum periods. They can be expanded at your discretion.

For example, you might choose to expand the London Open Kill Zone by 1 hour, by starting a half hour earlier and ending a half hour later than the times shown in the table.