And it is a great strategy! I am happy to see someone like you with a solid, profitable approach to the markets!
Good thread. Thumbs up
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I like the way people teach by deliberately questioning instead of throwing out answers mindlessly because one hardly learn anything if you never try to think and fully understand the concept and meaning behind.
Otherwise correct me if I’m wrong. I’d love to make sure I understand everything. So your insight is:
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No matter what strategy they’re all profitable depending on your understanding and usage. Some works and some not, but the latter doesn’t mean it’s useless, only not profitable to YOU.
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Your strategy is to the fundamental and most basic. By looking at higher timeframes, away from the noise. Stay in the game within calculated risk. Be realistic with your goal and have patient.
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Understand and accept that losing is part of the game. W/L rate is not the same as ROI. Higher lose rate doesn’t necessary mean losing money. If you play it right you can still be profitable.
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Develop your own strategy over time, base on different strategies you’ve learned and tested.
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Newbies like us are too obsessed in finding the holy grail, getting awesome win-rate, R/R and unnecessarily pushing over the limit, resulting a lot of unplanned and revenge trades in order to “catch up”.
I’m more curious and want to learn more about how the firm trader approach and what other professional advice there is. Would be great if you can tell more 
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@thetradinggod I appreciate you writing this discussion, I like your viewpoint as it seems to reinforce the ideas in the market wizards book I’m currently reading. I have been trading forex on and off for about 4 years and have had a hard time finding a strategy that works for me. Do you have any advice on finding one that fits an individuals personality? I was also wondering if you do any hedging? I seem to hear more traders in firms talk about doing it than individual retail traders.
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You are absolutely getting it. That is great.
I hope to be a help to those that I come across and if I am not I at least want to reinforce positivity, let all know that profitable trading is achievable even for the average retail trader, and promote pursuing freedom to others as life gets much sweeter when you no longer depend on a single stream of income. Trading isn’t the only way, there are many types of businesses and investment ideas.
I will be sharing much more and even talk more strategy (be patient please) but I want to start from the beginning of my journey and hope that maybe some new trader will be able to identify.
I am very wordy, and I ask questions, sometimes in response to a question, but if you give me an answer we can dialog from there. That’s just my style. 
I will probably not respond to new questions immediately as I need to write my next post. Only so much time in the day. Haha 
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Great book.
What are you looking to achieve from your trading? Do you want to trade 8HRS a day? Do you want you check your charts every 4-8 hours? Or maybe only once per day? What percentage return are you looking to get per year? Give me some more details and I will do my best to point you in the right direction.
Hedging I will talk about more later but for my personal trades I do not usually hedge. Hedging is a little complex (but don’t get scared. Trading is really not that complex if you have the right mindset to the environment that is the markets.) Hedging is also complicated for some retail traders based on their home country.
Hang in there with me and hopefully my experiences can play a supporting role in your journey!
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@thetradinggod Thanks for taking the time to respond as I’m sure you have a lot more to post. I have come to the conclusion that with my lifestyle trading the longer time frames (4hrs and daily charts) is more realistic as trying to scalp trades on my cellphone while running a small business isn’t ideal. I currently have two goals first is to find a strategy that I can stick with long enough to be profitable over the year and the second is to be able to see a 50% yearly return. I believe I have a good understanding of the importance of risk management but find myself having trouble executing good entries and exits. Any direction is appreciated.
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Great! Higher time frames produce higher probability trades. 4hr-daily is what I would recommend.
Do you have any particular strategy you are currently trading?
Your ROI is pretty high and I think to achieve that dropping down to 4 and 8HR could produce more signals for you to trade. I believe a 25% ROI is definitely achievable risking 1% of your account on each trade. You could definitely up your risk to around 2% but this is not for complete newbies and you would need to have back tested your strategy thoroughly and then hopefully have forward tested it profitably for at least a year.
Send me a message and we can talk further as I do have an order I would like to follow for my main posts.
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I have found this thread this morning, and been glued to it for the past 2 hours (reading it intently). Thanks so much for finally giving me something I’ve yearned for for so long: A portrayal of the experience of being a profitable trader.
I work as a psychologist, and so many times my clients want to “understand how it feels” to have a better self-esteem and happy life (sorry if this sounds weird, just my way of relating). You try and mentor them, assist them, guide them, teach them… but they struggle to relate to what you’re trying to convey, because their perspective is just way different than yours.
In many ways - that’s my experience currently with trading. I feel like one of my clients feeling their way in the dark trying to hold on to whatever small insight they can find. Running from one strategy to the next, trying anything in desperation to become profitable.
I’ve been trading for about a year, with MANY roller-coaster emotions. Gone live, but retreated back to demo. Been demo-ing for most of this year, studying MANY hours back- and forward testing. Frustrations and elation at different times.
But finally finding someone who could write about what expectations you should have is refreshing, and VERY helpful! I have busy and long days, so trading 4H and up is probably the only way for me to go. I do try H1 and lower, as so many people talk about 50% ROI and higher in such short periods.
But I believe finding your own “groove”, and understanding what type of trader you’re going to be is one of THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS in trading (as reinforced by what you write thetradinggod). I don’t mean finding your trading strat only, but rather understanding your own expectations from trading, your goals, your own emotions, and how you will enjoy the process. We are all here because we probably LOVE trading (even though we hate it sometimes), and this should be a blessing in our lives - not a curse.
After reading this thread (and will continue to follow), I truly believe that calming down, setting my expectations to better standards, and just thinking logically about things will probably take me to success. My aim was to try for 2% ROI per day, but now I think 10% per month is fine for me. On a $10 000 acc, that would be $1000 per month, and in South Africa (where I live) that is a LOT of money and could pay my bills EASILY.
So for now, and until I become VERY competent in trading, my goal is 10% per month. Thanks for all the guidance thetradinggod. Really love the thread.
Not sure if you would be willing to take people on in mentor-ship, but if at all - drop me a PM. Thanks again.
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It’s always easier to see and resolve the issues in others. We are blind to ourselves
10% each month equals more than 120% yearly. Is that doable without risking to much you think?
Ummmm ok yeah you have a point! Haha - once again I have to change my expectations! Maybe more like 20 - 30% per year.
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Yes I guess for a 20-30% return a year you could easily start to trade the Daily only and have a calm trading life. If you follow the psychology and attitude that thetradinggod is preaching with clever risk management and max 2% risk at once you will be very good. And after a year or two with 20-30% return you can start to trade other peoples money (friends or a prop firm) and then the big money might come your way. Trading daily is easier and no stress compared to shorter time frames, also indicators seems to be of better accuracy on the daily. Good Luck!
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Great thread here. Thank you for sharing! Already added this on my bookmark.
@thetradinggod this is very timely. Your service to the community will be rewarded in any weird way the universe chooses. I am in my second year trading live, managed to blow some accounts on the first year thanks to overleveraging and revenge trades. I went on a three-month hiatus, didn’t change my strategy, just dialed down risk and started to focus on ROI. The current year is profitable.
My eyes are set on starting a prop firm past year five hence my question; how do I go about it?
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Ohhh yeaaah. I’ve heard of that. I don’t know though … it seems like an awful lot of work - shudder - requiring thinking as well. I bet it “Is known to cause cancer in the state of CA.” 
I have always been better served by digging with my spoon first, before handing it to someone else.
KC
Edit: @thetradinggod, Initially I thought this was going to be another “talking head thread” 
. Couldn’t have been more wrong. Love your approach.
tx 4 posting
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This is shaping up to be a busy week for me. I will be dedicating what free time I have for babypips to putting together another post. So expect slow responses from me as that post will be my priority. Hopefully I can get all of the mindset concepts out of the way and then we can dig into some “meat” so to speak.
Thanks to all those who are hanging in there I hope to share something that will benefit all. But do have an order I want to follow that basically follows my time line as a trader.
New post coming soon.
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bro pics or never happened
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Looks like it never happened. 
I am not here to boast or promote myself. I’ve got nothing to sell and nothing to gain by proving myself.
I am only here to share and help those that choose to be helped.
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we have seen this long essay blah blah with below zero results, hundreds of times