At the suggestion of ria_rose (Thank you), I’m opening this journal. It won’t be just tracking analysis and trades, but more of my ongoing trading journey. There may be some theorizing based on my understanding of the market.
My Journey So Far
Winter 2010 - Spring 2011:
Came into some extra money and wanted to make it grow. Started researching investment options. Looked into Forex but thought it was too risky based on the potential to lose more than the original investment. Did identify a forex strategies to use for trading but decided to take the stock market route using the forex strategy, which was basically hidden bullish divergence at an area of support.
Summer 2011:
Started swing trading stocks with on Scottrade until Scottrade was absorbed into TDAmeritrade. In stocks all my orders are limit orders and I never use a stop loss. I trade stocks without leverage (even though I have a margin account) so I can wait out the drawdown, and it has generally worked in my favor with the vast majority of my stock trades being closed in profit. Obviously that doesn’t work in high leverage world of forex.
Fall 2020:
Wanting to expand my trading into Options, I jumped into TDAmeritrade’s Options course. After completing the course, I upgraded by TDAmeritrade account to be able to trade options, which I didn’t realize also unlocked the ability to trade forex. That alone caused me to take a second look at forex 9 years later and I do wish that I had started forex back in 2011. I’m still on TDAmeritrade for now until I move over to Charles Schwab later in 2023 due to another merger.
Winter 2020:
I completed the Babypips course, which gave me a ton of info about forex, but still left me unsure about how to find or enter a trade. The course gave me enough info to know better than to pull my stock trading shenanigans in the forex market. I started testing out the Fibonacci retracement method of trading because it resonated with me much more than moving averages.
Spring 2021 - Winter 2021:
I went into the research and experimentation phase where I was trying many different strategies, constantly backtesting strategies, wasting hours on YouTube listening to gurus and their free but very incomplete strategies. I consumed a lot of courses and books trying to find a common thread that all of them agreed on (the actual confluence in trading) and something that would match my personality and could be done repeatedly. Fibonacci survived through this with me. This was obsessed with forex and literally saw charts in dreams.
Winter 2021 - Spring 2022:
This window of time, presented many ‘aha’ moments that lead to additional ‘aha’ moments. I gained a better understanding of market structure that I was able to codify into a rule set. In this time I finally was able to see through the candles and read price action. Supply and Demand came into clear focus as well as smart money concepts. It was at the end of Spring 2022 that I combined supply and demand and SMC within the framework of Fibonacci. I fully documented this methodology for my own future reference, knowing of an impending change in my life and work schedule.
Summer 2022 - Summer 2023:
I received two work promotions in July 2022 and May 2023 to very demanding positions which have impacted my availability to trade. Working 12 hours a day M-F and being on call 24/7, 365 days a year, makes anything other than work a little tough. If you notice that I am more active here on the weekends that is why. My biggest challenge in trading now is managing the remaining 12 hours that I have in a day between family, friends, forex, food, fitness, fun, and sleep.
My Trading Method
I trade Supply & Demand with Fibonacci. It’s more Supply & Demand because I don’t think the Fib should be used in isolation without considering Supply & Demand, unfulfilled imbalance, and the liquidity from pending orders. The supply and demand zones are the areas that I take trades from within the Fibonacci retracement if the correct conditions are in place and the setup aligns with the condition.
