After first deciding to get into Trading 1 year ago, it has been a path into one of the most interesting fields I have ever encountered. Things were slow at first, and the real journey didn’t begin until late last year after beginning to research and practice trade. I was lucky enough to read through many peoples accounts of blown accounts and repeated mistakes, so avoided many of the pitfalls others have faced, but have faced my own hurdles such as adjusting my psychology to a traders mindset.
Now, I am finally live trading with a strategy that is consistent and suits my personality and style, and have it fit around my lifestyle so that I actually get to enjoy trading rather than it becoming one big grind. I’m still making my way back up from a 10% loss (paid my dues to the market for the lessons it taught) but now I don’t see it as “earning it back”, instead I am just confident that my strategy will get me there eventually with its steady profits.
With this little summary in mind, there are a few things I’d like to share to any new traders or those who feel stuck.
Take your time - Don’t just jump in with the first strategy or mentor you see. Instead take the time and put in the work to understand the markets and your own psychology. The Babypips School of Pipsology isn’t just something to be skimmed to get the completion to 100%, take your time and study it, write notes if you have to as it is providing a quality education for free where others would charge thousands for much less.
Practice makes perfect - Learning to trade is like learning to drive, practice trading will teach you what you need to know and may help you find a consistent strategy, but the moment you switch to a live account with real funds you will trade differently and may start to doubt you could ever do it (obviously not everyone experiences this). If your strategy worked in practice, then the only thing stopping it working live is yourself. I recommend the book Trading in the Zone to help with this matter.
Keep a diary - However you prefer to do it (I use a spreadsheet which I’m happy to share if anyone is interested) record and revise your trades. Every. Single. One. it will help you become a better trader and make it clear what you’re doing wrong and what you’re doing right.
Don’t force it - If you have a busy schedule and only have 30 minutes a day to trade, then intraday trading may not necessarily be for you. On the opposite side, if you have impatient tendencies and a free schedule, then swing trading may not be your style. I was shocked to find myself ending up on the 1 minute timeframes for my strategy (I don’t scalp, it just helps with entries and accuracy) which fits in well with my flexible schedule. Take the time to work out what’s right for you, if the strategy or timeframe doesn’t feel right then chances are it’s not a good fit.
Ask for help - This forum is an incredible community and often my first stop if I can’t find things myself or need a discussion, take advantage of it and ask whatever you need answering to help you advance further. Only consider a mentor or training group after you’ve exhausted your own ability and research, it may be what you need, but it can sae you a lot of money and heartache to start at the one person responsible for your trading - you.
Thanks for posting this. I am still trying to figure out what a system is coming from a purely buy and hold investment background. If you dont mind me asking, how did you develop your system?
Honestly, a LOT of research into different strategies I liked the look of (the strategy section in this forum is good and YouTube sometimes), then each got about 100-500 backtest trades and the. A week to a month of forward testing. It takes a long time but it’s well worth it and you learn a lot along the way.
After that it was about seeing what my errors and mistakes were and creating sensible methods to control my human mistakes.
Thanks! ill be reading the strategy sectionin depth. still trying to figure out if i want to keep using thinkorswim cause it feels limiting and the spreads are big… back to the university lol
It’s such a good book, I think some parts are a little repetitive and pseudo-science but it doesn’t matter because they actually help to make his point clearer. Definitely reinforced a better trading mentality in myself.
Great information! It’s true that we all have different trading journeys. But what is the same is our mindset as a beginner. We see forex trading as an opportunity to make money easily. But we get to know the truth only after we start trading in the live market. A trader must never rush into things, rest is still fine.
A very good post, you must be a clever fellow, coz one year only and your trading live successfully! I’ve been at it for four years and am only now starting to make a small profit, my main weakness was on the psychological side and starting to trade too early on live accounts, which of course I blew away. On No.4 you enter on the “one minute” ?? this must be a very good strategy, I hope to get to that point one day, My lowest entry is on the fifteen minute chart. Occasionally I may glance at the five minute just to see if it confirms my M15 hypothesis. Also Babypips has continued to be a point of reference when I’m muddled up and don’t remember what a particular term or topic means, or when I read some forex news online and want to clarify a point. Yes I also agree with Gertrude that a trader must never rush into things. Patience is the name of this game.
I think for myself it’s more that I’ve had time to intensively study it and get to understand it. Don’t get me wrong, I still make mistakes and it’ll be a long while until I see the constant, steady profit curve, at the minute there’s still elements of chaos that disrupt it but the important part is going back and finding out why those mistakes happen.
Journalling was hugely important and even going to detail about your mood or anything that’s affected you can make a huge difference.
I too have found psychology to be the big hurdle, thankfully not blown any accounts yet, but I put that down to prior experience in financial risk management, so that quickly became a big strength for me.
Everyone trades very differently, for me it was a surprise, but it works for me and the strategy I use, I definitely always knew I would trade intraday, bit never thought I’d match trading on such a fast timeframe. It’s important to note though that speed does not equal effectiveness, what works for one person or strategy won’t work for another. Baby pips is endlessly useful and definitely a great port of call for all things Forex and Technical Analysis, their economic calendar is good too. I massively suggest reading Trading in the Zone by Mark Douglas too to help with the psychological aspect.
I honestly was so close to quitting about 2 months ago, but then I came across a strategy that works for me and it’s all been starting to run smoothly since.
I still listen to Trading In The Zone on repeat on my drives to keep it locked in!
Very true, and I think this is the hardest part to overcome, ending a month simply in profit can be a huge accomplishment and that can be a hard thing to comprehend at the beginning.
Keep up the good work