Whether you’re new or have been with the community for quite a while, we’re pretty sure most of you have come across today’s featured member! Despite being relatively new to the community, @macilme has been dedicated to sharing his trading journey, along with all the valuable lessons he learns along the way.
In his journal “My FX Journey… From Dream To Reality,” he takes us through each day as he relentlessly works towards his dreams. His challenging experiences in other markets did not dampen his spirit, but rather inspired him to rise from the ashes and take on forex trading with his guns blazing. It’s these past experiences that have helped him become the kind of trader he is today-- equipped with a clear mind and a fiery drive for success.
We think he’s definitely someone to watch out for!
Without further ado, we give you @macilme
1. Tell us something about yourself. What are your hobbies and interests, etc.?
I’m Nigerian, I love trading, reading, history, pretty much any content I find mainstream and intellectually stimulating. I also play chess and video games in my free time as well. I’m more of an Internet person compared to the “average Joe” as I spend most of my free time on the internet. On the personal side, I consider myself more of an Introspective person and rarely give opinions on matters unless sought for.
I am a twin and have a brother (Kenny) who is more into trading cryptocurrencies, we decided to split the currencies and focus on one each (we aren’t Identical though if that’s what you’re thinking)
2. How were you introduced to forex trading? What were you doing before you discovered forex?
That’s a long story haha. I came across Forex about seven years ago, I was an undergrad (studying Mechanical Engineering) and had an older friend who was a trader, he looked pretty much richer than every student I knew (he used an iPhone back when 99% of Nigerians only used Java phones). He showed me the basics and the mechanics of the Forex Market but left the country before I could learn anything significant back then.
I, however, had developed an interest and couldn’t wait to graduate so I could dedicate more time to the newfound interest. I traded binary options (which seemed more viable) back then, lost a lot of money (for an undergrad) in the process and decided to explore more about Forex (which definitely seems more viable now) after graduation.
3. Could you please describe a typical day in your trading life?
Well, my trading day typically starts at New York market close, this is around 10:00 PM local time, I boot up my computer after dinner and go through my Evening Routine to get myself ready for the day (or night, whichever you prefer).
On new New York Close I load up the charts and look through key support and resistance levels I usually have marked over the weekend and updated throughout the week for tradeable daily chart setups at these levels, then I get back up at 6:00 AM, complete my Morning Routine and repeat the process at 4hour intervals to look for setups on both the Daily and 4hour charts through the day until market closes again at 10:00 PM my time.
I work Part time at a Professional Management Training Firm. The rest of my free time during the day I spend here on the BP forum or reading up on other stuff. I rarely stay idle during the day.
4. Tell us more about the current strategy you’re implementing? How did this strategy come about?
My trading strategy is Price action based in that I try to look for price action patterns at key areas/zones of support and resistance. When a level is rejected in confluence with an appropriate price action pattern, I buy the currency pair in question and when a level is broken in confluence with an appropriate price action pattern, I sell the currency pair in question.
I learned a lot on the Babypips Forums and actually built my strategy mostly from what I have learnt from an old Price action thread: Forex Price Action by Jonathan Fox. There he shows PA enthusiasts a few well known Price action formations and how to go about trading them. Because it fit my preferences of being a mostly objective trading system and based on larger time-frames, I liked it and decided to make it the trading system around my trading plan.
5. What has been your biggest challenge during your first month of forex trading? How did you overcome it?
Really obvious one here, and that was staying out of the market when I shouldn’t be in there. My trading is from a background of discretionary, lower time-frame and indicator based trading which meant I usually had a lot of reasons (subjectively) to get into the market. It wasn’t easy, especially at first, trading only when certain rules are met which usually happens less often than it doesn’t.
Creating a private Journal and Community Journal here really helped me with that. If you had a mirror you looked into every morning, it’d be pretty hard leaving the house with disheveled hair. It’s more or less how the journal works for me since keeping a really honest journal tells you not what you think of yourself as a trader, but what you really are.
6. We’ve been closely following your trading journey on your thread: My FX Journey… From Dream to Reality. (You’re doing amazing!) What inspired you to share your progress with the BabyPips community and become an active contributor on the forums?
This one’s from quite a personal background. I used to have challenges some years back achieving some very important goal I set for myself. After a lot of questions on how to overcome that, I came across the “Accountability Partner Concept”.
Basically, you have someone (or people) having similar goals as yours and form a unit and try to work together as a team to achieve the said goal. It helped a lot for me back then and was quite successful.
I am naturally highly result-oriented in nature and getting back into Forex meant I needed something to keep me constantly motivated and keep working before the real results (consistent profitable trading performance) becomes a reality. Maintaining an online journal became a really easy decision after that realization.
7. What are the 3 things newbies need to remember if they want to start trading forex?
a. There always is a means to every end
Consistent, profitable trading is the goal for us all (whether we trade for sport or pure income), to get there however requires a process that creates the necessary qualities of a successful trader. The bigger mistake is trying to skip the process, the smaller one is trying to do it alone (all technically demanding fields of expertise required’s expert tutelage at one time or the other). I personally try to study as many successful traders as possible and replicate the traits common to most of them.
b. Successful trading is a marathon and not a race
Many newbies make the mistake of setting expected profit targets too high or their expected success timelines too short when they start out at Forex. The usual psychological bias of over-weighting the positives and under-weighting the negatives. I believe targets should always be left open-ended at the onset, only those with an idea of what they are capable of based on past performance can realistically set any kind of targets for their expected trading results in the future. Oddly enough many veteran traders I have studied only set targets below which they try not to fall (say minimum 20% return a year) while newbies do the exact opposite and think only about how good things can and must be. It’s easier to fail with that kind of mindset.
c. Trying to make too much with too little almost always ends badly
This is more or less a corollary to point two above. I generally advice myself and anyone else intending to start trading with a small trading balance to forget about making an income from trading their own money (if 20% yearly profit on my capital doesn’t cover my living expense, I consider myself trading with too little capital).
It is better to focus on trading for the skill and leverage on that to get others to turn over their money to you. This works in two positive ways, first there is little pressure on the startup trader to make enough money from his little capital, second it turns the traders mind away from “how much could I make?” to "how skilled could I get? People pay a lot for skilled trading as an asset as we’ve seen from hedge funds to PAMMS and Copy trading services all over the internet and that is what the trader without enough money should think about.
8. If you could thank one person who contributed positively to your trading journey, who would you thank?
There are many, but choosing a single defining personality that influenced my decision to get to where I am trading-wise today will have to be @MikeWolski.
I can argue, and with reason, that to my knowledge there is hardly anywhere on this forum, or on the internet for that matter where someone has with so much detail and honesty documented in its entirety the kind of transition from someone with a dream at succeeding at Forex trading to actually living and breathing that dream, IN REAL LIFE!
His Journal, My journey journal…from demo to live…and beyond spans over two years of the real-life struggle and determination of what being a successful trader can require from a human being. I read it and turned from being a starry-eyed millionaire trader in my mind to a newbie with realistic expectations and a true recognition of what I have to give to get to where I need to go.
I really appreciate someone putting out something of that magnitude out for free on the internet. I would really recommend any newbie to give the thread a read, possibly from the beginning to the end (it’s only 393 posts and a gazillion words long, but you’ll thank him for it.)
9. Non-forex related question! Describe your dream vacation. Where will you go? What will you do?
Western Australia, somewhere where I can be alone and stare at the Milky way in the night sky with a cheap telescope from Nigeria. I’ve always been fascinated by the stars. Hopefully one day soon I’ll be able to.
10. What is one thing you want to change about yourself?
Being powerless to change the situation of many Nigerians living below the poverty threshold (Nigeria has relatively high unemployment and poverty rates), I am currently working on that through Forex obviously. Forex doesn’t require the local economy of any country to generate a reasonable income. Being successful at trading, and being able to teach others to do the same means more money into the country and better living conditions overall.
It may not make much of a difference on a national scale, to be honest, but there will be some people (some families) in my country, whose lives may forever be changed for the better if someone could show them how to profit out of the economical restraints of a physical economy. This is what the community is doing for me and I hopefully in turn can replicate for others as well.
