This is a good thread and thanks for starting it guys. Its good to know for us newbies that forex trading can be a fulltime job and not just a dream! . I’ll be honest and say that i envy you guys and the stories i have read on here , i long to be able to trade at home and spend more time with my family, not having to leave them everyday for 10 hours to fight traffic and work the 8-6 job. If your biggest issue in life is having to worry about how your spending your spare time so as you don’t go crazy, then you guys are the luckiest in the world! . I would give anything to have what you guys have, i have been studying and trading (in demo) forex for 12 months now but still can’t crack it, i’m not giving up though and have been encouraged by this thread as it shows it can be done with hard work. Well done guys and thanks for sharing everyone.
get out of there, do some running or some other sport ,… meet people ,…
enjoy the research for trading opportunities (long term bias developments just as daily reactions),…
have some fun with the charts … getting hypnotised 24/7 just for the sake of being active is counter productive.
the very existence of market dynamics implies that there will be times when everything is going crazy and there will be time when market literally “lay low”… Go with it!
when the game is up - you must be ready.
when things are quiet - disconnect, reboot yourself…
All types of knowledge are ultimately a self-knowledge, Pounder up on that!
inner peace and financial prosperity are byproduct.
Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.
I’m not and never was a sociable person. That doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy the company of other people, its that I also enjoy my own. Given a choice between spending a night in the mountains for some star gazing against an ‘social’ evening then the stars win every time.
But being at home all the time does get to you. I learned to play piano between trades. Its an activity that forces you to concentrate and keep the mind clear of all else…works for me. Ive never had a problem with getting up early or working hard all day.
What kills me are the weekends. Being stuck in a tiny village in France, the social life is, well, not inspiring. They did have a ‘Tripe Convention’ where you could sample different tripe recipes ( Seriously, I kid you not on this ) but I cant say I was tempted.
When I need a ‘people fix’ then I go visit family. But like others here, boredom is a killer.
There is no time limit when to go live. In order to race, you have to build a strong foundation. Write down what you think and post and read it before you start trading. Post your weak spots so when you’re deciding whether to trade or not read. I have a list of things that a trader should never do that I have on my desk. Along with a couple of gems that I received while posting here. Different parts of trading comes at different times for different traders, so no rush. Learn: practice, practice and learn and practice. Make you foundation strong, go from crawling, to walking, to sprinting then racing. Last thing, the traders you admire in your post, at one time were all new and they’re still around because they build a strong foundation in the beginning.
Thanks for reply and wise words! , i am trying to trade price action on the daily charts using trendlines and sig levels only, i believe i have all the fundamentals sorted, aka money management,psychology, staking and patience, what i don’t seem to have is a set of trading guidelines that i can follow that will win in the long term. I know the “holy grail” doesn’t exist, but i cannot seem to show a profit at the end of each month using the systems i have, they just don’t win more than they lose. I have been suckered into buying so called “winning strategies” by marketeers online , but as we all know now they are just hype and don’t actually work long term. So i am trying to come up with my own one, this proberly all sounds familiar to you all. Anyway, thanks again and i will take on those comments and try to introduce that into my trades to see what effect it has.
Most people agree that to be successful long term you need 3 things. Trading Method that long term will produce more positive trades than negative, Money Management that in the long term not only builds your bankroll, but also protects the bankroll you already have and the proper mindset that allows you to have the patience and discipline long term to allow your method and money management to work. A lot of people believe that the hardest to achieve is proper mindset. . .but they would be wrong in most cases. There is no one part of method, money and mindset that is more important than the other. because you need all three to be successful long term. As well each of the different parts will be easier or harder for different traders, based on your personal situation, beliefs and experiences.
Example would be me. I’ve been in my own business for all my adult life, before I came to trading I was a full time online poker player since online poker came into being. Like in most situations, long term success as a poker player requires a method that will deliver more positive results, proper money management to increase your bankroll as well as protect the bankroll you have, and lastly mindset in the form of patience and discipline. Mindset and Money Management were no big deal for me, because of my background. So my biggest issue was Trading Method.
After buying products, (ome good some bad ) using utube and the internet (some good, some junk) and participating in different forums (some good, some bad) I came away with. don’t look for someone to give you a fish, learn how to fish yourself. Use the fishing equipment (tools) that are available. Next make a plan that you can use based on your circumstances not anyone elses (guru’s, sizzle sellers, cons and out and out thiefs) even good and well meaning traders and others. Lastly everday trying to learn something that will help you be a better fisherman, or at
least information that will help you to make better decisions down the road.
Your method has t be based on you and your circumstances not mine or anyone elses. No matter what kind of trader someone is, the common thread is not : indicators, more indicators, less indicators, no indicators, price, time frames, trading platforms, brokers, strategies, mentors, coaches, gypsies, tramps, thieves scalpers, day, swing and position traders, is that trading is a probability undertaking, and go get more positive trades than negative trades, the trade has to address: trend, momentum, cycle and previous price action. What a trader chooses to use from the previous list depends on what they are trying to achieve, how soon they are trying to achieve it and who they are in relation to their experiences and present situation.
One more thing if you’re having a problem following guidelines you are using you may want to go back to the drawing board and work on patience and discipline. As far as hearing it all before. That;s not a bad thing, or even a good thing; it’s the best thing. When someone answers a question, or explains something, they are reinforcing their beliefs. For example every time I tell someone about method, money and mindset and think long term, I’m in effect reinforcing my own beliefs and will almost always put me on track to a better trading day.
I dont get the point here, how do you [I]not[/I] trade from home ? Are people trading from work or do they take their mobile to starbucks to got sit there by themselves in the middle of a crowd?
I myself hate the place where i’m at without a doubt and the main goal is getting out of here so whenever i can afford it AND (thats the hardest part to find) i find something that interests me i get out. Im a bad example maybe since im used to being by myself allthough not at home. Im not gonna explain my situation. Why dont you just get out more ? I dont get out more because i need whatever i can spare for trading or its gonna take too long and im gonna be too old to enjoy leaving ****ville and this lame ass country behind, so why dont you? Shy?
Lucky for those introverted traders who spend a week without leaving the house. Try enjoying your own company,( it might take a few years to master this) or get yourself a trading partner to chat with.
Well that was one of the interesting points that Master Tang raised which is that if youre smart about it you can manage with just a server for alerts and a mobile. I think the general concensus is anyone whos tried to work from home 10-12 hours a a day has run into issues regarding boredom etc.
I have a few things that I have found really useful to Me. One is trading partners. Some of these people have really taken me by surprise. I have worked for a long time in a mixture of hedge funds and investment banks in a research and trading capacity. The issue you often get with “professionals” is that the egos are truly toxic. The thing that I have really enjoyed on the retail side is, its all of the intelectual up side with none on the B/S associated with personal agendas.
The other thing I have done is gotten the hell out of a big city so I can spend my days kite surfing. In london you are severly limited in regards to how you can spend your free time. Exercise is a really big part of my personal happiness and I find running on a treadmill like a hamster soul/sole destroying. So that change is another one thats made a big impact.
I really liked Master Tang’s suggestion about automation, and the suggestion made about playing the piano. It’s cool just hearing about how people have sorted themselves out.
Due to unforeseen circumstances I recently ended up back in the family house after years away, which is not a good place to be in when you’re in your late 20s. I am also not fond of my home city and have very little interest in getting out there, so staying sane is a daily struggle. But I did manage to programme my first working EA here, so I’ve got full automation to look forward to.
I do some reading (A Song of Ice and Fire), watch a lot of videos on my second monitor, and I do have a piano. But piano is difficult to learn as an adult, I progressed at a rate of around 1 or 2 bars per day of the Moonlight Sonata. Forgetting to practise often means going back and relearning that section. It seems more frustrating than it should be. Somehow my hobbies of travelling, scuba diving and motorcycling appear as very distant dreams. I really ought to meditate and go running (damn this cold weather).
I am considering a casual job at the weekend just to get more social interaction. But being introverted with too much education might prohibit that.
I wish my family owned a cat. There’s only so much youtube cats you can watch in a day.
Oh is she? I didnt know haha! Opps…I only watch one episode a long time ago. Well, she is the only warrior princess that I know off because most of Disney princesses are bunch of lazy lol… Oh that’s funny!
Oh well, back to my Kardashian sisters then… I guess I have no choice lol
I could imagine the boredom you are having due to the lack of human interaction. True, you can talk to anyone virtually however it is not the same as talking to a live person while having a few drinks. To much of everything is not good. You always have to balance it out. Having a plan out schedule around when you are not trading then you can pick out a hobby, learn a new language maybe, do volunteering, etc. There are so many things you can do if you just pick atleast 1 or 2 days in a week where you are not trading and do the things that you have been wanting to do. Signed up some classes and learn new things…
You are soo lucky that you have that so many time in your hands others don’t so make it useful. It is a nature of a man to build, hunt, taking risk, etc so they feel that they have accomplished something and feel good about what they’ve created and achieved and can boost a self stem and self worth. So come up with a plan where you can get all that and go from there…
