I’m on the learning journey and have been trading a year or so. It’s been mostly unsuccessful so have gone back to demo to try and refine some sort of strategy.
Currently trying to learn to place my entries where I would have normally placed my stops so that I cut out the noise and enter after a consolidating period taking cues from price action structure and liquidity. Seems to be helping but I’m not consistent yet.
So my question. I’d like to shortcut the trial and error and learn from successful strategies. What was your turning point? What was the a-ha moment? I feel I have a good understanding of the basics but would appreciate it if you’d be able to pay it forward.
The first was realising that people who are trading consistently profitably aren’t posting videos on Youtube.
The second was understanding that if price movements are going to be “unpredicted”/“unexpected” by one or two indicators, then they’re also going to confound an additional 5 or 6 indicators, too, and the whole concept of “confluence of multiple indicators” is really just a mixture of false reassurance and plain nonsense.
The third was gradually coming to understand that the entries really are the least important part of a trading system.
My a-ha moment was when I gave up indicators and started studying technical analysis, patterns, figures. It helped me to be independent from indicators, which often redraw their data. Although I sometimes use them, for example, to look for divergence, but I do not consider them the main ones in my analysis of the market situation.
I’m not sure I can claim to be a successful trader because I am not successful enough - yet.
Not one a-ha moment but a series of logical deductions.
I started making money by buying shares when all shares were rising. I did not know enough TA to be able to identify an entry trigger signal but that did not matter - all prices were rising anyway.
When share prices started falling I realised I also needed to be able to go short.
I also realised I did not need to pick individual shares when I could just trade the index value.
The net result is that you can be successful by following what the market is doing - when prices are rising, be long: when prices are falling, be short.
For me my “aha” moment happened when I applied proper risk management. I’m not the best at technical analysis, I get confused at times with the direction of the market and usually I don’t trade when that’s the case, but sometimes I become undisciplined (that’s a cost we traders pay for being human), I trade and I lose. But due to my risk management whenever I’m right about the direction I tend to make more money than I lost. And that is a comforting thing because I don’t dwell on being right, I just focus my energy on taking as much money as I can from the market whenever I’m right. And risk management depends on different personalities, you gotta choose what fits yours and stick with it consistently over time it’s gonna work out, trust me.
I was once in a drawdown for the whole year,(over 100 trades) only to recover my losses in a period of 3 weeks (having won about 4 trades in a row)"
Aaah-haaa, “it’s not all about how many times you get it right but how much you make whenever you are right”
For me, the turning point was when I started focusing on just one or two setups and really sticking to them. I’ve learned patience is the key, and to only take the right trades instead of forcing them. When I figured that out, it was an eureka moment for me - I knew I was on the right track!
The key to success in forex is to stick to a trading strategy and always have a plan of action when things don’t go according to plan. And yes, patience is also important, especially when waiting to enter a trade.
Focus on mastering one setup that fits your style and test it thoroughly. My “a-ha” moment was understanding the power of risk management—cut losses early, let winners run, and trust proven strategies over emotions.
