I hear ya. I am slowly finding my way based on the knowledge gained here and how I feel more comfortable trading. I see it as a personal journey where you will end up with your own trading style in the end. My suggestion to you is find a easy setup that you know very well repeats itself and trade it to death.
By the way, IT geek here too … working in the field for 15 years
I guess that’s my problem is trying to find something that fits me and which I know that works…Still looking…
Trying to test out ICT’s Trading Model he gave me but something as simple as that I can’t even grasp, tried backtesting it over a long period of time and can’t even see the setups in backtest…
Yeah i think this trading game bring out a lot of IT geeks since we know how to use computers and know how to find and use forums likes these…
Only been in the IT field for 10+ years, you got a couple years on me…
Not trying to be a downer…but…
Trying to pick one tool that works for me…well I haven’t gotten one tool to work for me yet…
It could be because I haven’t focuses enought time on just one tool, I’m not sure…
I think OTE is by far the easiest to see, but like everything else i put it into play live and can’t get it to work…If I go through the charts and backtest I can obviously see where the OTE’s are located and see why they happened, but…
I thought I would die before i ever quit, but family & friends are more important…It almost seems like trading is slowly killing me in a way…I mean I average about 3 to 4 hours of sleep every night…my energy is next to nothing…
I appreciate you helping me…
I know I have something wrong, be it psychological barriers or what have you…
I tried trading just the figure’s for a long time since ICT said it was the easiest concept, I just have to be doing something wrong, backwards, something because I could never make it work…
I just don’t see how I can be lossing every trade, I’ve gotta be doing something wrong…I’m trying to figure it out, but my mind must be configured wrong…I have no idea or how to fix this…
yeah i have a similar template for trading the figures, but doing a backtest i can’t tell a difference from the ones that bounce off the figures from the ones that just blast through the fig when I think it should bounce off…
It just makes me feel really terrible when ICT says this is the easiest concept he has, but yet I find it hard and just don’t get it at all…
I think your right I do need time away, but I always think I’m ready to trade…
I’m trying to take everything easy, go in stride, and be more patient…with also having a level head…
I do think I’m making a little progress on this…
I am bumping this request as I still can’t see any seeders.
Thank you
Hey PipHanger…i understand your pain, being a retired aero engineer, i can understand your logical thought process. But you are not ITC, you can not trade like him. This does not mean you can not be successful, you need to find your OWN edge.Study and follow these mentors, but do not expect to mechanically follow their means and become instantly successful. Learn what [B]MAKES[/B] them successful. Not how they mechanically trade. Its like a F1 driver. They are all great grand prix drivers. But you take one and put them into anthers car. Forget it. It is not a guaranteed success. They still have a learning curve, they still have to learn how to make due with the equipment and this can be a long process. Acknowledge your strengths, learn and study from these traders. Find your edge and have faith in it. I think, you are trying too hard to “cellularly” dissect ICT trading process and implement it, rather than look at the big picture and study the manner in which he trades. You can not trade exactly the way he trades, without having the experience in the markets that he has. An you know what they say about experience??? Experience is something you get when when you don’t get what you want the first time…
I feel a bit shy to give you advice Piphanger since I’ve been here less long than you or most people trying to help you out in here… but I’ll just go ahead anyway, as it could sum up,kind of, what has been said…
after a while of trying to trade like ICT I became very frustrated… because I lost pretty much every trade. I didn’t had much draw down since risk management is something I’m strong in… however I realized a few things:
I’m not ICT… I just want to learn his way of trading in understanding the market better… a “market 101” if you want… I have no doubts that his approach, his tools etc are a gold mine for him and plenty of traders… I’m hoping I can take his lessons and his tools and if necessary mix in some additional stuff and hopefully end up with a strategy that is custom made for ME… Even If I had a twin (or even if ICT was my twin), I assume our psychology and so on would be different from each other, and we would need completely different trading plans and strategies to both be successful in this business.
I need a break! Just starting out, sucking in every piece of information I could find… reading day and night until I thought I had it all figured out… and didn’t spend enough time with my loved ones… So I took a month off! no forums, no books, no videos, no charts! Boy was I horny to get back to work after one month!
I stumbled upon ICTs threads just around the time he started to release the forXmas videos and had it all the info dished out to me within the first few weeks of my study - and I had clearly an overkill of information… furthermore all those tools he presented seemed all so great and obviously I wanted to put all of them to use right away… and like AK mentioned… I didn’t really understand many of those…
so after my break, I decided to get back to basics! swiped my charts and started drawing my SR levels and actually traded only with SR for a while… (plus fibs) and then I slowly started to add Pivots, then trinity, and so on… until now I still don’t use all of the tools ICT presented to us…
Also like it has been mentioned… maybe I will eventually realize that I am a position trader by heart or a scalper… Imagine how much more time you would have with your friends and family if you where a position trader? for now I’ll try to be an ICT trader and see where it takes me…
since I’ve done those changes I went from slightly in the red, to slightly in the green… and Im still in my early stages… but I feel quite confident that over time of hard work, I’ll see the light… I can see that I am getting quite good in determining where price will turn… my issues are mostly psychological nature (by not entering at this levels due to lack of confidence) but seeing that the market is NOT as random as first believed, I think I will eventually “crack” it and make the kind of returns I hope to achieve… which brings me to another topic:
just playing the numbers game: If I would continuously achieve my current returns… it would take somewhere between 10 and 100 years to crack the 1M mark… Im obviously working on improving my retune rate and my skills overall… (I’d like to point out that most of my demo trades are done on 1% risk as a maximum… normally between 0.5 and 0.75%… so once I feel more confident to upgrade risk, my return will obviously also look better)
I remember hearing: "It takes 3 years to get pretty good at trading and 2 more years to get the first million"
But on the other hand we all hear the stories (while we don’t believe most of them…we do believe in some of them…) of people stating they traded a few thousand bucks up to 1-2M in a year… and so on… (if Im not mistaken, I believe to have read that ICT took 18 months to make his first million? but he also stated that he did this on excessive risk and in a heavily or “heavenly” trending market…
While Im improving on my Patience-Problems, I would obviously prefer to finally get that Lamborghini while my Body still has the ability to actually drive one (let alone to sit down in a lambo, and have a strong enough back to enjoy the drive)… If you know what I mean… I’d prefer to get there in 10 years rather than 100 years, in 3 years rather than 10 years, or tomorrow;) while I understand that keeping risk to max 2 % and have a rather conservative approach to trading, we stand the chance to survive to trade yet another week… but I was hoping to spark a discussion about this topic, as sometimes the “dark side inside me” wonders If I should try a more aggressive approach (once I’m getting a bit better at this) until my Account has reached a more “interesting” size, or maybe some of you are already doing 20-30% returns monthly on 2% risk ICT style? In which case a more aggressive approach would not even cross my mind;)
any thoughts?
Piphanger, I really suggest you to take a break - those few hours you actually took a break after you wanted to quit recently, certainly are not enough… If you stay away from anything related to forex, you will get so hungry for the market after a while that you will jump in with the energy that you seem to be lacking right now.
I hope it doesn’t sound ****y or arrogant if someone as new as me is trying to give advice… I still have tons of learning to do and most likely will be happy to receive advice again from y’all soon enough;)
with the best intentions:
happy hunting
cheers fredy
what actually helps me a lot is to keep an eye on the usdx.
I do a complete analysis of the usdx just as I do with cable and fiber, and I mark likely reaction areas and possible entry points- even if I never trade usdx…
for example: I marked cables 1.6160 level as a possible long entry today, but I noticed that the usdx is not yet in my marked area for entry… so I stayed out… I could be wrong and miss a nice trade, but most likely it saves me from entering to early and getting stopped out… (cable is currently down to 1.6148)
as I stated in my previous post… risk management is almost like a religion to me…and I try to protect capital whenever possible… (and Im on demo!;)) many times this leads me to stay flat and watch a nice trade take its place without me… and yes it frustrated me at first… but on the other hand: I didn’t offer the market any of my money (or demo money) to take away from me…
anyways… maybe it helps you to keep the USDX chart up and keep an eye on it at all time…
Once again: Im a newbie so take my advice for what its worth;)
cheers
Hi SanJ,
I abandon my idea from last night especially after the level I was looking at fell into the Asian range. I have now gone for th the OTE of yesterdays high to low instead as this set-up in my eye’s is looking more valid for any continuation on the long side. It was a good discussion point last night and as always the market pulls faints to knock us off guard but we always need a back-up plan to be adaptable as the environment never stays the same. To quote Bruce Lee “Be water,my friend”.
As I type that OTE has activated my buy stop to the pip :o and it’s made the low of the peak London kill zone. We will see if it continues.
O.
Hi everyone,
I have also went long on GU at 1.6144 with 40 pips sl (0.5% risk) and target of 1.6220. Let’s see how it plays 
Good Luck to all of you!
Moved up my SL and have 3% locked in. Holding on aiming for another +60pips or hit SL.
Have closed position before US markets open at 1.6156 and re-entered at 1.6138 (OTE LS low to NYS open high).
Target is 1.6250 and risk is still at 0,5%.
I’m just trying to catch that weekly move assuming that we could have made low of the week on Monday.
GLGT!
Hi PIPhanger,
what may help you with this is posting the setups you are looking at on the thread.
Just the chart, with your SR levels / fibs and/or any other reasons for the potential trade, and the entry, SL and TPs you’d have used.
I’m sure you’ll get lots of input on either what you’re missing or where you analysis differs. And if nothing else this will take out the emotional side of things as you’ll just be learning and not trading.
just for my own learning, could you post a chart of (or explain) where you are plotting you fib projection to get the 1.6250 exit level?
Personally I still cant make out a direction for the week, and took 20 pips scalping a sell @ 1.6160 today.
20 pips is my weekly aim so I’m done and happy!
Very nice trade. I also went short yesterday at 1.0196, but got stopped out at 1.0216. Maybe we will get to parity this week?
I hope that would be more or less clear. This is how i see it, but who knows, i’am also in my learning process…
Can some one give some light here please? How to analyse Dow, S&P, Naz, USdx and Cable, Fiber? What impact should be in the price as chart below?
Thanks
I had moved my SL at 1.0157 when my trade was at +90pips or so and got barely stopped out missing the rest of the down move to my next profit target at 1.0097. Time to focus on the next setups 
At this look it points on current Risk Off environment which is bullish for USDX and bearish for GU and EU. And it doesn’t mean that we might not see a reversal here at some point. That’s why generally you have to look for divergence in indices something like two of them makes lower low when the other makes higher low (same as EU and GU SMT divergence) in order to predict further probable moves. So if we see such divergence that would hint that Risk On environment probably on its way (GU and EU bullish, USDX bearish). And vice versa if two of those indices making higher high when the other makes lower high hints on Risk Off conditions (GU and EU bearish, USDX bullish).
I hope It will helps. 
GLGT
