I started my FX trading journey sometime around Feb or Mar of 2017. For weeks before that time I would read books and scour the internet for trading related information and education. I came across the usual scammers and the Lamborghini flaunters, etc. and fortunately had the good sense to ignore them. I looked at EAs and did not believe that they would work well. Also, I was never enticed into purchasing signals from anyone. I was determined to learn how to fish for myself. The more I learned the more I became convinced that there is no holy grail to trading. That one must put in copious amounts of time and effort to learn how to become a successful trader.
In March of 2017 I decided to open a brokerage account with a small amount of cash (micro account). In my opinion there is no value in trading a demo account since you know that it does not contain real funds so losses or drawdowns don’t bother you like they would with a real account. My account management strategy was to risk less than 1/8th percent of my account on each trade. I was fully aware that it was likely that I would blow my account as I learned how to trade. BTW, I have not blown it as of this date.
Then, fortuitously, during the first week of Apr 2017, I came across a YouTube video in which the trader was executing PIP perfect trades while calling it in advance. I was mesmerized by his ability. I devoured all his YouTube videos and everything he had published on his web site. And it was all free material. I learned everything I know about price action analysis from him. I then practiced on my live account utilizing what he taught.
Interestingly, I still lost money and I was losing more trades than when I was winging it. I figured that I had to release some of the bad ideas that I had collected and that I was holding on to before I came across his training. I stopped trading for a few days and then I went back into the breach with renewed vigor. I still lost most of my trades but I would analyze them in excruciating detail in order to understand what I should have done differently. For the next year and a half I spent every available moment studying price charts, looking for trade setups and analyzing all my trades immediately after I had either closed them or I had been stopped out.
I then had to take a few months break in my trading for various reasons and I’ve recently started up again in June of this year (2019). I can’t explain it but I find that, somehow, taking the forced break cleared many things for me and I can now trade so much better than I was able to before the break. My analytical skills have improved manyfold and I’m now often able determine where price will turn, within 3 - 5 PIPs. As a result most of my trade entries suffer only about 5 PIPs of drawdown. I still have entries where my drawdowns exceed 12 PIPs or I get stopped out, but when I analyze those trades I can see where I made the mistake in my price action analysis of the charts.
While my journey was certainly peppered with many frustrations and thoughts of quitting, having read many of your stories, I seem to have had a much easier time than most. If that is the case then it is all thanks to that one individual from whom I learned how to read price action. Without that knowledge I would most certainly be floundering even now. I love trading and I wish that I could do it full time. Perhaps some day I shall. I’m encouraged by the many folks here in this forum who trade for a living. Kudos to you. I hope to learn much from all the successful traders here and to improve my trading skills.
Wishing all my fellow members here much success in their trading endeavors. May you all have wild success in the markets.
