The unfortunate answer is “Yes”. Trading on a real account brings with it an entirely different set of emotional challenges. If you make a loss on your demo account, it doesn’t particularly bother you, because let’s be honest, at the end of the day you aren’t losing anything of substance and it’s easy to reassure yourself that you can make up for it again. Take a loss on a real account and it’s like: “Oh my gosh, that was actual money I just lost! I entered trading to make money, what can I do to get this back?!” Cue revenge trades, overtrading, overleveraging, risking more than you should etc. It all comes down to it being significantly more painful to take a real money loss compared to a demo one.
Same thing goes for wins; make a few dollars and all of a sudden you see that million dollar trading account dream coming true - Whack! Before you know it, you’ve lost a good 3 trades in a row, and all those things I just mentioned above make their appearance.
So unless you have a flawless strategy, be prepared to go through some ups and downs
Thankfully I pride yself with having nerves if steal and a disposable finance backing for research purposes.
Losing “real” money in this case will not bother me as it was alloted specifically to investigate physics based numerical approaches to finance and forex prediction.
Barring any emotional attachment (it’s not my money), are there any specific anomalies intrinsic to a real forex account, not present in the demo account that may cause unforseen losses?
Wow, your vocabulary is certainly impressive Mr Olddirtypipster! I don’t think there is much which can be done about the issues liftoff had mentioned, except perhaps choosing a different broker.
Anyway, today my bias is once again LONG. It seems that I have missed the entry on the cable that I was looking for. We’ve had a nice judas swing down into a key support level 1.5690, which also happens to be an OTE on the H1 chart.
In addition, we’ve had some bullish divergence on the M5 chart between GU (lower lows) and EU (higher lows). Every checkbox in my checklist was ticked off except for the key level I was waiting for.
I was waiting for the entry from around 1.5680 or even S1, but alas, it seems the bus has already left the station. If price does still retrace further downwards, I may consider entering, but for now I’ll remain flat.
Pure, how many trades do you take daily? Just interested in the amount of trades you take. Do you limit yourself? Took almost the same trade as you today btw. Cable long from 15695
I do have a limit of 2 trades per day, which I try my hardest to stick to - slowly getting there. It means that I can at least re-enter if I feel the trade is still valid and it clips my stop.
Yeah, that trade looked good all things considered - so many bullish confluences and then WHAM, it drops steeply like it’s the rapture
I see. Well, i can only wish you consistent trading. I feel like if you reach that, consistent profits will come along sooner or later. Find inner strenght to fight with revenge trades. After all, we are all watching you :)))p
Haha thanks bro! I have told myself now, the reality is that at this stage in my trading I would rather be disciplined that be profitable. Even if I lose each and every trade I take, I am focusing entirely on discipline. That’s why I have been risking 0.5% on each trade so far, and I’m doing my absolute best to stop revenge trading too. I agree with your sentiment bro - consistency will eventually lead me somewhere closer towards profitability.
I’m gonna get the toughest part of trading sorted before focusing on the fun part - that is, applying ICT’s concepts in each and every trade
So I have no intention of quitting until my account balance is $0
Finally my patience and discipline paid off!! I took a EURUSD short this morning from 1.2330 and just closed it for a cool 100 pips!
Also, by NYO my trade was at B/E, so I entered another position (still only risking 0.5% in total, as trade one was risk-free) at the OTE that formed at 1.2315 (I entered at 1.2310) and cracked another 80 pips or so. So overall, a rather refreshing boost of 3.5%! Now that makes up for 7 losses!
I well and truly believe that discipline is the key to success. Using the tools comes second in my mind. Anyway, I will post my checklist that I used for the trade to show how it matched up against my demerit system. But that aside, this picture should summarise the trade nicely:
nice trades pure muscle. I saw the nyo trade but it seemed kinda choppy and it was real late in the kill zone… so I didn’t s take it. Plus I really didn’t have a clear bias. Did you have any clear reason for shorting today? Anyway great trades bro!
Thanks bro! Well I included my checklist now in the previous post which I’m sure will explain why my bias was short, but the main reason would be the market flow on the H4 was bearish, and the market structure is still heavily bearish.
I’ll try to upload it for you dude. It was made by Manta - one of ICT’s first students to start killing it
Anyway, today I broke my discipline a bit, but it ended up paying off… I risked 2% this morning instead of only 1% and these trades were taken out by the ECB’s rate decision, but then I re-entered at R2 just before Mr Draghi’s speech and pulled in too many pips… I am the first to admit that I feel awful making profits after losing discipline like that - after all the work I’ve done making sure I stick to my rules, it almost makes me feel guilty making a win like that. Ah well, I’m certainly done for the week, I’ve got a lot to think about
All things aside though, I said this week would be telling in my FX journey, and somehow I’ve come out of it back in the black
PM,
Nice trading week, but trading during NFP? Take your gains and call it a week - no need to get back into the market after a great pip haul, let alone on NFP.
Congrats on the winners though, keep that up and remember - “less is more” -ICT.
Thank you brother! I was waiting for someone to come down on me for that one I just STILL get greedy, I should’ve known it would happen. The trades look perfect during NYO just before the NFP, and when it came out somewhat negative (unemployment % going up), I thought to myself that this is PERFECT. As is too often the case, the NFP brought its own price action and killed me. Ah well, I’m glad to an extent, because even though the trade lined up perfectly with my checklist, it still got taken out, which shows that there is honestly no merit in trading NFP.
As I’ve said before, I will only learn a lesson so many times and then it sticks So no more NFP for me! Time to punish myself in the gym
Just gotta keep hanging in there I suppose.
I have told myself now, the reality is that at this stage in my trading I would rather be disciplined that be profitable. Even if I lose each and every trade I take, I am focusing entirely on discipline. That’s why I have been risking 0.5% on each trade so far, and I’m doing my absolute best to stop revenge trading too. I agree with your sentiment bro - consistency will eventually lead me somewhere closer towards profitability.
