I have been involved in trading for the last few years. I have read a lot of books, articles and tutorials about trading. I have watched hundreds of hours of videos about fibonacci, S/R, indicators, price action, fundamentals, money management, psychology etc. And I can finally say that I know something about trading. I have managed to be profitable for last few months. It’s not much and it’s a small account, but I managed to earn 1-2% monthly and to stop losing money.
What’s the next step? Should I keep learning from others or should I start looking for my own system that will make much more than 1-2% per month? I know that trading depends on your personality, so I’m not sure if I should follow others. Some traders like TA, some traders trade fundamentals, some trade both. Some people use fibonacci, others use moving averages…do I need to continue following them or I should start following myself and learn from my own mistakes?
I’ve been involved in FX education since July so my opinion is probably not as weighty as other traders in this forum, but I can say I am just one step behind you.
I have been demo trading for the past week or so and tweaking my own system, and for me what I found was that learning from my own experiences are more valuable.
Self reflection really helps you identify psychology behind the trading systems, so I am in this process now and I really feel that I am making progress.
If I could offer my piece, I would keep an eye on other ideas but I would focus most of my time on self reflection and restrospective.
I am mostly self taught. In the end its worked out very well for me. If I had it to do all over again I would have tried harder to find a mentor. Kind of like golf lessons. In the end they save you time and money.
This from Traderjohnsblog is a valuable comment that is realistic compared to the usual hysteria against trainers and courses.
Look at it this way too for a minute.
I live very near the sea and could go down there and catch my own fish if I want. But I’d have to set time aside, get the kit, find some bait, find a good spot, study the tides, work out what I’m fishing for and then go and do it, for some fish I’d need to buy or rent a boat, and all still with no guarantee of great success but a goodly risk of getting soaked in the weather or maybe drowned. Or I could go to the supermarket and buy fish ready-filleted, including imported stuff I can’t catch in Devon.
I am trading mostly on 4hr charts because my job doesn’t allow me to start trading on smaller timeframes…and honestly, I don’t want to be a scalper. I look at daily and weekly timeframes and try to follow them on a 4hr timeframe. Currently I read Market Wizards by Jack Schwager and a lot of these “super traders” from the book say that trend following systems are not that good as it seems. Soooo…I am in a dilemma
The next thing I would like to learn is to trade breakouts, because I think they are one of the best ways to have a very very good R:R ratio.
My goal is to make enough money to quit my day job…but we all want that!
My system is working, but the results are not that good…I don’t have huge amounts of capital and my goal is to get to the point where I will be able to trade for living…and I will never get there with 1-2% monthly. It would be great if I had huge amounts of cash and 1-2% monthly earnings, but…
1-2% per month probably isn’t worth the effort involved in trading. Though its a lot better than a bank would offer on a deposit, there is a lot of work and risk involved in trading, none at all in having a bank account.
I would think you need to at least double your account and double the monthly rate of return. your system will eventually double your account but you still need to find a way to improve the system. If it has reached its natural limits, then you do need a new one.
You have a profitable system so you can see why it works. And also why other systems don’t work. Develop and build on the good things, don’t worry about improving the features that don’t work. Keep your risk low until each development is proven. Then scale up.
Well you are contradicting yourself,you said you dont want to go lower than H4 TF but at same time you want to quit the job and do it full time. There is mathematical ratio where if you want to do that you will need large sum of capital (relative obviously depending on your monthly expenses of living) or at least large quantity of markets to trade and in my experiance large amount of markets still dont cover up for the fact that you need decent capital.
To scale to oposite way is to go to lower TF and execute the same strategy which allows larger frequency.
If your personality does not fit scalping at all then perhaps you shouldnt do it, otherwise if you want to do it fulltime i think that is the way to go especially for those that are under capitalized.
Hello,
you know trading is a bit like life. Go to school, study and learn, and then once you leave, you have the same approach you’ve got, but what you’re an adult is a mix of what you’ve studied and what you are. I always recommend choosing a currency pair and studying it well. See how it behaves on pivotes, on resistors, adjust emas. and slowly everything will look simpler. All this without ever stopping studying. Trading is a job and as such it takes time, study and dedication. No one would dream of doing a time-out surgeon. It seems to me that you have the right approach. Keep it up. And if we need help we are here.
PS: 1 or 2% per month is not trading, it’s like leaving the money in the bank. You have to reason on higher figures.
Best
Sorry LaughingCharlie i misunderstood i did not understand that was talking about compounding.
And I do not sell anything to anyone. My were sincere suggestions.
I look at daily and weekly timeframes and try to follow them on a 4hr timeframe. Currently I read Market Wizards by Jack Schwager and a lot of these “super traders” from the book say that trend following systems are not that good as it seems. Soooo…I am in a dilemma 