Trading for a living

Beginner Questions
1

I wanted to post my quick story, kind of a motivational type story for any of the new traders.

I started trading forex about four years ago. I didn’t bother with a practice account (big mistake), didn’t learn the fundamentals (bigger mistake), basically did everything wrong that I could. The first year, I managed to drop $15,000 down the drain.

Starting the second year, I started watching charts and following the news around the world that was financial related. This helped a little as that year I only dropped around $1,300. Believe it or not, I actually considered that second year as a success!

The third year I could really “feel” the flow of the markets and almost began to get “feelings”…(is that what it’s called, or is it a hunch), about movements in the market. It was this year that I finally learned that you couldn’t stop a moving train, and to simply jump on board when it happened. Also, I finally learned to close out on losing trades, swallow my pride, and open a new “fresh” trade. I was no longer married to my pride, and learned to “ride with the tide”. That third year I pulled in about $80,000.

My fourth year,(this year), I’m up about $120,000 now. I don’t do “systems”. I don’t use a big accounts (I use two different trading platforms simultaneously) with about $10,000 in each one. I take my profits out of each account every Tuesday. If I get wiped out on one of my accounts, I use my other account to rebuild.

To all of the newbies out there; hang in! I almost gave up doing this, but by sticking with it and “teaching myself”, I am now making a very good living. Good luck to all and keep up the good fight!

2

Would you mind sharing how you trade?

To be honest the idea that you made $120,000 in 4 months off a $20,000 account without compounding your earnings sounds a bit to good to be true to me.

I don’t mean to be skeptical, I’m just being honest. :slight_smile:

3

Hi Phil,

Being skeptical is healthy. However, don’t let skepticism keep you from going far as a forex trader.

I’m strictly a momentum trader these days. I mainly trade the Eur/Jpy and US/AUD. The reason that I’ve done so well this year ($120,000) is because of the recent crash of the Euro. I made huge gains the last two weeks riding the wave down. What I do is open large positions, close it out after a $1,000 gain, then add on the position at a small pullback. This way I can triple and quadruple my bankroll on a really good week…as long as my calls are right.

The thing to remember about the forex market is that it’s movement is really pushed by huge institutional traders. When you see the train start rolling, don’t hesitate to jump on. Be careful to not be faked out. If it starts going, then jump on. By riding these waves, you can really double up.

Just today, I’ve made $4,500 trading the EUR/JPY on the EUR downtrend. 118.25 to 117.50

Best of luck and good trading!

4

Kpeterson69, very interesting and motivational, but you need trade 6 standard lots in this trade, this is a lot of money, anyway, Congratulations, ¿ who is your broker ?

Regards

5

What did you do before that you could drop $15k and were you trading part time during this time ?

I’m guessing you traded part time for those first two years, if so, at what point did you do it full time ?

I’m extremely interested because this is what I am wanting to do full time, and once I’ve earned enough look at other safer investment opportunities as well. Obviously I’m doing it a little differently, starting a micro account as a first one and trading part time until I have enough capital to start drawing profits.

A little info on your systems would be great for most of us newbies !

Thanks !

6

Which signal do you use?:rolleyes:

7

ok, so your system is to determine the trend, but how do you do this?

8

u make this much each day?

9

It’s nice to hear another success story, gives us all something to work for.

To those asking how he trades, what signal he uses etc etc… I ask you to consider something:

If we all had the same way of trading successfully, why would there not be just one profitable system? Do not expect to take any method of trading and use it to be profitable. Chances are, for whatever reason, it doesn’t work for you. From what I understand from kpeterson69’s description, he looks for momentum, confirms there is validity behind the move, and enters. Done. Whether news is a confirmation for entry, or whether it’s just sheer technicals, it will be a combination DIFFERENT for every trade. There is no identical setup for every forex trade you see.

I will ask this however;

kpeterson69, do you find yourself relying more on the fundamentals of the market when trading your way, or is it technical analysis that works best for you?

10

would love to hear the answer to this last question… kpeterson, are you still out there?

regards

11

Gone…:D:D:D

12

where???

.

13

$120k, yeah right…

14

Could be true, but still a cool read.

I’m a full time trader now, and have been since January. It’s rough and it took me a lot of losses to get there but I’m still learning. At this rate I’ll make about $42,000 gross but only half of the year is done and anything can happen. Right now I’m trying to build 6 months living expenses saved up in case of anything happening to my trading, like hitting a losing streak.

15

Tottally achievable. And sounds realistic. Why do I say that? Because I know from personal experience of blowing accounts and making stupid mistakes, that these are the best lessons. And that if you are reasonably intellgent and keep going they ultimately make you profitable because of the exeperience.

However, will reserve judgement about the 2 post count and if anyone gets private e-mails about learning his, “method,” please do let us know.

16

See, he’s too busy making money. We’re all sitting here and talking instead :stuck_out_tongue:

17

:smiley:

I’m starting to wonder though… what’s the motivation for folks to hit-and-run the forum with some amazing story?

18

Three reasons:

  1. The guy really made it, feels good, wants to tell others not to give up and keep going, but has no time to sit there and coach people.

  2. The guy wants to sell something: education, signal service, expert advisor, coaching, etc. I hate people like that. I think others do, too.

  3. The guy is a troll who just likes to do silly things.

I really think that about sums it up!

19

I guess you’re right… maybe since number two is usually all over the place it’s getting so hard to trust someone (online) these days… For all I know, it could even be a brokers-united-guerilla-advertisement!

21

Yep. The basic problem is that no strings attached trading advice is basically something that people give out of the goodness of their hearts. There are people like that, people who enjoy sharing with others. Unfortunately to teach someone it takes a lot of patience, so its understandable that a lot of them get irritated when people ask dumb questions and might not have the patience to sit there and share basic 101 stuff that people could get anywhere.

The older and smarter you get, the more easily you understand the concept of ‘efficient markets’. You don’t get something for nothing. The one instance when you do is when someone is specifically being kind to you.

Personally I’ve made a pledge that if I reach my benchmark for success I will teach for free at least one person every year who is serious about trading and has a real need. That’s my way of giving back what others have given me. It feels good to do things like that.

According to the ‘efficiency of markets’ theory, if you are a good trader you make more money trading than writing books and teaching seminars. Each minute of your time is valuable. According to the Pareto principle, you focus on the 20% that produces 80% of your results. So that means either trading, doing market analysis, doing self analysis, or reading books, etc. Outside of that, its a nice idea to ‘have a life’, lol.