Thanks for the responses everyone, and AK, I appreciate the input, but I think I’ll stick with weekly for now. I think my biggest hurdle is how to deal with losses and not change my trading strategies when they do occur, and since I posted my losses from last week, I’ve actually felt like it has made the sting go away a little bit. I know that sounds kinda weird that it hurts less now that everyone knows, but I think some of the pressure I was putting on myself to make up my losses was so that I could post a winning week on here. And now that its a new week and last weeks results are ‘set in stone’, I feel like I can put last week behind me and start a fresh new trading week. If I were to only post monthly, I might be putting pressure on myself all month to make up for a bad week at the beginning of the month so I could post a positive monthly %. Anyways, everyone’s different…but thanks again for the input.
I have written my vision in the first part of my trading plan so that I can keep my ultimate objective alive. This is it …
Why do I want to be a trader?
My life’s main objective is simply, to live a happy life. I feel that much of my happiness depends on three key areas which are health, family and money. So in my continuous pursue for happiness I tend to take decisions based on this. Unfortunately health is not something that I can directly control, but if I had more time to invest in exercising the body, it will help in keeping me fit and also releases stress from my mind, making me feel healthier and happier as I like physical exercise. I believe that a happy family is one which is built on love, trust and support. The way I see it is this. Love and trust are a direct result of the interactions in the relationship between two persons, being it between me and my wife, or between me and my future child (wife is 20 weeks pregnant at the moment). For these meaningful interactions to happen there has to be quality time available. Therefore, if I had more time available, I could have more quality time with my family which in turn would make me happier. The other important aspect of family is support. For me family support comes in two varieties, emotional support and financial support. From a logical point of view, emotional support happens also during quality time; therefore more available time, gives way for more time for emotional support. On the other hand financial support comes directly from my financial situation, which brings me to the last key area, money! My priority here is to have enough money to support the family’s needs, but the ideal would be to be able to earn more, whilst working more flexible hours. Enabling me to have more time for family and exercise whilst affording some luxuries, like private tuition for my child, lunches, presents, holidays, some charity, etc. I realize that this idea of being wealthy is also a result of my personal greed and ego, hence if I ever manage to get to that level; I MUST keep my feet to the ground at all costs as it may harm my ultimate goal which is TO BE HAPPY, and not ‘to make more money’. My dream has always been to own my own business, as I believe owning a business will make me wealthier and by time, with proper business management allow me to be more flexible and work my desired hours. Unfortunately due to the capital needed to start a business and the risk involved I never took this step, which finally brings me to answer the original question, ‘Why do I want to be a trader?’ Trading has allowed a minority of people to achieve success with relatively low starting capital and a lot of effort. I realize that 90% of all traders end up losing money, but I also believe that the main reason this happens is because the herd underestimates the effort needed to become successful in the market. Hence, with considerable effort and study I can become successful at trading and achieve my goal. I have the will power, determination and whatever it will take to develop my trading skills enough to allow me to eventually earn more money than I presently am able to, and at the same time allow me to be flexible in my working hours. This is the reason why I want to become a trader.
What sort of trader am I?
I am a trader which is planning to achieve his goal by taking a small step at a time and making consistent profits. Therefore I intend to be happy to make a few pips a day and achieve a constantly growing account, as opposed to being aggressive and making more pips with more losses and huge draw down swings. My currently available trading hours and capital are most ideal for a swing trader with some intraday trade opportunities. Therefore I will concentrate my study and practice mainly in these two disciplines, giving priority to swing trading as I feel it fits me best. The markets cannot be controlled, but I can control myself, therefore I will create and strictly follow this plan which will be updated regularly. I will log and review all my trades in order to learn and fix any flaws in my system in order to achieve consistent profits.
What are my strengths and weaknesses?
SWOT Analysis
STRENGTHS (internal)
Determined to be successful at trading
Quick learner
Started this trading plan (90% of traders do not!)
Systematic and able to follow a system
Have access to plenty of information to study
Good planning skills
WEAKNESSES (internal)
System not presently clearly defined
Not very patient
Tend to enter/exit market NOT at the optimal levels
Afford only a starting capital of around €1000 (which has been already set aside for the right moment)
Losing trades has a negative impact on my emotions
Due to work have limited trading hours available
OPPORTUNITIES (external)
Can increase capital with successful trading
Studying can help me develop ‘my system’
Trading plan + system can help me control emotions
Swing trading needs less time staring at charts
THREATS (external)
Not all study information out there is valid
Unpredictable market, no system is 100% profitable
If the starting capital of €1000 is lost, there might not be another shot at this!
Consecutive losing trades will put a lot of pressure on me
Action Plan
Create trading plan so that I have a framework which I can use to log and filter what works and what not. This will help me to define my system and become more patient.
Choose studying material carefully and study every chance I get. ICT’s material is right there on top of my list
Log and review all trades to remove any flaws and continue doing what works. A reason which I had control on has to be written for all my losing trades. This must be logged at all costs.
Demo trade until I have enough trust in my system that I can make consistent profits. At this point I expect to become less emotional on losing trades.
Switch to live account and continue same actions 1 to 3.
OBJECTIVE
Current objective is to make a monthly profit of 6% on demo account. I know this might seem like a small percentage for most but what I want to aim for is consistency. I am risking only 0.25% on most trades so it is not as easy as it might seem, at least for a newbie like me. But if I could do that consistently I would feel comfortable enough to increase my risk per trade and monthly profit objective without being afraid of pulling the trigger, or getting too emotional and closing trades early. Like many mentioned already, with a measly 6% monthly I could almost double my initial capital in a year which is not bad. When I manage this for 3 consecutive months without fail I will consider going live.
Sounds good, I look forward to your weekly updates.
I think you’ll be fine from here on out. When you’re sitting on a loss, just try and get yourself into damage control mode.
Hey - when ICT opens the sack - we’ll count down from THREE TWO ONE - and on ONE - jostle that sack - maybe another one or two may fall out !
On another note - -
Everyone send me a dollar (or to ICT, maybe he’ll invest them and return TWICE as much as we put in) - and your written guess - as to the post count of the 2012 thread from ICT.
winner gets all the dollars to fund their account
This thread opened 10/4/2010 - so a year and 2 months – and is nearing the HALF A MILLION hits. WOW -
I’m going to guess 493,321 hits in 1 yr. where can I send my dollar?
Naah… you guys and gals have been good… no poking and proding… just as I hoped for. It is falling from the sack to your greedy lil’ mitts! in about 90 minutes… Scout’s honor.
hoping to catch you while you are around ton help me out with this. The last COT released had the commercials increasing their longs once again, while the GU decreased their net long positions (the USDX was the mirror opposite of the GU) and are in the wave as you had showed us in one of the videos. The way I would interpret this is we might see the fiber reach for the bottom, while the cable may trade sideways. There has been a divergence on the weekly with the cable reaching below the yearly low from Jan 2011, while the fiber has not yet breached the January lows. I’m not sure what to make of this. Can you help me out or drop me a hint as to what the meaning of this is?
Okay, I was wondering if I was so excited about an early video that I missed how we actually use that info…so that was just a ‘get us thinking about things’ kinda video?
Watch it again… it states you are going to see in later modules how to actually know when to short or buy based on the Smart Money tactics used based on this insight… for now… note your charts and “study” how this period of the trading day relates to the remainder of the day.
You will see it if you refer to the other concepts I have shared thus far… if not… you will get it handed right to you in the end. I want you to “Discover” it before I point it out. It will be an awesome… Aha! moment.
The principles are worth much more than the entry and exit strategies… resist the impulse to seek that as it matters the “LEAST”. Trust me… that is the last thing you need to worry about. :58:
I’ve been wanting to discuss this since June but didn’t want to pollute the thread with my “I think I’ve found something but…” thoughts.
Can hardly wait for the rest of your insights on the Asia range.
I promise you… when you see this fully revealed… you won’t be sleeping lol… I know, I remember the day I was blessed to see it and sleep was not on my list of need to do things for a day or two. Not hype… this is a promise.
You want dynamite… this is going to blow you all away. :57:
Open your charts… pick on pair… your favorite pair.
Note the 0:00 GMT to 5:00 GMT high and low.
Note the direction afterwords into the London Close and or 18:00 GMT.
Note the Price action on the LO and NYO in relationship to the Asian Range.
Notice how this also relates to higher timeframe directional bias… if you study it… it will “Pop” off the charts! :59:
Come on… some of you spotted the SMT when I hinted at it… you can unearth this too… I’m confident in you. :13:
Watch it again… it states you are going to see in later modules how to actually know when to short or buy based on the Smart Money tactics used based on this insight… for now… note your charts and “study” how this period of the trading day relates to the remainder of the day.
