What is success to you?

Beginner Questions
1

I joined recently - new to FX/trading; been going through pipshcool, reading on plans/strategies, just educating myself until I have a plan and ready to demo…its gonna take at least 3 months until I get to that point.

As a newbie, I find that there is a lot of information scattered everywhere, and people have different results. Some are successful, some are not (even though they’ve been trading for 3-4 years).

I wanted to ask to the experienced, what should you consider as successful - Reaching $1MM in assets? Sticking to plan? - Why have you been successful and why not?

As any newbie, I would consider myself successful if I develop this interest/practice into a full-fledged business with a concrete plan/strategy that I can grow gradually with consistently profitable results (I think basign off price action strategies would be a good foundation). Talking about numbers, I would say to reach $100k account (with $10k capital) within 2 years of trading - is this too far fetched/? relevant? nonsense?

I guess I am looking for different perspectives on professional goals that determine success, so that I can start thinking like a professional…any criticism and advice is welcomed.

2

I will only be a succesfull trader when I follow my trading plan and stick to it. When I have my emotions under control. When I have a proper money management. When I’m not greedy and not risky. When I’m not chasing trades. When I trade at weekly charts.
All off this aspects will make you a succesfull trader believe me.

This being said, I’m a succesfull trader because I don’t have problems with it. I can say I’m in the 5% traders who are succesfull and who can live from FX only. I don’t have a day job.
You guys will think that I live perfectly but FX is hard. I trade from weekly charts and when I’m in a trade it can take 1 month to several months to sometimes a year before I’ll exit my current trade.
Sometime I won’t open a trade for weeks or months because the momentums doesn’t reach my strategy description.

You have to be a sniper and not a machine gunner. Snipers have high strike rates and nearly never misses. This is what you can compare with weekly charts.

Good luck

3

Success in Forex is only possible if trader is able to trade with proper trading knowledge and experience. Trading plan is very important and trader should stick to their plan to get positive results.

4

Some answers here.

http://forums.babypips.com/newbie-island/56844-when-did-you-know-you-succeeded.html#post521429

5

Thanks for the advice. It sounds very simple, but I am understanding that it is very hard to follow. From what I have read, psychology and risk management are the main things people have troubles with.

Trading weekly charts and holding positions for over a year?! Thats the first time I’ve heard this. I imagine you must be leveraging your positions quite high and getting higher returns to be able to live off of FX.

The sniper vs. machine gunner analogy really helped me get a good understanding of trading. Thanks again.

6

I believe in the saying that “Amateurs practice until they get it right. Professionals practice till they can’t get it wrong.” I guess the ultimate goal of every trader is just to be consistently profitable. No matter how much capital you have or how often you trade, as long as your winners offset your losers and you constantly improve your game, you’re on the right path.

7

[QUOTE=“arane2012;536934”]I joined recently - new to FX/trading; been going through pipshcool, reading on plans/strategies, just educating myself until I have a plan and ready to demo…its gonna take at least 3 months until I get to that point.

As a newbie, I find that there is a lot of information scattered everywhere, and people have different results. Some are successful, some are not (even though they’ve been trading for 3-4 years).

I wanted to ask to the experienced, what should you consider as successful - Reaching $1MM in assets? Sticking to plan? - Why have you been successful and why not?

As any newbie, I would consider myself successful if I develop this interest/practice into a full-fledged business with a concrete plan/strategy that I can grow gradually with consistently profitable results (I think basign off price action strategies would be a good foundation). Talking about numbers, I would say to reach $100k account (with $10k capital) within 2 years of trading - is this too far fetched/? relevant? nonsense?

I guess I am looking for different perspectives on professional goals that determine success, so that I can start thinking like a professional…any criticism and advice is welcomed.[/QUOTE]

Hi Arane,

I’m also a newbie like u started in may this year with demo acct and go live in 1st sept. I’m glad u understand the point of trading demo for 3 mths minimum as it will help u get used to the actual trade results, build confidence and to really see if your custom strategy does work or not before u step into the real trading world.

To me, my personal opinion is that no matter how others trade, different time frames, etc the key thing still lies with having a trading plan which u must follow strictly without deviation, money management skills i.e risk factor for each execution/risk reward ratio/SL and TP, patience to wait for trade setups. Curbing emotions are extremely crucial too.

Also, a strategy that can gives u 60-70% winning accuracy so as to be consistently profitable in this business. It doesn’t matter if u can reach $1mill within a certain period of time which u might have set earlier cos sooner or later u will be there if u have a good strategy to trade with.

Last but not least, I feel that to become the top 5% retail trader u need to understand how the market moves be it on a 1min or weekly time frame. All other indicators/oscillators or even price actions are just there for u to make the entry/exit executions.

Hope to hear your updates on demo results soon and probably u might want to post them in my thread also to help more newbies along the way.

http://forums.babypips.com/newbie-island/57469-my-live-trade-results-2013-a.html

Have a great trading week ahead! : )

To your success,

Alvin aka Singaporean Trader

8

I like how you’re outlining your steps toward success. Goals are achieved this way. As for me, I’m just trying to focus on consistency and expectancy. In other words, I’m working on my win ratio by trying to come up with a larger percentage of winning trades while also making sure that my winning trades are larger than losing trades (reward-to-risk ratio). I’m having a rough time every now and then but I’m just trying to focus on the process then worry about profits later on.

9

I do agree with you on that quote and also about being consistent. Unless you forgot to mention, I think money management is also a critical part of this business.

10

@ alvin33 & marypippins123:

Thanks for the advice. I realize that test your strategy is really important. Once, I have my education down and have learned a strategy to trade with, I guess I will test it out on demo account to get at least 2:1 win ratio. Besides that I plan on developing a good psychology, risk and money management system before I go live. I am working full-time in the meantime, so it might take at least 6 months until I have the confidence to go live. Its important that I find a strategy that suits my routine and personality. All the best to you both.

11

[QUOTE=“arane2012;539458”]@ alvin33 & marypippins123:

Thanks for the advice. I realize that test your strategy is really important. Once, I have my education down and have learned a strategy to trade with, I guess I will test it out on demo account to get at least 2:1 win ratio. Besides that I plan on developing a good psychology, risk and money management system before I go live. I am working full-time in the meantime, so it might take at least 6 months until I have the confidence to go live. Its important that I find a strategy that suits my routine and personality. All the best to you both.[/QUOTE]

Hi Arane,

I would suggest don’t jump forward to quickly use a strategy which only gives u 2:1 RR cos we as newbies learn step by step each time and believe me, it’s easier to develop a strategy which gives 1:1 compared to 2:1 if u know what I mean.

Even for myself I’m trading live with 1:1 RRR with 66.91% winning accuracy and can still be profitable, just that probably don’t earn as much as others who have already got into 2:1 or even 3:1 RRR but having said that my next target is to develop another strategy which gives me 1.5:1 RRR then followed by 2:1 and so on.

There’s some traders I know are using 0.5:1 RRR and still be profitable.

Just my personal opinion. : )

To your success,

Alvin aka Singaporean Trader

http://forums.babypips.com/newbie-island/57469-my-live-trade-results-2013-a.html

12

Best of luck to you too and see ya around!

13

The true measure of a success is consistency in trading. Having a stable and profitable system and being able to apply it and produce consistent results

14

Well success is different things to different people. Many newbies do put too much emphasis on “how much” will make them successful. usually they take an absurdly small figure, say $5000 and want to generate at least 1000% with it. Well Top level traders for banks cannot do this so why can you?

a professional trader is one who trades effectively. without mistakes. a mistake is not following your plan (regardless of outcome). missing an opportunity is a Major Error. and if you do this then you are not trading effectively.

the way i like to think about it success in first 3 years would probably go like this:
Year 1 Successful is a Net 0% loss. Extreme success is outdoing Savings account (5%)
Year 2 Matching Savings 5%+. " " 10% (Double)
Year 3 10% - 25% Double 20%-50%

15

Yep, money management is definitely needed if traders want to be consistently profitable!

16

These expectations are, by far, the most conservative that I have come across. However, I do think it is a good approach to stay grounded and committed to long term goals. I think at least 5 years should be given.

Can anyone suggest a Plan of Action in chronological order for education and practice? For example:

  1. Go through babypips
  2. Start demo trading
  3. Live trading
    …etc.

I am very overwhelmed with all the different information. I need some guidance in terms of how to educate myself and how to practice trading. How have you (or how would you suggest) to approach this? What are the best times to engage? How long would it take?

17

Success for me is not high pprofits in my hands . If I am good to manage my invested amount , Can make regular profits from it and risks are not much harmful for me then I can say I am successful in trading . Success is my satisfaction that I can make a sufficient amount as return . its ratio should be good according to my investment.

18

Success in trading is making money, and as much as you can. How you do this is down to your own ability, but the only measure of success and achievement in trading is by looking at your bottom line, hence your profit and loss statement.