Kreslik.com - traders community since 2006

Chapter 2

The second chapter of my story began once the realization that the only way to go is to learn to trade by myself hit me.

Where do I go?
What do I look for?
Who is the best and who is not?

The only guide that I had when I began was that I wanted money. Profits. That meant pips. Most of my reading material in the beginning came from my friends who were with our former company. By then I had stopped joining the group for trading and most of them in the group decided to leave and head out on their own. Some stayed with forex and some went to look for a day time job.

I had read so many books, E books and forums it was beginning to go in circles. From my experience there are only two types of books out there.

A. The first type is the sort of books written by people who make their money by writing books. ( Read the previous sentence again. They make money by publishing not trading ). This type of books will never help newbie traders like us because it only talks about stuff that we already know exists out there. RSI, Stochastic, ADX, MA lines, Trendlines, Channels, Support and Resistance etc. What do these things mean? How do you use that?. None of these books talk about how traders use these indicators profitably. You will often see statements such as " if it crosses 20, you buy, if it crosses 80, dont trade cause its oversold. If it was only that easy everyone in the world would be trading, including the author of the book. The acid test for these people is when you ask them if they can show you how they execute a trade in real time. They wont be wasting their time writing and publishing books to make a buck if they knew half of the things that they were talking about.

B. The second type of writers and books out there are also of no help to newbies. These are written by people who mostly have traded for so long that they forget that the language they are using is probably called "tradespeak". Yes people. Its as real as English, Tamil, Malay, Urdu or Arabic. Its a language in itself even though it could be written in English. As an example I had this book by a trader called Alan Farley. It was as thick as a telephone directory. I think it was nearly a thousand pages. I read it from cover to cover thinking that there must be something in it that can help me start making some profit. I think Alan forgot that he is not talking to a bunch of traders out there. If you are new you wont understand half of what is written in it. I could not see a single chapter or pointer in his entire book that could help me. To be fair the book was full of insights. Its just that I did not understand what he meant because of all the jargon. Example?. Try using the word "Pullback" in your conversation with a plumber or a doctor. They might have a vague idea what you mean but vague is not good when you are trading. So like I said it was all Tradespeak.

So where does one go when books and other printed materials fail you?...
The Internet of course. The World Wide Web where information is free. You can find anything and everything you would ever want on the web. So I started trawling the net for anything that could help me. The net though comes with its own set of challenges. There is as much of useful information out there as there is junk. You just didnt know which was the real deal and which was just a con job or utter rubbish.

I had joined so many forums. I watched hours and hours of you tube videos. I posted topics. Sent emails. I did nearly everything that people do online to get someone to teach me how to trade. I joined some of the most viewed, read and followed postings on certain forums. I tried following popular netizens like TRO ( The Rumpled One ). I spent up to 20 hours a day just reading everything I came across. I wanted to find the holy grail of trading. How do people make profit by reading the market?. How do you make money from the market?. When do I enter and when do I exit. What is a Stop Loss and how do I pick one.

The internet had the same issues the publishing world did as far as trading was concerned.
A. Scam artists who speak in jargon and make money by cheating others.
B. Real traders who speak in jargon and just dont have time for newbies and their silly questions.

I spent the best part of eight months searching for a single forum or website which would be able help me with trading. Such a simple goal. How to pick entries and exit them. Buy or sell. 50 - 50. How difficult would it be teaching someone on how to make a 50 - 50 decision?. All the while I was trading demo accounts. I tried all kinds of indicators. There were times I had that many indicators that I couldnt even see my candlestick chart any more.

All in all I swore to myself that when I find out how to trade successfully I would write a book that will teach people in very simple basic English on how to trade.

So where did i learn how to trade and what about that book that thought trading in simple language?
Well that has to wait for my next chapter.

I think most serious noob traders that don't have access to an MBA, CFA start this way... But in the same way as someone who has endeavored for 5 years on their MBA et al, I will be damned if I'm not draining the living daylights out of the banks within the next 4 years...

I have come to discover that the most important aspect of this job is patience and humility... If you haven't got it, get it... and this includes having the kahunas to admit when you are wrong and to take the loss, or to take a smaller profit in the hopes of greater reward to come...

Its a numbers game really whereby a few big moves a year will spare me from all the little losses and minor gains spent trying to access the position en route to the big drop or rally...

My spiritual master is quoted as saying that; "There are four classes of men: lazy intelligent, busy intelligent, lazy fool and busy fool. First-class man is lazy intelligent. Busy fool is very dangerous."

How is lazy intelligent better than busy intelligent??

My guess is that lazy intelligent gets other people to do the work for her/him??

Is that it?

Hey TK

It's much deeper than that... Lazy intelligent is a product of busy intelligent... first one must be busy in order to become lazy... In this example I study study study to become a market guru... once this has been achieved I can be lazy and watch the money roll in. The intelligence comes from your specific level of realization... A intelligent person understands the nature of material things is that they are temporary & limited, thus they focus on getting through life with the least amount of physical burden... Think about it... You are a wealthy man and your basic need is food... You spend $100 on your food and you are satisfied. A poor man spends $1 on his food and he is also satisfied... The satisfaction is the same... If you wanna quantify it further you can say that a hand full of rice can satisfy both a poor and a rich man... There is no way for the rich man to consume a $100 worth of rice in one sitting... so this satisfaction is also limited...

A fool is like the ass... The ass works very hard to serve his master, who dangles a carrot on a stick in front of the ass and the ass then moves towards the carrot, and pulls a heavy cart of goods to the market... Even though there is grass everywhere, the ass is fixated on the carrot and wants the carrot... The ass will work very hard for the carrot (busy fool), even though there is lovely palatable grass all over that would equally satisfy the asses appetite...

am i getting through to you at all???

"I had read so many books, E books and forums it was beginning to go in circles. From my experience there are only two types of books out there. "

Are you saying there are not any books that help traders?

TheRumpledOne wrote:"I had read so many books, E books and forums it was beginning to go in circles. From my experience there are only two types of books out there. "

Are you saying there are not any books that help traders?

Well there were certainly none from this corner of the world TRO.

Most of the books in regards to trading that you could find in the local stores are written by locals and by the sort who make a living writing books.

TS TAN " how to be a millionaire by trading stocks"

HW GAN " How I made millions from the forex market"

NT Soon " Trading made easy"

Well after a certain number of books you could see that even the chapter layouts were identical. Oh and another thing, none of these books could be opened for a quick content cursor. U paid first and ofcourse there was never a refund.

Chapter 3

Indicators

There are so many web pages there advocating so many types of indicators and a combination of indicators. Listed below are some of the pages I use to visit. Its just to give you and idea on the sort of websites I use to visit.

http://www.babypips.com
http://www.investopidia.com
http://www.forex-trading-domain.com
http://www.tradecurrencies.com
http://www.traderradio.net

I spent so many hours and trades trying out their systems.

Some were so simple. It was so simple I just couldnt see how to use it.

Other systems had a checklist that would have put a pilots checklist to shame. Look for this. Then watch for that. When all this looks favourable then put in that. By the time I was on the fourth or fifth checklist I had forgotten what was it that I was suppose to look out for originally.

Each system using one or a combination of indicator would work for me initially. I would make a few pips then in a week or two it would stop working. Then I would move on to another system and the same process repeated itself. Most of the indicators or systems were used in the stock markets. Would it still work on the forex market?. The other problem was unlike the stock market the movements in the forex market was so quick and volatile you just didnt have enough time make the call. Atleast for a newbie like me.

I was lucky in a sense that unlike so many newbie traders that I knew, I did not discard what I had looked into earlier when it stopped working. I kept looking into what is it that I was missing. I just kept adding to what I knew. What to add on the parts I was missing and what to discard or avoid due to earlier mistakes. But all the same, it was still not working for me.

My attitude was if it is not working then I am missing something. I never blamed the system. The attitude always has to be that the trader who is missing something. Never fault the system. The truth is all systems work. Some better than the others. The question was,

A. What is the sort of risk a trader is taking with his chosen system.
B. Does the system suit the trader.

By this time, the market conditions had also changed.
When I started with Mega Anthem, all I had to do was go to the office daily, open my demo and just click sell. I didnt have to even bother with cutting off the previous trade as the market was just dropping. It was what I came to find out as a trending market. A 5 thousand dollar demo became 30 plus thousand dollars in a matter of two or three weeks. Nearly a year later here I am, and the markets were going up and down like a rollercoaster. It was up for two weeks then it came crashing, just as soon to fly back up again.

After months of reading and testing I came to realisation that unless I can find a fellow trader who is willing to share his knowledge, then my challenge to be a profitable trader is going to be very difficult. I needed someone to guide me. Where do I find someone like that??

All the trading forums etc. was not good enough. You would post a topic or question and there would be 50 people who would reply and nearly none answered your question satisfactorily. Or worst you never get a reply. The zero replies usually came from forums with more experienced traders. I think they were generally irritated with newbies who would naturally be asking very basic questions.

I was still picking trades blindly. I was still trying to read the market movement with what I knew. I thought I knew a mountain. On hindsight it was a molehill.

So one day as I was going around the internet doing the usual and I received a message on Facebook. It was an invite from one of the groups I had joined. It basically said that we are going to stop giving out signals from Facebook and all group members are invited to join a room in Paltalk. I couldnt even remember joining this group. I joined which ever group that had the word forex at that time.

The signal was given by a trader called Zabar. I did what I was doing all this time and I downloaded Paltalk and joined the group. There I met a few more fellow traders and I was introduced to a trader called Luminousfx. Zabar introduced me to Luminousfx and the group talked about trading in the room for a week or so.

The paltalk group was something very different from all that I had come across at that time. For the first time I had come across a trader that gave out signals real time. He would tell us to " Buy NOW!...SL is at x.xxxxx. Not only would it be a profitable trade but he went as far as telling us where to take profit. Then he would say sell on the same pair and whats the SL and TP. It was very exciting. For the first time I had a chance to talk to a trader and for the first time I could ask questions. Not on a forum or email or anything but in real time. I was not sure what I had found then but I knew this was the best so far. A unique opportunity that I never had before.

Then there was an announcement in the room that Luminousfx would be conducting a forex class for free in a weeks time. If im not mistaken it was on a thursday 4 pm GMT +8. I was excited but at the same time I was not sure what to expect.

So what did I find out on my first lesson with the trader called Luminousfx. ?

Well that has to be in my following chapter ofcourse. [U]

Chapter 4

I still remember the day. My husband and I were suppose to be going somewhere and I remembered that we were suppose to be online for our first lesson. What do I do? Cancel the appointment and go for the class of course.

So there we were and we all logged on for a webinar and a Luminousfx conducted my very first class. It was called Luminousfx basic and it was based on SMA200 trading. He presented us with snapshots of his trading chart for that day. It was not a chart from some distant past where anyone could have pointed out to you where to enter a trade and where to exit but a trading chart for that day. I knew then that I should pay attention to what he was trying to teach us.

Luck would have it that our connection for that webinar was very bad and the lessons had to stop half way. The lessons were continued on paltalk with all the charts that we had on the next session which was on the Friday evening if memory serves me right. He started his presentation and no questions were allowed until after he was done. Question time was then based on turns.

I remember that day very clearly because for the first time I saw a trader executing a trade.The trader had a reason for entering a trade. He had a clear idea of how much he is going to risk. He read the market movements and executed a trade based on market movements. The trader picked a Stop Loss ( SL ) and there was a reason for the SL.

For the first time. I saw method and reasoning behind a trade. Clarity. What to watch for. Why enter there. Why say the trade has gone against and when to make that call. I realised on the first lesson that there is a method in the madness of the market.

Was I excited?. You bet I was. There was a trade on an SMA 200 bounce on the Daily chart. 4 straight days dropped and it was nearly 500 pips. Oh there was my holy grail. I FOUND THE HOLY GRAIL OF TRADING.

Or did I?

That is for my next chapter guys. Patience is the key.

Chapter 5

So chapter 5 picks up where chapter 4 ended. I was going to talk about my experience learning how to trade.

After the lessons, I started trading Luminous Basic on the following Monday. I had not much sleep over the weekend because I was going back and looking at the market again and again on a few pairs namely GBPJPY and EURJPY. I was salivating at the pip counts simply by picking trades on min 1 chart. My friends who I knew from my Mega Anthem days were shocked when I told them I met someone who thought me something about trading using the min 1 chart.

Anyone who knows anything about trading would tell you that you are insane if you told them that you are trading using min 1 charts. And thats exactly what I told them.

So came Monday and I started trading. Within a week I found out that as usual I am missing something. I did have some profitable trades and I had a few hitting my SL. I was still loosing pips in total because I was taking each and every trade when it crossed SMA 200 on min 1, most of them ended up hitting my SL, and not maximizing my pips on the profitable trades. I was loosing more pips then I was making.

One of the golden rules that Luminousfx spelled out clearly when our group started with him was that no one was allowed to add anything to what he was teaching us. It was either we followed what he thought us or go look for something else.
There was alot of chatter at the back among us students that there was more to what Luminousfx was teaching us because his trade signals were always profitable but we didnt have such luck. So some fell off the wagon by adding things to the basic system Luminousfx thought us. Some dropped out totally very early on.

I naturally had questions running in my head too. Was there something that I was missing?. Or was there more to what Luminousfx thought us, but for whatever reason he has not shared with us the whole picture?.

When I thought about it, it dawned to me that I should not be worried about these questions. I wanted to learn how to trade. In order to do that I had to be able to talk to someone who was a trader. What I had now was a trader who I could contact on Paltalk and YM anytime he was online to ask questions, to clarify my doubts and most importantly to learn how to trade.

As time went by group lessons ceased, and sometime after that Luminousfx stopped giving out trade signals. Free signals slowly came to a halt. He came to realize some of them in our group were not interested in learning to trade but depended on the free signals alone. They were happy when the trades made them profit but were quick to dismiss Luminousfx when it went bad. While all this was going on I was taking trades, questioning Luminousfx on my entry, SL and exits. I was busy trying to find out what was it that I was missing.
I kept questioning Luminousfx on why this happened? Where did I go wrong? What does he think of the trades I took?. What should I have looked for?. Did I cut off my trades too early or would he have held it longer? All the while I continued taking trades on demo and some in my real account. Was I making profits?. Yes. Was I taking loosing trades? Yes. Was I in net profit? You guessed it. No I was still loosing money.

There were many a times when I felt so frustrated. There were many times where I wondered if I should just quit and go back to a nine to five job. It was not easy. Especially when something worked for a week or two and then it stops working the next week. There were times I felt that trading for a living was too difficult and my believe on the possibility of trading for a living was severely tested.

I think this is where my earlier reading and effort before I met Luminousfx came in to help me. I kept coming across remarks like

1. No trading system or trader can be profitable 100% of the time. Its just the way the market is.
2. Never blame the system, its always you, the trader who had missed something for the trade to go bad.
3. It is possible to read the market. you just need to learn how to.

These statements were repeated by different people on different web pages and forums again and again.

I also came to realise very early on my journey that if I ever wanted to live life to the fullest and be able to give my parents and my kid the best in everything then it has to be through trading. I knew from my experience working on a nine to five job that I am never going to make the sort of money that I need in order for me to do all of the above.

Slowly but surely my trading was starting to get better and better. Was I making profit consistently? No. Was I loosing my demo and my real?. Yes. But I was making fewer mistakes. It was much more clearer to me now. Yes I still felt I was missing pieces of the puzzle. Blank spaces that needed to be filled. I stuck with my lessons, my question and answer sessions because each time I asked questions I got answers from Luminousfx.

Another eye opener was when I realised that there were two components to a trading system. There was the system itself and a method to use that system. You could read about the system online or in a book but you needed a mentor for the method that goes with the system.

I, my friends, found my mentor.

As the question and answer sessions went on I slowly started asking the right questions. Why do I say the right questions?. Its because I was slowly getting the answers to fill in the blanks. The blanks were the missing pieces to my body of knowledge regarding trading.

Why is this like that and why is that different?. Why did this work last week and why did it not work this time around?. Why this trade was a loosing trade when I did the same thing yesterday and it was profitable? Day by day I was getting more from our chat sessions than what would have ever been possible from reading all the written stuff out there.

Luminousfx slowly introduced me to things that would have taken me years to see for myself. Years or maybe not learned at all.

I was introduced to concepts like market times.
Asian market times, European market times, US market times. How did this affect the market.

The concept of market bias.
How to look at higher time frames to find out the current market bias and how would that affect movements on smaller time frames.

Picking Stop Losses were no longer just about the previous wave but on higher time frames.
There was method to the markets madness.

On hindsight I now understand why Luminousfx was strictly telling us not to add anything to what he was teaching us.

There is so much to look at and learn and the only way to learn that properly would be by doing it step by step. There was so much to learn out there that it would have become a jungle if it was not done step by step.

He also kept telling me to pick one pair and learn how to trade that pair. Watch how that pair behaves. How it moves. I think it was also his way of asking us to concentrate on the market rather than getting lost in so many pairs. The pair that I started out with was GBPJPY. Not the easiest of pairs to trade. Baptism in fire as they say. When I eventually started trading other pairs like EURUSD, I was surprised how easy it was to read it. All thanks to keeping with one pair initially.

You had to keep looking at the market, keep taking the trades as per system and slowly but surely the lesson he was really trying to teach you sank in. It would not have worked if it was simply pointed out to you.

The reason he asked us to get rid of all the indicators was so that we would focus on the chart. LOOK AT THE CHARTS AND NOT AT THE INDICATORS. Look at the candles. Look at where it went at its peak. Look how it turns back and falls. Look at how it did a pull back and continued to fall and create another peak. See how it bounced when its suppose to break. Look how it has created a new low and decides to shoot back up. Where do you pick your entries. Where do you put in a your SL. Watch the charts, DO NOT THINK. See, DO NOT OBSERVE. This is the main reason he kept telling us not to add things to what he was teaching us. Pay attention to the market movements.

I realise now that these lessons and the clarity that it brought with it could not be spelled out over a chat room, graph or a diagram. The student had to see and watch for themselves and ask the right questions. The right answer can be given only when the student finds the right question. Suddenly the charts started looking very different to me. I was no longer excited on the number of pips I made but on the number of good trades I made.

Do you know how hard is it to change our primal and programmed behaviour? Why do trading web sites and forums talk about trader psychology? What has that got to do with trading and the markets? Would you believe me if I told you that we are programmed to fail when it comes to trading the markets? What if I told you that we are SCARED TO BE RICH? Do not believe me?

Ill try to convince you on my next chapter. Till then go back and look at your charts again.

Chapter 6

What a mind job!

"Nobody has made their millions by clicking keyboards bro."

The above was not a statement. It was put blankly to my husband by a good friend of his. Someone he thought he could always rely on. One of his Hombres. Looking back, I think his friend told him that out of concern. His friend is a Civil Engineer. He doesnt know what the Forex market is about nor has he seen Technical trading before.

My grandfather told me the same thing when I first tried explaining what I was doing to him. He is a self made man and for all intents and purposes he is one of the most successful person in my town in his generation and the generation after that.He retired rich. He said " if it was this easy to make money, no one would be going out to work on anything and everyone would be trading".

We have been conditioned from such a young age to work hard. Then we grow up and somewhere along the line we realise that its not only hard work but there was a host of other things like accepting that you had responsibilities like a young family or aging parents or an education loan that needs to be repaid. Our working environment or the training that went to preparing us for that environment completed the mind job or whatever was missed by our educational training.

You had to work hard. You had to be part of a process. You had to create something or add value to a process. End of 30 days and so many hours later you were rewarded with a paycheck minus your savings for your retirement fund and social security contribution. Now imagine you are trying to make money with no guarantees on returns, nor a monthly basic pay, overtime, any form of credit facility and no fixed time of work. Basically contra to whatever we have seen and grown up to be.

Most of them dismiss Forex or making money from any form of market very quickly because our minds are not conditioned to think and function that way. Our mentality of judging risk and having safety nets are so thoroughly drilled into us that its subconsciously done like breathing or our hearts beating. Do you know how it feels when you are loosing money because of a click of your mouse?

Your heart suddenly starts beating so fast. Your stomach churns especially when your trade is going against you, you have had two or three loosing trades in a row and currently if you cut your position you will loose another 5 thousand dollars. Suddenly you are no longer so Gung Ho!. You feel so restless and its like you are having the hangover of a lifetime. Trust me, the feeling is so bad. Loose 5 K USD in a matter of hours and your next trade will most probably be a bad one too if you cannot calm your nerves and condition your mind to accept your loss. All this takes practice and experience. That is why people who are successful in alot of things they do dismiss markets whatsoever with a quick push. They are the sort who play very safe and never take risks in their life or they have been dragged in before and lost money because they didnt know how to trade or for other reasons like greed etc.


With this being said, when we start trading the markets, especially with real money, we tend to make a lot of mistakes. Costly ones at that. Even when you are reasonably able to read the charts, once you enter a trade nothing is in your hands. Nothing other than cutting off the position with a loss. It takes alot of practice and the right type of practice to steady your mind and your hands. This is assuming that you were not damaged by your earlier sojourns into the market by yourself. Dont assume that everything you have learned out there without a guide about the markets will be a positive addition to your trading skills. Sometimes when you are teaching a trader who has been in the market for sometime is much more difficult because they keep going back to the things that they have learned before and its hard to let go even though those lessons are making them loose money.

Then you have other more deeper issues to consider. Are you naturally the impatient type?.

Do you like the feeling of taking a bet?. Maybe a little horses or some poker?. Black jack maybe. Could never resist the tables at the local join?. 4Digit betting?. Lotto.

Come on. Everyone loves to take a chance. Isnt that one of the reasons why we looked into the market in the first place?. Did you not take a chance thinking that by reading this article I might tell you some secret about trading that will help you make some money?

How often do you do it?. Does it give you a big rush when you win regardless of the amount but a win? In other words are you a gambler? IF YOU ARE THEN THIS IS NOT FOR YOU.

It all comes down to the same thing. WE ARE MENTALLY NOT TRAINED TO TRADE THE MARKETS. From a young age we are conditioned to do all the things contra to what you do when you trade. For some its even worst because they like taking risks. Huge risks and love the feeling that comes with it when it goes their way. Natural attraction to gambling. Cutting the position with 5 or 10 pips and having a big satisfactory grin that they got it from the market but holding on for 50 to 100s of pips as its going against them thinking by some miracle they can still profit from that position. Only to cut it with 20 or 30 times more loss then it should have been.

All this is contra to the term technical trading. Precise execution after analysis is complete and a good SL already picked after looking at the charts. Not looking at the charts after the entry and saying I thought it would go down, its suppose to go down but s**t it went up!.

If it was suppose to go down how come it went up?. It was suppose to go up but our minds convinced us that its going to go down. As I was saying earlier on and been repeating myself. WHAT A MIND JOB!!

So what do we do?. How do you fix these issues?. Can it be done?. What should I do?

I will be honest and admit I still have some of these issues. I use to hold for more when I was already in profit. Then I would regret it went against my trade or hit my SL at break even. I would swear that I should have taken the 30 or 40 pips that the market gave me instead of waiting for the 50. Then there were other times that I would cut with 30 or 35 only to have that position give me a hundred or more pips. I would still be cursing myself for being so impatient.

Have I done the mistake of holding a loosing trade when I should have cut it with a minimal loss?. Guilty as charged. Do I cut positions that then shoot back up the moment I cut it and give me a healthy profit? Been there done that.

Have I seen good entries but I dont take it thinking its going one way or another even though I see a good set up with a small SL?. Two or three hours later I swear at myself for missing such a good entry which currently is 90 pips profit in my demo? Hey I just did that before I sat to write this chapter. GBPUSD shot a hundred pips up. I saw the entry with about 15 pips SL but I thought it should fall so I didnt take it. As I said, "Trade what you see not what you think" or " See dont Observe". Simple statements. Needs a real big effort to be able to.

Does my stomach churn or my heart beat very hard when I trade these days? No. Not anymore. Do my trades bother me this days?. Sometimes they do especially the ones where I made silly mistakes but otherwise no.

Do I know that trading is for me? A 100% Do I think people can make their money by clicking key boards. No I dont think so anymore. I KNOW SO!

How did I change all that?
One word. LUMINOUSFX. My mentor.

The question and answer sessions that I have had with him. The hundreds of hours he has spent teaching me. The encouraging words he gives me. His account statements that he has shared with me occasionally. The excel chart that spells out the trading plan, spells out the SL, the risk we are taking and the number of lots that we should take per trade. All this helped me tremendously in overcoming my psychological fear and mental blocks.

Now my statement above says what Luminousfx did for me.

What did I do for myself? Ill put that in point form :-

1. I believed in the market. I convinced myself earlier on its possible to make money from it. I just needed to learn how.
2. I believed that my mentor could teach me how to trade with minimal risk and a healthy profit. I saw that for myself in his signals.
3. I always told myself that I am not seeing something. Always have it in you that you are not seeing something. Do not blame things that are not in your control. It only makes the situation worst. When my trade goes against me I never gave room for negative thoughts.
- I never think " Oh my mentor is hiding things from me. He is not teaching me all he knows"
- I think this is too hard and the market is too volatile to make a living out of it.
- I never let negativity creep in and create doubts. Even when my mini accounts have call margined and I had to top it up.
Again and again mind you.
- I kept trading and doing what was asked of me to the best of my abilities. I kept doing it again and again. I kept asking
questions and I still do. In short I never gave up.

Slowly but surely I think my mind is adopting to the demands of the market. I was and I still am being conditioned to the needs of the market. Do I still have issues?. Yes but its much better now. I only have issues when picking trades. Not after I enter a position. I think it will get better as I get more experienced. But I am happy to report that I have got out of the starting blues.

Do mistakes happen? Yes. Even experienced traders can make bad calls. After all we are trying to profit from future movements of the market and the best way to describe it is speculation. We try to see where the price is going to go. It is always risky.

The whole idea of technical trading and learning to trade is to refine it to almost a specialized art form.

I missed GBPUSD today but I still made 100 pips on EURUSD.

My market reading has improved tremendously. My psychological side of things needs more work.

You need to be ZEN when you are trading. You need to be balanced. Not be greedy and hold on for more pips, at the same time not to cut off too short or too early. Not to be impatient and cut off a trade that is in negative, and at the same time not holding on to a hopeless trade. Nerves of steel and not be tempted to make trading calls hastily, but at the same time mentally sensitive enough to see.

But I will get there and that for sure.

I dont know what Im going to write on my next chapter. I dont mind answering posts if you have any questions on each chapter. Keep coming back. If I think I have something to share that might help someone then I will add to it.
Until then, Go keep looking at your charts!