One more note, perhaps your problem is that you've tried to become a "trader" versus trying to find opportunity. Yes, there is skill in trading but without the plan.. without the ability to find opportunity then you are just pressing buttons. You need to find the other way around the universe.
Trading offers me the kind of benefits no other profession can offer. The 'present value' of those benefits is worth a lot to me. Hence, I pursue those benefits by investing the resources of time and capital, without which I cannot attain those benefits. If I could get the same benefits (or similar benefits that would be of equal value to me) through another venture which I would find easier to pursue and succeed in, I would pursue that venue instead. But as far as I am concerned, there is no alternate venue that can offer me the same bundle of benefits that trading can offer. Hence I continue to pursue trading. I don't care if I'm giving up free time, the opportunity to pursue some other career or business venture. Its worth the end result. Can I succeed? Sure. Trading is simply a 'pattern recognition game', and I think that's something most intelligent human beings can do with enough practice. The only way to succeed faster is to identify my own inefficiencies and aggressively attack them. That is the key struggle here, in my 2.5 years of pursuing this profession. Just look at how many technical analysis teachers you have - way more of them than profitable traders!
Here is my suggestion: read up on trendlines in a technical analysis book. Consider this Euro chart and the lines therein. When bar closes above down trend line, go long (green dot), likewise go short when the opposite is true.
Trendlines are not allowed at ET. Charts, anything other than totally blank ones, are not allowed at ET. Only the 3-min. and 1-min. timeframes are permitted at ET. The weekly timeframe is so sacrilegious and preposterous as to be equivalent to one hundred thousand lifetimes. And the monthly timeframe? Fuck, that is akin to going back to biblical times - there were no dollars in 'em days but sons of bitches, yeah.
Throw away all the books you have on trading. Throw away all your TA crap and indicators. Spend time watching the market. Take notes on strange things you see. After several months of watching the market and taking notes, see if there is any pattern you can exploit. Try it out on a paper account first. You need to have a real edge if you hope to have any chance in the long run.
The problem with trading industry in general is that 99% of the educational material is JUNK and of no use. By the time a trader figures out a method to fit his/her personality, 2-4 years along with capital is under water. I went through same process till i finally decided i will only read or pay attention to someone who is currently trading and has record to back it up. Somehow i came to know about Mark Fisher of www.mbfcc.com and author of The logical Trader. When i read he is has an MBA from Wharton with distinction, was the youngest pit trader at one time and per Paul Tudor Jones is the best pit trader ever, i shut down everything and its been a life changing experience. Following is from a fellow ACD trader named maverick74. Good luck. Here is what I like about ACD. The idea in trading, like anything in life, is to look for the opportunity that others are not seeing. Head and shoulders, reversals, doji's, 200 day moving averages, moving average crosses, support and resistance, etc, everybody sees that shit. It's plain as day. Hell if you miss any of that stuff, CNBC will point it out to you to remind you. There is no edge in anything that everybody can see right in front of them. So the idea is to become a good price action trader and ACD allows you to see price action better then any other method I have seen. This is why it's hard to back test ACD as many have tried because they are back testing simple binary action. The idea is to identify price action that is NOT obvious to everyone else. ACD is one of those things you just have to practice like tennis. The more products you watch, the better your feel will become. Because ACD is a price action based methodology, others can't take your edge away from you. You know the old saying, if everyone does it, then it won't work anymore. That doesn't apply here. If you can learn to master ACD, you can keep your edge into perpetuity.
athan00 So you have another job, that's a good thing. What time zone do you live in and what time period of what FX trading session can you avail yourself for trading? What style of trading appeals to you most, maybe you've been trying to put a square peg in a round hole. As you know the different sessions have different characteristics, and they are all coiled to strike at the immediacies of economic reports and breaking news. If you're truly searching for answers and hold a firm desire to pursue FX trading I invite you to come forth with a little more information. What time of what session can you commit yourself to trade on a daily basis? What tools/software do you have? Are you one of those "NinjaTrader Geeks," what are your programming skills? What is your aversion to risk, how many contracts can you control? For those of us that may choose to offer constructive help, give us something to work with.
I prefer hourly bars myself. I only wish I knew how to program a trendline in easylanguage. An trendline algo would make an absolute killing.
I think the folks who talk about strictly price action with out all the gadgets are on the right track. Try to learn how to pick your spots and be fast. In your case - probably good idea to take a break for a while. As for there being an interest in mentoring -- its something I've been thinking about. I may give it a try w/ 3 traders to see if I can turn them around. I'm pretty sure I can. If successful, I will expand w/ another group. I'm talking strictly futures. The way I envision it is that I'll give a lecture outlining what it is we are trying to do. I can do that in a few hours. I'll also put some sort of work book together. Then for the next 3 months we trade - side by side live - in my office. Trainees trade along side me and I'll show them what I believe should be done. 1) How to put on trades. When not to trade. What keys to look for to place an order. When to add to a pos. 2) what markets to trade; How/where/why to get out after being filled. 3) Preservation - taking losses and trying to minimize draw downs - things like that. This would be the business model for the IB I'm considering. I know the sort of person Im looking for. There will be an application and interview process. those selected who want to join will be shown my trading statements and expected to sign various legal waivers.