Thanks for your answer. I m placed in GMT+2 and generally I can manage my time since I m in a family job so I can arrange my time. Definately I can trade on daily basis. I m not sure what you mean by tools/software. I suppose like NT? Concerning my programming skills I m a hardcore programmer meaning I adapt to anything. I ve programmed almost every language available! I wish I had a 20% of my programming skills in trading. Finally I m quite careful with risking my money so I only take trades 1:2 or greater. But never more than one pair at the same time. At least till I m consistent.
Generally I think that my main problem is that cause I m reading too many threads and forums, I also read about different opinions on the same subjects that usually makes stuff complicate. Also cause of the above reason I vent yet found one strategy to follow. I ve studied quite a lot but not just one and expertise on it. Why? Cause for example as a newbie in forex you start reading books, webinars etc talking about head & shoulders, trendlines, channels etc and dozens of indicators and when you pass in action all these do not work in action. So you don't know what to follow! So 4 years know I ve studies so many stuff! So many! Now I m not sure what I should through away and what not... to be honest I ve already forgotten a big part. But my problem is how to guide my self from now and on. Cause for example on a naked chart I can easily recognize patters, trendlines, supply&demand, wolfe waves etc etc and actually tell you what is gonna happen. But then I get in an analysis paralysis cause I find so many reason for price not to lower/higher etc like pivots, supply/demand etc etc. Even if I start the enalysis from Weekly->Daily->h4->h1->30M and down to 15 Min I keep find new reasons for price to exit. Ok I m too confused... I just said all these above so I can also read them again in the future to check if I ve done any progress! Anyway ... I suppose that a successful trader has to find out his own way to success. Thats why for example once a very successful trader told me to study very very well all the chart patterns (engulfing candles etc). A month later I talked with another individual trader (very successful as well) were he told me that patterns are a just waste of time.
Ti kanite... If you're good at programming you might want to look into taking a data mining approach and develop systems off of that. That might be a better way for you to go rather than do pure discretionary style trading. Not may traders can write code, you by contrast have the opportunity. Might better suit your personality.
A few things: 1) Stop listening to everyone and what they have to say about what or where price is going. That will confuse you more, trust me. you never want to have a bias when trading, try and only trade what price action is telling you, it helps to have an overall view of what is happening, but try to stay away from a bias Long or short. If your heading the wrong way on a trade, once your method has validated is the wrong direction, get out and wait for your signal to go the other way. 2) Majority of successful traders take anywhere between 3-5 years to figure this thing out. I always say, if it was easy, then everyone would be doing it. Its time consuming, so dont listen to all the people who say its taken you too long, but you have to be progressing though and you should feel like your improving each month. A mentor can help cut the time down, but even that, you have to figure this out yourself, and believe in yourself that you will succeed at this.
It took Gary Smith 19 years to go from break even to profitable (after which he parlayed $2000 into nearly $1MM over the course of a decade, an audited record). His biggest stumbling block: failing to analyze his trades.
athan00, Thanks for your replies. If you've been toying around with the market for 4 years, you must be doing something right, if not you'd be long gone. Looks like you have it all! 1. Surfing forums is not studying the market. There are some good threads on many topics, but IMO surfing forums for the sake of surfing is a total waste of time. Choose a few traders you feel may augment your learning and leave the rest to FLAME ON!! 2. I think this is near the root of you issue. 3. You're NOT a newbie, you're just acting like one, IMO. 4. This is BullShit, if you haven't found what appeals to you after 4 years, then maybe you should hang up your jock strap for good! Start somewhere and figure out what fits your personality, day, swing or position trading. Price action or technical analysis trading, only you can decide. 5. It's long past the time to clean out the attic, you can fuck around for another 4 years or you can get on with it. 6. See below 7. I'm looking for a cry baby smiley but can't find one. What you're talking about here is the whole concept/structure of the free market process. NOTE, there is substantial risk involved in futures trading. _ IMO, the issue is WHY you can't (won't) make a choice. Ask that question to yourself 10 times and write down the 10 answers, see what you come up with._Honestly I'm sorry for being blunt, but it sounds to me like you need a foot in your ass! Maybe it's because you're involved with a family business and never had to apply yourself to making it on your own, I know I've failed my kids to some extent by always having "a job" for them so they could slack off when ever the going got to hard. You're the one who started this thread looking for advise/help, I'll offer a suggestion. Pick something to follow, whether it's Al Brooks, Elliott wave theory, Market delta or Welles Wilder pick something. You don't have to go to your grave with the choice you make today, just start somewhere. Set a deadline for yourself, e.g. by Monday I'm going to pursue THIS and ONLY THIS. Then after you've made your decision make another to stick with your choice for 1 week, (see if you can). During that week, don't change anything,,, not even the settings of a moving ave, just make a note of the setting you may wish to test or change and stick with your original choice of settings for the full week. After a full week THEN you can tweek your settings. Then follow those setting/rules for another week. I think you're on the right path with this statement, " I ve studied quite a lot but not just one and expertise on it." I believe many will agree that committing to just one method/style and striving to achieve " expertise" is an honorable undertaking. This is not to say you cannot study other theories in the future and incorporate them in your method or design another (second) method.
" Win or lose, everybody gets what they want out of the market. Some people seem to like to lose, so they win by losing money......" " Until you master the basic literature and spend some time with successful traders, you might consider confining your trading to the supermarket.....' Ed Seykota also....... anyone who takes 10 years to get onside the game, must truely enjoy self flagellation. cheers, s
Sam Seiden teaches highly useful stuff. I light bulb went on for me after I looked into his concepts. If you only look for setups at these levels, your chances of a profitable trade go up dramatically. You need something that triggers this trade at the specific zone though. This could be anything from fibonacci levels, moving averages acting as support/resistance, stochastics or patterns in price action and/or volume... The concept here is confluence. Just shorting supply and buying demand levels obviously won't work. You'll have to experiment with it. If you stick to Sam's stuff, you are certainly not on the wrong path. There's an active thread on Seiden's techniques at Traderslaboratory, you might want to check it out. BTW, there is nothing wrong with surfing all the boards, trading websites....after all you need ideas and inspiration, even if 99% of what is written about trading is not useful, the 1% that is of value can make the difference in your career. Other good educators/traders: 1) Al Brooks 2) Marc Fisher with his ACD stuff 3) futurestrader71 Oh yeah, onnce you have figured this out, you might realize that trading for a living is not what it's cracked up to be...
Many thanks for all of your replies. Went Fishing you were exactly on the point mate. (No I didn't get offended since you were trying to help). Generally I ll try all the advises you are suggesting and I ll get back. Starting from today!