What is your Greatest Struggle?

[ForexGuy]

The purpose of a community is to support an uplift each other. I find one of the best ways to do this is through sharing struggles. By sharing what issues we face and what steps we are taking to overcome them, we all benefit and grow.

So tell me, what is your greatest struggle and what steps are you taking to overcome it.

[detrader]

[COLOR=#181818]For me the biggest thing is discipline. While I have been forward testing my system (demo) for a year or so, and the last 3-6 months doing it live on a micro account I still have problems of staying disciplined in my setups, either closing out too early for a loss that would have been a win or waiting too long to close a winner.[/COLOR]

[ForexGuy]

Why do you think you are having so much trouble staying disciplined? Is it a lack of confidence in your trading model? Greed? Fear of Loss? Can you pinpoint it?

[Morgy]

It is widely accepted that all (self) trading is only small part system and most part mental discipline. A good trader.. one who has a rule based system and the discipline to follow it will make money on most systems that have a positive probability and win/loss ratio. Instead we obsess about indicators and stop losses and broker scams, these aspects keep us from dealing with the main issue. Two guys who focus on this issue are authors Mark Douglas and Van Tharp, both offer valuable insight into how to trade sharpening the mind. I suggest some Deepak Chopra also.

Once you work on this, your home life and trading will improve dramatically and the fog will disappear. Van Tharp says that "We get out of trading what we are looking for (approx)".. its a chilling sentence for all those who have the insight to understand it...... everyone else just carry on looking for the next best thing to make themselves easy profits. Trading is a microcosm of the Matrix film theme, once you plug into the grid it keeps you amused and focused away from the real issues.

[craibern]

Closing a trade when the 3 period MA crosses the 14 period normally gets me out in time.
Craibern

[SquareRoot]

Originally Posted by craibern

Closing a trade when the 3 period MA crosses the 14 period normally gets me out in time.
Craibern

On what time frame?

[rm_chand]

hi

any screen shots to show the exit strategy

[ForexGuy]

How quickly we get off topic. Let me see if I can redirect this thread back to its indented purpose.

As a young trader one of the great’s struggles I faced was overconfidence. Sometimes I laugh when I think about it because I had absolutely no business being overconfident. The same scenario seemed to play out again and again in my trading.

I would begin cautiously, carefully planning my trades and cautious about protecting my capital. I would do well, and would manage to string together a number of winning trades. I would watch my account balance grow and along with it my confidence.

What fallowed next is all too common. I would begin to neglect my planning and analysis. I would become less cautious, taking out positions that no longer fit my risk management strategy. Then I would hit a series of losing trades. Under normal conditions this would present nothing more than a normal draw down in my trading system. But because I was now overleveraged and overconfident, my account suffered greatly.

This process typically sent me into an emotional spiral. I could no longer make rational decisions inside the market. Eventually, the money was gone, the account was empty and I was back to questioning whether or not I could really do this job.

The story does have a happy ending though. By taking personal responsibility of my trading losses and poor decisions I found that emotion was the key contributor to my failure. I worked hard on my trader psychology and have been a success ever since.

Tell me your story.

ForexGuy

[FXSnipe]

Originally Posted by ForexGuy

How quickly we get off topic. Let me see if I can redirect this thread back to its indented purpose.

As a young trader one of the great’s struggles I faced was overconfidence. Sometimes I laugh when I think about it because I had absolutely no business being overconfident. The same scenario seemed to play out again and again in my trading.

I would begin cautiously, carefully planning my trades and cautious about protecting my capital. I would do well, and would manage to string together a number of winning trades. I would watch my account balance grow and along with it my confidence.

What fallowed next is all too common. I would begin to neglect my planning and analysis. I would become less cautious, taking out positions that no longer fit my risk management strategy. Then I would hit a series of losing trades. Under normal conditions this would present nothing more than a normal draw down in my trading system. But because I was now overleveraged and overconfident, my account suffered greatly.

This process typically sent me into an emotional spiral. I could no longer make rational decisions inside the market. Eventually, the money was gone, the account was empty and I was back to questioning whether or not I could really do this job.

The story does have a happy ending though. By taking personal responsibility of my trading losses and poor decisions I found that emotion was the key contributor to my failure. I worked hard on my trader psychology and have been a success ever since.

Tell me your story.

ForexGuy

Its like you were a mind reader writing my story, I went through exactly what you have just described Gosh it was so frustrating

[MusicMan]

Yep, same problem here. Worse, I happened to start FX trading during the summer, when the A team was on vacation. With a few indicators and some focus, I was minting (virtual) money! It seemed so easy... 90% accuracy was not uncommon for me in those heady days.

Then, the real traders got back from vacation and boom -- nothing was easy anymore. Oops!

It took me a while to adjust, but I have completely changed my strategy. Instead of manual trading, I now use EAs I have written based on systems gleaned from various FX forums. Sometimes I step in, but only when the EAs need a little help. It's working pretty well for now (knock on wood).

Overall, I think the hardest thing about trading is learning when NOT to trade. When volatility is high, you need more margin to survive the draw down, as SLs must be set further in the red. Otherwise, you just get stopped out on transient spikes, even if your basic trade is sound. My approach to that is to observe several pairs and select the ones that have a certain "Goldilocks" look -- not too quiet, but not too volatile. Then, the EAs (and even I) have a better chance to trade in the black.

The other thing I do is have EAs trading multiple currencies at once. This minimizes the effect of price patterns the EAs don't do well with. Every EA seems to have its Achilles heel market, but it is less likely that several currency pairs will exhibit this behavior at the same time.

MM