Loser 2 Winner

Hi,

For those who have made it or near making it in trading what changed it for you to make you profitable?

Thanks.

A new mindset. You stop doing things that make you lose money. You start doing things that makes you money, and repeat this winning mindset consistently across trades.

When you recover your years losses in a month, you know you are near making it.
When you keep making money consistently every month, you know you made it.

Attitude is very important

Please explain more about attitude? When trading or not trading?

Pipsaholic, I kind of like the difference in our names. I count the pips, and you're addicted to them--lol.

For me it was a matter of the fact that from the beginning this is what I wanted to do. I knew I was going to have to pay a price, probably more with time than money. I had to dedicate myself to learning the business, and learning a method to trade by that was going to be comfortable for me.
When I first started, I approached it as a business, and viewed myself as nothing but a professional. I bankrupted 3 small accounts, but I knew that was the price of ding business. It is still the same today, except I don't bankrupt my account anymore. Losing trades are a part of doing business, which I make 15% of the time.

I know you asked what changed. For me, it was nothing. It took 3 years to finally have a fully developed methodology. But again, that was the time element. But then, think about it. Doctors go to college for 8 years, but a professional trader is going to make a lot more than doctors. So 3 years a 3 bankrupted accounts was just a very small price to be paid.

The key (This, to me is very important) is I was going to take as much time as possible to thoroughly learn this business. I was in no rush. After all, if it took 20 years to learn to be an excellent trader, I knew I would still have the rest of my life to reap the rewards.

BTW, if you are tempted, stay away from all the get rich quick books. There is no such thing. I really believe most people fail because they don't want to take the time, learn the business, and do the hard work that is necessary to really be successful.

I know you directed your question to Juneeci, but let me say one thing laong those lines.

There are 3 absolutes you need in this buiness, and without any one of the 3 you are doomed to fail. They are:
1. Methodology.
2. Money management skills
3. Mind discipline.

No. 3 has a lot to do with attitude. It is not positive hype or reading PMA books. It has nothing to do with that
You find out how much discipline you have after you open a live account. Ask yourself if you are still staying within the established parameters you set for yourself with regards to your money management, and with entering and exiting a trade. If they weren't established on a demo account, then you are probably not ready to trade live to begin with. But if you have established yourself as a winner on demo money over a loooong period of time, then you might be ready to trade live.
The thing is something changes when you have your real money on the line. If you cannot be just as clam entering a trade with real money as you did with demo money, then there is still work that needs to be done.

Secondarily, keep a balance in your life. Get some exercise, your needed rest, and make sure you have a quiet place in your home to study charts and concentrate. Don't be haphazard in your approach to your business. This will all help in keeping the right frame of mind when it comes time to enter and exit your trades.

There is much to tell along these lines, but I'll stop for now. I look forward to talk some more.

Hey 4xpipcounter,

Yeah, I am a failed pipsaholic so far you can say that

I appreciate your advice and heard about the 3 BIG M's you need Money Management, Mindset however I think the biggest task I have is what should a new trader focus on. The Internet has so much information is actually too difficult to absorb it. There is a lot of bad information out there. So, people who have made it such as yourself should direct new traders under 2 years experience imo to things they should stay away from and things they should focus on such as price action and order flow. Also, there are easier more regulated, non-abusive instruments people can trade besides the spot forex as forex is really for advanced traders who know the game.

I dont know if you can help but I am looking for a ranging based trading system which is between 60-90% successful as I get frustrated with trend based systems.

I trader should focus on and master the 3 things I mentioned in their order. Simply put, if you do not have a methodology that tells you when to enter and exit the market, then don't worry about anything else. The methodology is all you need to focus on.
Afterward, let's say you have developed the most awesome range bound methodology that is right 92% of the time, then you move on to money management, which includes position size relative to the total capital you have and placing proper stops and TP's.
Once you have made it that far, then you might be ready to go live. The test then will be your mental discipline. Once you go live, does fear or greed have a way of taking over the way you trade. Do you have the same discipline to enter and exit a trade as per the parameters of your methodology. Are you emotionally stable, or like a roller coaster, depended on if you have a series of winning trades or losing trades?
In essence, it is not a matter of choosing which one of the 3 you want to focus on. There is an order. After all, what good does it do to try and focus on the mental discipline, if you don't know how to enter and exit a trade? You should not even be trading live until you have fully mastered a methodology and money management skills.

There is way too much garbage on the internet. The best site I know of that it a complete free service is Action Forex. Their forecasters are excellent and an excellent source to learn from, and they also have a lot of free material there.
Also, right in this forum, there are some excellent threads to learn a methodology and to trade by. If you are looking to use a range bound type of methodology, then experiment with different indicators and some of the methodologies taught in this forum, then see how they react within your learning scope.
I would also suggest to take notes. Get involved by asking questions and making comments. Treat this as school, and you are learning at your pace. The nice thing is there is no charge for this school, except to keep the internet payments up. Even if it takes you 8 years, you will have done the same study time as a doctor, except you won't be in debt and your earning potential is greater than a doctor.

I would disagree with you on one thing, but maybe it is only my personal opinion. I don't see where forex is abusive, nor for advanced traders. Spot forex is all I have ever known, from the day I started on July 20,2004. I have also found my methodology works on any market, so I have what could be a personal bias that a methodology should be able to work on any market.