TOTW If you could go back in time, what trading advice would you give yourself?

This week's TOTW poses the question, 'If you could go back in time, what trading advice would you give yourself?'

Step out of your TARDIS or DeLorean (take your pick!), and come face to face with you former self; from the knowledge and experiences you've gained over the years, what trading advice you would give yourself?

ps. Let's assume you don't have a copy of the trading equivalent to Grays Sports Almanac :cheesy:

Last week's TOTW: Is it possible to feel no emotion when you win or lose a trade?

I would have spent less time on a demo account and put in a small amount of money (few hundred quid) and started trading it earlier.

The step from demo to real money was huge for me. It taught me things about myself that I didn't know and couldn't read in any book or on any website.

I sure that losing real money made me a much better trader.

Demo trading is great for learning the mechanics of trading, but it very definitely is not real!

Stay with it, patience, it will come good eventually.

It will take longer to become consistent than you initially thought.

Trade longer TFs in the beginning, so you can keep earning whilst learning.

Get over the fascination with indicators sooner rather than later. Understand correlation.

Learn to be wrong gracefully, and without self-reproach. If you're going to be wrong, do it cheaply.

Don't take it personally.


Failing that, I would go back in time with a print out of the highs and lows of EVERY volatile market.
Or patent red-coloured bubblewrap and call it stress-buster. (one for the Red Dwarf fans out there)

If it was before I learnt it would be Learn as much as possible, and don't waste it on worthless courses, instead visit T2W for guidance.

If before early stages it would be don't trade with 10% risk/trade with no SL.

If before last year it would be stop modifying your strategy, or you will end up with something totally different, which doesn't work, and will batter you psychologically.

If it was one month ago, then it would be, TAKE EVERY 'KIN TRADE, and remember that OH is always home from work around 18.20. :whistling

Best
John

If anyone comes up to at any point in the future, lookin a lot like yourself, and tries to give ya any advice, kick him square and hard in the nuts and walk on.


Apologies to me twin brother as I thought it was me.

Kidding aside, I don't know I'd take any more notice of meself than I did any of the other good folk who have tried to advise me throughout me formative years, and beyond. I rather like the organic way I've developed and done what I've done and I'm sure most other traders feel the same way too. If we hadn't done the stuff which in retrospect we realise wasn't such a good idea, we probably wouldn't have got where we are today. I think it's a major error to believe you can know the results of advice however well intentioned. One mistake avoided could take you off down a route where you make ten times as many.

I've lost count of the number of professionals I've encountered over the years across a range of issues whose advice in retrospect was worse than none at all.

I suppose I'm sayin keeping your own counsel is better than any advice you'll ever get from anyone else as only you know you.

You should have started scalping for $0.05-0.10/share per trade at 90% success before spending 6 months losing $60k gambling on penny stocks and other home runs.

I would tell myself to seriously not listen to anyone, ironically including myself.

brewski1984 said:

I would tell myself to seriously not listen to anyone, ironically including myself.

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Many people do take advice from peer traders doing no better, if not worse than themselves.

I would focus on reading 2 good trading books and stick to the principles outlined in them. A good book that comes to mind is Quantitative Trading by Ernest P. Chan.

I would also add the importance of focusing on only a handful of markets (3-4) to start with.
I spent too long trying to follow 20+ Forex pairs, being a jack of all trades, expert in nothing.

These days its FTSE, DAX, DOW and EUR/USD only

ffsear said:

I would also add the importance of focusing on only a handful of markets (3-4) to start with.
I spent too long trying to follow 20+ Forex pairs, being a jack of all trades, expert in nothing.

These days its FTSE, DAX, DOW and EUR/USD only

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I feel the same applies to the stock market. People wake up every morning and gamble on the biggest pre-market movers not even knowing what the company does. I greatly increased my success rate by sticking to a small selection of stocks that I follow and know well, such as AAPL, TSLA, and GOOG. I know them all very well, although sometimes TSLA can be a heart breaker.

Sharky said:

This week's TOTW poses the question, 'If you could go back in time, what trading advice would you give yourself?'

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I really appreciate very much for the question. I have challenged myself for sometimes with such trivia.

One much more precious thing than an advice to myself is that I realize a big stupidity phenomenon of my own. Once I got busted with my first account, I just know that a new trader is just like a new walking baby pushed to climb up the moon.

So my advice to myself should be: Read (in Arabic= Iqra', in Bahasa= Baca, in Javanese=Wacanen).

Thank you.

Imagine yourself as a 15 year old virgin - who's not even kissed a similar aged member of the opposite sex - embarking on a new journey away from home - ie - a two month vacation in Magaluf or Ibiza with the aim of becoming a new sex god

Its going to be fantastic - you know your attractive - you have been reading all the right books etc etc

What can go wrong?

OK - I suppose its just bad luck that you have consumed far too much sangria the first 3 times you pay for the services of the local hooker and then you get lucky - you make it with this "older person' who does not tell you they have a STD and then finally you hit 'gold' and have a weeks relationship that you later finds leads to an unwanted pregnancy

No surely - nothing could be worse than this experience in real life?

Well yes - its known as trying to be a successful retail forex trader

Instead of being a two month or two year adventure - its more likely a three or five year 'jail sentence' and by then you might just be gone from a beginner to not quite intermediate level

If I had known what I would have to go through to finally get to a consistence successful level - I reckon I would have never started

Hindsight is such a fantastic thing to have - I easily wasted a few years not realising there is just so much to find out and discover - not just about the markets - but also about yourself

Not everyone will make it - well to be brutal maybe only 10 - 20% of all who start see success and then maybe only a very small percentage make continual good monies trading daily- but if you do finally get there - its well worth all the headaches, stress, commitment, hard work etc etc etc you have been through

Finally - I reckon in another 5 years I will be really good but saying that I will be retired before then - I hope

Good Luck on your trading journey

Regards

F

Forexmospherian said:

If I had known what I would have to go through to finally get to a consistence successful level - I reckon I would have never started

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+1

The shares I had and sold! No use crying over spilt milk but my answer would be to keep invested in shares and only trade to hedge those during setbacks.

Forexmospherian said:

Imagine yourself as a 15 year old virgin - who's not even kissed a similar aged member of the opposite sex - embarking on a new journey away from home - ie - a two month vacation in Magaluf or Ibiza with the aim of becoming a new sex god

Its going to be fantastic - you know your attractive - you have been reading all the right books etc etc

What can go wrong?

OK - I suppose its just bad luck that you have consumed far too much sangria the first 3 times you pay for the services of the local hooker and then you get lucky - you make it with this "older person' who does not tell you they have a STD and then finally you hit 'gold' and have a weeks relationship that you later finds leads to an unwanted pregnancy

No surely - nothing could be worse than this experience in real life?

Well yes - its known as trying to be a successful retail forex trader

Instead of being a two month or two year adventure - its more likely a three or five year 'jail sentence' and by then you might just be gone from a beginner to not quite intermediate level

If I had known what I would have to go through to finally get to a consistence successful level - I reckon I would have never started

Hindsight is such a fantastic thing to have - I easily wasted a few years not realising there is just so much to find out and discover - not just about the markets - but also about yourself

Not everyone will make it - well to be brutal maybe only 10 - 20% of all who start see success and then maybe only a very small percentage make continual good monies trading daily- but if you do finally get there - its well worth all the headaches, stress, commitment, hard work etc etc etc you have been through

Finally - I reckon in another 5 years I will be really good but saying that I will be retired before then - I hope

Good Luck on your trading journey

Regards

F

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So what advice what you give yourself - not to start trading in the first place? I think a lot of people on here would probably agree with that one.

It's not my place and neither do I have the professional training to analyse anyone's state of mind, but your analogy(?) at the start of your post was unsettling. There's left field and then there's left field.

Sigma-D said:

So what advice what you give yourself - not to start trading in the first place? I think a lot of people on here would probably agree with that one.

It's not my place and neither do I have the professional training to analyse anyone's state of mind, but your analogy(?) at the start of your post was unsettling. There's left field and then there's left field.

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seems to me like his advice to himself is pretty clear..
He wouldn't have kissed members of the opposite sex
He shouldn't look in the mirror and ask who is the fairest of them all
Don't read books
don't sleep with older women who have STD
oh and never start trading

surely it was clear as day

Nobody has the right to tell me not to sleep with hookers.

Sigma-D said:

So what advice what you give yourself - not to start trading in the first place? I think a lot of people on here would probably agree with that one.

It's not my place and neither do I have the professional training to analyse anyone's state of mind, but your analogy(?) at the start of your post was unsettling. There's left field and then there's left field.

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Hi Sigma D

When I started just after 2001/2 - so many things were so different to nowadays.

There was just not all the free information on the net about all the crooks in forex trading - not just about bogus vendors and false gurus - but also about deceitful banks and brokers and so much misinformation that told you anyone can make money trading FX - just crack the 'Holy Grail' and within a year or two you will make millions all from just a few thousand buck

I imagined the success rate was like 40% for anybody with a brain who could count and had say 2 O levels

The brokers and the banks i was told had to keep to strict guidelines and of course everyone in the 'game
' would be totally honourable and never would even think of parking on a double yellow line or even not declaring everything on their tax returns

This was pre -world wide recession days - money was dead easy to borrow- I think at that time I could get over £50k of cash off just 2 credit cards if I needed it at something like 12%apr - so the idea of spending £3 to 5k on FX education via courses etc was nothing - and then I would be on the winners side. - LOL

I had spent 25 years in the business world with 15 years at senior director level etc - I was street savvy - I thought I could spot spivs and wide boys from 5 miles away etc etc

I really did think that within two to three years I would be raking it in - as I had the time - the money - the brain power and commitment to get there.

I was just so wrong

It was over three years before things started to make sense and over five years before I had the knowledge and confidence to say OK - I am ready for going full time.

I am sure there are traders who make it under.3 years - but there are also some traders - like the one in the BBC programme who after 7 years are not really making a consistent return

No vendor or guru who tries to get you to pay for their course etc will ever tell you this - why would they ?

The 'Holy Grail' is really you

Can you find a trading edge and use it live in the market along with money management whilst remaining focused - level headed and totally disciplined on an on going basis - not just for a few hundred trades - but for thousands of trades over 5 or 10 years - and make money every week / month / year ?

I can answer that and say - yes I can - but its taken far longer and been a lot harder than I thought it would be - so to get there is just not a walk in the park - it probably one of the most difficult tasks you will ever undertake

Hundreds of new trading virgins enter the 'game' every week or month

Will they be lucky ?

Or will they lose all of their money catching not a STD - but the 'trading bug' that can ruin their lives ?

Going back to my original analogy - I do get a lot of pleasure nowadays effing the banks - trouble is they don't even notice lol

Conclusion

Trading is actually more difficult today as the bar stewards are using super computers and HFT to try and put you off the scent more - but at least today the internet as now made it possible to do so much more research than over ten years ago - allow yourself two to five years and then if you are really not there - be sensible and move on

Hope that helps - just off to see my therapist now (ROFL)

Regards

F

lexcorp said:

Nobody has the right to tell me not to sleep with hookers.

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You're not paying them to sleep boyo. Keep em busy.