How were you introduced to trading? I was introduced to trading by one of my best friends. At that time in my life I did not know what I wanted to do, but when I was introduced to trading I fell in love the more time I spent in the charts because I am very interested in psychology as well as philosophy. The markets are a representation of the economy but they are also a representation of mass human psychology. And looking at the charts in a philosophical sense can definitely help.
After how much time did you become a consistent trader? It took me about a year and a half to become a consistent trader I would say. I think the key aspects that helped me to become consistent were journaling my trades, psychological journaling, writing down my affirmations as well as my values, and going over those daily. I think a big thing for myself to becoming consistent was writing down my goals of who I want to be, what I want to do, things I want to get, and having clarity about it all. I feel like if you write out your goals and have absolute clarity that will aid in you becoming a consistent trader because in trading it is all about the processes.
Do you have a specific trading plan? The way I trade is by reading price action so with that being said I read price action from the monthly all the way down to the daily time frame and I take entries on the 4,2,1 hourly time frames. I mainly trade continuation patterns because they are the most probable trade setups but I also trade reversals and impulses. Depending upon my PnL during the week I try to come up with a trading plan depending on if I am up or down and then depending on if I am up or down I will either take the more probable trades or I will trade a lot more opportunities that are presented. At the end of the day if a trader knows his edge then his only job is to execute relentlessly.
Please describe your trading routine? My routine is to get up early around 4:30 AM, brush my teeth, grab a coffee and breakfast and then by 5:00 – 5:30 AM be at the charts and go over all the pairs that I watch which include 40+ pairs as well as look at the news. Once I look over everything then I will do some psychological journaling and then go to the gym. Once I come back from the gym I will grab something to eat and then go back to the charts and do some backtesting or some reading. I try to spend at least 8 hours a day doing something for trading whether that be reading the news, backtesting, reading something to do with forex or just self-development, watching videos on psychology, or self-development. You have to treat trading like a business so I try to always be doing something for the betterment of my business.
Do you have any risk management techniques? If so, please, elaborate? My risk management strategy involves mitigating the risk as structure plays out. So basically when I enter the trade on whatever time frame that I initially took entry on, once a new higher low or lower high is created then I will move my stop loss to that newly created point in structure thereby reducing the risk of the trade. Also, if I do not get the chance to mitigate risk by the time my 1:1 is hit and price just impulses to my 1:1 I will move my stop loss to my entry point making the trade risk-free.
What was your biggest challenge in trading, and how did you overcome it? My biggest challenge has been managing the emotions from taking losses because for myself when I have taken losses in the past it had a tendency to make me hesitate on trades.
I have overcome it because I feel like as you get more and more experience you start to realize like I said prior, your only job as a trader is to know your edge and execute relentlessly. Losses do not mean anything in the smaller term, you have to focus on the longer-term picture and as long as you keep learning from your losses, you need to stay focused on putting your edge to work and giving it the chance to perform.
What was the key moment of your trading career? A key moment for my trading career I would say was when I really started to fully grasp how price moves, price can only move in 3 ways, up, down, sideways. From the get go I wanted to be able to fully understand how price moves because I felt like for me that was a big reason I had fear of getting involved in plays. The unknown creates fear. Eliminate the unknown, eliminate the fear. Knowledge is key.
What do you think are the most important characteristics for maintaining a stable trading career? I would say the most important characteristics for maintaining a stable trading career are mental grit, discipline, and having enough emotional IQ to manage your emotions.
Do you apply any mental/psychological routines while trading? Please elaborate. Whenever I take losses I will immediately write down my goals and affirmations. I also try on a daily basis to take mental notes of how I am feeling and however I am feeling I will write it down so that I can gain clarity on my mental state and gauge how it may effect my trading.
What was your strategy for successfully passing The 5%ers’ Evaluation Program? My biggest strategy for passing the 5%ers evaluation program was risking only half a percent on trades but once the relative drawdown was removed then I was able to risk one percent of which helped a lot for gaining ground.
But also just following my risk management plan and not deviating from it really allowed me to succeed in this program.
Please share your recommendations for online resources that were/are significant in your trading development. A massive part of my trading development was my mentor ThatFxTrader. I cannot say enough good things about him and the help he has given me to become the trader I am today.
Another big help has been FalconFx on YouTube for a lot of mental tips for trading.
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