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Good for you @budfox for admitting defeat and seeking advice. Not many people have the balls to do so.
IMO, you are owed a "thanks" from everyone that predicted your demise cause you fessed up to it and admitted they were right. You didn't run and hide, never to post again
As Big Mike already suggested, you received excellent advise in the threads you initially started but chose to ignore. There was no magical predictions being made. You're simply not the first person to approach trading like you did, and you certainly wont be the last. What matters now is,...will you go back and read every single post from your threads and actually listen?
Some suggestions:
Trade micro forex or micro futures. To start off with, your goal is NOT to make money. Your goal is to NOT LOSE money while you go through the learning curve. This is a hard pill to swallow. At this stage, you really are not trying to make money. Just survive the learning curve.
Accept that this is going to take you a LONG time. Each lesson in trading is hard earned, as you have just realized.
Learn how the markets work. Dont just dive head first into trying to make a profitable system. Why do markets move? How do different time frames affect the market? Do you notice any repeatable patterns, what is causing them? Markets are fractal, have you observed this for yourself? What is your belief about what drives markets intraday, swing etc?
Be careful of using indicators early on. They certainly have their place for some, but if your only focus is on indicators at this stage, then you're not learning to read the market, you're learning to wait till squiggly lines cross. Add indicators later if you feel the need to at that point.
Good luck. Do it right this time round. Take it slow. Learn. Heed advice. Lose the ego, lose the sarcasm.
The point of this whole thread is that I am willing to do whatever it takes to be a successful trader . I already finished business school - so I don't have any money to pay/waste on "trading school" or a vendor, have to pay off the student loans.
By fractal I mean that if I were to show you the following charts, each with their price and time info removed I can almost guarantee you would not be able to tell me which is which:
- 5 minute chart spanning 1 day
- 60 minute chart spanning 1 week
- Daily chart spanning a few months
etc...
Markets are fractal in nature meaning that the eb and flow occurs in a similar fashion across timeframes. This is an important concept to understand. It implies that if you become too obsessed with a ridiculously small timeframe chart, you lose awareness of the higher timeframe activity. Be aware of what the market is trying to do. Dont just choose to trade 5 minute charts because someone else is. Do 5 minute charts suit your schedule, risk limits, personality and trading style?
Reading the market is something that comes with screen time, experience and never ending learning. Personally I would recommend pulling up a naked chart (ie: no indicators, just price bars and possibly volume), and watch how the market moves for a few weeks. Make notes about your observations. You will start to notice predictable behavior. Why is it predicable? What is the market actually trying to do when these things happen?
You may want to investigate auction market theory. This is one view of how financial markets operate. Ultimately you need to determine a set of beliefs about how markets move. Whether that be auction market theory, support/resistance, Wyckoff, whatever. How do you believe markets move? (hint: it has nothing to do with squiggly lines crossing)
Don't try to blindly copy someone else's trading style. Being aware of and incorporating certain parts of someone's method into your own is one thing. But trying to outright copy it is a huge mistake in my opinion. Learn from more experienced traders, dont copy. This comes back to your beliefs about how markets operate. You likely dont have any real beliefs yet. No problem, we all start somewhere. But over time you will start to develop these beliefs, and spending all your time trying to copy trading methods built around other peoples beliefs will not help you.
This probably all sounds like a huge waste of time. Why can't you just throw up a few indicators and start making money. Sure,...that's one route you could go. These suggestions are just my opinion as a discretionary trader. Learning to really interpret what the market is trying to do, understanding market structure, will I believe ultimately shorten the learning curve.
1. You're focusing on the negative. Dont. ie you are focusing/studying your losers. Focus instead on your winners. Currently you are reinforcing the negative. Try to learn what you are doing right, not what you are doing wrong. Typical pop-psychology mumbo-jumbo about 'learning from your mistakes'. It's bull. It's only useful advise for complete novices.
2. Dont go adjusting your 'rules' too often. In fact, throw your rules out. Develop guidelines and boundaries by all means. You need to think in terms of probabilities, not hard rules.
3. CL. JMO, this isnt really a great market for daytraders. Its expensive and too volatile. Greed usually draws people to this market and they get killed. Professionals tend to spread it, never trade it outright. Try ES or the treasuries. Learn to trade something slower and less volatile.
4. Dont spend too long in research on the internet or backtesting. You'll get more benefit actually watching those recordings if the market isnt open. Be careful who you take advise from.