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My name is Dan. I'm a full time electrical engineer, and I've been trading on the side. I got into engineering because I was driven to understand how complex systems worked. I got a job immediately out of college, and have been designing electronics for several years now.
I have never succeeded socially (never had a girlfriend in spite of my efforts), and this has profoundly shaped the direction of my life. I am not complacent with working all day, making dinner, going to sleep, and repeating until I die. I spend every night studying things I am interested in (mainly analog and RF electronics, and control systems engineering). After getting to a point of proficiency with these subjects (which I still study regularly), I became interested in the markets because it advertises an escape from this lifestyle.
Not knowing where to begin, I opened an Etrade account got into stock trading several years ago, trading based on rumors, feelings and hype. My equity curve had wild swings, and I knew it was unsustainable, but I also just had faith that if I kept in the game that I'd stumble upon what was needed to become profitable.
I started following the Motley Fool, and after losing a lot of money to almost every single one of their suggestions (Netflix was particularly painful), I got a little sick of the "Buy to Hold" mantra. I wanted to take action, and buying to hold for 50 years was not satisfying that desire. A little over a year ago, I stumbled onto the Forex market and created an account with Forex.com.
After a few frustrating months trying to decipher market moves and the effects of fundamental data, I stumbled on Todd Brown and The Trading Authority. That was my first introduction professional technical trading (i.e. repeatable, testable, and auditable). Before that, technical trading seemed more like astrology to me. I really liked what he said, because not only did it make sense, but he also encouraged skepticism and individual verification of his concepts. I don't know whether you guys have strong opinions about him or if you've even heard of him, but his training is what really lit my lightbulb.
I was fascinated by his use of Fibonacci ratios to predict extensions, because they just seemed like a bunch of random numbers that just so happened to work. I started researching it, and learned about the Harmonic Trading method. I read all of Scott Carney's books, and really got behind the fundamental theories of the harmonic trading method. Unfortunately, it's very opportunistic, and it's difficult to guarantee I'll be there to execute a winner in the Forex market since a large amount of the trade volume occurs during the London session, right after I go to bed. It's a whole lot of waiting for trades I may never have the opportunity to execute. It's especially frustrating when a harmonic pattern plays out exactly as I expected, and I don't make a penny off it because I waited for the completion which happened overnight. I started looking for something that would allow me to repeatably take trades during the impulse legs and not just at the completions.
During my Fibonacci research, Elliott wave theory was mentioned a number of times, but I just didn't think too highly of it at the time (Todd Brown would say things like "If you ask 8 Elliotticians what wave we're on, you'll get 8 different answers, all equally correct"). When I started searching for something to complement the harmonic system, I decided to give Elliott wave another chance. I found some software called MotiveWave, and through their education links, ended up at FX Trader's Edge with Jodi Samuels. I signed up for the Wavy Tunnel course and am currently learning it. She uses the Awesome Oscillator, so I did a search for an NT7 version (since the MACD doesn't color up and down bars) and ended up here.
This seems like a great community, and I'm really looking forward to learning and growing with everyone here. I've done embedded coding for work and a little bit of scripting here and there, but for the most part I'm entirely new to high level code development (like indicators and strategies). I've done simple NinjaScript indicators such as EMAs, range indicators, and candlestick pattern indicators, but when I get some time I plan to really get into it.
Welcome.Youre in the right place.A terrific community,with something for everyone.
If you are an elite member, i would suggest looking through the past webinars,for a start.Also, keep an eye on the new webinars.Some of the upcoming webinars (Vince Virgil)are actually members who came to this forum , just like you, worked very hard,and have developed a successful method.
Also, a book i just read,"Markets in Profile" by Jim Dalton,imo,is a must read.Many of the successful traders here recommend it..
Good luck, and welcome...never hesitate to ask questions
Welcome aboard. And echoing you've come to the right place. I hear you when you say you tire of the corporate slavery and the imposed time rationing of your impressive technical talents and skills. Retail trading is one of few independent entrepreneurial avenues and opportunities left (before they shut everything down. ) The futures industry has had a few blows lately (MFGlobal & PFGBest) but for the most part day trading electronically has been the best it's ever been for retail traders.
Sorry to hear you got waylaid by the Motley fools. I fell for a couple of the vendor facades mentioned on the financial media machines too. futures.io (formerly BMT) does a great job with vendor reviews and has the best moderation. Ninjascript is also compiled and is similar enough to C# and C with a lot of shared indicators on futures.io (formerly BMT) as fine examples of ninjascript to learn from probably more so than the platform help files. Good luck.
I'm going slightly off-topic, but I am a little concerned about this. Having a supportive girlfriend, family and clients had a significant, positive impact on my trading. My girlfriend gave me the encouragement to quit academia to become a trader, and thereafter quit my trading job and start my own firm; she's the one who makes sure that I eat and don't stay up all night (otherwise, I'd usually go 36+ hours without sleep before realizing). The majority of the traders that I knew at my workplace were in their first marriages celebrating their multi-year anniversaries. (This was in Tokyo, which was a funny environment, because most of these traders were like Australian or British, and their wives were like Satoko, Megumi, Tsukasa etc. and their husbands could never pronounce their names right.)
I'm not like scaring you and saying that "if you don't procreate you will fail at trading and die from a miserable and lonely life" - I'm saying that you should not view trading as an escape, and certainly not allow it to affect your lifestyle habits.
I studied physics and mathematics in college and loved it intensely; at least you tried to find a suitable partner, I never gave it a single attempt. I used to associate that with the stereotypes of successful physicists and I made it a self-fulfilling prophecy. Looking back, this was a poor decision. I was lucky - and this story sounds so unreal that I couldn't even make this shit up. I was in Paris (alone) and my college classmate said he'd arrange for a friend of his to meet up with me so I would have something better to do. He didn't tell me that his friend was a very attractive girl at our age, and she was in Paris for a modeling assignment.
I was working on a research paper that night and she came knocking on my door, which left me speechless for a while. I was so awkward and didn't say a word to her besides, "Hold on," and continued LaTeX-ing away at my laptop. After 5 minutes or so, she finally said, "Hey, look at me," and that was when I looked at my first girlfriend in the eye.
The relationship taught me that a passion for math, programming, engineering, tennis, piano, violin, soccer, trading, whatever, is not grounds by which girls think you are weird. Quite the contrary, girls are attracted to guys who have a calling and show that they work for it. A girl doesn't want a guy to be part of her life - she is looking for a guy whose life she can be part of.
Work harder, try less to find a girlfriend actively, but talk and hang out with more girls passively (not to the point that you are used to talking to a woman as a woman-to-woman rather than a man-to-woman, of course). I hope this advice helps.
Interesting points you've raised here Artemiso, and I think you're quite right here. But in terms of a causal relationship instead of a correlational relation, your post seems to me as somewhat of a contradiction.
The first part of your comment seems to suggest that 'a girl comes before success' (e.g., "I attribute a big part of my trading success to my girlfriend"). The second part seems to suggest that 'success comes before the girl' (e.g., "work harder" and "a girl wants to be part of a successful men's life"). Which of these would be more important?
In other words, but this is perhaps to personally worded, would you still be able to get a relationship with a model if you weren't already successfully (intellectually, socially, and career-wise)? I don't mean this personally towards you, but generally speaking, I think this wouldn't be possible (i.e., a certain amount of success comes before the girl).
My personal observation is that most rich or attractive people are actually so used to people who only view them in that light, that they have a natural way of distancing themselves from such people. If you can treat them as regular beings, they would treat you as if you're their best friend. Models and female celebrities tend to be like that - because otherwise there would be hundreds of guys ingratiating themselves towards that one girl - no one can live like that. Your mileage will vary, of course.
Remember, this was before I left academia, and I was still a college kid. The name of my school didn't matter because I would just say I go to school in Massachusetts. Of course, I would often meet people who figured out where I went. And there's a tendency for one or two douchy guys to make fun of it and call you out for being a nerd instead. So I had none of the traits you'd typically associate with success.
Also, I meant passion should come before the girl. You don't have to be successful at something you're passionate at.
I would sugest to any new trader buy at least a dozen trading books to get some basic knowledge under there belt. I would include in it the book Market Wizards because it includes in it insight from People that trade in many different ways most of them are technical traders but some are fundamental traders and many a mix .
The road is wide and full of many blown trading accounts by people that dont have a clear understanding of ..
#1 Money management ( not to risk more than 2% of entire account on any trade) less then 2% is better.
#2 Development of there own system that they should test in simulation till they can consistantly make a profit for at least a few weeks strait.
#3 When not to and when to trade (Not haveing any positions open during major news events)
#4 Dont join any trade room where they charge you $300 and month, Most are a scam or they have sophisticated software you have to spend another $900 on just to have no idea what its doing and you will never know. I have never heard of one person that has joined one these and still makes money in them. There may be one but the chance of you finding it amongst the snake oil sales men is very slim.
These are just the some of most basic fundamentals I wish I would have learned when I started....
Wow, sounds like you have a good mathematical brain for trading. I too am new to trading, but much, much greener than you. Please share with us some of the books you would suggest for newbies like me, as well as good videos, lectures, or teachers you've come across. I wish you the best for your trading future.
Here is a short list of books I've read and recommend. I am not a big reader of books in print, I tend to prefer on-line methods... but nonetheless, these are great reads and contain a lot of information that helped me.