$25 to $25k in 10 days Discussion

LOL, Psymon nice response...your the man! I just read this thread and i almost slapped myself for not thinking of doing something like this myself. This is exactly how i go about life. Luv your attitude bro! Right now i'm doing work behind the scenes based on your idea and if i come up with anything good, you will be the first to know. Thanks again for sharing!

Hi Rod, i hope you can take something away from this thread and apply it, if you have any questions please ask away...

Morning, a slight change in strategy.

I feel like i'm trying to run before i can crawl, so for this week i'm going to drop the only 10 trades. Heres the thing, as much as 10 trades in 10 days is perfect i have come to the conclusion that just doing it in 10 days is hard enough! I've been doing some heavy back testing this weekend and i am finding the success rate considerably higher if i allow my self to take 2 or 3 trades per step.
        $ vol trades
ie, 25 - 50$ .1 (10+15) = 2 trades
    50 - 100$ .2 (7+12+6) = 3 trades etc etc

I will still have the 25 pip target in my mind, but having the flexability to close a trade at 15pips or 4 pips will lock in profits, instead of moving the sl to entry.

I am aware that one of the reasons that i started this little challenge was to force myself to let the price reach target, and getting out of a trade too early was one of the biggest reasons that i tanked my last account, so i will still be setting the tp for 25spread and watching carefully for price action.

Also as much as it pains me to say it but I am not having a great time of it financially right now, and i need to give my self every chance to actually turn water into wine.

thoughts as always welcome...

Psy, Dude your a Kamikaze pilot, don't be so bummed when you crash your plane. I think what your doing is extraordinary and inspiring, not because I think you can really do it (Kamikaze's never took victory laps) but because your becoming an ace pilot.
AND because you are proving that you really CAN turn $500.00 into a million.

You don't need a 100% kill rate. If you only have a 75% win ratio (THATS 4 WINS TO 1 LOSS) you can do it with short stops and short gains. Did you know that with a 75% win ratio, 25 PiP gains, 25 PiP stops, risking 10% of your account you can turn $500.00 in to $1,028,662.00 in 138 trades!? Now that's inspiring!

OMG you've almost done the 75% already! Seems to me there are only 2 things necessary to make it work, proper Money management, which is so easy most people can't even figure it out, and a 75% win ratio which you almost have now. Oh and maybe a enough discipline to do what you know you can and should do without questioning yourself into paralysis. That's usually where I crash and burn!

Maybe you should scale back just a little on the 100% do or die and try to bring enough of the plane home each time to make another run. Hell, if you'd quit crashing your plane in order to have a 100% kill ratio you might find out your one of the best pilots in the war!

Hey pip, thanks for the kind words, really if i was that good this would have been done weeks ago! i am finding that my brain cant react to the market fast enough to make a decision! I should be able to assess the market, modify/place a trade, and then reassess in seconds, but its taking me minuets and by then its all ready gone too far.

See the thing is that i'm only proving that i can throw away $25 a week on this idea, the last 2 weeks i've not gotten past the second step. Its amazingly frustrating, i know what i should be doing, but i'm hesitating. Usually if your wrong about a trade the market will give you a chance to get out with really minimal losses, i used to be able to recognize these chances and take them.

But in my trading this year i've just been saying 'oooooh, look see i knew it was going to go that way!!!' then snap back to -23 and out.

I'm going back to demo, and by god i'm going to prove to my self that i can trade this system, then i'm going to come back and without fear or hesitation nail this challenge into the ground...

Holy Cow dude !!
I've just signed up and opened this topic !! Wish you luck !

---
Oscar

I think the 100% is a double edged sword. It's forcing you to trade better. It's like taking a 30mph curve at 100mph, just trying it makes you a hell of a lot better driver! The flip side is that the pressure to perform or die adds so much more pressure to the task that it may be whats causing you to crash, not the level of your driving skills. (You know sweat rolling down your face and all may be whats keeping you from seeing clearly). If you do it you'll be legendary. However, If you can even do a consistent 70% to 75% you'll be very wealthy.

What about, just doing 4 or 5 like you did before, taking the money out, buy yourself a little financial relief and 10 or 20 more $25.00 tickets to play. Just a thought. Could take a ton of pressure off.

Besides, if you're successful in a demo account you're going to be so bummed that it's only funny money. In my mind it's like becoming a millionaire playing Monopoly. They won't let you spend those little tiny dollars on a new Ferrari. Doh!

Psy,
Don't forget that this in an excercise destined to a very probable failure in terms of money, and that you created this to build your character and trading strenghs (not your capital).
I understand that you probably need a pause and some air before you start over.
But let me say, that I see you as a VERY SOLID trader. From the results point of view for your personal trading strategy, I thing you should stick to your 25 pip profit as much as you can.
Cutting a trade's profit is changing your risk/reward ratio in your disadvantage, and I personally think that is not the solution to your problem.
As PIP said, if you can sustain your success rate over 60-70% rate and lower your leverage to something more logic you can build your capital in a very short period.
It seems that anxiety is your problem (i have a lot of that as well), but your trading skills are superb (mine are total crap).
If I were you I will also open another challenge for you 'psymon's trades at 2% risk'.
I readed a lot of this forum and most of the succesful traders think, trading is actually boring and you shouldn't feel that a single trade is affecting your capital (for better or worst). But, at the end of the month the addition of those insignificant trades will bring you a nice result.
With this I mean. There is not much wrong with you. You seem to be on the right path. Don't give up!! And best if luck for you!
H

Hey guys, I've been doing some pretty heavy introspection in the last day, and trying to figure out why i am not trading to my best. I've found the questions to the answer but not the answers to the problems!

It all gets a little psyco from here... I have for some time felt like i must be losing for a reason other than my ability to read charts. It seems to me that i am a victim of self-sabotage. From everything thing that i've read the last couple of days I have possibly over the course of my life picked up several limiting beliefs. they could come from from my parents saying things like 'money dosent grow on trees' & 'its not easy to earn big money' to my own created beliefs of low self worth, and a feeling of not really being deserving of having large amount of money.

Apparently the difficult part in harmonizing my mind is finding out exactly what these limiting beliefs are and where they come from, so that they can be exorcised from my head. This is one of those things that sits on the back of your mind until you manage to block it our of your conscious fully giving it no where to go except your subconscious. I am having to claw my way through the surface because i have lived with these for such a long time that

What this amounts to is a mental tug of war between my conscious and sub-conscious mind, in which my sub conscious all ways wins out. If you dont really get what i'm talking about watch this video and if any of it make sense to you maybe it could be something for you to look into as well



until these beliefs are changed in my sub-conscious I think that i will always be my own worst enemy. But now I have started to identify what it is and recognize that i have issues that need to be resolved i am seeking the help of a therapist, booked in on friday.

thank you for your support, with out it i would have given up all ready!

@h, i agree messing with the tp is silly and i shaln't be doing it :)
@pip, when i come back my first target is to withdraw the total deposited, then build up starting from 5 steps
@ocsar, welcome to the topic, if you have any quesions please feel free to ask

Mate,

Any system works for a while. Then they stop. There's no mind fight, it's the market conditions that change. There are 4 states to the market.

Fast trending, slow trending, fast ranging, slow ranging. If you trade the same all the time as the market moves through the states you will do better or worse. Many, many traders make the mistake of questioning their systems when in fact it's more a question of do you have the correct system for the conditions.

Many systems are developed in one state and then fails when the market changes.

Can you recognise the market states? Are you using the correct system for that state? This is why so many punt MM. In theory when your system starts failing you need to systematically decrease trade sizes till it starts working again, then increase. Trade sizes is everything in fx. And you're ignoring it completely with this attempt, you're just going for the biggest you think you can get away with.

Won't work this way...

Psy, my friend don't put yourself down. You are an excellent chart reader.
Look at the account you blowed up. More than 60% of your trades were winners.
Your problem is that you are cutting your profits and letting your losses run, and you should be foucusing on the opposite. Look at your average win (6 pips), and your average loss (-19 pips). That was what killed your account.
If you are going to babysit your trades, try to get rid of the bad ones, and let the good ones some time to grow.
I might be wrong as my trading sucks donkey asses, but that is what i honestly think.
Since you are back to your demo tests. Try to come up with a set and let go strategy and let your average profit be as big as your average loss. That will be the the key to your success. (after that you can manage my account, LOL)
H