My Fund Trading Adventure

Well, I’ve been trading demo accounts sporadically for 2 years, and then 2 months ago I finally felt like I had cracked the code of ‘how to trade a currency’ and decided to invest in a micro account, and what a rollercoaster it has been... interestingly the word ‘pip’ now has more value to me than the word ‘money’ and I would really like to share my Forex adventure with you all…

So, on the final day of August 2011, I invested my first $200, and boy was I in for a shock. In theory live/demo what’s the difference? Well I can tell you right now EVERYTHING feels different, and after my first month I am now treasuring previous advice from Jarratt Davis and books such as “Trading in the Zone”.

So, month 1, September 2011 - well I’d like to say how well it went, but the reality – it didn’t.
I lost over 75% of my funds and the reason for such an absurd drawdown - I played around with the ‘system’ I had developed too much and was in a rush, hunting for all the action and foolishly risked more than I should have, and in one foul swoop there went 75% of my Equity. But this isn’t a bad thing, I learned my lessons, and actually realised the patient and consistent approach would pay off and it is.. so far I’m 32% up this month, and granted this may be on a small account but it’s profit, and I know what trades I do and do not want to take and my patience of monitoring the H1 and H4 slots (as opposed to the 5M) is paying off. Essentially I paid $125 for a swift lesson in Forex phycology and will never forget it. A lesson which may well set me up for life!

The market this month (in my eyes) has felt very turbulent and challenging but waiting for the right trade that is within my system (which uses a powerful indicator, moving averages, market flow and trend) seems to be working.
So far this month (October 2011) has given me 12 trades, 7 of which were winners leaving me 63 pips up (so far).
I promise future blogs will be shorter and more ‘to the point’ and as always will be an honest and real look at my advancement, so please subscribe and join me on my journey – I’ll see you next week.

good luck with it, mate. over the time you will get used to profits and losses and would not worry so much about either, but it takes time.

Thanks, appreciate the advice. Yep pretty much all good with it - month 1 was down to me trading more than i should have and not being consistent - lessons learned though :) Thats what a micro account is for lol. Feel free to subscribe to my blog at: https://forexmentorlc.wordpress.com/ should be in interesting weekly read.

Great to hear that you've learned the lesson. Interesting how many newbies still hurry to deposit real money and start trading with it even though the abundant information available on the web - I guess the temptation is too overwhelming.

Hearing your numbers, I think you're over trading and risking too much per trade - try lowering the trade sizes as I'm sure you'll have more lessons coming at you in the near future.

Appreciate the advice. I did trade demo accounts for 2 years before starting real money... and I got a little excited and traded 0.05 rather than 0.01 as per my system given the current funds.. also I took out $100 to pay some bills which left me with very little all adding up to the huge loss..

Im glad it happened though as I needed this lesson to remind me of how trading real money differs to demo.

On it now though - im adding something to the system also which I like to call the 'walk away approach'.

More on that in next weeks blog ;)

https://forexmentorlc.wordpress.com/

Indeed better to learn this lesson with as much small account as possible. IMHO the difference between a demo account and a real account trading is something that every trader must learn of and the only way is trade both.

As long as you have a defined set of rules for entry and exit of a trade, which constitute a trading system, you shouldn't worry about trading too much - learn to trade like a robot (with no feelings involved) and it's only a matter of time before you see your demo performance and real performance converge.

Just be ready to the same experience to happen again and again at the higher levels. I trade actively 2 years, can't count how many times I thought 'I am over it I learnt the lesson' but it happens again and again. Just don't give up but don't ever think you've 'nailed it'. Because you didn't. Nobody did.

Hope you will get a nice journey in the future...

Cent/micro account is fine to start...

Agree with all of you and James, about the only knowing the difference between real and demo by actually trading both - you're so right. Trading like the robot is the ultimate goal, at the moment I have specifically defined entry and exit points. Now its a matter of time to see an overall view of how well it works - I hope to have a clear picture in the next 6 months.
Its exciting times... Im VERY fortunate in that one of my best friends is a successful trader (Has a published book, been trading $10million accounts etc etc) He does really well and I speak to him on Skype every day and get some really good advise and support.

what i can say i am new on the FXbook trading so i wish you a happy working and good result.