Tips to ensure your long term success in the currency market

• Plan every trade on paper before entering it
• Set clear goals : daily, weekly, monthly, yearly
• Journal every trade
• Master the basics, and practice key skills to build competence
• Stick with what you know, don’t try anything fancy without being comfortable first
• Keep a journal to build on success and learn from mistakes
• Monitor yourself and develop yourself
• Study and learn continually with focus on full comprehension
•  Manage your money and risk constantly
•  Keep your pride and ego in check, they won’t make you money
•  Keep a clear head and listen to it, but don’t get caught up in emotions. Stay objective.
•  Keep your awareness high, especially regarding time. This is a marathon not a sprint.
• Keep respect for the market, yourself, and your money.
• Think every trade all the way through, including all possibilities.
• Review your trades, your journal, your goals, and your milestones on a regular basis. Build on success and avoid the same mistakes.
•  Do your trading in an organized place and adhere to your policies and this success sheet
• Run your trading the same way you’d run your business. It is YOUR BUSINESS.

Consolidation Breathes Advanced Patterns

Hello traders, I just wanted to share the chart with you just to show that there are always opportunities in the market if you know what you are looking for as you may have noticed the EURUSD along with many of the major currency pairs have not been doing too well through out the month of August even going into September where we thought that volatility was going to increase and the market would pick up. Well, nonetheless, those who trade advanced patterns have been smiling to the bank. We had 5 advanced patterns back to back on the 240 mins chart within an area of consolidation. 2 Bat patterns, 2 Gartley patterns and 1 Cypher pattern with all of them except the first bat pattern hitting target one and target two. Please take note that this is a higher time frame. (Swing trading Timeframe). If you were to drop down to a lower time frame, you would definitely have gotten more opportunities.
If you are interested in learning more about this stuff send me an e-mail or drop a comment below.
 Thank you.

Four Emotions That can Improve Your Trading Results

 This write up was inspired by one of  Late Jim Rohn's work. Titled "The four Emotions that can change your life". after watching the video, i decided to apply it to my trading . I used it to make some changes to my trading mindset that really impacted  trading results positively.
So today i'm sharing  those ideas with you hoping that it will help you improve on your trading as well. 

Disgust
 
1.    I am disgusted with having to work 9-5 every day 
       with no freedom to go where I want when I want
       with whoever I want.
 
2.    I am disgusted with my previous undisciplined 
       attempts to trading and want to move forward in 
       a more disciplined and business like manner.
 
3.    I am disgusted with being limited by the money 
       I can earn   at my current job.

Decision
 
1.    I have decided to do whatever it takes to become a 
       consistently profitable trader.
 
2.    I’m going to block out all distractions, read more
       trading related books,attend seminars, and connect 
       with people that could help me reach professional
       trading  status a lot faster.
 
3.    I will create a detailed business plan for my 
       Forex trading business.
 
4.    I’ll set goals for myself on how to consistently improve 
       on my trading skills.
 
5.    I’ll check and monitor my progress as I become better.

Desire

1.    I desire to become a consistently profitable trader.
 
2.    I want to prove to myself and others that it is possible 
       to place  trades without making a series of potential 
        execution errors.
3.    I desire to become the best currency trader in the world.
 
4.    I want to inspire others and teach them to become 
        profitable currency traders.
 
5.    I want to live a life where money becomes the least 
       of my worries

Resolve
 
1.    I will do whatever it takes to become consistently 
       profitable in my trading

2.    I will not quit no matter how hard it gets
 
3.    I will develop myself towards becoming better than
       i was the day before.
 
4.    I resolve to learn all that I can from those who
       have become successful in Forex trading
 
5.    I promise myself that I will never give up.

Monthly Pivot Levels For June 2016

Below are a list of monthly pivot levels i'll be watching for the month of JUNE as far as EURUSD and AUDUSD is concerned

EURUSD MONTHLY PIVOT LEVELS

R4=1.1555
R3=1.1451
R2=1.1328
R1=1.1252
M=1.1302
S1=1.1008
S2=1.0932
S3=1.0810
S4=1.0705


AUDUSD  MONTHLY PIVOT LEVELS

R4=0.7703
R3=0.7587
R2=0.74517
R1=0.7368
M=0.7232
S1=0.7097
S2=0.7013
S3=0.6878
S4=0.6762

5 Reasons why it Rocks to be a Forex Trader!

Trading is one of the coolest jobs in the world and permit me to say that I haven’t seen any other job out there that comes close  to trading.  I compiled a list of reasons I could think of as to why trading the market rocks.

1. Time and money freedom

Trading, if planned properly gives you time and money freedom which I think is so important that it cannot be over emphasized. You get to choose your work hours and go where ever you want whenever you want with whoever you want.

2 You are not tied to any physical location

 This is another reason I love trading so much.  You can trade from any part of the world as long as you have a computer and an internet connection…. How cool is that.

3. There is no physical product to sell

 Having no physical product to sell is yet another reason I love this business.  I’m a shy person and find it kinda  challenging doing door to door sales and all that so trading offered me and excellent escape route because you are not directly rendering any service hence there is no physical product to sell.

4. Very low startup capital

Forex trading is a business with one of the lowest startup capital you can think of .

Basically all you need is a laptop, charting package , and a viable internet connection. you can start trading with as little as $100 dollars.

5. The potential Reward is Unlimited

The forex industry has a daily turnover of over 5 trillion U.S dollars per day which offers us retail traders the opportunity to make as much money as we desire if and only if you know what you are doing.

How to improve Your Trading Result with 5 Simple Steps

 Going over my trading performance , i realized that there were a few things i needed to work to become better at my craft because as you know trading, just like any other business involves continuous learning. so i came up with a few points that have significantly improved my trading and will do the same for you too if you are willing to put in the work.

1.  Develop a Solid Trade Plan
To be successful in this business you need to develop  a trade plan and then Back-test  and forward-test that plan to develop confidence and gain some historical perspective.

This singular step cannot be over emphasized , you need a plan for whatever endeavor you want to get involved in be it Forex trading or whatever. The plan needs to be Testable, Verifiable and Repeatable. You ought to  have gained some historical perspective on the system and have a pretty good idea of how the system has performed in the past to give you an idea of its present and future profitability.
Please note that past performance is not indicative of future results, but we have no better measuring stick than  the past to suggest how the future will most likely perform.
From your back-testing/ forward-testing you are going to develop some key metrics for your trading system.

What is the maximum drawdown?
What is the average win in pips?
What is the average loss in pips?
What is the average reward in pips?
What is the average reward to risk?
What is the winning %?
What is the loosing %?

Determine the expectancy of your system

E=Expectancy= Average win x win% - Average Loss x Loss%

2. Plan your trade and trade your plan
It is not just enough to create a trade plan, having  the discipline to follow the plan you have created is also very crucial to your success as a trader. Like one of my mentors Akil stokes said “Trust your system, trust your rules, and if you follow your rules you will be successful.

3.Understand the language of the market. Learn how to read market structure
If you want your trading to improve, it would be wise to have expectations for price to follow and to achieve those expectations.

Expectations play out over 70% of the time (structure expectation)

NEW STRUCTURE HIGH (NSH) = HIGHER LOW (HL) = NEW STRUCTURE HIGH (NSH)

                                       BULLISH EXPECTATION/TREND CONTINUATION



 NEW STRUCTURE LOW (NSL) = LOWER HIGH (LH)=NEW STRUCTURE LOW (NSL)

                                           BEARISH EXPECTATION/TREND CONTINUATION

      Wait for the correction and then trade the expectation.

4. Place process over outcome. 
Many traders including myself came into trading expecting instant gratification based on all the B.S in the trading world. We want to make a zillion pips from trading without understanding that trading is a business .It's possible to have the talent for trading but guess what, that talent is going to fail you if you do not develop the right skills and mindset.
 Acquiring the mindset and skills to trade profitably takes time, dedication and commitment. It won’t happen overnight.
Success in trading as in any other business is a marathon and not a sprint if you focus on the process of trading (setting process goals to become better and better every day week, month) the money will naturally flow in.

5 Don’t get discouraged along the way
Like i said earlier, Trading takes a lot of work, dedication and time hence it is very easy to get discouraged if your results are not improving as fast as you hopped they would. Don’t get discouraged.
Set you mind and eyes on your destination. Remind yourself that you are a winner .Winners never quit and quitters never win.

INCORPORATING I.P.D.E INTO YOUR TRADING REGIMMEN

Here is the way i  learnt to look at the market every day and week when carrying out my analysis following the I.P.D.E process:


I didn't come up with this by my self all credits go to Jason Stepleton of Trade Empowered.


The I.P.D.E is simply an acronym for the words : Identify, Predict,Decide,Execute.
 
I= Identify what the market is doing (Is it up trending, down trending or consolidating)
 
P= Predict where the market will go next based on the previous price action, so to do this:
 
1. Define the market Structural framework by drawing horizontal levels around the structural levels of support and resistance. (Do a top-down analysis from the daily to the 1 hr. timeframe.
( Or what ever timeframe you have in your trading plan)

2. Predict the possible ways the market can get to our potential reversal zone. (It could either go straight to our PRZ or it could retrace to a structural level before moving to the PRZ)
PRZ= Potential reversal zone
 
D= Decide what course of action will be taken based on what the market has decided to do (this is where the IF, THEN syntax comes to play)  If the market does this, then I’ll do that. To put it in another way this is the point you two questions “WHERE” and “HOW” I’m I getting involved in this trade. What method or technique will i be employing? Where will my stops go and where will my targets go?
 
E= Execute when all conditions for your trade setup have been met. ( This is where you pull the trigger)

EURUSD Analysis For the Week. May 22nd - May 27th 2016

Hello Traders, i just thought i should share my thoughts on the EURUSD for the forth coming week.

If you look at the daily chart, its obvious that we are heavily bearish. hence we should be looking for ways to hop on and take advantage of the downward move. Using the IPDE top down analysis i dropped down to the 4Hr time frame to look for a clearer picture.

As you can see, the price swing a much easier to see here and we can see how beautiful the trend is. we just made a New Structure low and i'll be expecting price to pullback most likely to the previous support level which could mean previous support becoming potential resistance.

What Mark Douglas Taught Me About Successful Trading. (Must Read)!

Hello Traders today I thought I share some lessons I learnt for the work of a wonderful trader and writer Late Mark Douglas who has probably spoken more extensively than any other trader i know.   I hope you pick 1 or 2 things from this post and implement it into your trading right away

 Consistency In Trading
Consistency in Forex requires us learning skills that most people are not used to learning.  “Mental Skills”
Without developing the right mental skills, it is unlikely that we would be able to do what our trade plans tells us to do without making a no of potential execution errors.

No matter how good a technical method is at generating winning trades, turning those winners into a consistent income requires us to do or not do some things that the system itself cannot help us with.
E.g
1. Our method cannot force us to predefine the risk before getting into a trade.
2. Our method cannot force us to take a loss before it ends up becoming a bigger loss.
3. Our method cannot stop us from moving our stop loss close to our entry too soon where the market  takes us out and then trades in our anticipated direction.
4. Our method cannot force us from hesitating and getting in too late.
5. Our method cannot stop us from getting in too early where our entry signal never truly develops
6. Our cannot stop us from getting out too early  there by leaving money on the table.
7. Our cannot stop us from letting a winning trade turn into a losing trade without having taken any profits.

Understanding the Randomness of the Market.
All of the above mental errors are a result of thinking and believing that our technical method is telling us what is going to happen on a trade by trade basis. But technical methods are not designed to do that .they are meant to put the odds in our favor over a series of trades.

The outcome of the signals generated by a trading system on a trade by trade basis and random and unique
In other words there’s no way to know in advance what the outcome to any particular trade signal will be or what the sequence of wins to losses will be over a series of trades.
You need to understand that every moment in the market is unique hence you do not need to know what is going to happen next to make money. all you need is a plan that is Testable, Verfyable and Repeatable. and then just come into the market and repeat the same process day in day out.
Become a Contrarian Trader
 If you want to trade your methodology in an effective fashion, to be able to utilize  it in a way where by you can extract the maximum profit that it makes available based on a pattern that it identifies, you have to do it in certain ways. Your mind has to be free to stop you from making trading error. Those errors come from thinking that this trade or the next trade has to be a winner.
It is the trader who has learnt to think in probability that doesn’t encounter the same trauma the typical trader experiences. When you learn how price moves i.e. when you understand how to read a price chart then you understand how your technical method relates to the market movement and then you begin to understand that, when a collective pattern shows up, it simply means that there is a higher probability of the signal working out than not working out. The problem is that this patterns are based on some sort of mathematical model but what we fail to understand is that mathematical models cannot predict human behavior. So you could have an identical pattern as you did last time yet have two different outcomes.

Summary
1.Your overall success is defined over a series of trades and not on a trade by trade basis.

2. Learn to think in probabilities and you will do well as a trader.

3.A trading system is only as good as the person using it . Hence your success as a trader is not determined by your trading system but rather by state of mind of the trader using the trading system.

4.The successful trader you want to become is a future projection of your self that you will have to grow into. Growth is a process, it takes time but with the passion, patience and dedication, I believe anyone can make it to the 5% category of successful  traders in the world.