My trading journey so far
Hey all,
Figured I'd share the non-glamorous side of trading as a nice refresher to all the bots and gurus on here. For context, I am not profitable, and have zero advice to sell. These screenshots are from the beginning of the year until now, somewhat documenting my trading journey so far.
According to these new stats accessible through TPT, I have blown 11 $50k evaluation accounts. The original entry price was about $270, and $100 to restart each new test. For some reason I never cancelled my "ultimate" trial subscription to Trading View, thinking I could find an edge within. That's another $240 per month. So all in, im somewhere around $1500-2k of legit cash ive spent on this. I have not passed one single evaluation and have not received even a dime back for my efforts. It's funny, the markets DO NOT reward you solely for hard work.
What ive learned so far:
I continue down this path because I genuinely love it. There's something fascinating about the markets. Maybe its the potential freedom. Maybe it's wanting to be able to humble brag to peers about the fake money made through paper trading. (Gruesome, right?) But then I think to myself, why have I spent hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars going down this route? What am I really doing it for?
I think I continue because I want a better future for future me, for a future family, and to be able to take care of those closest to me. Its not for fancy cars or trips, but to compound enough over time to own the roof over my head. I have this unwavering will to succeed, and I 100% know I will. I work on avarage 45 hours per week at my day job and spend a good majority of my "free time" attempting to solve this rubix cube of numbers and emotions.
This month, I blew an account, opened another, and immediately went $1500 down. I stopped, told myself "I wasnt going to blow this one too. Ive got +/- $500 drawdown left, and that i was going to make it to that $3k mark." It has been slowing down, understanding entries and exits, and making less trades for better outcomes. Going from scalping to intraday swings, and sticking to one strategy. Im now $900 up, and know I can do this. Thinking about long term goals has helped allot. Looking at longer timeframe market sentiment, and using that to trust that my trade will work out and not panic when in drawdown has helped me to have conviction in my process.
Im now taking less trades and have more green days than red. Im enjoying more of the fact that my strategy is working, not just the PnL.
Over these past months, ive tried every indicator and all the bs I can throw on my screen that I can find. I think its been really good for me to try everything, learn about it all, and start narrowing down to what I actually like and feel most comfortable with. Right now im using footprint/order flow, Bollinger bands, support resistance zones, higher timeframe market sentiment, and sticking to gold futures. Its been really helpful to learn one asset and understand how it reacts.
I think of all this as my education fee, and have started to treat it as a job, as a college degree. It feels like im learning a new language or learning how to play an instrument. I think its really cool that you can trade your own way; there is no magic bullet, no course, nothing someone can tell you to do, that is guaranteed to work for you. I've enjoyed learning about market mechanics, technical analysis, and fear and greed. Ive enjoyed becoming more dicaplined as a person, cutting vices out of my life, and setting my sights upon my future self. im really excited to see where this takes me. At 26, I've got years ahead of me to hone and perfect, and dont plan on stopping anytime soon.
Like I said, ive got zero advice to sell, nor should you take mine, but these resources have helped me:
Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets - John J. Murphy
-Free audiobook version on Spotify, I've listened through multiple times now, liked it so much I bought the book to re read and markup
Andrea Cimi's market mechanics guide on his YouTube
Titans Of Tomorrow Podcast
Trading for a Living: Psychology, Trading Tactics, Money Management - Alexander Elder
How to Day Trade: The Plain Truth - Ross Cameron
Good luck to those out there that are also still learning! We'll get there one day.