My Trading journey.

[Mr fox]

Duke Thrust said:

Mr Fox, perhaps you might be interested in my course on how to make a fortune in your spare time using premium rate phone numbers, call 090 100 100 to find out more.

Faaantastic. Just what I was looking for, and since you've been as kind as to bring it to my attention I'll ring it from my mobile, and land line at the same time.
Lol.

[Mr fox]

blindswelledrat said:

Mr fox said:

Fantastic. .

Ha. Just tickled me for some reason

;-)

[Mr fox]

Disastrous said:

Mr Fox, genuinely interested to follow this as it's a fascinating experiment. Just to set my cynical mind at ease though, you wouldn't happen to be an 'advert' for your tutor, would you?

Apologies if not but I find this kind of thing quite interesting and just had a couple of niggling doubts about the story.

Good luck!

No need to apologise.
In my quest to learn to trade I have met "good traders", and they are either helpful or, just try, and put you off by telling you it's a mugs game, yet are earning six figure sums. I could have just started the topic with the title, and off I went, but decided to give a warts an all account, as there are some fraudulent companies out there just interested in taking your money.
As for an advert for this chap, well he's a grown man, and if he wants to advertise his business it's upto him, not me, as I have no interest or knowledge of selling someone else's product, thats why I omitted his details, and to be honest I made the mistake of calling him a teacher, which he was perturbed by, as he is a trader.
I'm not going to lie to you as, on the flip side have I told some of my friends about him. Yes I have, and if they wish to proceed or not thats thier choice.
Regards
Mr Fox.

[Mr fox]

JPJPJP said:

Adventures of a Currency Trader is as good a place to start as any

Mr Fox. I wish you well on your journey

Are you calling tomorrows trades in advance? Much easier to gain more credibility by doing that rather than posting after the event (one poster has already said they can read the results pretty well and have a bowl of pips to hand...)

I am also curious why £10/pp am and £30/pp pm...

All trades were on time live apart from the last 2 which gave u an hour or two's notice.
;-)

[Mr fox]

walm said:

Firstly very best of luck to you Mr Fox.

And I apologise in advance for being negative BUT...

My job is to analyse companies and determine good ones from bad ones.
Good ones very often simply come down to the barriers to entry for what they do, which give them a competitive advantage.
Examples:
- Rightmove: 95% of estate agents are now signed up. A new website couldn't get the volume of properties necessary to compete.
- Virgin Media: no one can build a new fibre/cable network to the home; it's uneconomical. BT is their only threat and they have not much cash to invest in improving fibre.
- Vodafone: mobile networks are expensive and you need a licence - unfortunately too much competition.
- Apple: army of iOS app developers creating an almost unassailable barrier. Just ask Nokia.

Bad business examples:
- Airlines: surprisingly it is very easy to get the cash to start an airline. The airline industry has lost money over its history.
- Solar panel manufacturing: very labour intensive but anyone can rent some space in China and pay workers to build the things.

So what's the point?
Well, what are the barriers to entry for day trading? Zero. (Other than a small deposit.) Anyone can open account.

So, what are the chances of making money in such an industry over the long term? Well, zero.
If you think you have a successful strategy any minor advantage will be squeezed out as the thousands of others trying to do the same thing crush the benefit.

Now teaching a "successful" trading strategy IS a reasonable business because not everyone has the credibility to be able to charge £5-20k a pop. Here there are barriers to entry. That's why the question of "why, if you have a successful strategy are you TEACHING not TRADING!!??" is so important.

If making money day trading were a viable long term business then the banks would be full of math PhDs crunching numbers with super computers.
Oh wait - they are.

That's your competition. They are going to win. They have a competitive advantage: it takes many people, tens of years of study and something made by CRAY Industries.

You have a roulette wheel and a small deposit.

TL;DR
- The number of successful day traders < The number of unsuccessful day traders, which is why Mr Fox needs LUCK.

(Nevertheless he clearly made >£5k more than me today so who am I to judge.)

Thank you for your feedback, and there's no need to appologise, as I take all views as constructive, rather than negative.

It's a journey that I have started on and I've burnt all the boats, thus leaving me no option, but to attack the island. I have been taught how to trade using clear understanding of psychology, and how to be like a remora fish hanging on to the shark(banks/large hedge funds etc). I have no fear of failure, as I have accepted the reality, that if I loose every penny in my account so be it. Every trade I take now as soon as I place the trade I have written the money off, and I am comfortable with this fact, and after if it comes my way, great.
Regards
Mr Fox.

[Mr fox]

AdamTheTrader said:

Very interesting read, certainly right up my street. I trade EUR/USD and GBP/USD daily (37 pips on the Euro overnight, hurrah!)

I've always considered day trading to be somewhat instinctive. You're either capable of the dealing with the mental pressures and making informed snap-decisions or you're not. For this reason I never bothered with lessons 5 years ago and I'm entirely self taught- I can assure you and all the other guys here that you easily end up losing £40k when you're just starting out with no guidance

Interested to see how your trades compare to mine.

Good luck

Thank You.

I would disagree with you that day trading is instinctive, as "most" of my trades are planned the night before, where all the analysis, and due diligance is done. So theres no need to make snap-decisions.
Sure it does consist of instict, and that's what I do when I feel like scalping a few pips. But I do feel that as you say you need to have a very disciplined approach, and rock steady psychology.
Regards
Mr Fox

[Mr fox]

AdamTheTrader said:

walm said:

If you think you have a successful strategy any minor advantage will be squeezed out as the thousands of others trying to do the same thing crush the benefit.

The first thing you learn with trading is 'find out where everyone else is going- and run in the other direction'. If you follow the crowd with over-complicated Ichimoku curves and Heikin-Ashi charts then sure, you're gonna hit a brick wall somewhere down the line.

Look at the shares of Apple- I can almost guarantee that with the forthcoming IPO from Facebook, Apple shares will hit the floor as people buy Facebook shares instead. Not because Apple have done anything wrong- but because Apple have been stupendously over-bought by investors who need somewhere safe to invest their cash in these current market conditions. It's a case of capitalising on other peoples' naivety and stupidity a lot of the time.

Mr fox said:

Thank You.

I would disagree with you that day trading is instinctive, as "most" of my trades are planned the night before, where all the analysis, and due diligance is done. So theres no need to make snap-decisions.
Sure it does consist of instict, and that's what I do when I feel like scalping a few pips. But I do feel that as you say you need to have a very disciplined approach, and rock steady psychology.
Regards
Mr Fox

Yeah it was the discipline side of things I was trying to get at. Sometimes things don't go to plan and you've got to reconsider your position before things really do start to hit the fan

Ah I see.
Have I taken some "big" hits. Ofcourse I have, but naturally I just see that as par for the course. I am comfortable in taking upto a maximum of 10% risk per trade... Yes. Do I do this often... No. Am I more than comfortable taking this risk... Yes.
Just be strong in your convictions, and have belief in the system you use. Afterall theres many ways to skin a cat.
;-)

[Mr fox]

JPJPJP said:

do you set an entry and a stop loss and a stop profit as you enter?

Stop-loss is a must at the start when a trade is placed, and must be placed in a technical area, rather than a guess. It must not be removed at all cost(this is your safety net), and there will be times you may get stoped out 1 pip away from your stop and then the market goes your way. Thats just tough. A stop should be moved in the same direction as your trade to "lock in the profit". I always have an expectation of where my target exit is, but this may change as the market "MAY" fly further in my direction, thus I could loose money, so I do have it in mind, but I'm mindfull to watch it.
I hope that's cleared it up for you.

Regards
Mr Fox

[Mr fox]

NorthernBoy said:

Mr fox said:

Yes ofcourse I'm short on facts, and more importantly short on knowledge, as I believe there is always something more to learn.

Well I could fall flat on my face, and this is a risk I'm prepared to take.
I'm sure your a proffesional who does this for a living, and are very successfull at it, but for me it is a "trial by fire".

Would you not agree that it's a zero sum game in the respect that what ever you win on a trade has not come from anywhere else, but a trader whose lost money. I could be very wrong, and dont mind being educated by experts like yourself, but for the moment I am closed to listen to any advise, and just concentrate my energies to what I've been taught, and apply those.

I've traded various things. In jobs where I was expected to make a strong profit, I had access to customers, who would buy over the fair price, and sell to me below it. Maximizing this profit was a difficult job, which is why they paid me, but they never assumed that I would regularly extract money from markets with no edge.

You are the other side of this deal, by choice. Why not spend the next three years getting a degree in econometrics, from a top university, and then have a bank train and pay you?

Well the short answer to this is because I'm thick. I have 5 gcse's, 3 failed a-levels, and no Uni. My concentration span is very limited, yet can stare at the most mundane of charts, and not lose concentration.

[Mr fox]

NorthernBoy said:

Mr fox said:

Thank you for your insight.
Yes your right. I did pay a lot of money, and in most cases I was ripped off, but since there was no one to tell me what worked, and what didnt I had to learn the hard way. I wasnt born with a silver spoon in my mouth, but was taught that hard work, and persistance pays off

If that's the case, why are you trying to shortcut the hard work with a ridiculous "scheme"?

Your posts really don't add up. You espouse hard work, but seem to want to get rich quick through a magic set of rules.

I started out keen to try to offer you the benefit of my decades of trading. I think I'll stop now, though.

Please don't misconstrue what I'm trying to do here is a personal challenge, where by financial gain is a by product.
P.s. why do you think it's a rediculous scheme.
I guess if someone with decades of trading experience thinks its a scheme you must be right. I shall take your words of wisdom and quit while I'm ahead, and disappear into the relative obscurity of forum anonymity.
Adios.
Regards
Mr Fox.

[Mr fox]

Morning Chaps,
short GBP NOW AT 1.2668 20 pip SL, AND 20 PIP target.

[Mr fox]

Sarnie said:

Mr fox said:

Please don't misconstrue what I'm trying to do here is a personal challenge, where by financial gain is a by product.
P.s. why do you think it's a rediculous scheme.
I guess if someone with decades of trading experience thinks its a scheme you must be right. I shall take your words of wisdom and quit while I'm ahead, and disappear into the relative obscurity of forum anonymity.
Adios.
Regards
Mr Fox.

Don't forget that their are a lot of professional traders on here and also a lot of very smart cookies that aren't traders. The ones that are traders will naturally be threatened by your 'system' as after many years of trading they will have seen and heard of almost every 'system' going. All will have failed. These people will have built their careers and reputations on their experience of the markets and will be dismissive of any 'system'.

I once got sucked into a football betting 'system' whereby it took the last ten results of teams and formulated which ones were most likely to win their next game. Looking at previous results was the easy thing as it produced statistics to pour over; but predicting the future results was the hardest as even though Mansfield might have won their last 10 home games, you can't legislate for the random opposition striker popping up with a last minute winner once you've put your money on them!

I am suprised though, at the prominent financial types on here dismissing Mr.Fox's 'system' before it's even a day old, even though he made £5k whilst I was eating my lunch......why not lets just see where this goes.....

Thank's for the words of encouragement. The system is not actually a system per say, but is such a simple way of looking at the market, that if it was told to you, you would think I knew that. A bit like not being able to see the woods for the trees. Sometimes the most simplistic ways seem to work best.
Regards
Mr Fox.

Edited by Sarnie on Friday 18th May 00:04

[Mr fox]

sorry guys that was eur not gbp.

[Mr fox]

25 pips collected at £200/pip.

AM total £4800.

May do a little high stakes scalping now, or may come back for afternoon session, or just call it a day and have a good weekend.

Regards
Mr Fox.

[Mr fox]

SirSamuelOfBuca said:

Following with interest although I have no idea what you did this morning!

I don't mind explaining, as there was a time when I was in your shoes.
I took the currency pair Eur vs dollar, and after doing all my "homework" felt that there was a high probability chance that the price would go down(going short). Then I had to work out how much I felt it would go down, and where it was safe for me to enter, and where i should place my stop(safety net).

Think of it as a football match where you have team A vs team B(currency pair), so I thought team B was going to loose(going short). Then I had to decide how many goals team B was going to lose by(how many pips in my direction the market will move), and when the goals would be scored i.e. if before half time, full time, or extra time(stop loss, the closer it is the greater chance it would be before half time etc).

I hope that helps.
:-)

Regards
Mr Fox.

[Mr fox]

SirSamuelOfBuca said:

Thanks for the explanation in laymans terms :-)

How do you monitor this? Sign up with someone like etx for example? When I ever look online there are so many places being a sceptic it's hard to tell whats legit or not.

Cheers for taking time to reply :-)

Yes etx is fine. I use Fxcm.

[Mr fox]

z4chris99 said:

I call custard,

post a screenshot of your position.

@200pp your going to need 15g in your account I presume depending who your betting with.

can't help but think this is;

a) an advert
b) pyramid selling, this chap was suckered by trading lessons now needs to sucker someone else
c) a troll
d) a kid
e) deluded

Edited by z4chris99 on Friday 18th May 08:30

Ok hands up you've got me. Guilty as charged on all counts guvnor.
lol.

[Mr fox]

Hoofy said:

Mr fox said:

sorry guys that was eur not gbp.

Am trying to follow your trades. Rather than say eur or gbp (as you know, there are at least 20 pairs I could trade against the euro and GBP), could you say EUR/USD or something?[/quo


All currencies are with USD unless other wise stated. All analysis is done on a 200 tick chart, and all executions are on a 200 tick chart also.
;-)

I hope that helps.
Regards
Mr. Fox.

[Mr fox]

R11ysf said:

Mr fox said:

25 pips collected at £200/pip.

AM total £4800.

May do a little high stakes scalping now, or may come back for afternoon session, or just call it a day and have a good weekend.

Regards
Mr Fox.

Mr Fox, serious question. Does your model only generate one signal a day? If not I find it a little odd that you make only 1 trade and then take the day off. Your model or "homework" may be great and work 100% of the time or it may work for a period of time and then not work at all. However, when it is working you want to maximise the profits for when the lean times hit or if you think it is always going to work surely you want to trade as much as possible and become a billionaire.

I don't understand the philosophy or one trade and done unless that trade is on a biblical scale. Also the less trades that you have then the less statistical importance they have.

This model works over stocks/indicies/index's/currencies even comodities. I prefer currencies, and also I am limited in using currencies as thats what Fxcm mainly deal in, but that does not stop me from going through charts of all the former, and just sitting there, and back testing the strategy.

As I'm doing my homework I have all the relevant info I need before I sit at my laptop. As you know the markets work 24hrs so while I'm asleep some moves have happened, some when I awake, and some when I'm away from the screen. So I just take the nearest one. I could put market orders in, but TBH I like to see whats going on.

As an earlier poster said it is all about grasping psychology.. FEAR and GREED. You have to master these.
As for statistical importance that to me is irrelevant, as I'm too thick to work in a bank, cant read more than 2 pages of a book without falling asleep, and have no intention of plagarising someone else's work, and going into teaching.

With regards to work time if anyone had the choice to work for a few hours or even minutes a day, why would you say no. Now I can relax for the rest of the day.

Regards
Mr Fox.

[Mr fox]

R11ysf said:

Mr fox said:

This model works over stocks/indicies/index's/currencies even comodities. I prefer currencies, and also I am limited in using currencies as thats what Fxcm mainly deal in, but that does not stop me from going through charts of all the former, and just sitting there, and back testing the strategy.

As I'm doing my homework I have all the relevant info I need before I sit at my laptop. As you know the markets work 24hrs so while I'm asleep some moves have happened, some when I awake, and some when I'm away from the screen. So I just take the nearest one. I could put market orders in, but TBH I like to see whats going on.

As an earlier poster said it is all about grasping psychology.. FEAR and GREED. You have to master these.
As for statistical importance that to me is irrelevant, as I'm too thick to work in a bank, cant read more than 2 pages of a book without falling asleep, and have no intention of plagarising someone else's work, and going into teaching.

With regards to work time if anyone had the choice to work for a few hours or even minutes a day, why would you say no. Now I can relax for the rest of the day.

Regards
Mr Fox.

Sorry still doesn't make any sense. It seems, as people have mentioned, that this reads like some for of advert. You write as if you are a seasoned pro yet you have only just started. You capitalise FEAR and GREED like you've found a holy grail yet these are trading 101 basics.

If I had the option to work a few minutes a day for a few grand or several hours for tens of thousands I (and I'm sure many other people) would work for as long as possible. Ever heard of the phrase "make hay while the sun shines"??

You've only just started, you talk of no fear of hard work, yet only a few days in you are incredibly blasé about making 5 grand and then take the rest of the day off.
Something just feels a little odd to me.

I can assure you it most certainly is "AN ADVERT", and the advert is that if someone as thick as me can do it, so can you. It's all about persistance, and hard work in which ever field you choose.
I really wish I was a seasoned pro, and like you say It has no statistical relevance at all, so why would you follow my trades. Common sense says you would'nt.
I have not said in any post's that I have no fear, but more I try to supress it for a few hours a day while I trade, and try not to have any "LIMITING BELIEFS".

After next week I've decided to stop posting any trade's, so it'll be one less thing for you to feel a little odd over.

Regards
Mr Fox.