Here is what you should to next:

Test it until it is obvious…

Become the Mad Scientist of Forex

Now that you have learned a strategy (or invented one), it is now time to test it.  This is where people usually get tripped out.  Remember that little thing called work that I was talking about before?

Whoomp, here it is.

But this is what separates the tadpoles from the frogs.  A lot of people want to be rockstars (literally), but how many of them want to do what is necessary to become a professional musician?  Very, very few.

If you have got this far in this post, you are probably willing to put in the time and effort to make it happen.

Even so, this may seem a little intimidating, so stick around to the end of this post to learn how to join a community that will help you do this for free…

So what do you need?

Forex backtesting software.

There are a few different ones out there, so take a few minutes and see which one is right for you.  I personally use Forex Tester, but there are other solutions like Ninja Trader and Tradestation.  Some brokers even provide ways to backtest, so look around.

It will probably cost some money, so be prepared.  But seriously, how much money is that compared to a college education, or even a couple of continuing education classes?  It is really affordable.

Also, make sure that you can cheaply get data from at least 10 years back, so you can get a good feel for if a trading strategy will work or not.

Why do you need to do this?  Here is a video that illustrates exactly why…

If you don’t know where to begin, check out my free Strategy Development Course.  It will give you a step-by-step on what to do and is more detailed then I could ever get in this series.

Once you have your chosen backtesting weapon (software), do the following:

• Write down your trading strategy in a notebook or in an online journal.  Specifically write down:
• What pair you are testing (pick only one)
• What time frame you are trading on
• When you will enter
• Profit target
• When you will exit
• If you will scale in/out or take an all in/all out strategy.
• How much of your account you will risk per trade (should be less than 2%)
• Any risk to reward ratio requirements
• Anything else you can think of that might pertain…
• Then, test that exact strategy for as long a period as you can
• WARNING: There will be a big temptation to start experimenting with settings in the middle of the test.  Don’t do it!  Stick with it until you run out of data or it is obvious that the strategy will not work…whichever comes first.

After that, figure out how you can improve the return (if possible).  Maybe you can:

• Tighten the stop loss
• Take fewer trades
• Pay better attention to support/resistance levels
• Eliminate some indicators
• Look for a bigger profit target
• Etc

You should test at least 1,000 trades under your belt before moving on to the next step. 

Test the same pair again, if you have to.  I tested 1,000+ trades, some of which I shared here.  Once you are satisfied with the results of a strategy, it is time for…forward testing (that is the topic next week).

Here is how you can crush this step…

Doin' it "Office Space" style

Yes, the back testing step is the hardest.

But what if you could join a friendly community of traders dedicated to testing and helping each other out?  Check out this page to join my new community for free and be a Pioneer Member.

You will get free lifetime membership for helping me get this started.  When I officially launch the community, it will cost $20 per month and prices will increase over time.

Click here for more information and instructions on how to join.  This offer will end soon, so if you are interested, act soon because I will take the page down when all the spots are filled.

See you on Wednesday! 

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P.S. – If you have 5 seconds and are looking for a forex signal service, I just have one question to ask you.  Thanks in advance!

Photos (in order of appearance): pasukaru76, keystricken, thumbnail by: Midtown Crossing At Turner Park

This series will outline what I believe is the best way to go from learning a trading strategy (or having a strategy idea), to thoroughly testing it, to finally being have the confidence to take it live.  Just to clarify, we are going to be testing discretionary (manual) strategies, not automated ones (EAs, robots, trading programs).

Will this guarantee your success?  Of course not.  This does take work and like I say in my disclosure, most people will not be willing to put in the time and effort.

But you are not one of those people right?

No, not one of these guys

Even if you do put in the time, you may not be successful right away.  What this process does do, is it greatly shifts the odds in your favor, without risking a dime…and that is all you can ask for.

As Professional Trader and Fund Manager Chris Lori mentioned when I interviewed him, tirelessly backtesting strategies was the biggest factor in his success.

My friend Haji took his laptop with him on his 6 month assignments at sea, when he worked on a LNG tanker ship.  During that time, he tested the crap out of some trading strategies and as a result, he was able to quit that job to trade full-time and spend more time with his family.

Again, these are not typical results, but the best way to learn something is to model people who are successful at what you want to do.  With that, here we go…

Get a strategy to test (there are two ways to go about this)

You can either invent a strategy yourself, or learn it from someone else.  If you are not consistently profitable already, then you should probably stick to learning from others.

But there is a catch.  You have to learn from people who are doing it for a living.

Remember, are they putting food on the table with their trading?

There is a lot of quality free education out there, but eventually, you will probably have to put out a little money (doesn’t have to be a lot) to get a quality education.  This is an important thing to keep in mind.

It is easy to get caught up all the different strategies that are posted on the forums, but remember that you best shot at success is start with a strategy that is already putting food on someone else’s table.  Find these people and learn as much as you can from them.

For example, the method that I am trading now came from a $10 ebook on Amazon.

However, if you do feel the need to get creative, the next part of this three part series will allow you to indulge your craziness without losing any money.

If you liked this information, feel free to Share it by clicking one of the buttons on the left side of this page.

Stay tuned on Monday for the next installment of this series.

Here is a special thanks for reading…

I truly believe in this process I will launching a community dedicated to crushing the hardest step in this process (you will find out what that is on Monday).  If you want to get a jump start, check out this page to join the community for free and be a Pioneer Member.

Yeah, that is a fancy name for Tester…but it sounds better.  Seriously though, you will get free lifetime membership for helping me get this started.  When I officially launch the community, it will cost about $20 per month and prices will increase over time.

This is your opportunity to get in on the ground floor, save a ton of money and get access to a wealth of testing results.  Click here for more information and instructions on how to join.  It is only for people who are willing to work, but I believe that it can become a huge resource for figuring out what works and what doesn’t.

This offer will end soon, so if you are interested, act soon because I will take the page down when all the spots are filled.

Disclosure: I am a student and affiliate of Chris Lori, so I do make a commission if you buy from my site.  But I promote his work because I believe in it and a portion of the proceeds go to my charity organization.  Haji is someone I know personally and get no monetary compensation from him.  He is a cool guy who just so happens to be a rockstar trader.

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P.S. – If you have 10 seconds to answer 3 simple questions, I would be very grateful if I could get your anonymous opinion on a few things.  This will help me give you more information that will help to solve your specific trading issues.  Just 3 questions and it will be really quick…promise.  Click here to give your opinion.   Thanks!

Photos (in order of appearance): 111 Emergency, NickNguyen, thumbnail by: Midtown Crossing At Turner Park

I hope you find this energizing and puts you on the right track.  Every so often, I have to take a step back and do this exercise because I find myself getting caught up in things that don’t matter and I lose sight of what is really important.

Pick One: Ferrari or Jag E-Type

Choose one of the goals that you want to reach as a result of becoming a profitable trader.  Usually the first thing that comes to mind is a fancy car or a jet.  It’s your goal, choose whatever you want.  I don’t care if you want to become a touring ballet dancer…whatever floats your boat.

Got it?  OK, stay with me, this may get a little weird, but it works.

Now, go sit in a quiet place and only focus on that one goal.  If possible, go to your favorite outdoor spot…maybe in the mountains, or near the ocean…somewhere quiet and inspiring. If that’s not possible, then go sit on the toilet and close the door.

Yes, keep your pants on.  It’s not that kind of activity.

Just keep concentrating on that one goal.  Close your eyes and imagine yourself actually having it or doing it.  Now the important question…how does that make you feel?

I mean REALLY feel.

Is that something that you absolutely want in your life?  Think about it for at least two minutes.  After some reflection, you may be surprised at the answer.

My Goal is to Own an NBA Basketball Team

At one point, that is what I thought.  It’s not that I think it’s impossible, it’s just not truly in line with how I want to live my life.

A very cool idea, no doubt…but I can think of much better things to spend that kind of money on.

Another example is I want to have a Porsche 911 GT3.  I sat down to reflect on how I felt about that and I realized that I still want one.

Yes, it’s showy

Yes, I could be called a douche

But I love cars and it would be fun.  So that stays on the list.  But that is minor…

What Are Your BIG Whys?

One of the major reasons that I want to learn to trade successfully is so that I can surf in different parts of the world.  So far, I’ve “only” surfed in Hawaii, Mexico, Washington (State) and California.  I want to surf in places like Indonesia, Australia, Tahiti and South Africa…just to name a few.

Of course this involves a lot of travel, another thing I love.  Here is a video I took recently of a fun day surfing in Hawaii and a couple of pictures of me on my first trip to Europe (Poland and Estonia) last year.  These are two of my Biggest Whys.

I forget who this guy was, but he had a sweet 'stache (Estonia)

We had a private tour of the Wieliczka Salt Mines in Poland, one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. That is ALL salt, even the chandeliers.

Now it’s your turn.  What do you really want?  Pull out your goal list and see which ones should stay and which ones should go.  What can you add?

It might be being able to have time to spend with your kids or having a comfortable retirement…or a Lambo Aventador.  The only thing that matters, is that it matters to YOU.

Keep these goals in mind every time you trade or backtest and they will help you stay on track. 

If you don’t mind sharing, I would love to hear about your biggest reasons for wanting to be an all-star trader…leave a comment below.

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Who would have thought that there would be a day when we actually started calling laptops “bulky.”

But alas, every new offering from brokers and third parties alike, have been pretty much the same ol’ same ol’.  Trade execution has never really been the issue (in my experience). That has usually been pretty good.

What has been disappointing has been the charting.  If you wanted anything more than just lines on a chart, you were SOL.

No crosshairs, only a handful of indicators and you want more than one chart on the screen?  Ha!  Good luck with that.

But I can across an app a couple of weeks ago that I consider a huge leap forward in mobile charting.  I think that it could make it possible for someone to trade completely on their mobile phone or tablet.

That might not excite some of you, but to people like me who geek out about the notion of being able to travel and not have to take my laptop, that is tremendously exciting.  What is this magical app you ask?

I did a full review for Forex Crunch and it goes into what I am using now and all the features of this great new app.  It is for iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows Phone and Blackberry…and did I mention that it is free?

Click here to read the full review at Forex Crunch.

What apps do you like to trade with?  Let us know your latest find in the comments below!

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Scamming in my name, not good vibes Mon.

“Holy shit, Bob Marley tickets?  Hell yeah!”

Later…

“Are you going to the Bob Marley concert?  Wait…what?!”

A few of the other more interesting scams where:

• Selling passes to the secret “teacher’s elevator” (some of our buildings had 4 floors)…which didn’t exist
• Huge bags of “weed” for $10 (actually oregano)
• The whereabouts of the “clean” bathroom.  The only thing clean about it was they “cleaned” you of your lunch money.

Yes, I went to public school.

Some of these scamsters probably went on to perpetrate the sale of landmarks or Forex scams…like this guy.  The one good thing that came out of these experiences was I learned what a scam looks like.

A Few Things To Watch Out For

I’m not trying to make you paranoid, but here are a few things that I have seen in the Forex market and how to avoid them.

The EA

I’m not saying that all EAs are scams. Some of them may work and I believe that most of them are created by people who have legitimate intentions.

But as I always say…if you don’t know how it works, how will you know when it stops working?

Almost all EA companies will not tell you how their program is placing trades.  For good reason, that is their business and they are not going to give up their secrets. But that makes it really easy for scammers to create a something that may work for a little while, then blow up your whole account one day before you get home for dinner.

I believe that it is better to learn how to trade for yourself.  That way, your destiny is in your hands…not someone else’s.

The really ugly website with no money back guarantees

I’m not one to judge on appearance because this site isn’t the most beautiful/fashionable site in the world. But I have noticed that if a site is really, really poorly done, that may be a red flag.

I have seen a couple like this and you can smell the scam from a mile away. Things are really misaligned on the page, several different kinds of fonts and pictures that are not sized correctly.  On top of that, they only kind of say that they will return your money if you are not satisfied.

It must say that there is a full money back guarantee for 30 days, or whatever length of time the guarantee is good for.

Too good to be true

This one is obvious, but if someone promises you 200% in a month with little risk, they are probably full of shit.  Sometimes as we are reading a convincing website we lose site of this.  Slap yourself back into reality.

Before you pull out your credit card…

Be sure to do some research on the product that you are thinking of buying.  Do a Google search for reviews on the product and see what Forex Peace Army and Investimonials have to say about it.

If you have any doubt, don’t buy.

Also remember that there are going to be unsatisfied customers, no matter how good a product is.  In the Forex market, people are usually angry for one of two reasons:

• The product really was crap
• They were too lazy to actually put in the effort to make the product work and need someone to blame for their failures

Be sure to try and read between the lines to figure out which one of these two categories the reviewer falls into.  This will help you separate the whiners from the legitimate complaints.

I have been guilty of buying a product before reading the reviews and checking for the money back guarantee first.  It doesn’t happen often, but I do get caught once in a great while…it’s only human, so don’t be too hard on yourself if it does happen.  Just don’t let it happen again!

Those sales letters can be really convincing, but this is a reminder to do your homework before rushing out and buying something.

Have you ever bought something that was a total scam?  Were you able to get your money back? Let us know what you did in the comments below.

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Photo: kronic.it

In my opinion, you can learn almost anything on your own, a college education is way overpriced for the amount of practical knowledge you get and too much formal education actually impairs your ability to think creatively.

Here are a couple of ideas on how to create your own MBA from Scott Dinsmore and Tim Ferriss.  They are not about trading, but they illustrate the fact that self-directed learning is not only cheaper, it can be more rewarding.

However, the fact remains that the lack of information on internet in not the problem.  The real issue is sorting through all the bullshit and finding the stuff that you can actually use.

With that goal in mind, I have compiled all the free resources that I have found useful in becoming a better trader.  Just so we are clear, this information is more for beginning to intermediate traders.  But even if you are advanced, you may find a few of these resources helpful.

But let’s not kid ourselves…

These free resources are great, but realistically…at a certain point, you will probably have to pay for some sort of education.  That is just how it works, unless you can get a professional to mentor you for free (not likely).  The great news is that the cost is usually very minimal, especially compared to what you would pay for a formal education.

I hope you find these resources helpful and let me know what you think. 

Disclaimer:  All of the links below are totally free.  If a link has changed and the resource is no longer free, contact me and I will remove it immediately.  Some of these links are affiliate links where I get a commission if you choose to purchase, but I only recommend sites/products that I have checked out and believe in, and a portion of the proceeds go to my charity partner. 

Free Forex Trading Education Resources

General Finance Knowledge

• Investopedia – The most useful part about this website is the Finance dictionary.  There have been more than a few times when I had to look up the definition of a term and I couldn’t find it in a regular dictionary.  Baaam, enter Investopedia.
• Wikipedia – Then of course, there is the Grandadddy of online encyclopediadom.  Great for all kinds of general information.
• Bloomberg – When I need to get a little more in depth information on a news topic, I usually go to Bloomberg.  I find it easier to read than other similar sites.
• Forex Factory News – One of the most trusted sources for news releases.  You should always check this page before trading to see what news is coming out.  Don’t get caught with your pants down…in trading at least.

Review Sites

• Investimonials – Started by Tim Sykes of penny stock fame, this site reviews all things financial.  Everything from brokers to blogs can be found on this website.  It’s like the Yelp of Finance.  When you are interested in a particular finance product, it is helpful to check this site first to see what people are saying about it. If you have a minute, I would really appreciate it if you take a minute to review Trading Heroes.
• Forex Peace Army – This site reviews Forex related products and services.  It can be a great way to discover new educational material and find out how good something is before you buy it.  They also have a free educational forum for Forex traders and they test various EAs (Expert Advisers) and report the results…all free.  The downside?  Their site is way too green.

Forex Trading Courses

• Baby Pips Forex School – Until I can come out with my own beginners course, this one will have to do.  In all seriousness, this is the best free beginners course on the internet.  If you don’t know anything about Forex, read this.  Period.
• Online Trading Academy – I’m not generally a fan of these types of offers because most of them are crap, but this one surprised me.  The content is really good and they do teach beginners a lot.  There are 3 free full webinar recordings that you can watch…$150 value for free.  Get it while this offer is still valid.
• Forex Strategy Development Course – If you are a little further along in your trading, check out my free course on how to test your trading strategies before ever risking a penny.

Trading Videos

• INO TV (Free) – Some free trading videos from INO.  Theses are general trading videos, but they are useful for getting ideas and learning basic trading methods.
• YouTube – There is so much information on YouTube!  Some of it is crap, but some of it is free gold.  If you find a publisher who is putting out quality videos, be sure to subscribe to their channel.  That is the best way to keep on getting good content.  Check out my YouTube channel, while you are at it. 
• Metatrader Tutorials – Here are a few Metatrader tutorials that I created that might help you.

Charting

Although charting is not really an education source, it kind of is.  Your charting platform is where you get your price information.  Why not get the best?  And it just so happens that the best is free!

• Metatrader – There are a lot of questions on the forums asking what the best charting platform is.  For me, the answer is simple…Metatrader.  Get it free from your broker or directly from the Metatrader website.  Thank me later.
• Broco Trader – Most Metatrader installations are the same…except for this one.  This broker offers a demo account that allows you to chart futures on the Metatrader platform.  Perfect for watching commodities that influence currency prices, like Gold and Oil.

Blogs

• Kathy Lien – Good Forex market analysis.
• Adam Jowett – His blog is brilliant because he actually goes over his trading results for the week and you can see exactly how much he made or lost.  Oh yeah, and he trades for a living.
• The Day Trading Academy – This is not a Forex blog, Marcello trades the S&P Emini.  But I really like how transparent he is with his trading.  In addition, he is the perfect example of being able to travel the world and trade.  Very inspiring!
• Forex Crunch – I can only handle so much Forex news blogging (just like chart blogging), but this one is well done.
• Nial Fuller – This is a really good site for learning price action.  He has a ton of free information and the blog is easy to follow.
• Sam Seiden – I started watching Sam’s stuff recently and it is really good.  There are different sites where he posts his articles, so look around.
• Chris Lori – You have to sign up (for free) to get into the members area of Chris’ blog, but he has a lot of great educational videos and he also gives you access to bank reports.  These reports are usually reserved for institutional traders, so if you want to see what the big boys are reading, check it out.

Trader Interviews

• The Traders Podcast – Rob Booker is the king of Forex media and this is why.  These podcasts are fun and you learn a lot.
• The Trading Lifestyle Podcast – The Trading Heroes podcast.  Not quite as good as Rob’s, but I’m getting there…
• Other interviews – Check out some of the other interviews and success stories I have posted.

Magazines

• SFO – Get a free subscription to SFO magazine.  I used to read this magazine when I first started out.  It is great for getting trading ideas and learning the basics of trading.
• Currency Trader – Another magazine that helped me when I was first starting out.  They went to an online version since then, so it is easy to receive and read.

Social Media

• Twitter – You can learn a ton on Twitter and make new friends.  Don’t worry, no one ever understands Twitter the first couple of times.  It took me three tries to get it. Just stick with it and you will finally see the light.  I believe that it is the most effective communication platform for meeting people with similar interests.  Follow Trading Heroes on Twitter and see who I’m following.  That will give you a good head start.

Forums

I’m not a big fan of forums nowadays (since I’m not a beginner anymore) because there is a lot of noise, but they can be a great way to get started.   Some of them have hundreds of posts added every day, so they are a huge resource.  These are the better ones.

• Forex Factory
• Baby Pips
• FX Fisherman

I hope this helps you get a head start on your Forex trading education.

Do you know of any resources I have missed?  If so, let me know in the comments below…

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Photo credit: epSos.de

So what is the best way to meet in the middle when taking a trade?  I have found that asking one simple question helps me a lot.  Nothing is foolproof of course, but it does cut through a lot of the emotion and anxiety.

The question is…

“Do I have an advantage? “

Duh.

Yes, it may seem idiotically simple now, but how many times have you been caught up in the moment and taken an impulsive trade?  Don’t worry, I’m not judging…I’ll bet that I have done that twice as many times as you have.

This question reminds me to do a quick logic check and see if this current setup will give me an edge.  Doing this not only keeps me out of stupid, impulsive trades, but it will also force me to take trades that I may be apprehensive to take (for whatever reason).

Missing out on profit can be just as bad as getting into a crap trade.

An Example

Here is a chart from a couple of days ago where I kept myself from taking a bad trade by asking this simple question.  This is the exact point in time where I had to make the decision of “go” or “no go.”

"...but I can still get in..."

This is a 1 hour EURUSD chart, trading the Wallaby method.  I identify an advantage in this trade when price and the Wallaby indicator (red) become divergent and Stochastics (blue and yellow) are at an extreme.

In this case, my maximum advantage would be when the Stochastics are as close to the top of the range as possible and the yellow line has crossed over the blue line, with good separation between the two.  As you can see, it has already moved down through most of the range and is actually starting to turn back up again.

Price has also almost hit the first profit target of support, which means that it will be harder to make any profit from there.

It would have been easy to justify taking this trade and if I’m honest, I did hover over the Sell button for about half a second.  But then I asked myself the question and the answer was “NO.”  My advantage was gone and there was no reason to take the trade.

Even at optimal entry, shown in the chart below, price was too far gone and the easy (er) money was already off the table.

The first profit target is almost hit.

After 1,000+ backtesting trades in this pair, I understand what to look for and I know when I have an edge.  That doesn’t mean that I am immune from taking a bad trade or taking a loss, it simply means that I understand the trade and am less likely to do so.

How did this trade turn out?  It would have been profitable.    But I’ll take the odds over 20/20 hindsight any day of the week.

If you don’t know how to identify an edge in the market, then you have bigger problems.  Get to work stress testing your method and learn to spot a good opportunity.  It is hard work, but it is worth it.

What do you do to keep yourself out of bad trades? Leave a comment below, I would love to hear about it.

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One thing that I have struggled with my entire life is Green Fairies.  Before you think that I am some sort of Disney weirdo/creep, this is what I mean.  It’s not about tights, wings and a pixie dust.

It is about doing shit that is going to get me to where I want to be.  So this week I finally decided to shoot what is hopefully the last Green Fairy by shutting down my other blog.  It’s not totally official yet because there are a few technical issues that have to be worked out, but it will be complete by the end of the month.

When I look back on how much work I put into that blog, just to shut it down…I feel like I have a hangover, riding on a boat in 10 foot seas.  All that time and resources are just going to go up in smoke.

And I could have spent that time, energy and money on this blog. But I also feel better that I am simplifying my life and removing the stuff that doesn’t work for me.

…Dammit!

Why do I do that?  I get caught up in these tangents that only prolong my success.  It has to stop.  After a lot of reflection, it became clear…

“Own Your Greatness”

This is a phrase that has been rolling around in my head for the past couple of months and I have come to one overwhelming conclusion.  I have kept the receipt for my greatness.

I didn’t own it completely…there were still outs.

It’s like that 60″ TV from Costco that you “bought” for the World Cup.  It is amazing, you can see the snot hanging out of the goalie’s nose at 100 meters.  Sport, in all it’s orgasmic glory.

But you kept the receipt…

Have you kept your receipt?

Because that TV comes with responsibilities.  Spending that money possibly means that your kids can’t buy new clothes. Maybe you can’t afford your rent/mortgage this month.  Having somewhere to live is a good thing…so you took it back after the World Cup finished.

In order to own entertainment greatness forever (or until a bigger one comes out), you have to put in some extra effort.  Be able to truly afford that TV and have the disposable income first: maybe do some extra consulting, cook dinner instead of going out, sell some extra crack this month.  It takes some work and discipline.

I also kept my receipt. In case Trading Heroes and my personal trading doesn’t work out, I thought that I should have the other blog to fall back on.  I didn’t have to be responsible for what came with it.

Throw it out!

Bullshit. I was just being lazy and not taking responsibility for my own greatness.

I can’t be too hard on myself though.  I didn’t fully comprehend that trading is my greatness until recently.  These are just a few of the things that snapped me out of my daze:

• I really enjoy the challenge of managing a trade and I have been encouraged by my current trading results.
• I know in my gut that I can trade better…trading-for-a-living better.
• When I speak to other traders, there is usually an instant subconscious connection.  Regardless of individual personalities or backgrounds, I tend to enjoy talking to these people much more.
• It is one of the few topics that I can speak intelligently on and have actually lectured publicly about.
• 80% of my library is trading related books.
• A lot of synchronicity happens around trading.  That may sound a little granola-fru-fru, but it’s legit.  I have received free trading courses/books, I got a job on the trading desk of a hedge fund with no finance degree, etc.  *Maybe* someone might be trying to tell me something.  Hmmm….
• I get fucking inspired when I hear about what Tim Sykes is up to.
• Most of the Forex blogs out there are just charts.  I enjoy writing about other stuff too.

I’m not trying to say that I’m destined to become the greatest trader in the world or anything ego-idiotic like that.  I’m merely saying that it is my calling in life and I have to take full responsibility.  This is the reason that my life has been mediocre up to this point.

So here is what I’m doing about it…

Why I Have Been MIA This Past Week

I usually try to post at least 3 times a week, but this week has been a cricket festival.

Here is why…

I have been studying material by Sam Seiden, Adam Jowett, Nial Fuller and Chris Lori this week.  They are all basically saying the same thing.  Price action is King.

…but I knew that.

So why the hell am I not doing something about it?  I think it is the Fear Monster whispering in my ear:

• No indicators? Check out the funny looking naked charts…
• You are not good enough to do it on your own…
• Don’t you know that everyone uses indicators…

In spite of how it sounds, I’m not totally knocking indicators, they can work.  The Wallaby method that I have been trading publicly on this blog is a good example.   I like the trade and I feel that it does give me a viable advantage in the markets.

But deep down, I feel like I am still lagging the market.  It feels a little contrived…like most of the people you might meet a Polo match (or at least the one I’ve been to).

So I am testing some pure price action strategies in the AUDJPY on the 5 minute chart.  The one hour chart is cool, but if I am going to trade for a living, I need to apply an advantage a little more than 4 times a month.

This really hit home after reading the adventures of the Wandering Trader and Day Trading Academy Founder, Marcello Arrambide and reading about how Adam trades for a living.

My Challenge To You

Have you been preventing your own greatness?  I challenge you to sit down right now, shut off all distractions and really do a gut check.  What do you absolutely love to do?

Do whatever it takes to figure that out.  Write down a list.  Reflect on how each item makes you feel.  Circle the one that you have the strongest feeling towards.

Now go rock the shit out of that. 

Hint: It may not be trading.  But if it is, I’d love to meet you.  Feel free to say hi on Twitter, Google+ or leave a comment below!

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Photo credits: Kevin Zollman and diongillard