I was impatient.
I've always wanted my live trades to play out as fast. As fast as I click the "forward" button in TradingView replay function.
When I'm not in a trade, I'm bored. I want to be in a trade.
It doesn't matter if the trade does not fit my plan. I will find excuses to justify my actions because anything can happen in the market, right?
I want to feel the joy and excitement every time I'm in a trade. But every time I don't trade my plan, I see my account balance getting lower and lower.
This is when I realized I was gambling, not trading. Trading should be simple, boring and mundane. You should not feel anything from it. It's like working your day job. Do you feel happy analyzing spreadsheet?
My mentor suggested that I trade on the seconds timeframe. It's the closest to the speed of backtesting.
I agreed. I switched over to trade using the 15 seconds chart.
When I was scalping, things are moving fast. Analysis and trade management needed to be quick and there is no time for me to stop, gather my thoughts and act.
I took on many unnecessary losses because I wanted to be in all the moves.
At the end, my $1,000 account ended in a $600 drawdown in 1 month.
This is unsustainable.
Not Following Your Plan
Your biggest problem is not following your trading plan. You have a profitable trading system that you have backtested a lot. But why do you not trade according to it?
Discipline.
There is no one to keep you accountable for the trades that you take. If you're working in a day job, you will be discipline to arrive at work on time. You must meet your KPI, and to complete your job according to all the rules.
In trading, you're your own boss. No one will be telling you not to take the trade if it doesn't fit your trading plan. No one will be telling you to risk only 1% and not 10% on a single trade. No one will be here to punish you for all the mistakes that you've made. Success and failure belong to you only, no one else.
Without the discipline to follow your trading rules, you will be running around a circle. You will find some small successes, only to fall back into the same spot as you did a few months later. You will be a breakeven trader, unable to achieve profitability. Even worse, you will be in a drawdown, and will be unable to pull yourself back to profit.
If you want to improve your trading to achieve financial freedom, I have good news for you. I have a bespoke mentorship and is currently accepting students. Do note that slots are highly limited and not everyone who is interested can join. Check it out here.
Feeling The Pressure To Trade
There can only be two reasons why you feel the pressure to trade.
First, you're attempting a funded challenge and you're reaching the end of the time limit. Nowadays, there are many prop firms out there without any time limitations. This is better for your psychology and it's easier for you to pass since you do not need to force any trades. You are able to trade at your own pace, taking trades that fit your trading plan.
Second, you're relying on trading as the only source of income to put food on your table. Trading is the worst hustle you can rely on to put food on your table, especially if you're a beginner. Trading is already difficult and stressful to begin with. You are dealing with the fact that 95% of the traders fail. You're dealing with human's fundamental nature of greed and fear. It took me 5 years to achieve consistent profitability. What are the odds that you're a genius? What are the odds that you will be profitable when you're starting out? There is no guaranteed income in trading. Trading is a great side hustle at the start. You need consistent cash flow from your day job to put food on your table. You will most likely lose money during your first few years of trading.
Get your personal finance in order first. Make trading your main source of income later.
How To Curb Your Itch
You can create another small account. This account is to satisfy your urge to be in a trade. This way, you do not hurt your main trading account.
You are able to look at how you are performing when you’re not following your trading plan.
Compare this result to the results where you followed your trading plan. You will be able to see which is performing better.
If you get better results for not following your trading plan, tweak your actual trading plan. Backtest them and see whether there is an improvement by implementing these changes.
If yes, good! You’ve found improvement to your profitability. If not, you should realize that you must stick to your trading plan.
But Keeley, trading on a small account isn't satisfying enough.
Yes I know. But don’t forget, you’re deviating from your trading plan. You do not know whether this way of trading is profitable or not.
You can be lucky for the first 5 trades and think that you’re doing fine. This is when everything will go wrong. You will take the next trade on your main account. You will take the first loss. It’s ok, this is just 1 loss out of the 6 trades you took.
If you’re unlucky enough, you can lose 10 more trades this way and put a dent in your trading account. This could actually be a losing strategy. By continuing to trade like this, you will lose your trading edge over the long run.
Do you want to lose a small $100 account or your main $10,000 account? The answer is clear for me.
Accepting Change
Fear and greed are the enemy of traders. They are innate in us and it’s hard to overcome them.
Do you know that 95% of the traders are unprofitable? Do you know why people love to stay in their comfort zone, unwilling to try something new? Fear.
Change is the only constant in life. Why change something that is working ? Why change your lifestyle for the better when you’re not suffering? You’re not doing bad, but you’re not doing well either.
Everyone must choose one of two pain. The pain of discipline, or the pain of regret.
Whenever we try something new, we experience anxiety. We are afraid of the unknown. Master your emotions - Thibaut Meurisse
The most dangerous addiction in the world is comfort. People who’s living your dream life is not that smarter than you. They are simply better at overcoming the fear to take that very first step. It feels good to be trapped within your comfort zone. You have certainty. Negative emotions will find it hard to penetrate your bubble.
Think about it. You are in your 20s or 30s right now. When do you plan on retiring? 60? 70? That’s still a long way to go. Can you imagine yourself working for another 30 to 40 years? That’s 8 hours a working day on average. There’s an average of 260 work days in a year. Assuming you took all your 30 vacation leave and 14 sick days off. You’re still working 1,728 hours a year. What if you work for another 30 years? That’s 51,840 hours, or 2,160 days or 6 years of your life. And you don’t even work only 8 hours a day.
Slogging your life in a 9 - 5 on the weekdays, only to go home and watch Netflix and play video games. The cycle repeats. Look back into the past 2 years, what have you achieved? Do you want to continue living your life like this for 30 more years? Waiting for your paycheck at the end of the month, save and invest here so that you have enough money for a 5 days vacation to escape your mundane life. Then you’re back at it again with your savings wiped out.
Life always begins with one step outside of your comfort zone. - Shannon L. Alder
To create an extraordinary life, take full responsibility for your actions and decisions. Stop blaming external factors, and focus on the things you can control. If you can’t control what others think about you, then don’t. What are the things that you can control? How you treat yourself, your body and your mind. How you react to people and situations. How you think. What you do with your time. The people you choose to surround yourself with. How you treat others. Where you give your time, energy and attention. The contents that you consume.
When you’re trying to do the extraordinary, the ordinary will try to stop you from doing. People don’t like to see you succeed. They heard that entrepreneurship is hard and risky. You could lose a lot of money. They think that they have the best interest in you. They like to stay in the comfort zone and you should stay there with them. They tell you to be realistic. You are not someone incredible of great success.
Anything can happen. Ultimately it’s up to you to take the first step. There will be a lot of what-ifs and negative scenarios playing out in your head when you’re venturing into the unknown. The unknown is scary. But what if it turns out better than expected? What if everything should go well, actually went well? That’s something you can only find out if you take the first step.
Framework
Many of you focused a lot on the entry and the exit of your trades.
You have screenshots of your before and after of all the $Tesla Motors(TSLA)$, S&P 500(.SPX)$ and $Apple(AAPL)$ trades.
How about the process during the trade? Trade management is crucial in your trading career and is often neglected. You're interested in how many RR the trade can give you. You're interested in sniping the best entries with minimal drawdown. You're interested in trading using the smallest stop loss for the largest gains.
Understanding trade management can save you from losses. Trade management is also dependent on your personality. Do you like to manage your trade? Or do you prefer to set your limit order and continue with your life, forgetting about them?
You have to find a trade management system that fits your personality.
You can incorporate many trading tools into your stop loss placement. You can incorporate tools such as moving average, structural highs and lows, opposing order blocks, ATR, Fibonacci extension, using time elements, and even volume.
Set And Forget
I use this for myself. As I’m trading on the 15m timeframe, I know that my trade can take a few hours or even days to play out. Since I don’t have any power to control the market, I don’t manage my position. I manage my position when there are news or when my trade is aligned with the higher timeframe order flow. By using this method, you accept all the possibilities that this trade will be a loser. You know the win rate of your trading system through your backtesting. This way, you trade according to how you backtest. This method gives you a lot of free time for you to do what you love. This gives you time freedom which every traders should strive to achieve.
Trailing Stop Loss
When price moves in your favor, the stop loss will follow behind the current market price. This ensures that you capture all the profits. When a retracement comes, price will take you out in profit. I seldom use this method unless there is a red folder news. I will shift my stop loss to at least breakeven, and trail my stop loss to structure highs or lows. I have a few accounts with different prop firms. I can set my stop losses to different structure highs or lows to spread my risk. If one trade gets taken out, other trades could still be in. When red folder news is happening, the price can move fast in one direction. Often times, price will retrace back in my favor. This is to secure my profits, in case the price moved against me and hit my original stop loss position.
Taking Partial Profits
I use this whenever there is a red folder news approaching. 2 minutes before the release, I will close half of my position and shift my stop loss if my position is in a profit. I will close 75% of my position if my position is in a drawdown. There is great volatility during red folder news. If I do not close any position, I’m risking more than I want. This is due to the risk of slippage during news. I talked a lot about it here. You can consider taking partial profits when the price hits structural highs or lows. You can also use a Fibonacci extension to determine when you should be taking partials. This is up to you and your trading plan.
Results
If you've been following me on my journey, you would have seen my growth to be a consistent profitable trader.
Imagine receiving all these profit splits every other week. It gives a boost to my confidence. It also reinforce the fact that following my trading plan is the way to profitability.
I have a funded account journey where I trade a $10,000 account, showing the ups and downs of how real trading is like on my YouTube channel. I post weekly updates on my progress and show you the reality of trading.
I walk the talk, being transparent with my progress with the public. I know exactly what you're struggling with and I know exactly how to fix your issues. I’m sure you will benefit a lot from my free contents.
Stay consistent. Stay safe. Success is just around the corner.
If you enjoy such content, feel free to click the like button and subscribe for more.
Let me know what are your thoughts and learning points in the comments below so others can learn from you too!
Please let me know what kind of topic you would like to read next :)
Happy weekend!
I've always wanted my live trades to play out as fast. As fast as I click the "forward" button in TradingView replay function.
When I'm not in a trade, I'm bored. I want to be in a trade.
It doesn't matter if the trade does not fit my plan. I will find excuses to justify my actions because anything can happen in the market, right?
I want to feel the joy and excitement every time I'm in a trade. But every time I don't trade my plan, I see my account balance getting lower and lower.
This is when I realized I was gambling, not trading. Trading should be simple, boring and mundane. You should not feel anything from it. It's like working your day job. Do you feel happy analyzing spreadsheet?
My mentor suggested that I trade on the seconds timeframe. It's the closest to the speed of backtesting.
I agreed. I switched over to trade using the 15 seconds chart.
When I was scalping, things are moving fast. Analysis and trade management needed to be quick and there is no time for me to stop, gather my thoughts and act.
I took on many unnecessary losses because I wanted to be in all the moves.
At the end, my $1,000 account ended in a $600 drawdown in 1 month.
This is unsustainable.
Not Following Your Plan
Your biggest problem is not following your trading plan. You have a profitable trading system that you have backtested a lot. But why do you not trade according to it?
Discipline.
There is no one to keep you accountable for the trades that you take. If you're working in a day job, you will be discipline to arrive at work on time. You must meet your KPI, and to complete your job according to all the rules.
In trading, you're your own boss. No one will be telling you not to take the trade if it doesn't fit your trading plan. No one will be telling you to risk only 1% and not 10% on a single trade. No one will be here to punish you for all the mistakes that you've made. Success and failure belong to you only, no one else.
Without the discipline to follow your trading rules, you will be running around a circle. You will find some small successes, only to fall back into the same spot as you did a few months later. You will be a breakeven trader, unable to achieve profitability. Even worse, you will be in a drawdown, and will be unable to pull yourself back to profit.
If you want to improve your trading to achieve financial freedom, I have good news for you. I have a bespoke mentorship and is currently accepting students. Do note that slots are highly limited and not everyone who is interested can join. Check it out here.
Feeling The Pressure To Trade
There can only be two reasons why you feel the pressure to trade.
First, you're attempting a funded challenge and you're reaching the end of the time limit. Nowadays, there are many prop firms out there without any time limitations. This is better for your psychology and it's easier for you to pass since you do not need to force any trades. You are able to trade at your own pace, taking trades that fit your trading plan.
Second, you're relying on trading as the only source of income to put food on your table. Trading is the worst hustle you can rely on to put food on your table, especially if you're a beginner. Trading is already difficult and stressful to begin with. You are dealing with the fact that 95% of the traders fail. You're dealing with human's fundamental nature of greed and fear. It took me 5 years to achieve consistent profitability. What are the odds that you're a genius? What are the odds that you will be profitable when you're starting out? There is no guaranteed income in trading. Trading is a great side hustle at the start. You need consistent cash flow from your day job to put food on your table. You will most likely lose money during your first few years of trading.
Get your personal finance in order first. Make trading your main source of income later.
How To Curb Your Itch
You can create another small account. This account is to satisfy your urge to be in a trade. This way, you do not hurt your main trading account.
You are able to look at how you are performing when you’re not following your trading plan.
Compare this result to the results where you followed your trading plan. You will be able to see which is performing better.
If you get better results for not following your trading plan, tweak your actual trading plan. Backtest them and see whether there is an improvement by implementing these changes.
If yes, good! You’ve found improvement to your profitability. If not, you should realize that you must stick to your trading plan.
But Keeley, trading on a small account isn't satisfying enough.
Yes I know. But don’t forget, you’re deviating from your trading plan. You do not know whether this way of trading is profitable or not.
You can be lucky for the first 5 trades and think that you’re doing fine. This is when everything will go wrong. You will take the next trade on your main account. You will take the first loss. It’s ok, this is just 1 loss out of the 6 trades you took.
If you’re unlucky enough, you can lose 10 more trades this way and put a dent in your trading account. This could actually be a losing strategy. By continuing to trade like this, you will lose your trading edge over the long run.
Do you want to lose a small $100 account or your main $10,000 account? The answer is clear for me.
Accepting Change
Fear and greed are the enemy of traders. They are innate in us and it’s hard to overcome them.
Do you know that 95% of the traders are unprofitable? Do you know why people love to stay in their comfort zone, unwilling to try something new? Fear.
Change is the only constant in life. Why change something that is working ? Why change your lifestyle for the better when you’re not suffering? You’re not doing bad, but you’re not doing well either.
Everyone must choose one of two pain. The pain of discipline, or the pain of regret.
Whenever we try something new, we experience anxiety. We are afraid of the unknown. Master your emotions - Thibaut Meurisse
The most dangerous addiction in the world is comfort. People who’s living your dream life is not that smarter than you. They are simply better at overcoming the fear to take that very first step. It feels good to be trapped within your comfort zone. You have certainty. Negative emotions will find it hard to penetrate your bubble.
Think about it. You are in your 20s or 30s right now. When do you plan on retiring? 60? 70? That’s still a long way to go. Can you imagine yourself working for another 30 to 40 years? That’s 8 hours a working day on average. There’s an average of 260 work days in a year. Assuming you took all your 30 vacation leave and 14 sick days off. You’re still working 1,728 hours a year. What if you work for another 30 years? That’s 51,840 hours, or 2,160 days or 6 years of your life. And you don’t even work only 8 hours a day.
Slogging your life in a 9 - 5 on the weekdays, only to go home and watch Netflix and play video games. The cycle repeats. Look back into the past 2 years, what have you achieved? Do you want to continue living your life like this for 30 more years? Waiting for your paycheck at the end of the month, save and invest here so that you have enough money for a 5 days vacation to escape your mundane life. Then you’re back at it again with your savings wiped out.
Life always begins with one step outside of your comfort zone. - Shannon L. Alder
To create an extraordinary life, take full responsibility for your actions and decisions. Stop blaming external factors, and focus on the things you can control. If you can’t control what others think about you, then don’t. What are the things that you can control? How you treat yourself, your body and your mind. How you react to people and situations. How you think. What you do with your time. The people you choose to surround yourself with. How you treat others. Where you give your time, energy and attention. The contents that you consume.
When you’re trying to do the extraordinary, the ordinary will try to stop you from doing. People don’t like to see you succeed. They heard that entrepreneurship is hard and risky. You could lose a lot of money. They think that they have the best interest in you. They like to stay in the comfort zone and you should stay there with them. They tell you to be realistic. You are not someone incredible of great success.
Anything can happen. Ultimately it’s up to you to take the first step. There will be a lot of what-ifs and negative scenarios playing out in your head when you’re venturing into the unknown. The unknown is scary. But what if it turns out better than expected? What if everything should go well, actually went well? That’s something you can only find out if you take the first step.
Framework
Many of you focused a lot on the entry and the exit of your trades.
You have screenshots of your before and after of all the $Tesla Motors(TSLA)$, S&P 500(.SPX)$ and $Apple(AAPL)$ trades.
How about the process during the trade? Trade management is crucial in your trading career and is often neglected. You're interested in how many RR the trade can give you. You're interested in sniping the best entries with minimal drawdown. You're interested in trading using the smallest stop loss for the largest gains.
Understanding trade management can save you from losses. Trade management is also dependent on your personality. Do you like to manage your trade? Or do you prefer to set your limit order and continue with your life, forgetting about them?
You have to find a trade management system that fits your personality.
You can incorporate many trading tools into your stop loss placement. You can incorporate tools such as moving average, structural highs and lows, opposing order blocks, ATR, Fibonacci extension, using time elements, and even volume.
Set And Forget
I use this for myself. As I’m trading on the 15m timeframe, I know that my trade can take a few hours or even days to play out. Since I don’t have any power to control the market, I don’t manage my position. I manage my position when there are news or when my trade is aligned with the higher timeframe order flow. By using this method, you accept all the possibilities that this trade will be a loser. You know the win rate of your trading system through your backtesting. This way, you trade according to how you backtest. This method gives you a lot of free time for you to do what you love. This gives you time freedom which every traders should strive to achieve.
Trailing Stop Loss
When price moves in your favor, the stop loss will follow behind the current market price. This ensures that you capture all the profits. When a retracement comes, price will take you out in profit. I seldom use this method unless there is a red folder news. I will shift my stop loss to at least breakeven, and trail my stop loss to structure highs or lows. I have a few accounts with different prop firms. I can set my stop losses to different structure highs or lows to spread my risk. If one trade gets taken out, other trades could still be in. When red folder news is happening, the price can move fast in one direction. Often times, price will retrace back in my favor. This is to secure my profits, in case the price moved against me and hit my original stop loss position.
Taking Partial Profits
I use this whenever there is a red folder news approaching. 2 minutes before the release, I will close half of my position and shift my stop loss if my position is in a profit. I will close 75% of my position if my position is in a drawdown. There is great volatility during red folder news. If I do not close any position, I’m risking more than I want. This is due to the risk of slippage during news. I talked a lot about it here. You can consider taking partial profits when the price hits structural highs or lows. You can also use a Fibonacci extension to determine when you should be taking partials. This is up to you and your trading plan.
Results
If you've been following me on my journey, you would have seen my growth to be a consistent profitable trader.
Imagine receiving all these profit splits every other week. It gives a boost to my confidence. It also reinforce the fact that following my trading plan is the way to profitability.
I have a funded account journey where I trade a $10,000 account, showing the ups and downs of how real trading is like on my YouTube channel. I post weekly updates on my progress and show you the reality of trading.
I walk the talk, being transparent with my progress with the public. I know exactly what you're struggling with and I know exactly how to fix your issues. I’m sure you will benefit a lot from my free contents.
Stay consistent. Stay safe. Success is just around the corner.
If you enjoy such content, feel free to click the like button and subscribe for more.
Let me know what are your thoughts and learning points in the comments below so others can learn from you too!
Please let me know what kind of topic you would like to read next :)
Happy weekend!
Prop Firm Funded Trader
Find out more about me here: linktr.ee/kt_fx
Find out more about me here: linktr.ee/kt_fx
