I had a great question from someone that i wanted to share .....really open and honest trader who reflects a lot of traders out their on the cusp of success.........
From: XXXXXX Date: 4 November 2018 at 19:17:54 GMT To: XXXX@gmail.com Subject: Enquiry? Hello Neil, I hope you’re well; I’ve read your thread on T2W for a long time now and appreciate you’ve got a lot going on with the house, etc, but would like to ask you a question if possible. To contextualise this, I’ve been looking at trading, and trading on and off for a good number of years - I’ve got to the point where I am certainly break-even but I have concerns over viable long term profitability. I’m capable of following a (hopefully reasonably sensible) plan and can apply discipline to the point where I can follow a plan, but I think the lack of a serious ‘edge’ (beyond continuation a trend being an edge) is where I’m struggling. I have downloaded your free strength meter and think I understand the basic concept OK. I also think I understand, having read your posts, what you are doing on short intra-day timescales...My question is, on longer timescales, say the hourly chart or 4hr chart, is it too removed from the ‘in the moment’ action / pressures that move price to still have a viable edge using strength meters as a tool? Basically because of work I need to be able to trade something I can look at a couple of times a day. Am I disadvantaging myself purely by trying to do this? I also see you’ve talked about mentoring. I’d be interested in your thoughts...Put simply (and I might be wrong of course) I think I’m 80% there with trading and can’t reconcile giving up at this point after many years of thinking about it, testing out ideas etc . I feel I’d be quitting the race with the finish line in sight, but despite this, I’m struggling to make further forward progress. I know you’re really busy, but if you could spare a few minutes I’d be most grateful. Cheers XXX Hi XXX many thanks for your email and yes its a little crazy at the moment ....but then thats life .....we all have plenty going on to keep us busy ! great question and thank you for your honesty ......ive worked with a lot of intermediate traders on the cusp of becoming consistently profitable but not quite there....... firstly pat yourself on the back .....you are already in the elite area.....most wannabee traders are in truth dire !!!! ......and should pack up before they even open that live account and lose money .....but they dont and blame everything except themselves..... but that doesnt answer your question ..........im not sure i can 100% but i will try if you havnt read my extra pages at FXCorrelator.com please do so Can i win ? Methodology Mind game consistent and profitable traders are only a few % points better in their processes than yourself ......... but those few extra degrees of excellence are all it takes to reach the tipping point and become successful ...... so look at your Methodology and find an edge ......then test it and refine it .....you talk about trend ....great Edge ! ...........now what rules are you going to apply in what market in what timeframe etc etc etc ..........thats how you break it down ...... and the mindset ......well you are naturally in a mixed place .....but get the head together and focus on delivering that methodology ........never give up the fight and be confident....goes for any vocation or profession ......the best are quietly self confident and self assured in what they do knowing all will work out for the best .........sprinkle some law of attraction and universal energy elements in as well if you feel you believe in that stuff ...if you dont ...then dont worry.........but being confident is 50% towards success i have found over the years...always helps .....no need to be cocky or egotistical .....(many are)....i mean humbly confident and self purposeful......quietly confident ...... you mention my strengthmeter ............clearly its only for Forex and i have worked pretty exclusively in Forex trading since early 2000's .........found my groove and never deviated although i have worked with many traders who trade other markets as its great to be a little diversified at times and learn from others ..........but my home is Forex you are right that I try to be session based when trading ...........predominently 4-5 hour scalp session covering 1) London opens ....6 am to 11-12 am GMT 2) US opens .......from US market opens around 8-9am EST through till i get bored ! my focus is on how the main currencies are moving and news releases and anything else going on ......I then find the best pairs to trade based on my rules etc etc ...I am mindful of news releases and will step back on release then come back in following the news and initial market reactions .....I can already be in or out of positions but i have control.....so i am always watching the market minute by minute ......this is an advantage but equally my disadvantage is i am trading off very small Stop losses when scalping ............ you mention working F/T so scalping is not possible (me too for many years)...... so can you trade higher timeframes ? YES !!! clearly though you have to take a fresh and realistic mindset on trading such things and the key is scaling up everything but still try to use the scalping methodologies and processes and yuor edge..... and of course you are now hitting lots of news events inside some single candlestick bars ......which is just the way it is .....thats life so scale up and the big message here is ATR !!! (average true range)...go bigger to reflect the larger candlestick price ranges when you enter trades be mindful of what price movement would truly tell you that you got direction wrong ............and place stops at these levels (actual or theoretical).....and adjust targets to reflect decent returns for your risks (min 1:1) dont tinker with stops or double guess the market on news events ....... trust yourself ! all i would say is i am not a big fan of holding positions over weekends .....but it depends on how high a T/F you are going to trade ........ hope you get my drift .........if you are going to trade higher timeframes you also have to accept the smaller number of trades and smaller returns vs scalping etc etc ......its a numbers game dont increase risk from more that 1-2% of capital .........i know lots who ramp up to 5% as they must make more money on the fewer trades available .............NO ......it will kill you eventually hope this helps ..........I will release something for traders wanting to trade 1hour-4hr TF at some point as theres plenty of good approaches ...........but if youve read my stuff you know i am woefully bad at knuckling down to create e-books and training ..........I am a trader first and foremost.......but i will get there over next few months and have a team assembling in place again ...... hope this helps.............happy to respond to questions N