Demo Trading in Forex Training

I never thought nor appreciate the importance of demo until now I am trading with real money.  Forex is very unique if only for this special opportunity.  It is like the simulated flights for pilot training.

 

I am now properly making use of my demo accounts as it should be traded.  My earlier experiences with demo account were unemotional and detached, so the result was fantastic.  I brought that into live trading and got versely different result!!

 

Now every possibility must be tested.  Any deviation must be established and adjustments must be confirmed.  A single pip change could make all the difference and turn a winner to loser.  It is now a matter of rock-science and mathematical statistics:  Anything less is a disaster waiting to happen.

 

Trade Summary: now net 0% (great!!!)

Slow Path to Break-even

I am definitely returning though slowly. I had recouped some of my losses and gradually returning to original amount. The account is now down by just 4% and I am giving myself a big back-pat for that (who will if I don't do it myself).

Part of the adjustment I made had to do with my money management. I decided on a specific volume for each pair and stuck to it irrespective of the stop loss. Formerly I was using my capital and stop loss to determine my trade volume but it was costing me more losses despite good gains. A loss could amount to 100 pips for -$50 while a gain of 200 pips is only +$30. So with the new method, my gain or loss is the same and any trade with more than 150 - 200 pips loss is simply not for me.

I also take more trades now with more strategies both original and adopted (in fact I was surprised to see an improved version of the strategy I was trying to develop lately LIVE on a forum with very high positive rating!! Of course I quickly adopted it and started using it immediately)

I am willing to lose, willing to learn and determined to become a very successful forex trader. The retreat bridge had been burnt.....

Patience is the Ruler

The urge to leave a bad trade or exit a profitable one is many forex trader's demise. It certainly wrecked serious havoc on me these last 2 weeks. It is all part of the emotion that was not there during demo trading making good systems suspect and great trades moribund. I must seek and bow to the mighty King Patience. So, no more trying to rescue anything NOT initially part of the plan: Let the trade make or break itself.

To be truthful, it is not that I am not well aware of all these nor even said similar thing in the past, it is just that I realised the truth about the emotion of money having effect on me despite my 'formidable' defences. So right now I must tell myself the truth: You are not yet defended against money emotions; greed, fear, etc.

Trade Summary: down by 10% in a month. I shall return....

The Way Up could be Down.

Yeah, that's what I wrote in my facebook wall last Friday. It's a reflection of the funny outcome of the first week of live forex trading: All absolutely negative. More painful were the ones with nice greens that later turned to hit the stop loss. Really funny indeed.

But there's no cause for panic, though nobody really do like to lose, it is inevitable in this market. But one thing is I know the maximum I could lose defined by my stop loss and money management, but my gains has no maximum and in multiples of the stop loss. Definitely I shall recover all by the trading edge of my strategies. I have proved it with almost 1 year of demo trading, so there's no cause for panic except to keep me sober and also recognise that nothing is absolute and there's no master of all.

I have learnt patience as part of what brings the ultimate triumph.

Forex Trading

I refunded my forex account today to begin a fresh journey.

The first attempt about 2 years ago was greatly short-lived: I gained about $300 and lost about $650 within a 2 weeks period for a net loss of about $350 in a $2,000 capital. So I quickly withdrew the remaining capital and went back to demo trading. I had only done about 2 weeks demo before then and was eagerly confident I could launch out only to beat a retreat. Of course it was the wise thing to do before my capital became total part of the 95% margin-call statistics.

I had been on demo since then and had been making good returns for close to a year now. I had attended more seminars, developed good personal strategies, adopted some others, and confident of the plunge this time.

I will be posting my thoughts, feelings, anything as much and whatever I feel like writing on my trading experiences for some time to come. I should hopefully make my first trade tomorrow or Friday if there's good signal.

This is a financial, physical, emotional and spiritual journey and experience.

I found it difficult to update this blog

I hate writing, no wonder it is difficult to me to update this blog regularly. My friend and colleague in office, Toyin Akiode started a blog just last year http://www.9jafans.com/ and has pulled a lot of traffic because he consistently updates his blog.

It's not for want of contents because I am doing part-time forex trading with which I could get daily updates and large followership, it's simply because I avoid writing as much as is possible. My boss, Biodun Marquis is a paperman. He jots down a lot; an habit he said he picked from his father.

But I should admit also that I face difficult times which is seriously affecting my productivity. I am a family man with 4 boys aged 4 - 10 years and should spend good time with my family. I spend about 4 hours daily to/fro office and use 10 hours at work every weekday. In the remaining 10 hours, I must spend time with my family, engage in part-time forex trading, eat, relax and sleep minimum of 8 hours (LOL). I really am facing difficult time.

Notwithstanding, what needs to be done must be done. I hope I get the determination and resolve to keep to it and update this as appropriate.