Igor's Story Part Three

source: http://www.forex-tsd.com

At this moment I was spending a lot of time on forums like strategybuilder.com and the forum here forex-tsd. I knew of myself that I knew a lot more then most of the so called traders or people that wanted to make a living out of trading. I knew that it is the most hard road to walk on. The most impossible job that one can pick up. That one can do very well for several years and suddenly one can loos everything in a matter of days or weeks.

Bit by bit I started to build up a reputation here on forex-tsd and on some other forums. In this way that I knew that many people started to follow me. I had many hits on the topics that I started or the postings that I made. 

This gave me the final boost or launch in my trading life. I started to realize that I not had only pressure of my friend who sponsored me but also hundreds of people that followed me. And this made me to get my act really and finally together. That was tradin in a NORMAL conservative way. 

Stick to my systems but don’t get attempted to take to much risk. Making 50% profit is huge compared to Warren Buffet who makes “only” 30% yearly and this for 35 years now and became the 2nd richest person in the world. I said over and over again: forget to make several hundreds percentage of profits because that is always leading to destruction (sooner or later).

It can sound silly but even after all that time I was still learning every day. Not only to trade in a certain way but all the ways how one should not trade. I became on absolute expert in money management , where before I thought that money management is not trading more then 2% risk per trade.

I realized that to stay alive as a trader is to not take to much risk AND don’t place your eggs in one baskets. Trade several pairs. Trade several system. Trade with several brokers. Go for a small but sure yearly profit instead of risking a whole farm but ending up with burning that farm.

Of the several hundreds of people here on forex-tsd, there were people who had serious capital. And from one came to the other. The snowball started to roll and we got in contact with each other. They started to invest also some small money in me. 

Some of them left me already after a couple of weeks or months because of some normal trading losses I made where they hoped like me before, to only make profit and never make losses. But I did not worry anymore. I knew it was a natural selection between “investing capital” and “risk or casino capital”.

I progressed in such a way that now my best friend is still trading with me (which I want to thank him for very much because he believed in me from the very beginning and because of him I am still a trader) and all of the other people that with the years invested more and bigger capital in me. 

Also and especially forex-tsd that gave me a forum to make myself public so I could do my thing and give me the opportunity to earn money through trading by teaching developing and helping other people to make money through trading. I survived on giving lessons and having a trading room.

During that same period I continued to develop further and further my systems and placed them in expert advisors that I leased to others and at some point kept for myself because I had enough money that was invested in me.

As I write this I have 1.3Million $ invested in my pamm accounts as an account manager and I am also employed as a trader for an institutional investment company in Eastern-Europe.

One very important thing I know is that I will never get attempted anymore to take to much risk or think that I could get rich in 1 year time. I have months that I don not earn 1 single penny or dime or euro (except my income for the investment company). 

And I have months that I earn the same amount of money as 10 postmen are earning in Germany. This means that my monthly income is very volatile like the forex can be or that I never know in advance what my income will be. 

But that is what I want. I could never live with the knowledge how much money I would make every month because that sounds or feels for me like counting the days till I die or that I get my pension.

My investors are very pleased with the return they get on their investment. They get a lot more then on the stock exchanges. And the investment they make with me is not stocks correlated. I still live in my letterbox apartment. I still do not drive a car. 

But I know that I live from my trading and that this was my quest and ambition from the very beginning. Being a part of the financial world and be smarter then 95% of the financial world. Because 95% of the people who trade need to stop after 3 years. 

I want to thank the people who believed in me and the people who invested in me. I am glad to be a trader. It is the most difficult job in the world. You need to be more then a shark to survive in this world. Even after several years being profitable one can still stand on a cliff and have the urge to jump from it because you lost everything in your life.

If had the chance to do it all over gain, would I still become a trader ?...That is for me the absolute most difficult question to answer. I really don’t know. It had to give up so much in life to become a trader. 

I lost 2 beautiful relationships. But it gives me so much satisfaction to be a trader…I live from my trading, I am independent, nobody tells me what to do, I can do my job from anywhere in the world as long if I have an internet connection. 

And like Confucius pointed me to : I never had the feeling that I worked one day in my life because I love my job as trader enormously.

So I attempted to say: YES I AM a SUCCESFUL trader. I am making a very nice incomme now. But I would never recommend to someone to become a trader. It is by far THE most difficult difficult thing one can do.

A VERY important detail was that I felt from the very beginning and throughout my whole trading career was that there is the rule that only 5% of the traders can make it as a trader. I told myself from the very beginning that statically I belong to the 95% of the traders that would not make it. 

Where all the people that I meet on the internet believe from the very beginning that they will be a part of the 5% of traders that will make it.

I make my living as Joe the plumber or the baker, or the lawyer. If they do not have any doubts on being successful then I definitely don’t need to have any doubts on being successful. 

Read also: Igor's Story Part One
Igor's Story Part Two

Igor's Story Part Two

source: http://www.forex-tsd.com

With taking that decision I got 50% of the value of my house on that moment (the year 2000) 125.000€

I was learning very fast because the time that I took to learn was beyond what every other human would do. I slept in front of my pc. Was reading every book on trading. I was even able to write a book. 

My learning curve went up like a rocket. When someone would have cut open the veins in my wrist there was not a drip of blood that would have come out of it. Only charts, logarithms, systems, charts, indicators etc. And was I making money ?.. HELL YES. I was making an insane amount of money. I was making money like I never dared to dream.

BUT..yep as you expected here is the big but. I was trading in such a way that sooner or later it would lead to a total destruction. I had hardly ever a stoploss on my trades and was continuously averaging down. 

Every time I succeeded in my averaging down I made a lot more money. Brokers personally warned me (in that time one had only telephonic brokers) every time with the words: Igor, you got away with again but sooner or later you are going to get stuck in positions where you will loos everything in a couple of days.

As said I felt on top of the world (arrogant) and had no ears for what they said. 

The 21st February 2001 ( 1 year after my divorce) my arrogance was stopped abruptly. In 48 hours I lost everything, every penny, dollar, euro that I had made and saved in my life. I had taken so much future contracts on the long side on the daxxetra ( german stock index) by continuously averaging down where on that moment that index (future) was dropping like a meteor that is falling to earth.

My broker called me after the trading session and said to me: Sorry Igor all your money is gone. I did everything to keep your positions open as long as possible. To even go over your margin till the zero point. But tomorrow you can’t trade anymore. Because no more money.

I said to him: Thank you and laid down the phone and got in the most scary trance for 2 days without going to sleep. I kept staring to my chart and to my broker platform. I had the most empty helpless and dying feeling one can imagine. 

I felt that the sharks had eaten me completely and that on that same evening not one of those shark would feel any compassion for me or realize that somebody has lost his life. Because they don’t know me. They do not see my face. They do not know how I feel. They did not know what I gave up in my life (wife and family) to get to this point.

This feeling got stronger and stronger till I was sure that I wanted to commit suicide. I started to think how ?... I hate pain and violence. So pills were the most obvious key to me to some sort of heaven or hell for traders that had bad luck or did wrong. 

On that very same moment (not sleeping for 48hours) my son, he was then 8 years, came in my apartment with the most lovely smile and said the most awakening words: Hello DADDY. He came to me and gave me a kiss while placing his arms around my neck and I placed my arms around him and held him so tight that he said DADDY what are you doing? 

On that moment I realized that suicide is no option at all because my sons need me and love me and I love them with all my hart.

A couple of days later my decision was made. I wanted to continue to be a trader. But I did not had a pot to piss in anymore. I realized to start to trade immediately would not be a good decision because I would only feel revenge and wanted to get my lost money back ASAP. I realized that this would only lead to revenge trading and that this would be the ideal ingredient to failer. 

I talked to my friend who had invested in me and explained my case. I explained him also my trading style and where I made crucial errors. On that moment we were the month of June. He said to me: I am going to pay you a very small monthly income. With that income I know you can hardly survive. But live like a monk. Trade for 3 months on a demo account and show me that you do not average down anymore and that on every trade you have a pre-defined stoploss and take profit. 

I traded nearly 3 months on a demo account very strictly and with an enormous discipline and at the end of September my friend said to me: Lets go live again!... I felt that this would be my absolute last chance to make it as a trader. 

I decided that the money I had lost was absolutely lost. I accepted my defeat. I looked with a clear mind to the future and knew that I needed to start from zero again. Humble and modest. I was 38 years old then.

Everything went smooth and well. I started to put more and more of my trading decisions into expert advisors. I knew more and more that system trading is better then discretionary trading. No more feeling like greed and anger. It went from better to good. I started a new relationship.

 She was again a great woman and had a lot of friends ho had some money to invest. More and more money was added to my account as an account manager. Where at some point I was trading 1Million dollar. 

I was doing so good that again this dark evil greedy little devil sat on my shoulder and said to me: Boost up your risk. Make more money. You can do it..etc…. I started to investigate my own trading so much or lets say to much that I took again huge risks BUT suddenly I lost 50% of the capital that people had invested with me. 

Immediately people abandoned my sinking ship. My relationship broke up again and her friends told me that they wanted to stop and before I knew it I was back on the street with nothing. No more relationship. No more money.

I moved to a very small apartment. The right word for it would not be an apartment but a letterbox. When I moved my head from left to right it caused a head injury. I had a very long thought about my live and realized that the path I decided to walk nearly 10 years ago had brought me nowhere. 

I felt like a trader, I was a trader, but that was it. I had not 1 euro in my pocket. No car. No house. Only my 2 sons that still supported me and also my trading friend that had supported me from the very beginning.

I asked him again if he could help me. He was again positive and said to me: You do not need to come to me I am going to bring you every month 1250€. Within 1 year you need to make money. If not then we finish with each other. This can sound strange but he knew and I knew that at some point you need to let go of your dreams. Especially if one is on that moment 42 years.

Read also:  Igor's Story Part One
                        Igor's Story Part Three

Igor's Story Part One

source: http://www.forex-tsd.com

What are the parameters to measure if you are successful in trading ?...

Let me put it like this: what are the criteria to conclude if one is a successful baker or a plumber of lawyer or doctor or housewife …or a trader ?... 

With this topic I would like to share my life as a trader or give my biography as a trader.

I am now 48 years old “young”. When I was 16-17 years I saw that my father red once per week a “special” newspaper that was filled with numbers and numbers and numbers. It looked like a newspaper with numeric coding between special agencies of different countries. 

I could not understand that one could find information or learn something from the enormous amount of numbers and names that did not mean anything at all to me.

The names were the names of different stock and bourses and the numbers were the quotes of stocks and indices and indexes and currencies.

Fact was that I had the feeling if one can read such a newspaper and find his information in that puzzle of tons of numbers must be a very intelligent person. 

So my first inspiration to become a trader was more to become someone that can read such a newspaper so I could feel intelligent ;-) . By the way that newspaper was the Belgium equivalent of the Wallstreet Journal.

A couple of years later when I was about 19-20 years I started to have a serious interest in the stock markets. To find information about stocks I needed to buy that very same newspaper (because we were still very far away from the internet and its highway on information).

I started to understand more and more the information that this newspaper contained but also started to have second thoughts on the word NEWS.

 Because I felt that in the financial world the moment that you read it in a newspaper (the day after what happened) something completely different is happening on that very same moment. 

When I red in my newspaper that the bourses or stock markets went up or down (the day before) that on that very same moment the stocks were going the opposite direction. 

So I realized that trading in a very accurate way was only for those who were standing in the pit or had the real time information from the stock exchanges. 

That made me decide to keep away from that circus where I felt I could not be part of. I still followed what was happening but only from the corner of my eye.

A couple of years later a new information source was born and that was teletext. On my TV I could read information about sport or national or international news but also about the stock markets. BUT with an hour delay. 

Lets call this information the very first steps that would lead to the internet. Immediately I felt that maybe now I could do some business or become a part of the financial world. My interest became so big now that I also felt that just plain normal stocks would not be the game that I wanted to play.

They felt heavy, to slow, to much capital invested and most important you can only make profit with stocks if they go up. When stocks go down you loos money. 

Somebody that I knew (which later became a very good friend of mine and I am still managing his money) started to explain that there is also such a thing as options on stocks. He told me that there are call options and put options.

 And depending if you buy or sell them that one can make money with them even when stocks dropped. That was the moment that some HOLY FIRE started to burn inside of me. It made me realize that I no longer needed to depend on the mass hysteria that pushes a stock up so that I could make money. On the contrary.

 When I feel that certain stocks would go up I buy myself some call options. When I feel that stocks would go down I close my call options and buy myself put options. Yes yes yes I can also be rewarded for my vision if it would be bullish but also bearish.

The feeling and knowledge that I could be in control of bourses or prices going up but also down changed my whole life. From that moment on ( the year 1995) it became clear to me that this would be the path that I wanted to follow. 

Be part of the financial world. And the better that I could predict the market fluctuations the better I would be and the more money I would make. But important was that my main goal was not the money. It was the capability to predict where markets would go to. 

The very same moment the internet was born, I immediately felt and knew that this would be a MAJOR thing for people who are traders. Major in finding news in getting quotes in real time. In getting brokers so one can get in and out of a position with the click of a mouse.

Little did I know that this was only the very beginning of a very long journey that would have enormous consequences in my life. I thought that with the internet it would take me only a couple of months to become a professional trader.

 By professional I mean that I would be able to make a living out of trading. On that moment I was still a real estate agent. I made a good living. I drove a Porsche 911 Targa. I had a relation with a very beautiful woman. 

I had to 2 fabulous sons with her. We had bought our house 300meters away from the beach and with a open view on the park. In a few words, we were the dream couple and family.

But I had this fire burning in me and wanted to become a trader at all cost. As said earlier, I realized (on that moment) that the main thing was to be able to predict the movements of markets or indices or stocks. 

I got involved with the first software programs that were able to do technical analysis. Those programs contained technical indicators that opened an other whole new world for me. Names as stochastic and Par. 

Sar and MACD and RSI and moving averages gave me the feeling that I had some secret weapons in my hand that 99% of the financial world does not know about and if I would study them very thoroughly I would have an edge on the “rest” of the financial world. I also started to buy books through amazon.com about trading and candle sticks and trading techniques.

I started to learn to build my so called own systems…etc etc… I was spending 16 hours per day in front of my pc. And this for 7 days per week. Needles to say that my beautiful wife was not happy with this at all. We had many discussions and heavy fights about the way how I was living. No more interest for her or the kids or social life or friends or family.

I knew and realized what she said made sense but again that holy fire was burning inside of me and it was even getting stronger and more important then all the rest in my life. I wanted and would become a trader. 

I wanted to become one of the best traders ever. Where at some point she confronted me with the choice: or I continue with what I am doing or we separate. On that moment I was loosing as much money as I made money. 

Sometimes I made a very big win with a big position but a couple of weeks later I had lost all that money. In short I was not making a living out of trading and was happy to be with my wife who actually paid the bills (because my interest in real estate got to a zero point.

It was a very hard decision for me to take but I went for the quest that I had in my life. To be part of the financial world. To do something where I was better in then the rest or the big crowd. To do something that I developed. That came out of my brain. Not something that people around me would like me to do.

On that very same moment I red a quote from Confucius who said: Find a job that you like and you will never need to work one day in your life. For me that was the answer that I searched in my decision and it was made. 

I gave up on a beautiful family and knew that from that moment on it was only me and the financial world and no more support from anybody. No more financial support, no more emotional support. Only me against the financial sharks. No mercy, eat or be eaten. 

I lost on that moment an 18 year relationship with my wife, my house and only see my children every 2 weeks.

Read also: Igor's Story Part Two
                 Igor's Story Part Three

Concentrate On Mastering One Style That Suits Your Personality

source: here

I couldn’t think of any particular topic to write about, so I figured I would just dictate this post as a written recording of my stream of consciousness.  

Initially, I planned to write a view paragraphs based on how I trade, but then I realized that there is nothing I could tell you that you haven’t heard before. 

 During my time talking with, and observing, other discretionary intraday traders, I’ve found that there are only two main strategies… you’re either a trend-follower or mean-reversion trader (I don’t know anyone who has figured out how to make pair-trading work intraday).  

For you to make money as a day trader, the price of the market has to change, there is no other way around that… we’re not making markets here… 

Now that isn’t to say that every once in a while a trader that specializing in mean-reversion won’t buy into a strong market, or a momentum trader won’t sell a blade-up, but in general, every trader makes the bulk of his money in the strategy that he/she specializes in. 

 As I think back, Trader D and Trader B both had all their best days ever on days where the market had a large reversal. My best days (as a trend-follower) all occurred when the market opened weak and finished weaker, or opened strong, and finished stronger. 

 I am a momentum junkie, and there is nothing I love more than buying something going straight up, or selling something going straight down.  It is what comes naturally to me.

Of more interest, may be how I came to this point.  Just as many behavioral tendencies and subconscious habits can be traced to childhood experiences/influences, I believe my market directional trading bias has its links to the beginning of my trading career.

To briefly summarize my beginnings, I got my Series 7 in winter 2006, and promptly proceeded to lose money from the last couple weeks in December, through March of 2007.  I smoked myself for the entire 3k deposit amount and then some.

At the end of March, I wired in the last bit of money I had to bring my negative account into the green, but by then I had already pretty much figured I was done.  Then April 2007 came.  This marked the first earnings season that I was aware of.  

I managed to make a good amount of money buying earnings stocks making highs, pyramiding into more as they ripped.  April 2007 was my first positive month.  I made around 4k (which was huge to me), about enough to cover my losses up until that point.  

Buying into momentum was my first very positive reinforcement by the market, and I think that was so ingrained into me that I start to feel very uncomfortable whenever I’m fading or in a retracement trade.

Over time, I’ve made adjustments to execution details such as entry/exit timing, trading vehicles, profit targets, etc, but at its core, I am nothing more than a trend follower.  I know my strengths and weaknesses.  All the traders I know, that make a killing, are the best at what they do.  

I can’t make more money than Trader Z trading his style.  If I’m doing my job right, no one will make more money than me, trading my style.  And that’s what it comes down to, acknowledging and accentuating your strengths, and minimizing your weaknesses.  

If there is one point I would stress in this rambling post, it is the value of become more self-aware professionally, understand your tendencies and proficiencies, then to develop a strategy to maximize on that.  One of my favorite quotes comes from market wizard Mark Minervini:

==============================

"Concentrate on mastering one style that suits your personality, which is a lifetime process.  

Most people just cannot weather the learning curve.  

As soon as it gets difficult, and their approach isn't working up to their expectations, they begin to look for something else.  

As a result, they become slightly efficient in many areas without ever becoming very good in any single methodology. 

The reality is that it takes a very long time to develop a superior approach, and along the way, you are going to go through periods when you do poorly.

 Ironically, those are the periods that give you the most valuable information."

==============================

So there you have it… stick to what you’re good at, and most passionate about, because that is what you’ll be best at.  Don’t let the money drive you crazy because this shit will mean nothing in 100 years.  Maintain perspective, love your family, live fearless.

Using a Trading System Which is Not Yours

source: http://www.paxforex.com

For serious trading activity in the Forex market a trader should use some trading system. Currently, there are a lot of different Forex trading systems, compiled by experienced traders. So you do not have to develop your own from scratch and can take many ideas from existing trading systems.

This is easy to do, given the availability of such systems. Some of them are free, others are expensive but their cost does not say that some are better and others are worse. To understand the true value of the trading system you can only by working with it. 

After all, each person needs to pick up the system for himself, for his habits and priorities. Therefore, many of the existing trading systems can not be suitable to you.

You need to properly assess the ability to trade effectively with the trading system you want to apply to Forex work.

When choosing a trading system, be sure to pay attention to whether it would suit the style of life that you lead, and whether it is suitable to your character. 

For example, if you have a basic job that takes all your day, then the system of trade in which you need to be near the monitor during the whole day, watching the bids will definitely not work for you.

In addition, there are also trading systems that before they bring you real profits, initially losing up to half of your existing capital. Can you sit back and watch as the money goes? 

Do you find yourself prepared for the fact that before there will be concluded one profitable trade, the system will bring you eight or ten losses? There are traders who are among the best but who also suffer losses up to half of their existing capital before they make big money.

All of the above should be taken into account when creating your personal trading system in the Forex market. Among various existing systems you should highlight things, which include components that are suitable to your trading style and then combine your own Forex trading system.

Only by combining strategy and Forex trading systems, experimenting with their components, you can create your personal, suitable for you trading system.

Suppose you have decided on a trading system that will use. Further we recommend that you carefully learn the components on the basis of which it works. 

A chance to create something completely new in the trading system field is very small, so use what is already invented and adjust it for you.

But do not forget that a good trading system can’t do without key components such as:

These are the basic components. Any trading system will not make you a successful Forex market participant without them.