The $2.5M payout certificates added to this list... I don't think I ever shared them.
No they don't make certificates for affiliate payments.. and no I wasn't an affiliate at the time of payout.
20 certificates representing the culmination of 14 years
Going to see The Odyssey with my wife in IMAX, and didn’t realize it’s literally right by the office of my last job before I quit.
Grabbing dinner at the place I used to have lunch almost every day.
It’s crazy that life feels like a lifetime ago.
Quick one today.
Wanted a deeper retracement but couldn't get it..
So tight stops, adding along the way to get roughly +3R even though we only moved like +1.25R from the entry.
Scaling in properly adds so much +EV
Hard realization is that when the market is strongly bullish or bearish on a day, don't try to pick bottoms or tops.
I've liquidated many accounts trying to pick an intraday high/low.. and the market just kept pressing against me.
You're better off going long in a premium
If you want to trade size in the markets you need to earn it every step of the way.
When I started, I was trading micro lots in FX..
Do you know how much it was per pip? 10 cents.
The smarter route would be to incrementally increase as I proved consistency.
Instead, as soon as I made a few hundred dollars I would go straight to a standard lot. $10/pip.
The jump was too much for my psyche to handle.
If that's you, then you need to slow down..
EARN your size.
Profitability is found in the work you're avoiding.
Backtesting, journaling, reflecting.
I would make a bet that less than 10% of the trading population actually journals their trades.
Not saying you have to do it forever.. but how do you know how well you're doing.
I can tell the newer generation of traders are SPOILED.
Back in 2011, there wasn't YouTube videos.. or even publicly known chat services like Discord for trading.
The stream of information was people posting screenshots in a forum that had zero organization. By the time you saw it the information was already useless.
Now you have access to thousands of free videos, podcasts, funding, journals, software etc. to help you improve your edge and make money in the markets.
And yet the bitching and moaning is at all time highs.
If you really want to change your life you need to appreciate how far this industry has come... because you don't know how much harder things were.
It's ok if you want to tag me.
The difference between me and everyone else is that I've never claimed to "create" concepts.
I respect that candlestick charts have been around since the 1700s.
If there weren't educators sharing information freely online then who else would you learn from?
Me and @Trader_Dante were both in the James16 threads on ForexFactory back in 2011. It's where I learned the outside or engulfing bar patterns.
I learned from @I_Am_The_ICT along the way too.
I have paid thousands of dollars in education because I understand this is a business.. and when you're just getting started in business, the easiest path to success is learning from more experienced traders.
Instead of throwing shade to people online.. I prefer to stay in my own lane and share knowledge that I've accumulated from 15 years in the markets.
I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel.
Simple reasons why I love trading the SFP.
Most traders have an issue reading context/bias.
The SFP hands it to you on a silver platter.
It occurs at range extremes.. it shows you traders were stopped out.. and others got trapped on the wrong side noted by the closure back inside the range.
Now instead of trading "chart patterns"... you're trading the logic behind the participants..
It wasn't too long ago when I was putting coins into a Coinstar at the bank to cover my monthly bills.
You shouldn't underestimate the compounding effects of consistently showing up.
Today will be pretty telling for next month.
If we fail to reclaim the prior month low.. I'm anticipating lower prices on indices.
Thursday's daily candle has no lower wick.. which is always a red flag for me. 📉