Looking back it was the date above when I started to come up with my own system of trading. I quit trying to follow someone else’s system. Psychology is the biggest element of trading in my opinion and a big reason whey copying someone else’s trading system doesn’t work (besides the person who sold it not making money trading it) is because deep down you don’t understand it and therefore you doubt yourself so no matter what you do you never fully trust yourself. A friend of mine had created his own system and is killing trading the e-minis. He showed me how he trades but no matter how hard I tried to adopt it I could not fully integrate it into my trading. I told him as much so he gave me help in how to trust yourself in creating your own trading style that works for me. The style I have created that works for me has some similarities but the entries, exits, time-frames and trades are totally different.
That is the key in being a profitable trader. YOU have to find out what works for you. You cannot copy someone else’s system and expect to have the same results because it is not something you created. The creator has the ultimate confidence and understanding of their trading style and methodology. You can see from the myfxbook account I have linked in another post that I was still a losing trader for almost 5 months after I had set out to create my own trading system. Now I did have some framework because I knew what I wanted to trade and to a certain extent how I wanted to trade, I was just missing some final pieces in making it profitable. For 5 months I tried 30+ different trading styles on my own. There were a couple of times I thought I had found what works for me but after 3-4 days of testing it was obvious it didn’t work.
Thomas Edison’s quote applied perfectly: “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” Every time I found that my new trading style didn’t work I knew I was one step closer to finding what did work for me and I was determined to figure it out because I knew I was close. Then on March 11th and over that weekend I had one of those “Ah-ha” moments. I could hear the thought clearly in my head which said “Instead of doing and following the rules of what everyone teaches, let’s do the opposite.” That was when everything changed. I knew I had found what worked for me. I don’t use stop losses and I buy more lots when price goes against me and sell more lots the more price goes up. Of course I have my defined entries and exits but the base of my trading style goes against every “guru” teaches. They say you have to use a stop loss and you should never catch a falling knife. Well my trading style breaks those two rules with every trade I make and the past 6 months have been amazing. I’m up over 300% in profitability so far this year and that is still after having losing months in January, February and half way in March.
There are a couple of guys who are friends of mine and I showed them verbatim how I trade but none of them use it. Why? Because what I created works for me and I told them as much. I told them to use what I teach them to help them find what works for them but if they try to emulate it then it won’t work for them. That is the key to creating your own trading style:
- Learn as much as you can
- Trade the different markets, time-frames and trading platforms
- Use live accounts with the smallest trades possible (I am a firm believer that if you are trying to trade then you have to trade live)
- Monitor your progress
- Find out what and how you like to trade
- Keep refining your trading style when you find out what doesn’t work
- Don’t give up
Eventually you will figure it out and then you’ll have it made. That is the key, you have to find out what works for you. Most people will never make it here which is why the con-artists are so prevalent in trading. They feast off of most people’s laziness. The majority of people want a ready made system and don’t want to put in the time and effort in creating their own. For those that do then your life will be changed forever.
