I have 20 years of trading experience and a few years of market knowledge before this. I decided to start this thread to share some knowledge.
My Trading Background
I started trading independently full time in January 2006 with the Forex markets. I lived in Las Vegas, Nevada (yes, there is another Las Vegas in New Mexico, but not the same) when I started. Heck Vegas has changed considerably since then, most of it NOT for the better. But I digress.
As far as market knowledge I started studying markets in the late 80’s in High School. I even had a formal mentor for a while. After I realized that there was no way I was going to be a Veterinarian because of financial reasons (I was in this odd pocket for a few years to where we could NOT get student loans on our own. My stepfather, we’ll just say, wasn’t looking out for my best interests and made it clear that I could F* off and make my own way.
Anyway, I looked at all kinds of things within a few months and thought I’d become a stock broker. I could have received a degree in a local community college and take it from there. I actually had a different mentor (I was taking a lot of business classes along with finance) who got me into the corporate world and I ended up getting into management and worked my way up quite quickly to upper management. I was a natural leader and I have an IQ of 169 so it ended up being a good fit.
I did love it, BUT I also loved the markets and the corporate life has its issues. So I started studying big time in my off time and I also started saving. Colleagues couldn’t figure out why I was living where I was living. Nothing wrong with it, but it wasn’t the type of area I was living and they were living. The money I saved was very decent. Honestly I could have put a big deposit down on a house.
I was still saving and someone caught wind of my trading and investing studying. I was given a pink slip for bogus reasons (corporate life can be petty at times) so I went into car sales for a little while and saved up more money until it was time for me to branch out on my own and become a full time currency trader.
I did quite well for a little of two years. Then the proverbial turd hit the fan because of the Great Recession. Man, my backside was handed to me, not on a silver platter mind you, heck no, it was on a cheap paper plate. LOL.
I lost a ton. Then I self sabotaged. I have a history of this because of surviving prolonged and violent child abuse. My real father was a full patch member of an outlaw biker gang and we lived in San Bernardino, California for a couple of years during the biker wars in the mid to late '70s. He was violent with us also. I saw a ton of domestic violence and of course was caught in the mix.
Some things happened and we moved to my mother’s parents (obviously my grandparents) in another State. That’s when my Mom was able to divorce my father. But, her next choice wasn’t too much better. He wasn’t that physically violent but he was very mentally abusive.
So when things go downhill in my life, I self-sabotage big time. It’s happened a couple of times.
Why Am I using RICH Trader?
It’s been more than a couple of years now, but I was living a wonderful life. Things were good. I was with the love of my life and it was some of the happiest days of my life. My partner and I hugged goodbye like we pretty much always did and left for work, and I went to bed.
I trade during the European session which is graveyard where I live. I woke up to knocking on the door. It was the police to inform me that my partner was instantly killed in a DUI crash (the other driver) while heading to work. That’s not the way to be woken up.
My entire world collapsed. Those became some of the darkest times of my life and I self-sabotaged. I ended up losing quite a bit in the markets and it compounded. It caused a ton of damage. None of it helped with my self-sabotaging. That’s for sure.
So bottom line, I’ve been working RICH Trader for a little bit now. I also worked a couple of rounds with EOG. But I started off calming my nervous system (I have PTSD from the child abuse) first.
I also forgot to mention, I went through a couple of years of therapy. Two and a half years twice a week . One day was group therapy (I was in DBT therapy) and one day was individual therapy. Virtually every week with a couple of minor breaks due to Holidays (Christmas, etc), vacations (most other Countries refer to these as “Holidays”), etc.
So I’m going to dump RICH Trader soon because I’m going to make two custom subs. One is a healing sub which I’ll run solo for a round. Then I’ll add my trading sub which will have Essence: The Inner Edge which is strictly the personal psychology and the discipline/composure parts of RICH trader minus all the other stuff, most of which I don’t need.
I also will have various modules on worth, inherited wealth stories, etc.
So there’s my basic, but detailed background, including my basic life background.
The point of this thread it to share some of my “basic” knowledge (which is quite advanced to others, but is trading/investing 101 to me) and advice, including what NOT to waste your time on which includes Trend Lines. What? I’ll let you know why.
I’ll start with my mindset about the markets and a couple of philosophies.
-
The markets are Not random. You’ll even see gurus that say this. BS. Do you think people consistently make money by being “lucky”? Please.
-
Therefore the markets move for a reason(s). Your job as a trader/investor is to figure out why. Seriously, that is your ONLY job.
-
CNBC is a joke! And Jim Kramer is an f*n clown who won’t teach you much. I might ruffle some feathers, but let’s just say I’m not a fan of either.
-
Stock brokers are sales people. Which goes back to #3 and why I can’t stand the bunch. I’m not making this up, that’s all stock brokers are. Same thing with many financial planners. The Department of Labor vacated the Fiduciary Rule in 2018. That’s not to say financial planners have free reign to work you over, but it relaxes the standards considerably. They might be into green energy and trade their interests and beliefs, and could lose a ton of money and you’ll have a difficult time in court getting your money back.
-
The markets movers (aka the “smart money” the “Big Kaunas”, etc) ALWAYS leave clues. Learn to see them.
[The end]
One sentence to wrap up my mindset with the markets is “Don’t follow the herd, follow the shepherd.”
What the heck does that mean? It sums all 5 of those up in one short sentence. There is ALWAYS a reason why the markets move and there is a reason why markets stall or reverse at particular levels. ALWAYS and without exception. It’s your job as a trader/investor to find out why.
I will say this, if you struggle (other than the personal psychology aspect) with trading you need to focus on one thing first: Learn “balance areas” inside and out. Become an expert out how to identify them and to become consistent on how to figure out what the markets are likely to do in those scenarios.
If you don’t have this down pat you are wasting your time and money. I genuinely can look at a chart (depends on whether enough time span is shown) and I can give you a complete breakdown of price and movement in just a few seconds. You can actually have very decent and consistent profits with this knowledge alone.
But that’s not to say I trade naked charts. I don’t. I use a few very specific Moving Averages. But I use MA’s very differently than most people. I use mostly EMA’s with only one SMA. The one SMA is the 50 because that is an industry standard that is very consistent.
How do I use MA’s differently? I use very specific ones as dynamic support and resistance. I also use weekly and monthly pivot points (they were specifically invented for commodities and yes, currency is THE core commodity. The Elemental Commodity.
I also have a major advice to save you a lot of grief, time and even money. DON’T USE TRENDLINES! THEY ARE WORTHLESS What? Why?
I’ll tell you in my next post. This one is already long, especially if you’ve read all the background.
