How long have you been trading? Definitely stop buying things and just focus on price and time. It will likely take several years before you become anywhere approaching profitable, just trying to manage expectations here.


It has been about two years of seriously trying to get a grip on things. Prior to that I have always been interested and have spent many year reading and finding out as much as possible. Thing is when I come up with a strategy that works, it's only a matter of time when things start going wrong, and I start incurring larger losses than I would want to.
I have heard that one needs to continually revise and adapt your strategies to current market conditions. There is no one size fits all or one strategy that works every time!?

Thanks for your insight.

Hello @ShaunG from a fellow South African.


Some things which are not important in trading (or at least are given more importance by new traders than they actually deserve):
- Entry
- Win percentage
- Individual trade outcome

Things which are important:
- Risk management
- R:R
- Discipline
- Process oriented


Good luck.

Hello @ShaunG from a fellow South African.

First and foremost as others have said, stop buying tools in the hopes that they will be the answer to instant profitability. Why does one person trade nothing but price action, another trades with a screen filled with indicators, another trades using nothing but the DOM,...yet they are all profitable. It is because they have developed their methods themselves and have figured out a way to approach the markets that suits both their personality and beliefs about how the market operates.

You need to figure out for yourself how markets move. Stop trying to follow systems or indicators. What do you believe is true about how markets move. As per my signature, "you dont trade the markets, you trade your beliefs about the markets".

Some things which are not important in trading (or at least are given more importance by new traders than they actually deserve):
- Entry
- Win percentage
- Individual trade outcome

Things which are important:
- Risk management
- R:R
- Discipline
- Process oriented

It may seem daunting and a huge step backwards, but you need to strip off every single indicator from your charts and learn to read the markets using only price and volume. Make no mistake, this is a long process and certainly doesn't mean you will never again add anything to your charts. Some people end up adding a few indicators to aid in certain aspects. But if you've never learnt to read the markets, then all you've done is learnt to read indicators which will not make you consistently profitable (refer to things that are important).

I would suggest you look into TopstepTrader. As a fellow South African I know how hard it is because of our cr#p currency. It is my firm belief that making it as a trader is largely about surviving the learning curve with enough emotional and monetary capital to then start making money. This is a long journey and there are no shortcuts. Mistakes will be made, usually multiple times until the lesson is finally learnt. Until that time, we need time and money to continue the learning curve.

Sign up with Topstep Trader and begin doing combines. It sounds as if you've done plenty of sim trading. There is a point in time where sim trading is no longer beneficial. It sounds as if you may be there. Topstep Trader is a way to give you live trading experience which will give you a real taste of the emotions involved in proper trading. Continue saving your money so that one day you'll have a good sized account to trade live with, in the mean time use Topstep trader to develop.

One last thing, I see you have 6 different favorite trading instruments ranging from the ES to CL. That is way too many for a new trader. Pick one and stick with it. Yes,...just one! Learn it inside and out. Learn its personality. CL and ES are completely different beasts. Get to a point where you can describe your one instruments typical behavior and feel the way it moves. Know if a certain day is moving faster than usual. Know if a certain day is choppier than usual. You will never learn any of this if you're trying to follow 6 instruments.

Good luck.

I disagree that Win percentage is not important. It is as important as R:R. The two work together and individually mean very little. A higher win rate usually means a lower R:R and a lower win rate usually means a higher R:R. There really is no free lunch! Its a balancing act between the two. Trying to find the sweet spot for a given strategy.

Hi All!

Here my life story to date! ...blah, blah, blah

Just keep looking for the Holy Grail, you'll find it, you will.
Or grow a pair and start trading like a man. All those systems and courses are just tools. You can't build a house without tools, you have to know how to use them, your time and your materials and build something grand.
If a machine could trade profitably, you wouldn't be able to afford it!

Just keep looking for the Holy Grail, you'll find it, you will.
Or grow a pair and start trading like a man. All those systems and courses are just tools. You can't build a house without tools, you have to know how to use them, your time and your materials and build something grand.
If a machine could trade profitably, you wouldn't be able to afford it!

@ShaunG if it took you 5 years before you started making any headway with profit would you continue?