Is it necessary to have a mentor?

[AlphaTrader]

Snow does have a point, live and demo are totaly different thing. Its a whole new mental state.

I play poker as well a bit cos i love that game. When i play online in one of the fake money rooms you see people betting like it was going out of fashion. Cos there not looseing anything. I mean people go all in just in the preflop on a full table. When you have a look at the live money table its a totaly different. Same thing happens when i play with friends for money or at a casino. Same thing will happen when you trade a live acc. Your mental perception is totaly different cos there is something to loose.

But i know what your saying. Why go live if the demo is not working. Well thats true as well. Get your system profitable and then open a mini acc and get that profitable. And then start thinking what colour Lambo you want (ps red cos it goes faster).

[Persiankiwi]

[quote=.....And then start thinking what colour Lambo you want (ps red cos it goes faster).[/QUOTE]

what colour is yours?

pk

[Ugly_Dog]

one reason not to demo right away is because you can lock in some bad habits that are easier to avoid than to erase!

[comingback]

Mick wrote,

When I say to people 'make more than you lose' they look at me as if I'm stupid but when you think about it logically that's what a lot of new traders don't do, they win a few quick pips on the winning trades and let the losing trades drive a steamroller through their equity, it's not hard to see where that's going to end.

Hey Mick,

It is of course true that you have to make more than you lose. However, you don't have to make more than you risk on each and every trade. Traditional r:r ratios don't takes odds into account.

[Persiankiwi]

Originally Posted by Ugly_Dog

one reason not to demo right away is because you can lock in some bad habits that are easier to avoid than to erase!

Probably you are right - especially long term. But I am trying to trade demo very carefully and trying to make myself believe that it really is my money which I 'try' to identify a 'system or trading plan'. If I wanted to do that on a live account I would already have lost masses of money.

I will go live in the new year with a mini account with the brokers suggested by Alpha, see above. I figure that I might as well start losing small money now so as to fee the pain a bit better. My problem is that I need more training on the charts and I am investing in some more books now. I have just ordered The Logical Trader, for example. I am trying to learn the indicators like you guys, but I am far behind most of you.

What demo trading has identified to me is that I have some serious psychological barriers that i need to overcome. The worst is my tendancy to grab profits as soon as they materialise and let losers run in the stupid assumption that the market 'is sure to return to my wished for levels'. My longterm view of GBP/USD remains that it will break the 1.80 level again and I expect that fairly soon, what with the petrol crisis and the potential for another war in the Gulf.

But I have bad habits and I am really trying to crack them. I am not a gambler and I am not frivolous with money. I earned what I have through hard work and I spend it with care. The Forex challenges the essence of my spending habits, because it can cause big losses at a fast pace.

I am still working to find that right system which at least allows me to protect the essence of my initial capital by limiting my losses to around a 50/50 level. Then I will have more confidence.

pk

[MickMason]

Originally Posted by comingback

Hey Mick,

It is of course true that you have to make more than you lose. However, you don't have to make more than you risk on each and every trade. Traditional r:r ratios don't takes odds into account.

I guess it depends on how you trade. The odds of me winning a trade remain constant, I wouldn't consider taking a trade where the odds were anything less than the best they could be, I'm patient for the right set-up.

Depending on how much risk exceeds reward would dictate what the minimum win:lose would have to be to show an overall profit, obviously the greater the risk the greater the win:lose.

I think it's easier to work with a greater reward to risk than it is a greater win to lose, but that's just me and the way I trade



Mick

[comingback]

Originally Posted by MickMason

I guess it depends on how you trade. The odds of me winning a trade remain constant, I wouldn't consider taking a trade where the odds were anything less than the best they could be, I'm patient for the right set-up.

Depending on how much risk exceeds reward would dictate what the minimum win:lose would have to be to show an overall profit, obviously the greater the risk the greater the win:lose.

I think it's easier to work with a greater reward to risk than it is a greater win to lose, but that's just me and the way I trade



Mick

Good point Mick. Thanks.

[AlphaTrader]

Originally Posted by Persiankiwi

what colour is yours?

pk

Yeah i wish that would be a nice xmas pressie.