Goodbye - For Now

Having thought long & hard over recent weeks, I've decided that i am not enjoying trading.

I have developed some good strategies/methods that i expect will make me plenty of cash - when the time is right.

At present i do not feel that spending my days alone trading in a semi-darkened room is the most fruitful, healthy or enjoyable way for me to be spending my time.
Therefore, until the time is right, and things are more settled, I've decided to knock trading on the head, as i do not feel that i can give it the attention that it warrants around the clock.

When things are more settled in my life, i will happily give trading this attention, and enjoy the process of trading much more.

I've been persisting with the sub H1 timeframes, as i can do this for 3-8 hours per day - normal sociable work hours. Despite knowing that i can make more consistent, & double+ the profits on the H1+ timeframes.
While sub H1 is also a struggle - due to the fact that it is mostly noise (forex), caused by and inbetween the economic news releases - in effect, i am having to put in more time/effort/concentration - for less rewards & less consistent rewards.
Therefore, i am putting my trading career on hold until the time i am happy to be on hand for 12-16 hours+ per day, in order to trade off the more profitable, and less time demanding H1+ timeframes. This makes far more sense to me .

This may be in a month, or a year, or whenever.....But for now, its time to take a break from trading, focus on enjoying a more interactive life, rather than being a slave to the £, a chart, and a basic screen-monkey .
Having completed what i feel to be a thorough trading "education", I will then be able to return to trading - fresh, motivated, and with a clear sense of purpose, and a full understanding of what needs to be done for the next 1-2 years - from day one .

Naturally, i will not be spending any/much time on the forums either. So thanks to all those T2W members who have helped me on my education/journey - it is much appreciated.

Good luck to you all, and long may you all prosper!

Thanks
JT.

good luck with your plans, JTrader.

Ahhh..I know how it can get even when life is on all cylinders!. Time outs never a bad thing!

All the best mon!

enjoy the break, jt

you could always keep your hand in with a bit of relaxing eod stuff :whistling

chhers

jon

GammaJammer said:

good luck mate. if you dont mind me asking, what are you planning to do with yourself in the meantime?

Click to expand...

Thanks GJ.
Thats also what i've been trying to decide also, and this has meant that i've been able to avoid such a decision and allow my trading education/preparation etc. to drag on & on & on before giving full-time trading the commitment it deserves. I've just been free-lance live trading here & there, trading when i feel like it, in between testing, preparation, etc.
But now I feel that i have come full circle really on the education front, having looked at trading & studied approaches from most available possible angles/viewpoints, meaning that what i have now seems pretty robust, and if Plan A goes tits up, at least i have a plan B. If plan B goes tits up, I have a plan C, if plan see goes tits up - Plan D etc. Therefore I should have a clarity, when i return to trading, without getting bogged down/timed out by the learning/prep/holy grail search .

Still not sure, what to do tomorrow but the land of the living is probably a good start . Off to the gym in a minute, & have a ball game to play in tomorrow night.

I started trading the daily TFs for that exact reason. It is ironic that looking at a chart once per day made my profitability good enough that I am now a "screen monkey" working for a firm. However, the point is, you can make money with no real effort once you know what you are doing.

At any rate JTrader, I wish you all the best and hope that even if you do not come on here very often, you keep in touch with us and let us know how life goes.

Tom

Good luck with your future endeavours! Hope to see you soon on T2W.

barjon said:

enjoy the break, jt

you could always keep your hand in with a bit of relaxing eod stuff :whistling

chhers

jon

Click to expand...

Thanks chaps.

Yes that will always be another option, after a timeout. Though to be honest, i see EOD, as a possible means of trading, AFTER I've hit the SUB-H24 charts hard for a year or 2.
Still, distance = perspective, and at least with daily, it is possible to trade up to 10 or so pairs at once, with minimal effort (thats what micro & mini-lots were invented for ). We shall see...

Good luck I wish you well in whatever endeavour you decide to undertake.


Paul

sorry to see you go JT, come back soon

You can take the man out of the city, but you cant take city out of the man.

Enjoy the moo of cows JT.

Hi JT,
Just want to add my voice to the chorus of wellwishers and say thank you for your contributions to these boards and good luck with whatever you decide to do. And remember, if you have a brainwave in the middle of the night and have a stonkingly brilliant trade set up - feel free to share it with your old 'friends' here on T2W!

Tim.

Hi JT,

I do hope you are only planning to take a short sabbatical from trading, please don't give up.

Very best wishes.

F

In my short time here I have enjoyed your many contributions to these forums. I wish you the best of luck in all that you do and hope that you will at least drop in on us from time to time to share your good fortunes.

jj

All the Best.

Split

fibonelli said:

Hi JT,

I do hope you are only planning to take a short sabbatical from trading, please don't give up.

Very best wishes.

F

Click to expand...

As the saying goes - I'll be back! Mwuhahahaha :cheesy:. I've put in too much effort/time & developed/acquired too many skills/knowledge to walk away for good B4 putting it to better use than so far. A clean break/sabbatical between the education/development & the application makes sense to me & will be of benefit.

Perhaps taking a top down approach may be a good method of re-entry into the trading atmosphere when i do return - recommence by making my approach/es work on dailies, before lowering to my currently preferred H1-H4 TF. We'll see........and trading from an office/arcade, or starting a small one of my own by finding a few co-traders & office space might be options also, depending on trading style/TF used......


I think a possible pyschological reason why i have not liked trading sub H1 is because -

Although a strategy should be applicable to any timeframe to a greater or lesser extent, sub H1 is not a set & forget method of trading, and requires screenwatching tick by tick price action.
Although as with any TF there will be winning/losing days/periods of candles, perhaps the wins/losses are made to seem more significant/exagerrated due to the fact that you have been sat watching the action, heart in mouth for the last X minutes/hours on sub H1. You really do have to work for it, and thats before you mention the dodging of news releases & the issues of pre & post news release (often seemingly random) noise. There's too much time for thumb twiddling, and too many internet distractions on hand, especially if working alone. At least trading H1+, all you need to do is enter, set the SL, and go away until the next candle - it can be as simple as that.


T2W & the members of T2W have provided my main source of education, in a patient, generous, sharing & reasonable environment. I've learnt something from lots of members, even if we haven't exchanged PM's etc.
I've also learnt lots from members who have posted ideas/systems etc. and have been shot down in flames. They have at least provided something to react to, and even though sometimes what is proposed does not turn out to be viable - at least the thought process/discussion that you/we go through before dismissing it as non-viable - leads us to further develop our internal knowledge base.


My parting advice is -
1. Remember -

He who asks is a fool for 5 minutes, he who never asks is a fool for life.

Click to expand...

2.

A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow.

Click to expand...

Thus don't get sucked too far into searching for a holy grail. Just accept the fact that all traders make losing trades and that making losing trades is part of being a successful trader. Just remember to exit when your SL is hit .
Find an approach that works well enough, and has a style that suits you, and stick with it, while it is still working consistently.
3. Be honest with yourself, whether this be in system development/testing etc. or in assessing your trading performance. Bending the rules to make things seem more positive/viable, will only result in you cheating yourself at the end of the day. I prefer to be pessimistic with things, thinking along the lines closer worst case scenarios etc.
4. K.I.S.S. - Keep It Simple Stupid. Simplicity is the key to brilliance & longer term sustainability.

Cheers guys.

:cheers:

JT- Will miss your contributions. I am not sure how easy it is to leave this game alone when you have been so immersed. Will you really be able to go a week without stealing a few glances at the hourly chart? Good luck in whatever you do. If you decide to come back we will all be the better for it.

Catch ya later JT

Hope you enjoy your time away. I'm a firm believer that a break for the right reasons is always a good thing.

Cheers,
PKFFW

JTrader said:

I have developed some good strategies/methods that i expect will make me plenty of cash - when the time is right.

Click to expand...

Good luck to you but based on past experience I tell you that the time the markets try to force you to quit is the time you can make money. It happened to me twice in the past and I missed the 1998-1999 and 2006 rallies because I felt that way.

Maybe what you want to do is change trading style. Try position trading starting with a small position/risk and add to it gradually as you make money. Intraday markets can drive you crazy if you do not make enough money.

Bill