Thread by @koningkarell

$GBPUSD

Shared this with @__BTC3P0__ in the discord.. +23R while I was on holiday this weekend, gg.

Expectation:

Reality:

Ok, first of all, I’m not here to brag or show off, I want to share about how I’m making full time trading work for the longer term, which things I ran into, how it should change you as a person and how the markets will keep on slapping you in the face if you don’t face yourself.

For people who were around when $BTC was <€500, I guess some more can relate.. The gains were massive, undeniable. It didn’t take much to turn a profit back then, which in turn skewed my view about how trading actually worked.. It was not about a big C&H on $LSK moon this that.

Between 10k – 20k on $BTC I started to shift my focus to trading based on horizontals, once you get stopped out a few times by a few $ you notice there’s more to it, but I couldn’t really put my finger on it, I reviewed where each wick was ending up and thinking about why.

Then I came across PA related content, I saw these ‘X’ thingy’s on @CryptOrca charts and got intrigued, then a thread of him about oil displaying blocks and liquidity, which for the first time showed an explanation for price movement to me.

https://twitter.com/CryptOrca/status/693720046301007873

I went digging and saw a comment of @Tradermayne somewhere in the replies mentioning @I_Am_ICT , after which I shot Mayne a message and he got me going by showing me some and linking me up with his Youtube.. still a thanks for that, this is what really got me going.

I drew out some blocks, catched a wick and thought I was a genius, I got this figured out this that, made some good profits on Bitmex on the way up, and my unexperienced ass was thinking stupid stuff like yeah flip it once or twice more and we’re set.

And that’s where you’re wrong kiddo.

I was mostly in $ETH, cashed a few years+ of living expenses out on the way up to give myself a shot at doing this full time, but left a chunk in.. Was making good profits on trading, and decided to hedge my portfolio unironically at around 19.5k in case shit would hit the fan.

In the few days after, $BTC dropped to around 11k. Nice.

If it wasn’t that I closed my short around the same price as opening it, was doing good so the mindset of f- it snuck into my behavior, smoking probably emphasized that part of me.

And that’s where ‘the chase’ started.

I’m not going too deep into amounts, but when you miss out on 6 figure profit overnight it hurts, since in trading the only one to blame is yourself. That’s where the crux of trading resides, you are pulling the trigger and you are the one responsible for the actions happening.

The good part was that $ETH took off after $BTC, but in my mind that seed of ‘the chase’ was planted, the feeling of ‘I missed this big opportunity, if I just do this or that then’.. Aka, the wrong approach to trading, wrong expectations and thus the wrong mindset.

Looking back some choices made were stupid, bear market was rough, on the other hand I was unexperienced etc trying to figure it out on my own, but with big amounts big emotions come into play.. you can easily start blaming yourself for the stuff that happens.

In some way you should, in some way you shouldn’t.

Yes, you are responsible, but were your expectations realistic?

My wrong decisions were based on the wrong expectations.

And that to me is exactly the part you are responsible for, your mindset and expectations.. the market doesn’t do anything else but give you opportunities.

I can write all the cliche psychological things, but the thing is you have heard all the important tips before.

Same as I had. I’m a generally smart guy, which also made me into some super stubborn person since young, which ends up that you have to experience the failures to really understand why risk management etc are the most important things before you realize being smart =/= profit.

Until those expectations become realistic, the market will just in your perception screw you over every time.

Still, I took a leap and went ‘full time’ around a year ago, devoting all my time to this and dedicated to make this work.

Started renting a office since I was living in a shared house, personal connections were nice but the environment wasn’t serious enough for what I was planning to do.

There I was, having a personal office, ready to show the market who’s boss, I was going to turn this profit.

While I was making some nice profits in FX before settling there, something changed.

I had to make money now, since I was seeing it as my job.. even while I had multiple years of living expenses set aside, something in the back of my head was like you have to make it work now.

This is what brings us back to the expectations, if you come to work expecting to nail some trades since ‘you have to’, it will incorporate doubt and emotion into your decision and degrades the conviction in your setups, and suddenly trading doesn’t seem as logical anymore.

I went in @trader1sz group, who was constantly hammering on having patience.. Thinking back about that now, I guess my main problem was a subconscious thought in the likes of ‘how can I have patience when I have to make it at this moment’.. that chase thingy.

In some way I failed pretty hard the first few months sitting there, solely judging by how amateurish such an approach is. I still made good trades though, but when you hit a few 10R-20R trades but still not having thattt much progress due to doing dumb stuff, you get frustrated.

How could I nail these trades, but for example due some bad habits burn profits in some consolidation during Asia session?

I wrote up a business plan based on some template of @sirdavidjcooper in which I wrote 'I am in control'.

Some months ago I changed this line to 'I am in control of myself'.

The market does what it wants.

I think this is where the make or break happens.

It’s when I realized trading is a messed up business, and you're left with 2 options. Give up, or take some steps back and fix yourself.

This is the beauty of trading, it will just show you that you’re the one hurting yourself.

This brings me back to the chart posted in the first tweet of this too long thread. You can have your plan fully laid out, but it all doesn’t matter if you mess up the execution in between.

You can do all the TA you want, if you do something different it doesn’t matter anyways.

I took that trade on Thursday, was leaving for a long weekend in Ireland the day after, taking some real time off since a long time and didn’t want to bother with watching charts so I moved down my stop once we made a lower low.. got stopped out after for like 0.5R.

This happens, but the thing I’m getting at is that it matters more what you do after such things.

Previously I would tilt or whatever, feel sad this that.. Now I had a lovely week in Ireland without thinking too much about trading, getting back to these opportunities next week.

You have to make trading a part of your life, not your life. From what I’ve experienced that’s the best way to have an objective approach to charts, your mentality and your execution. I’ve managed to get rid of this chase feeling for a big part lately, and just let things happen.

It’s been a bit quiet here last few weeks, but tbh you can show all the setups / ss’s that you want, it doesn’t matter as long as your mindset is wack and thus your execution.. You have to build a plan for yourself and just do it if you really want it, there’s nothing to prove.

Looking back at some points it was a disaster, at some it all panned out perfectly.. but the thing I’m most grateful for is that trading is one big mirror to get yourself fixed.

It will show you your bad habits, replace those for good ones and treat yourself well.

The rest will follow, at some point studying TA is less relevant as working on yourself.

Good luck, thanks for reading, don’t force it and be realistic with yourself, it will save you a lot of pain.

Or if you’re like me you’ll read this and still go through it all anyways 🤡

real talk: fukkkk me I missed this big one, fiber would’ve been even better.

mfw I miss a big opportunity, again: