In recent times my FB account has been inundated with loads of forex trading related stuff. How on earth did i ever get myself into this 'mess'? Haha!
Oh well, my first exposure to the world of trading was when a fellow cell group member (yes, CGs open up opportunities in your life you never knew were there!) introduced me to the world of stocks and shares some 2 years back or so. I learnt what an IPO (initial public offering) was, what a CFD (Contract For Difference) was etc etc. Ironically, there was nothing much about trading. Most of it was investment related. Buying shares of a company and holding them till the share price increased.
Over time, I learnt about this market called the Foreign Exchange market, aka Forex - a financial instrument whereby people buy or sell currencies against another currency, earning the subsequent profits or losses of the difference between the Bid (Selling Price) and the Ask (Buying Price). Very interestingly, I clearly remember hearing this term 'Forex' as a very young boy overhearing a conversation between two people in my former church where I grew up in. So going to church and sticking around, you'd learn stuff that could change your life ;)
I also learnt the term 'leverage'. It was a highly attractive word to me because it made total sense :) It made SMART sense to me that I need not have to make money the hard way, that I could make it the SMART way :) Every successful business person in life will tell you the importance of leveraging, such that you duplicate your time and yourself. You multiply your ability to generate profit. In FOREX terms, leverage is a powerful double edged sword. It could make you huge profit within minutes, or it could kill you with snowballing losses.
Moving on, i decided to find out more myself. I discovered that I could have a taste of this by applying for a demo account. A demo account is basically the exact trading platform where one does trading but the money used is virtual. Everything a real trader experiences on his platform happens on this demo account as well. So it is a very good gauge of how you would fare in the real world of trading should you be using real currency.It is free practice :)
So anyway I signed up for one with this broker called FXCM. In a matter of a few days, I wiped out 2 or 3 accounts. Each account allotted me $50K of startup capital. I was basically testing out the system, learning how it works, learning what a stop loss was hahah! But I didn't know alot. And frankly I was fooling around with it, aka gambling. I didn't know that I needed to use tools and other stuff to help me. I didn't even know how to work the charting tools dat came with it. I didn't know how to read the charts and candlestick patterns at all.. To me everything was greek.
Well, that experience was quite emotional. I actually engaged my emotions in something that was virtual.. When i made profits (by fluke honestly), i was darn happy. And likewise when i was making losses, my world was upside down. I didn't know why or how i was making a profit or loss. At the end of it, I concluded that forex was a sham started by some dude who was out to kill people like me. Hahaha! Funny how I concluded that when i never really knew about how the system worked anyway! For 2 years or so, it was out of my mind..
Then in recent times this year, that same member of mine introduced me to forex once again. This time he recommended me some books to read. 2 books in fact. So thus I began to get myself educated in this business. I devoured the information in these books and got a decent basic education in learning how to read charts and using technical indicators, learning the time zones of the forex market, who traded what and when etc. Basically, my degree of understanding of the forex market rose by leaps and bounds after I read those books. Unsatisfied, I bought more books and material to read and study. Bought a book on trading psychology and candlestick patterns etc.
Then I started another demo account in late Sept. This time I was using a different platform by igmarkets. They allotted me 100K of virtual capital to start off with. Each account lasted a duration of 2 weeks. So i have been 'paper trading' ever since and my results this time were vastly different from the beginning.
My first two accounts were losers. I lost close to 50% of my capital on the first one and about 20%-30% on the second. During this time, I only knew about technical indicators cos I had a brief introduction to it. But using those without full understanding meant i still made alot of mistakes. However the books dat i had invested in were proving to be of great help. They had changed the way i traded on the market.
Then I started with my 3rd account. That was slightly more profitable, I had made as much profit as losses but there was a little net profit overall. By then I had started learning how to study candlestick patterns and psychology and how that plotted itself on the charts. So I spent a hell lot of time staring at charts, learning how to decipher potential reversal patterns and breakouts etc.
My 4th account from the 29th of Oct to 12th Nov was my first very profitable account :) In that 2 weeks, I had made losses and profits. But my net profit amounted to about $43K plus. That is what an average person would earn in a year if he/she made like $3.5k a month :) A miracle as far as i was concerned haha!
Naturally I was really surprised and happy of course! I had found a hidden talent i never knew i had! haha! I actually have the ability to make some serious money trading on the forex market! But well, I began to get a little cocky for my own good.
On the same day this account expired on the 12th, I opened a new 5th account starting with the same $100K capital. And to my horror of horrors, I immediately made losses amounting to nearly $40k. I made 2 losing trades that amounted to SGD$28,658.92 and SGD$11,101.41 respectively. That taught me one thing - I sure wasn't as proficient as I thought i was ;) It was a far cry from where I wanted to be, that is to be a CONSISTENTLY PROFITABLE trader.
I didn't wanna earn thousands of dollars for 9 consecutive trades only to lose them all on the 10th trade.. No, I wanted to maximise my profits and minimise my losses, ensuring that i was overall consistent in my profits and losses. I am a long shot off the way I manage my risks. There's still lots to learn and overcome. I know that my trading psychology is still very raw. I haven't fully mastered my mind yet :) I've improved, but I still fall prey to my own fear and greed every now and then.
Well, thank God on that same day I incurred a HUGE loss, I had also made back $35k in profits. So I trimmed those losses down to $5k or so. That just goes to show just how volatile the forex market is and just how leverage can make or break you if you don't know how to respect it :) From that day onwards, I began to treat this account like it was with REAL money. I began to treat it as though i traded with real currency! In short, I started taking things much more seriously.
After those losses, I took extra care to make sure my analysis and research was better. For the rest of the account duration, I only made one other loss of SGD$3475.50 on the 17th of Nov. All in all I had made a total of 31 trades on my 5th account, 28 of which were profitable. Dat is about a 90% success rate. However, i wasn't satisfied because though i was consistent in profitable trades, my losing trades were huge.. So i had my work cut out for me to minimise those loser trades. All in all from a net profit of $43k from my 4th account, I made a net profit of about $62k in two weeks on my 5th account :)
I have since started on my 6th practice account now. Of cos, i intend to practice as much as possible before dealing with real cash. 10000 hours? Let's do just that! :D As I write this entry, my current account has already increased by 20% profitability in the first 1 1/2 days.
What does all these mean to me? Well, for one, the money is but virtual. But what it has shown me is that if I had used real money, that would be the profits and losses i would have made. It is like a type of the future and vision that i have for my life!
You see, everyone has a gift or gifts dat God has placed in our hearts. We are given talents and abilities which are UNIQUE to our individual self. For me, I have been immensely blessed with musical talent, ability to hold a note, and other creative talents. And recently, i discovered a new talent trading on the forex markets. If anyone told me i could potentially make such an 'obscene' amount of money in a matter of weeks some 2 years back? I probably would regard the person as nutz. But I've experienced it :) And when you experience breakthrough like that? It is incredible.
God is true to His word. When He says that He is THE GOD who gives you the POWER to get wealth, HE REALLY MEANS IT ;) And you better believe it. Time to open up my mind, time to dream great dreams :)
The vision I have for my life has to do with financial freedom :) But I wanna go beyond just financial freedom for myself. I wanna use this talent for the kingdom :) Bible says that in the end times, the wealth of the wicked would transfer into the hands of the righteous. I raise all my limbs to that in agreement! I've seen it, i've experienced the possibility of it for my own life! What further prove do I need that God is true to His word? :)
In CHC we talk about building schools, hospitals etc etc.. Well won't it be beautiful to be able to fund such building projects eh?? HAha! Yeah i am dreaming BIG TIME :) But i know this is a picture of what is to be in the near future :)
Well, come next year, I will begin my year going back to 'school' to get myself a financial education. I will be learning from arguably Singapore's greatest trader yet, a guy by the name of Conrad Alvin Lim. A former recent bankrupt, he is now so rich, you wouldn't believe he was about 3/4 of a million in debt just a few years back :) And when a former bankrupt turned millionaire gives you financial advice and education, you better take it seriously. The only other person I know who came out of bankruptcy is our very own Jacelyn Tay, now very successful i her business as well :) If God can turn the impossible into possible, just what on earth can He not do amen?
So in the meantime, I will be practicing and practicing and practicing and reading and researching and wat not. I am no professional trader, I am not even a quarter of where I'd ideally like to be, but i would like to get there some day soon :) To get there, I have to take concrete steps. There's this chinese proverb 'A journey of a thousand miles begins with the FIRST step'. Well, I've taken dat first step, but i know i gotta keep on walking in order to reach my destination. And along the way, i will fall, get bruised and cut for sure. But i can't give up if i hope to reach the finishing line :)
I hope this post has been inspiring to you the reader. Find the talents and abilities God has given you and put them to good use. And use it for His kingdom, for His glory. Nothing limits God, except you yourself ;) If you're willing, so is He. If you got mustard seed faith, you can certainly move mountains! God bless you and all the best with your dreams!
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Here's my profit and loss statement from igmarkets for my 5th account. Read from bottom up:
