From Early Success to Failure — My Lessons in ForEx Trading

Crushing the market came easily for me as a beginner forex trader. Armed with carefully strategized frameworks from attending numerous Bootcamps, I was adept at analyzing the market.

I became so competent so quickly that I developed a sense of overconfidence.

So, I decided to venture out of my framework.

I was sure I knew what I was doing. A $200 investment had quickly turned into $3,000. There was nothing you could tell me.

Phew! Arrogance is one hell of a drug.

I had let the early success get into my head and became too proud. And that was how I began crawling down the rabbit hole that began my losing streak.

I made a huge loss for the first time. You would think that would be a shocking reawakening that will spur me to get back to the drawing board. But as I mentioned earlier, no one could tell me anything!

If only I saw this tweet from @sanctemalum at that point in time — it would have been a game-changer!

The couple of trades that followed that first loss weren’t just for the profit. They were about proving to myself that I didn’t just make a loss. Caution was thrown to the wind. It was a battle between myself and the charts. My weapon was to keep doubling my entry, risking more than I normally would.

My ego had been battered. I needed to prove to myself that I got this at the tip of my fingers.

I remember those days vividly. The intensity of it all, the thrill of the game, the rush of adrenaline. I convinced myself that I had to go hard, that I had to make back my loss. “That would create a hero story” I thought.

But what slowly unfolded was more of a tragicomedy.

The more I lost, the more I wanted to brush it off and stake more. So the vicious cycle of loss and more losses continued. And soon enough, there was nothing else left to lose.

Where had my $3,000 gone? I thought I knew this thing. I thought I had it all figured out.

No one talks about going back to the drawing board after your first shot at success. But that’s the point when you are most susceptible to failure. It is the point where it is most important to take time and reflect on what worked and what didn’t. Because by doing so, you can avoid becoming complacent and increase your chances of sustained success.

This tweet by @therealworldco really strikes a chord with me.

For me it was difficult to remain disciplined after I had my first taste of success because I failed to recognize the system that produced that success

In trading, what we try to do is devise a system by which we make sense of the market’s seeming arbitrariness, and even when we make sense of it we measure our risk exposure. Long-term success comes with sticking to this “system” and continuously reapplying it. Avoiding taking any action outside of our system.

It is better to make zero dollars without taking a trade than to take a random trade outside your system that makes you 200 dollars. Why? Because it makes you likely to attempt such trades again and you will not be lucky all the time.

Having a System in place removes arbitrariness.

Without a system in place, the probability of achieving a successful outcome becomes akin to rolling the dice.

It took me a long time to learn this lesson, but I finally did. That $3,000 was gone. It was only once I applied the lessons learned from my mistakes that I was able to bounce back. I had to humble myself and go back to the basics, reevaluate my approach and stick to my system.