So, I surived a year in trading. I didn't profit. I lost money. But I think I did pretty good for a beginner.

 

I have been working a 9-5, which in my time zone means that the markets open in the late afternoon for me. I have been doing scans and preparations in the mornings, before leaving home and on the bus to work through my mobile phone. It has been hard work. I have spent probably an hour or two, or three, every day, on average. Over 200 trading days. I have done 250 trades, 1,25 per trading day. Probably way too many.

 

I have learned a lot. It has been a cheap year in that sense. I have learned the lingo. I know the trading system. I don't make any rookie mistakes with wrong settings of stops or limits in the 

 

Looking at my last month I have been kind of scared to trade, but as a result kind of managed to stay at a level where my losses don't grow. Now I am focused on finding the right trades to start growing my account.

 

All my mistakes can be tracked back to what gurus have been saying all the time. There is nothing strange about what I have been doing. I will spend some time analysing the statistics of my 250 trades, but they can be tracked to a few classic mistakes:

 

- Overtrading. I have been trying to hard in a sense, trying to see setups that haven't been there. Making stuff up. Testing "my own" methods. Just to see that for example high volume is important since low volume doesn't work. I need to focus on simple setups, for example momentum bursts.

 

- Not taking profits. This is probably my biggest mistake. I have probably had more than 50% winners, but let them turn around to losers. This because I didn't want to waste a PDT or because I didn't understand that I should move my stop after a range breakout, or similar.

 

- Letting losers run. I have had a few major losers putting me down quite hard. Without them I would probably have been at positive profits.

 

Of course, some things have been done right. What I bring with me to be my strengths from this my first year is:

 

- Learning when enough loss is enough. This last month like I said has been a lot more controlled, and I have been able to feel a lot less under pressure and stressed because of the trading.

 

- Learning when not to trade. This last month I have really said no more times than yes when it comes to - do I have time? Do I see good setups? Does the indexes seem to be going in the right direction? 

 

- Really hitting it when it is working. On some traddes where I have been able to spend the night in front of the computer, following the price action, I have been able to size in when I should and get great profits from it. Also when I have chosen that my trade is a daytrade and I have moved the stop up accordingly, traded with size, I succeded. 

 

So, now it is back to basics. Momentum bursts, trading long until I get the hang of it, then learning shorts on over extensions. 

 

2016, I am ready.