You are watching this video because you are about to quit trading or you're thinking about it and I can understand why. You've probably spent a ton of time, effort, and money on trading. You know, analyzing the charts, buying courses, starting YouTube videos and still there's nothing to show for maybe except a bleeding great account. So this is why in today's video I Want to share with you my own trading Journey How I got started Why I got started my darkest moments in trading.

The lessons that I've learned in how I turn things around and hopefully what I'm sharing in this video. It inspires you and gives you ideas on how you can Implement on your path to becoming a profitable Trader So let's go When I was 20 years old I Read this book called Buffetology. Basically, the book explains how the world's best investor Warren Buffett right selects companies to invest in. So I was really fascinated by how a man could accumulate so much wealth, so much money just by picking the right stocks.

I mean who wouldn't right? So after reading the book, I became a value investor. So I remember the first stock that I bought is called Sam called Marino It was during the 2009 right? The market is recovering after the financial crisis and I thought this stock the fundamentals were good. So I bought Sam cop Marine at three dollars and 28 cents and I told myself man I'm gonna hold this stock till forever just like Warren Buffett Five days later I sold the stock right because the market went against me right? So as you can see, you know, I'm clearly quite a chicken. so not about to give up just yet because the market is entering a bull market.

I Knew that I had to get back into this scheme. so I did more research and buy even more companies with margin, right? So this time I bought stocks like you know Noble group Sam Club Marine Capitaland and I invested about twenty thousand dollars off my capital and after two months, I was up almost 10 000 Again, imagine the joy that I had now, man. So this is how it's done right. Who's your daddy? Who's your daddy? So I was feeling really, really good about myself, right? Even my broker commented that what a man.

Rayna you really have the Midas touch. All right. Whatever stocks that you buy right? Oh, you know, move up higher. So yeah.

I feel really? I felt really confident and really good about myself after I was like ten thousand dollars in a matter of, you know, a couple of months. then two weeks later, my unrealized profits of ten thousand dollars when I'm in Smoke we got vaporized. Why is that? It's because the Euro debt crisis hit the markets. There's a lot of panic, a lot of fear in the markets.

All the stocks that I've bought right reverse all against me. So all my open profits right, it's gone and it started to, you know, even dig into my initial Capital outlay. So one moment I was feeling like Rocky Balboa you know the champion boxer and the next moment I felt like Luke Skywalker who realized that Darth Vader is his father anyway at the point of time I felt really stupid I felt really horrible I felt really bitter because you know the ten thousand dollars meant the world to me. It's like you know, multiple months of salary just gone in a matter of weeks.

So Eventually I had to sell all of my positions because the pain was too much to bear I lose all I lost all my open profits and now it's starting to you know, dig into my initial Capital Then I started reflecting and asking myself what did I do wrong and I realized that I didn't have a plan for exits. so I started Googling on how to you know better exit your stocks right and stuff like that and when you Google such thing long enough, that's where you realize there's something called trading and that's pretty much how I got started. Came about to know trading. So after my failure as an investor I thought that maybe trading would better suit me.

So this is where I you know started to learn all I can about 3D expand like anywhere like eight to ten hours a day learning about trading the financial markets. What is the stop loss, risk management strategies and and whatnot? And I think why would I want to invest in a stock for years when I can make money as a Trader within minutes, right? So that made a lot of sense to me. So at that point in time I thought that trading wasn't that difficult. All I need is a trading strategy that works and I could even find such trading strategies on forums for free.

So one of the first trading strategy that I came across was taught by a guru. He taught me a Bollinger band trading strategy and he said something along the lines of hey, right now it's very simple, just wait for the price to come towards the lower ball in Japan you buy when it goes up higher, you sell at this upper ball in Japan range. Repeat boom, you're done So I thought that was it. It's as simple as it is, but when I tried it myself, right trading this trading strategy for a number of weeks, I realized that my losses seems larger than my winners and I seem to be losing pretty often and that's where I kind of conclude.

Okay, maybe this isn't working out. Let me move on into something else. Maybe this training strategy is too simple I need something more complicated, right? So that's why I move on into a different trading methodology, right? called uh, Harmonic Trading. Harmonic patterns, right? I've spent like a good six months right learning how to draw harmonic patterns and look something like this.

Okay so basically you would use a cluster of Fibonacci ratios and extension right to identify where the market might reverse. They have names like the bad pattern, the crap The Godly Etc and again I Tried this trading methodology and after number of weeks again you know I was still in the raid and I kind of like conclude this doesn't seem to be working out as well and the cold hard truth is this. It is that after a number of years the reality is that I was still a losing Trader Despite learning so many different strategies techniques about trading, I was still a losing Trader No denying about it. You know from indicators to patterns, just name it.

I would probably have tried it during this period. I actually incurred a drawdown of 50 right off my trading account. So you can imagine someone who spent years, eight ten hours a day learning about trading and after a few years. the only thing that he can show is that he has lost 50 of his money and this is actually how your trading would look like right when you don't have an age in the markets where you know someone who could make money and then sometimes you lose it all right and you go back being in the rate.

So this is the cycle that I was trapped in and this actually had to be one of my darkest days in trading because the results just, you know, stand right in my face, right? I Followed my trading plan religiously I have proper risk management but still it wasn't enough. I asked myself countless time. you know what my side do to become a profitable Trader I Follow. You know what all the textbooks says, But still, it's not enough and I even doubted myself will I really make it as a Trader And you know what's the funny thing? I Graduated with first class honors by the way, right? So this shows that I'm someone who can actually study, but even with the first class honors degree wasn't enough to make me a profitable Trader So I guess the saying is true, right is that you know you can be a smart guy high IQ But it doesn't mean that you will succeed as a Trader and I can vouch for that.

So at this point I think most Traders they would you know, throw in the towel and give up I Mean who would spend hours? A lot of time, Money and effort, right? Only to lose even more money than he started with. So funny, me, right? the stubborn me just refused to give up I Do not know I Just refused to give up, right? Always believing that I'm always one step closer. Now during this period, there is actually one quote right that kept playing in my head that helped me to, you know, keep moving forward and it's it's. this right There is no such thing as failure, only feedback.

Let me repeat once again. all right, there is no such thing as failure, only feedback. And if you think about this right, failure would only occur if I give up. If I don't give up, then whatever that I've encountered so far, they are just simply feedback feedback that tells me what works and what doesn't work.

And clearly I know that there's a lot of stuff that doesn't work. So after years of trying out different trading strategies, techniques, patterns and whatnot I have a good idea of you know what works and what. So at the same time I also started to learn more about myself as a Trader what are the things that I gravitate towards and what are the things that I know shunned against? and I realized a few things about myself is that number one, I want to be in the markets when the market is trending strongly. Number two I wanted a trading methodology which is more systematic with left's room for discretion.

number three, right, I can accept being wrong most of the time and number four, you know I'm patient I am disciplined. So these are the few things that I realized about myself. and just when you know I did this reflection right. I Guess you know when a student is ready, the teacher appears right? That's where I trans upon this trading methodology called Trend Following So initially my impression of trend following is just.

oh, just trade with the trend. But as I dig deeper as I read more as I study more I realize that Trend Following is much more than that. So if you want to be a trend follower, I'm going to share with you five principles Right That you must Embrace right? And if you can do that right, there's a good chance you will be a successful Trend Follower Number one: Follow the price. This means if the market is trending up higher, look for buying opportunities.

Don't try to be a come to train Trader Likewise, if the market is trending down low over in the downtrend, look for selling opportunities, right? So that's the first principle. Follow the price. Second principle is risk management right? So let's face it right, you will be wrong. Often, many times, right? But you want to make sure that when you are wrong, when the market moves against you, right, your losses are contained.

usually not more than one percent of your account. So that's number two. Risk Management number three is this: You want to trade many markets and the reason is simple. Let me ask you if you want to get your wife pregnant, Are you going to shoot once a month or 30 times a month I Think from for all you guys out there say you know more, the merrier right and answer is right exactly you want to shoot as much as possible Right to get your wife pregnant and it's the same thing for Trend followers.

If you want to capture Trends in the market, do you want to be trading one market or 30 markets? Of course you're gonna be trading more markets because you increase your odds of capturing your Trend. So the third thing is to trade as many markets as possible. Number Four: you want to have a thrilling stop loss. This means that you don't want to have a predefined Target ahead of time because you have no idea how high or low the trend can go.

So this is why you would just want to Thriller stop loss and write the move right till it ends. And finally, number five, as a trend from lawyer, you want to ignore The Newsroom because everything that you know is embedded in the price. This means the news could be bearish, but if there's a signal to go along as a trend follower, you would go along, right? So those are the five principles of trend following. So using those principles in mind, right? I actually developed a trade, a trend following strategy for myself and guess what within six months I made everything back and more right.

It felt really good, right to see that my account right which was in a raid for years finally back in the green I was like yes you funny baby. Finally Lira is like it's like your dreams, right? just coming to fruition after many years of trial and error effort right? And finally you have something tangible that reflects that effort. Now it wasn't life-changing money, but it was a game changer for me because it gave me the confidence that I can do it I can do this I can be a profitable Trader I can be the top five percent of Trader out there. So with that confidence, right? I then scale up my trading business over time.

And today, right? I Trade multiple trading strategies across multiple markets. But if you ask me, Trend Following holds a special place in my heart I Still trade A Variation of this trading strategy today. Okay, and this is in fact a trading methodology, right that brought me out of the rate and into the grief. So if you are struggling to become a profitable Trader perhaps you're still losing your month of the month, year after year, or you are break even for the longest time.

I Want to tell you that it can be done? Yes, the journey is tough, the obstacles are huge and the heat is on. but but the reward is worth it. and I believe you can do it. so go for it.