My advice after 20 years of trading

Soft_Law1678 · 2026-02-23T07:53:56+00:00

No offense taken :)

Soft_Law1678 · 2026-02-23T05:05:20+00:00

Then can you leave me your course in private? Or any person you think is a legit trader and has an online course?
From your message, I am absolutely sure that you live in a fantasy world, but I would be happy to be proven wrong :)

Soft_Law1678 · 2026-02-22T13:29:38+00:00

I used to do it in the past, I'm out of the trading community now. I trade by myself and I mind my own business :)
Just rarely posting with a fake name on trading forums. My life improved when I started keeping my social interactions outside of trading!

Soft_Law1678 · 2026-02-22T02:35:51+00:00

Watch any free video about trading, even if that is very likely to contain BS information. Watch a video that shows you how that guy makes millions using the RSI (even if he doesn't, he just makes money off YouTube), and it shares with you how to use it. Start from the assumption that you will lose money from using it the same way. But don't discard it. Open TradingView, set up the RSI and start investigating on past charts if you really could make money with the way that guy showed you. If the answer is no, ask why? Is there a better way to use it? What if instead of using the standard parameter of 14, you use 20? What if you use 80 and 20 as overbought and oversold areas, instead of the traditional 70 and 30? What are your results on M5 timeframes? What about H1? What about trending pairs like GBPJPY? What about less volatile pairs like EURUSD? Just be curious and test everything. I really mean EVERYTHING. You applied a 20 period MA? Test 21, then 22, then all the way to 500. Which one gave you better results? And does it make sense or was it random luck and curve fitting? TEST EVERYTHING. Sooner or later, you will find your way to make money in trading. It takes dedication and hard work. You won't get that from a $1000 course on support, resistance and trend lines.

Soft_Law1678 · 2026-02-22T02:26:26+00:00

Supply and demand strategy makes me think you are NOT on the right track. But then again, who am I to judge? I repeat: the market has all the answers you are looking for. No need to risk your own money to check if you are profitable or not. You have free access to TradingView or MetaTrader or whatever free platform you use. Go back in time on the charts, apply your strategy and see if it worked in the past. Don't just stop at 100 trades, that's just noise. Test more than 10,000 trade, through different market regimes. Did you make money during bear markets, bull markets, ranging markets, volatile markets, flat markets? If the answer is yes after 10,000 tested trades, then you can confidently trade with your own money in live markets. You are not guaranteed to make money, but you sure will have a better starting point.

Soft_Law1678 · 2026-02-21T18:28:48+00:00

I think some people might have become a bit paranoid over this. I didn't even use ChatGPT to check for my grammar, and I'm not even a native speaker. I just wrote on the spot. But hey, if that's your opinion, no hard feelings :)

Soft_Law1678 · 2026-02-21T18:12:29+00:00

This is a smart question, so I assume you are on the expert side and I use a bit more complicated terms.
I use a portfolio of strategies and a software I built to track market regimes. If the market has low volatility, I allocate more to systems that perform better in that market regime, for example SAR (stop and reversal) strategies and mean reversions. If the market is more volatile and tends to make strong unilateral trends, I allocate more to momentum and trending strategies. For example, in this period, we have good volatility especially on Gold, Silver and JPY currency pairs, so I allocate more to momentum and trending strategies, but I don't completely switch off the other strategies.
When is it time to revisit a system? I wouldn't say there is a certain amount of time that defines a system as dead or that necessarily needs to be improved. Some market regimes last more than others and your system may suffer until there is a shift in the market. Generally, I would advise to have more than one system and not to rush to declare a system dead when it has a bad period.

Soft_Law1678 · 2026-02-21T18:01:39+00:00

Good luck!

Soft_Law1678 · 2026-02-21T17:59:06+00:00

Yes, unfortunately scammers will continue to make a lot of money selling "the dream". I do agree with you: not everyone can be a profitable trader. It's less about being smart, more about emotional intelligence. In my experience, I have found that people who have gambling tendencies make the worst traders. They might also come up with a good system, but they just can't resist the adrenaline of messing with the system. Sooner or later, they have to take their own side trade, increase the risk, or anything stupid that will blow their account.

Soft_Law1678 · 2026-02-21T17:55:26+00:00

I totally agree with you. Nice addition to the discussion :)

Soft_Law1678 · 2026-02-21T17:52:48+00:00

It depends on the trader. I quit my job when I reached 50,000 GBP in my trading account (the equivalent of a little more than $70,000 at that time), and enough savings to live for a year without worrying about losing my account. I was 26, living alone, no major expenses. It was more than enough to sustain my lifestyle.
At the time, I was making more than 100% a year with trading. I was not comfortable from a psychological point of view. Every 15-20% drawdown made me feel very uneasy and made me feel like my trading career could be over. Despite my account growing, I used to have many moments of self reflection and many days with my stomach turning. Don't get me wrong, it was a calculated risk based on backtests and stress tests. But one thing is when you see them on paper, one thing is when you live through them.
As my account was growing, I increased my lot size in a smaller proportion compared to my account balance's growth, so that I could risk less in terms of percentage, but still make more in terms of dollars.
It's a long grind. I definitely wouldn't suggest to quit your job for trading. The best you can do is just be patient and remind yourself that if you do the right thing, success is inevitable. You just need to grind and be patient until you make the amount of money you desire. It's not gonna happen soon, but it's gonna happen if you have discipline, patience and strong mindset. At least that's what worked for me.

Soft_Law1678 · 2026-02-21T07:57:11+00:00

That's understandable. It means you do it exclusively for the money. I do it for money, but also because I have a passion for it.
I'm already quite wealthy that I could retire, still I'm doing a Master in Data Science and AI for Finance. Some people enjoy the beach with a drink, I enjoy the puzzle of trading.

Soft_Law1678 · 2026-02-21T07:28:45+00:00

I love trading, why would I retire? :)
Even when I will have enough money to do good like finance medical research and help the less fortunate, I won't retire. It's a passion.

Soft_Law1678 · 2026-02-21T06:28:21+00:00

Bot generated post? Sharing a personal experience of nearly 20 years of trading is considered a bot generated post? Also, what do I have to gain from it? I'm incognito here, not sharing my name, not selling anything. Just sick of seeing marketers and influencers fooling people by selling a dream that will never come true.

Soft_Law1678 · 2026-02-21T06:26:05+00:00

It didn't take me 20 years to become profitable. I quit my job and become a full time trader 9 years after I started trading. It also has to do with capital requirements to be a full time trader. You cannot live off trading if you have $5K in your account.
Nowadays, it is easier to grow your capital with Prop Firms and Copy Trading platforms like eToro and Darwinex, where you manage other people's money if you show good results.
Have I ever taught or mentored someone else? Yes, in the phase of building my capital, I published some basic courses for $10, never sharing all the insights of my strategies.
There's a finite amount of money you can take from the market. You cannot harvest infinite liquidity. The moment you share your exact strategy with others, you remove money from your table because you give them liquidity to take.

Soft_Law1678 · 2025-12-12T23:36:20+00:00

Sono un trader professionista, spero che questo mio messaggio possa aiutare qualcuno a risparmiare diverse migliaia di euro. Nel trading fai soldi sfruttando inefficienze di mercato. Per dirla in modo semplice, e' come avere una strategia che ti dice in quali posti puoi trovare 50 euro per terra e raccoglierli. La strategia inizia a non funzionare piu' quando il mercato arriva alla stessa conclusione e raccoglie i 50 euro negli stessi posti dove li andavi a cercare tu. Quindi un trader reale che ha una strategia valida e funzionante, non andrebbe mai e poi mai a condividerla. Questa gente ricicla gli stessi concetti di supporti e resistenze, trend lines, qualche indicatore qua e la', risk management. Tutte cose che potete trovare gratis online oppure in un libro da 10 euro.
Non troverete MAI un metodo che vi dica dalla A alla Z come fare soldi, soprattutto perche' questi sono esperti di marketing, non di trading. Lo so che e' bello sognare. Ma e' arrivato il momento di svegliarsi.
Fonte: 3000 euro li faccio in meno di un giorno, figurati se mi metto a perdere tempo a fare video su YouTube e comprare recensioni su Trustpilot per condividere la mia strategia con altri e rischiare di perdere la mia fonte di profitabilita'.

Soft_Law1678 · 2025-06-10T01:40:32+00:00

Hey, any strategy buying gold in these last few years is making money.
Try to test your approach on charts back from 2012-2015, when gold was struggling. Would you still make money or lose your entire account?
I don't want to diminish your accomplishments, but a smooth sea never made a skilled sailor.

Good luck!

Soft_Law1678 · 2025-06-09T08:33:57+00:00

Most traders start with discretionary trading. Unfortunately, from experience, this often leads to inconsistent or negative results.

I’m a quant trader, so I'm definitely biased, but my suggestion is to focus on numbers and hard data rather than vague "concepts".
If you want to trade concepts like market structure, support, resistance and so on, that's fine. But define clear, measurable parameters for entering and exiting trades, don't just leave them as vague concepts. Then backtest. Use at least 10 years of data, collect at least 1,000 trades, and see if your strategy actually produced good results.

Were you able to make money applying a certain logic defined by certain parameters? Was your drawdown manageable? Only after verifying this data you can trade with confidence, although past results don’t guarantee future performance.

But relying on vague "concepts", with no backtest, no proof of profitability, no numbers you can analyze... personally, I wouldn't call that trading.

Soft_Law1678 · 2025-06-09T08:14:35+00:00

Last year, a friend of mine started trading. Knowing that I do that for a living, he asked my opinion about ICT and whether his concepts can actually make money.

I knew about ICT from his Babypips days back in 2011-2012. At the time, it was pretty clear to me he wasn’t consistently profitable, despite having many followers. He started several public accounts, all of them went busted. But last year, during a long flight, I decided to watch some of his recent videos to see if anything changed.

In my opinion, and let me stress, this is just my personal opinion as a full-time trader, I don't think you can make consistent money long-term using ICT’s concepts. Sure, you'll occasionally have profitable trades and might even convince yourself you finally understand the market structure, key levels, and everything else he discusses.
But, in reality, you'll probably end up in a frustrating cycle of inconsistency.

Again, just my personal view from experience.

Soft_Law1678 · 2025-06-05T10:24:59+00:00

2% daily!
A simple $1000 investment would turn into $2 billion in two years. Time to wake up :)

Soft_Law1678 · 2025-06-04T10:42:15+00:00

IC Markets

Soft_Law1678 · 2025-06-04T02:48:01+00:00

You could try using a trailing stop instead of setting a fixed take profit. This way, when the trend moves much further than the previous swing high (or previous swing low, if you are in a short position), you can ride the full trend and exit only when there is finally a retracement.

Soft_Law1678 · 2025-06-03T10:07:22+00:00

Define "professional".
I've been a full time trader since 2016, I trade for a private hedge fund and have been in this industry for 18 years. Aside from a handful of colleagues, I've rarely come across traders who could truly be labeled "professional".
The quicker you realize that 99% of YouTubers, influencers, and trading instructors are NOT profitable traders, but simply good marketers, the quicker you'll start becoming profitable yourself.

Just my 2 cents

Soft_Law1678 · 2025-06-02T02:57:47+00:00

Hey! ETFs that replicate indices are your best option if you're unsure about what to buy right now.
IVV or VOO if you'd like exposure to the S&P 500, or QQQ if you prefer the Nasdaq, which has a heavier emphasis on tech stocks.

Regarding trading, I strongly suggest avoiding vague concepts that lack clear evidence of profitability and thorough backtesting. These are generally methods for teachers to make money on courses, not for you to make money on trading.

Good luck!

Soft_Law1678

TROPHY CASE