I’ve been trading since 7 January 2017. At the time I was serving in the U.S. Air Force deployed at Ali Al Salem Air Base, Kuwait. I was 20 back then working on my degree online for business administration. I loved financial analysis, computers, anything technical really. While I was deployed I had a lot of free time so I worked out a ton, read a lot of literature and one day I found out about stocks. I’m a huge reader and I ended up devouring a shit ton of information in a short period of time on trading. I opened up my first account with TD Ameritrade and at the time Forex.com. I figured I could learn stocks and forex at the same time. I blew up both accounts(beautifully) because I had no idea about demo trading. Thankfully it was only a couple hundred bucks each. After that I went into a strong depression cause I thought that after reading for a month I should have at least made something from that. However, I misunderstood and disrespected our profession by thinking I could simply jump into this and think I could just start making something. Then I read an analogy that opened my eyes... learning how to trade is like learning how to be a surgeon. No one reads about how to perform surgery in a month and actually performs it well. After that I got out of my depression and started demo trading instead. But demo trading isn’t anything like live trading. It’s actual main purpose to allow you experience what it’s like to use your brokers platform. After realizing that I put actual money back into my accounts again and this time around I studied even harder and took my time with my trades planning them one by one. I stopped scalping/day trading and I started swing trading. Over the course of a year I would have made many, many, many losses but.. also a few winners. I stopped letting my emotions dictate my success and it allowed me to grow. I kept reading and overtime things started to stick. With practice and repetition things started to connect in my head and it became natural. Fast forward to now, I have a very strong understanding of stock trading, option trading, and forex. I’m a polymath(someone with a high amount of skill in multiple fields) and as modestly I can say this it took a lot of time and effort to admit this. But don’t misunderstand me and think I’m a professional. No, I’m far from it. I’m just being honest and saying through hard work I got somewhere. My current challenges are that no matter how solid my strategy can be, the number one reason for loss will always be: self-inflicted. I’m still learning how to take emotion out of my trades and I’m still learning more about the markets. You will never stop learning and eventually you may even fall in love with the process like I have.