To all my Muslim friends, wishing you and your family Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri and a happy holiday to the rest of you in Singapore & Malaysia.
Family Outing at Bukit Timah Nature Reserve
Hello everyone,
It is a public holiday here in Singapore, so I managed to take some time and brought the family out for a walk in out famous Bukit Timah Nature Reserve here in Singapore. It was a morning to chill with the family but somehow during the walk, the scenes around me resembles so much of my trading journey.
This was one of the first signs that I saw during the walk. Like any activities that we embark on, there are certainly be rules to followed.
Just like in trading, there are rules to follow too. In my style of trading, there are fixed rules in:
- Identifying the trade opportunities
- Executing the trades, and
- Managing the trades
One other major rule:
Set your STOP LOSS for every trade
There are proper paths carved out for you to walk in the Nature Reserve
For those of you who are new to trading, just follow the path that we have shown you. Get it right first and then you can start exploring additional rules and alternatives to add on to your trading.
Stay on the safe path for now!
Occasionally we reach a forked road and will need to decide which path to take.
This happens all the time in trading. Decisions will have to be made if you want to engage or avoid the trade. There will be times to decide to a take profits early or to ride the trend longer while protecting your profits.
Tons of decisions to make and this will naturally come with experience. The more you trade the better you should become. (Disclaimer – only if you are indeed trading the correct way yah!!)
We encountered weird looking vines during our walk. Actually, quite out of the ordinary looking one.
Relating this back to trading, what should you do when you encounter the unfamiliar??
Answer is simple, don’t trade, stay away. I totally stayed away from the pound during the Brexit referendum a couple of years back. My policy is better to be safe.
On our way to the Bukit Timah summit, the path actually took us up and down, not to mention the winding paths. It definitely was not a straight path up to the summit.
As a trader, you have to be realistic. You will not have clear blue skies every day. Your trades will definitely have winner and losers. Take in the losses in stride with the winners. With a good trading system and mind set, you have already factored in the positive expectancy of your trading journey, so just go with the flow and take the trades as they present themselves.
A common sight in the forest that you will surely see are fallen trees.
There are many traders out there who has tried and failed. My advice is to pick yourself up, learn from the earlier mistakes and move on. With the help of a coach, he will be able to show you the dos and donts in the market. So, you will not have to learn to trade the hard way.
On the fallen trees, you will see mushroom and moss growing. This also shows that once you learn from the bad patches in trading, there can be growth again after that.
Eventually we reached the summit. Yes everyone, this is the highest point in Singapore, at a whopping 163.63 meters. In other countries 163meters could just be a speed bump on the roads. One thing you realise is that there are so many other people already up there at the summit.
Back to the trading reference. There are many successful traders and there are many paths leading up to success. It does not matter when you start, it is never too late. You can climb at your own pace and eventually be successful in trading.
Start off your trading journey with a positive mindset and be open to learn new ideas. All successful people will hit bumps on the road, learn from it and improve. The initial years of trading for me was horrible, knocking into walls after walls.
The second most important thing I believe would be the Methods. The trading strategy that you adopt must be aligned with your temperament. For me, I could resonate very well with Harmonic Pattern Trading as it gives me the flexibility to trade on different time-frames. It allows me to integrate trading into my daily schedule, no matter if I am busy or have lots of free time.
I do hope you like this article. If you can relate to any of the points above, reach out and drop me a PM.