Hi  all,
  
 Wanted to take some  time out this morning and have a chat with you all, this might be a long post  and it might be the last one ever.
  
 As of this week I  have ceased to be an active day trader.
  
 Yes, you read right  - I'm giving up 'active' day trading.
  
 I now run three  separate accounts using the grail system developed by myself and Mike, my  partner.
  
 One account (the  main one) is the million pound experiment account which you have been reading  about in the grailtrading blog.  This will continue to its target which  should mature at the end of 2007 or thereabouts. What a nice Christmas present  that will be.
  
 The second account  is what I call my income grail account.  This account does not compound but  plays the grail system in exactly the same way as the main account with the  difference that money is taken out of the account on a regular basis.   Basically every £4000 invested into the account returns around £1000 per month  in income and this will be my 'wage packet' for the foreseeable  future.
  
   
 So, why after all this time am  I giving up day trading and what advice can I offer for aspiring  traders?
  
 When I say I'm  giving up 'active' day trading that does not mean I'm giving up day trading  altogether.  Grail in itself is a day trading system.  By 'active' day  trading this is what I mean.
  
 For the past 5 years  I've been an active day trader.  Using indicators, multiple timeframes and  multiple currencies etc.  I sat there all day long waiting for the right  setup and I placed my trades and took my profits or losses as we all do.   Day in day out sat in front of 5 monitors getting a tan from the radiation given  out :)
  
 Five years is a long  time in this game, most don't make longer than six months and disappear without  trace.  After five years I'm tired of the constant up and downs of the  job.  When you are hot you take four steps forward and one step back soon  to be propelled forward again.  When you're cold you step four steps  forward and five steps back getting nowhere.  Day trading using an  indicator lead system is like this all the time as all indicators can ever tell  you is what has already happened.  That's not to say I think indicators are  useless, far from it, used properly they give you an increased probability that  your chosen direction will be the right one.
  
 The problem with  this style of day trading is that its so bloody frustrating and this takes it's  toll on you, I'm not prepared to go through that anymore.
  
 The grail system  that we use is easy, no indicators apart from price, no discretion and  no real heartache.  it either wins or it loses and the wins are more than  the losers, simple as that.  My edge with this system is only around 5% so  I have around 55% winners - it only actually equates to around 8-12 pips per day  on average and you may think to yourself ';whoopee doo' 8-12 pips is chicken  feed.  but let me ask you this, do you have a system that takes 8-12 pips a  day on average EVERY DAY - by taking EVERY TRADE that your system shows? -  chances are that it does not and if it does then ill join you in Monte Carlo for  a beer one day soon.
  
 The city of Las  Vegas has been built on a 1% edge.  That's right - there is on average only  a 1% edge in a casino and of course that is in the house's favour.  so  please don't scoff at grail's constant 5% :)
  
 So that's that, as  of now I'm no longer a day trader, swing trader or position trader as defined by  most traders definition.
  
 So why bother  reading this anymore?
  
 Every now and again  I come up with some pearls of wisdom that I like to give, so the blog will  continue albeit on a very sporadic schedule.
  
 I'm going to start  by giving my opinion about how you can get yourself to the stage where you give  up day trading too.  Now you think that I'm going to sell you something,  and nothing could be father from the truth.  Ive stopped selling systems  totally and I'm not about to start again, the hassle from assholes like baruch  and others who couldn't trade for toffee just isn't worth it. These guys won't  be able to make money whilst ever they have a hole in their  arse.
  
 I'm going to give  you the secret to making it in this game of Forex.  In my opinion  anyway.
  
 First of all you  need to dedicate at least 10 hours a day to the market.  What's more you  need to do this for two years at least using indicator led systems. You  need to lose money, win money and lose it again.  You need to go on this  never ending cycle until you give up Forex.
  
 The reason for this  is that I have to tell you the only way to keep your sanity and make it in Forex  is to have a completely mechanical system that wins more money than it  loses.
  
 That's simple to say  you may think but you really need to read that again.  The only way to make  it in Forex is with a completely mechanical system that wins more money than it  loses.
  
 Here's your problem  though.  You are human, you have thoughts and processes going on in your  head that completely stop you from following a completely mechanical system  until you are really really pissed off with trading.
  
 Up until that point  you think that the superior intellect of the human race (debatable) can make  decisions based on factors of news, char patterns, indicators, gut feeling etc  etc.  You get excited by trading, your pupils dilate when you have a  winning trade the same way they do when you see an attractive member of the  opposite sex.  You enjoy taking the risk and see it as a 'sexy' way to earn  a living. even if you don't think you have discretion you do - your mind  automatically want to play and have some fun.
  
 You are drawn to the  market and you don't see that you're losing money, you see that if you get this  right you can make more money than you ever thought possible - no-one to stop  you in this free universe apart from your own creativity.
  
 and herein lies the  problem.  As a human being you are programmed to solve problems -  constantly.  this in-built problem solving subconscious stops you from  following a completely mechanical system and as such stops you making  money.
  
 Because your trades  have discretion in them you cannot consistently repeat the same thing over and  over again and I don't care what you say, anyone that uses indicators to trade  does not have a completely mechanical system.  You may say that you do and  you have that right - but let me ask you the following based on hat you consider  to be your 'completely mechanical system'
  
 1. Do you have very  precise rules for entry and exit of a trade? and I mean  precise.
  
 2 Do you take every  single trade which meets the rules mentioned above no matter whether news is  due, there's been an earthquake, or NFP has just come out 20 seconds  ago?
  
 3 Do you EVER hang  onto a trade longer than your system tells you to or close out before your  system says so?
  
 you know what the  answers should be. Yes, Yes and No
  
 Basically what I'm  saying is that you should spend your first two to three years in Forex trading  as every other newbie does.  Test systems to the hilt, use discretion,  swing trade, use 1 min charts, use 4 hour charts etc etc - really explore the  market and get to know it.
  
 One day you will  realise one thing.
  
 You cannot make  money discretionary trading with enough consistency!
  
 Sure, you will have  good runs, and then you'll have bad runs, you might get to a break even point  where you are trading but making nothing and losing nothing but until you really  really get bored and pissed off you will not develop your own Grail  system.
  
 The only way to be  successful in Forex is to have a 100% discretion free mechanical system which  gives you an edge.
  
 After about 3 years  you will get so demoralised by the market and bored that you begin to look at  ways of NOT to trade.  That's what a truly mechanical system is.  You  don't 'trade' in the real sense of the word in that you aren't looking at charts  and studying fastidiously.  you will look and develop a system of trading  where you have no decisions to make whatsoever.  You enter and exit every  trade exactly to the pip and your head never even has to think about it.
  
 You win and lose  with no emotional content because you know (through testing see below) it  will make money, hell you don't even check the charts when your trade is  in.
  
 To get to this point  you will have gone through 3 years of hell suffering stress and loss of belief  in yourself but you'll also have had a lot of fun and learned a terrific  amount.
  
 Then comes the  rewards.
  
 If you are at the  stage where you want to give up trading after 2-3 years then well done.   you are at the point where you could really make a breakthrough. If you still  enjoy the up and down world of day trading then you aren't here yet.  When  you are really ready to throw in the towel come back and read this again before  you do..
  
 you need to work on  a system that uses nothing which could in the slightest way offer  discretion.  You need to test it and test it and test it again, optimise it  constantly spend your whole working time working on this one system till you  have either proved it works or proved it does not.  Your objective should  be to prove that it does not work.
  
 I reckon that to  properly test a system it needs a good 3 years of data which is HAND tested -  sure, use wealth lab or another test engine initially but then when you find one  that looks promising TEST IT BY HAND, try every different parameter you can and  TEST BY HAND EVERY TIME.
  
 I reckon that to  test a system properly takes about 6 months of full time work, that's about how  long it took us to develop grail and since that time we have spent  additional hundreds of hours in testing different parameters, different  pairs, different timeframes etc etc etc - to test a system, a single system,  could take you years to check every variable!
  
 We now have a system  which we believe (and tests support that belief) will make us multi  millionaires in a few short years.
  
 This blog will  remain here but wont be added to much at all, if you would like to see our  progress then check the grailtrading blog every month - that's where the real  action is.
  
 I, like you went  through emotional hell to get this far and now have secured a very prosperous  future (according to the tests and the results so far)
  
 Was it worth it ...  you decide.
  
 For those who can  see the diamonds planted in this page - see you in Monte Carlo one day  :)
  
  
  
 From The Desk Of  ...
  
 Soultrader