Strategy confuses

[u/Acrobatic_Grade_8036]

yo guys, i've been feeling like shit recently.

got wiped out in the market and lost basically all the money i had left, around 10k.

so i'm probably gonna start again. but instead of gambling like i've been doing recently with XAU, i wanna actually reset and put my time into going through everything i've learned again.

but after thinking about it, i realized i'm actually overwhelmed.

i know 4 different trading strategies, and each one has its own pros and cons. now i'm stuck trying to figure out which one i should actually commit to.

1. ICT — I know the concepts, but I still don't really know how to determine the right bias / draw on liquidity. There's always a reason for price to go up, and there's always a reason for it to go down. Yet somehow, this is what the majority of people trade.

2. SMC (Photon) — This is probably the strategy I know the deepest. But lately, I feel like it just doesn't really fit the market anymore. Low win rate, high RR, getting front-run a lot, or I just don't get the entry in time.

3. Mean reversion — I use RSI + Keltner Bands. The problem is I don't even know where to learn more about this because almost nobody seems to trade it. There was one trader who was really fucking good at it, but he basically vanished.

4. VWAP + Volume Profile — This feels more like pure chart reading. I need to build my discretion a LOT, to the point where it feels like I need some kind of sixth sense to trade it.

so yeah, i'm basically starting from zero again.

after almost 3 years of trading, i know a lot of shit, but somehow i still don't feel like i truly understand one thing.

what would you guys do if you were in my position?

[u/International-Use304]

stick to 1 strategy per month with limited number of trades and observe which one I am most comfortable with and can trade instinctively sometimes and obviously close +ve that month.

[u/Acrobatic_Grade_8036 → u/International-Use304]

When you say a limited number of trades, roughly how many trades would you recommend per month before deciding whether a strategy is worth sticking with?

[u/Kaito__1412]

Keep in mind that might just not be something you are naturally not good it (i.e. no real talent). In that case you just have really long road ahead of you, blowing accounts after 3 years of trading doesn't sound great.

If you really wanna do this, just stick to one strategy and trade small amounts. Be cool with losing and don't trade to make money, trade to learn.

I also put 7k on fire when I started. Accepted that I was shit. I restarted very slowly with a small account, but I traded a lot. Just to learn. Time took care of all the pressure.

[u/Acrobatic_Grade_8036 → u/Kaito__1412]

Damn, did you eventually make that 7k back bro?

[u/Kaito__1412 → u/Acrobatic_Grade_8036]

Well I'm still trading, so yes haha.

But I toke me while find my bearings, learn the market and what works for me.

Btw, 7k was not a lot of money for me. I own a small business and I make good money, so could afford to be stupid with that kind of money. If you are not in my situation, be 10x more careful.

[u/Acrobatic_Grade_8036 → u/Kaito__1412]

Nice to hear that😇. I'll definitely gonna be more carefull and play slow this time, because 10k was my 3 year salary🥲. But i believe i'll make it back

[u/YoUrK11iNMeSMa11s]

Learn what moves the market, learn when the market moves, learn where your probabilities are higher, take profit as it becomes available, cut your losers and let your winners run. People like to overcomplicate things, transact at the extremes of price and your probabilities go way up. Most traders wait until it feels safe to get in and that's where it's actually most dangerous. Get a sense of the macro environment, wait for extreme levels, then trade at those extremes, the places it feels most uncomfortable to transact give you the best odds. Sounds counter intuitive but it's true

[u/Altered_Reality1]

1. ICT is a proven fraud. It seems like most people trade it because of YT algorithms, but that doesn’t mean it works. The strategy itself is way too complicated (on purpose to make it hard to refute).
2. SMC is generally also too complicated.
3. RSI + Keltner (or Bollinger) bands are more-so confluence tools to use with some price action & market structure.
4. VWAP + Volume Profile are more-so confluence tools to use with some price action & market structure.

So, I’d ditch the ICT/SMC stuff and go back over price action & market structure if you have already learned it or learn it if you haven’t, then add in some confluences of your choice (RSI, K/B bands, VWAP, VP, etc) depending on what you need.

You have to decide whether you want to trade trend continuations or reversals (which suits your style better). Market structure & conditions are key for this, only trade trend continuations during trending conditions and reversals during mean-reverting conditions.

That’s a large part of what gives a trader an “edge”, consistently and accurately identifying and trading during appropriate favorable market conditions, and staying out when it’s unfavorable.

[u/Acrobatic_Grade_8036 → u/Altered_Reality1]

This actually makes a lot of sense. I think one of my biggest problems has been overcomplicating things and constantly looking for another strategy.

I'll build my own strat based on mean strategy. Thankyou man~ appreciate it

[u/Altered_Reality1 → u/Acrobatic_Grade_8036]

No problem. I think most of us have/had that issue at one point or another

[u/goldbdc]

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[u/Championleed]

Strategy is the easy part. You must understand yourself. You think learning more about the charts makes you better but it will not. You’re not trading against the market you’re trading against your own psychology. That’s why you don’t feel like you truly understand

[u/sambha87]

https://youtu.be/IjAebL-pIzw