Today I want to share the story of Sung C. from California. Sung approached me about six months ago looking for a mentor, and he is one of the few people I’ve agreed to work with one-on-one. Occasionally I agree to mentor people one-on-one if I believe they have the commitment it takes to become a professional grade trader, and I believe Sung has what it takes. Sung had traded other markets, and had lost real money. When he asked me to mentor him he told me currencies felt like a better fit to his personality, and he knew he needed some help. I worked with Sung one-on-one over four one hour sessions. We found a trading style that fit his personality, schedule, family time and hobbies. We developed a trading plan, and when training was complete, I cut him loose to find trades on his own. He would email me every trade he took, and I continued to coach him via email. The first couple months Sung lost money in his demo account. He demo traded because he knew what it felt like to loose real money, and he was committed to demo trading until he was solid on paper again. Sung didn’t let the first few months get the best of him. He remained commited to his trading plan, open to learning from his mistakes and kept on trading. Last week, I was thrilled to recieve the following email from Sung:

Hi Ryan,

I just wanted to write you real quick and let you know how excited I am about my first plus month!  January was the first month I turned a profit in paper trading!  I was up 167 pips and $259.25 in the virtual account!

I had a few setups pending this month already as I saw a bunch of bargain days but they never triggered.  I also had analyzed a few and I only saw a 1:2.8 ratio or less and so i didn’t take the trades.  So far, I have no trades for the month and I’m ok with it!

This is great!  Thanks once again!

- Sung

In a few short months Sung was able to improve his trading performance and come out a winner in January. He did it though resolve, commitment to his trading plan and selecting only trades that offered him the best risk-to-reward ratios. Sung is well on his way to becoming a professional grade trader, and I couldn’t be happier for him. If you are struggling, I hope you find inspiration in Sung’s first profitable month. Ask yourself, what are you doing that is contributing to your loosing streak? How many currency pairs are you trying to trade? Look carefully at your trading plan, is it clear? Could you explain your trading plan to someone else in less than 5 minutes? If not, it is too complex in my opinion. Analyze your trades, do you risk to much or do you take questionable trades? Are you sticking to your profit targets, if not why? Are you afraid to loose money? Perhaps you are risking too much money per trade. My advice to you is simple; commit to one trading strategy for at least six months, write down your trading plan, journal every trade, and trade no more than four currency pairs until you are consistently profitable. If you still need some help, let me know.

Best of luck this week,

Ryan