As I was sitting in a coffee shop on a Friday afternoon in 2012, I started chatting with guy. As part of a group of entrepreneurs, we exchanged what we were working on. I talked about the web development company I had started at the time while the other guy I just met started telling me about his “job” as a Forex trader. At first, it was far from a job since he didn't have to go work every day. In fact, he was able to earn a full-time income from Forex trading.

That sounded amazing to me so I asked that guy what he was looking for to enter a trade. “I'm looking at support and resistance zones”, he said. “Then I also look for trends that would be likely to continue.”

As simple as it seems, this was the beginning of my trading journey. This guy I met had told me what he did and interestingly enough, it is precisely what I am doing today…

My Journey in Forex Trading

Now, what you have to realize is that I had developed a tiny interest for trading even before I met that guy in 2012. I've always been passionate about business and the markets. However, he totally changed the game for me (even though I've never had the chance to talk with him afterward).

Starting point: clueless about Forex trading

What I've been recommended by the guy I met was to open a demo or a small live account in which 1 pip would be worth $0.10. After all, I would not ruin myself with that.

I was super excited to start trading so I opened my first trading account probably a day after my meeting with the guy. I went on demo first. However, as I was placing those trades, I felt like I had the possibility to make real money. This was far better than doing web design and I enjoyed it a lot more.

In my first few trades, I thought I could predict where the market would go based on the candle movement. I lost a few dollars after a couple of trades so I thought I needed to research what was the best way to trade.

I opened up Google and typed something like “Forex trading strategy”. That was the beginning of a long cycle of indecision…

I think the first strategy I came across that I could understand was one using Heikin Ashi and a moving average. Once I got that strategy and was (barely) able to use it, I made the decision to get my live account. I had just turned 18 years old at the time and felt like I was on the top of the world…yeah.

Things weren't so bad at first because I had a strategy. I remember taking a trade based on my Heikin Ashi strategy. A couple of days later, I was up about 5% in a single trade. My account was worth around $400 but I quickly saw my trade turn into a loss. Not long after my stop loss was hit, leaving me with a fairly significant loss.

I can't remember everything that happened from that point. The only thing I can tell is that losses were predominant for the next 2 years. I didn't have any trading plan written down but I thought I could still make profit show up in my account. I was spending all my free time reading about Forex trading, trading strategies, and technical analysis.

I tried so much: news trading, multiple indicator trading, supply and demand, pure price action, etc. I was always looking for better but in the end…I kept losing.

In 2014, I decided I would dedicate my time to becoming a profitable trader. I started everything fresh by buying a price action course. Did it work?

No.

The answer was clear at that point, I didn't need to change my trading strategy. I needed to change how I approached trading.

At the time, I had my trading strategy in my head…at least I thought so. I truly needed structure in my trading but had no idea where to start.

In winter 2015, I left the cold Montreal, Canada area to study in Hong Kong. I was living one of my greatest passion: travel. I flew around Asia and met a lot of great people. My goal and intention was to keep up on my Forex trading but the lack of structure made it hard.

Meeting with a second trader

One day, as I was having dinner with my aunt living in Hong Kong, she began to tell me about her cousin who was also involved in Forex trading. My first thought was: “Yeah, right…he's probably trading for an institution”.

I got in touch with him anyway and realized he was trading Forex for his own account. His name is Alwin Ng. He was in Episode 21 of the Desire To Trade Podcast.

Alwin helped me a lot with his 30-Day Transformation Plan to develop my own trading plan. I've worked a lot on my beliefs and made sure I had the proper structure to trade.

Trading improves with a trading plan

I can't stress this enough: my problem wasn't not knowing how to trade, it was not being structured enough. As soon as I made my trading plan, I was more clear on what I was doing. If you are looking for more about that topic, check out The Guide to The Ultimate Trading Plan.

Although I made significant progress, I had one more thing to master: trading psychology. Although I knew what to trade, I was still greatly affected by my losses and I still wasn't entering the trades I should have entered. I was often closing my positions way too early as well.

I then came back to my hometown near Montreal (Canada), where I started to work for a global company in a distribution center. I continued trading Forex by always refining my technique and learning from other traders about trading psychology, self-awareness, fear, and much more.

I, for the first time, invested in trading education (other than a trading course). I couldn't stand working in a distribution center. Doing meaningless work to please a supervisor wasn't the kind of stuff I wanted to do.

All my investment in trading paid off. I began to see positive returns month after month (at first only 2%) but I was proud of it.

Since then, it would be a lie to tell that every single month has been profitable but I've been able to maintain growth in my trading account.

One day, I found out that a colleague at the distribution center started to trade Forex as well. He was convinced he could make millions and retire within a few months. I began to give him some advice and help him in the process of creating a trading plan.

In August 2015, I completed my contract with the global company I was working for and went back to university. I wanted to start a business that, in addition to trading, would no longer require me to work at a boring job. Instead of launching a business in the hope to make money, I decided to focus on my passion for trading and my desire to help others.

I then launched the blog you're currently reading as well as the Desire To Trade Podcast, and began coaching traders more recently. I'm in a quest to gain more freedom from trading and I see it as my duty to help others do so..

As I'm writing this article, I begin to realize that I've been very lucky. Even though it has been tough at first and I'll keep having challenges as a trader, I've come across situations and people that really helped me in my journey.

Steve Jobs's words really make sense here:

“You can't connect the dots looking forward you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something: your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well worn path.”