A Shift

It's been a while...

A lot of things happen inbetween the previous post and this one. 

The Rift fuels my eagerness to learn more about trading but while I am fired up. It came to mind that my Preliminary Examinations will start in a week. I haven't reviewed any single subject but I do have lots of time charting. I asked advice to one of the ZFT mentors about my situation and said, 'Honor your parents first. Finish it. Sayo rin naman yan. Stocks will be there 'til you die. Take your time. You are young and full of potential.'

I just want to achieve success in this trading world and I don't want it delayed but it just doesn't work that way I guess. It's just me being selfish and self centered that I forget the people around me. I don't want them to be disappointed because I failed school and choose what I really want. Would it better if I made them happy and make them happier as I pursue trading. For me, it will be the option I am to choose.

Investacup is about to start in an hour but I will be reviewing from now on. 

Follow the rules!

1. Review and become a CPA!

2. Stick to daily, wait for EOD!

3. Trade plans should be done at night!

4. Trade your plan, strictly!

Before I end, let me share a line from a motivational video I've watched this morning.

'But most of all, beyond anything else. Don't lose your enthusiasm and DON'T GIVE UP! Your story starts here, stay dedicated, this is just the beginning.'

Goodluck friends!

Looking forward!

Kinda late on welcoming this month of September but would still do...


WELCOME SEPTERMBER! :)

Ber month na naman! Bilis ng panahon. Matatapos n naman ang 2018!

Goal for the year 2019 is to enhance my chosen set-up.

For now, backtest pa tayo para mabuild ang confidence sa set-up.

Goodluck on our journey fellow traders!

See you at the Rift Live: Manila!

Will end this post with this declaration:

No matter how bad it is or how bad it gets, I AM GOING TO MAKE IT!

#MotivationMonday by sir Mesino!

What now?

Back to school again for tomorrow. Lesser focus on charting and the market since I had to give some time for my schooling now. Summer time had change me a lot as to my mindset on how trading really is and I could say I have been better compared to the older me. A lot more prepared, a lot more knowledgable, a lot more ready. I still hasn't found success in this field for now, but I will get there soon. Thanks to all the ZFTs who are very much willing to guide and share their knowledge, time, and effort to help us who are still struggling with the market. You've been our indirect mentor in this jungle. To most of us who are still not in trading full time and that are having a hard time trying to execute our plans even on virtual trading because of time issues or school/work related stuffs. Here are some key take aways on a facebook post from no other than, Mr. Sirius Lee. 

Time to sleep. Maaga pa tomorrow. 😁

Dreams to turn into reality...

As of writing, I am currently 1/3 down on my actual portfolio. It was my savings and it is really difficult to see the money you have worked hard to save slipped away that easily. True enough that it is an eye opener on how the stock market really works. If your perspective of the stock market is it's easy to generate money, well, that is a fact but you are missing the bigger picture. It is a lot easier to lose money specially if not equipped with the right tools and knowledge.

Through these, I have decided to change the way I play the game and have the patience and WILLINGNESS to learn. It is me, that is the one who is doing wrong, not anyone else, not even the market. I am accountable for everything I do. If I win, it is because of me. If I lose, it is still because of me.

Process adjustments and success ladder:

1. STOP trading using real trading account. The reason for my overall negative performance is because I still don't have a concrete trading system to follow. I won't feel SAFE. My money is not SAFE. My savings and mental state is at stake! A concrete and SAFE system is when whether the overall market status is up or down, I will be able to protect my capital as well as my profits from market uncertainties and these uncertainties equates to risk that I should be able to manage well. The stock market is never certain. I can never predict the next move, I can only react.
2. START doing virtual trading. Yes it would be less emotionally driven since it is not my money that's at risk but I will still treat paper trading as if I am doing actual trading. Virtual trade is the process for me to develop good habits and eliminate the bad as well as to find my strengths and weaknesses such as, but not limited to:

                - What have I done wrong in a trade? 

                - What went right in my executions?

                - How to improve my entries? Did I get in early or late?

                - Is my stop loss too tight? Is it properly placed? Do I have a higher chance of gettin whipsawed because of the placement of my stops? (Whipsaw is a trading term that means selling your stock positions and suddenly, the stock price went up without you gaining from it)

                - How much of my portfolio is at risk if I entered this trade? 

                - How much is my risk appetite? 

                - If I entered late? Do I get a lot risk or did I just get a clearer view or confirmation of the trend? 

                - If I entered early? Do I get less risk or I am anticipating instead or reacting in line with current market trend?.

3. LEARN stock trading while not giving less importance to my schooling. My course demands a lot of time, as well as trading does but this shouldn't be a hindrance in achieving both. I am a semester away to my three letter dream. It is just that I am more passionate on stock trading and wanting to pursue this career to achieve my dream and create a legacy.
4. EXECUTE my trading plans strictly. No ifs, no buts. As the saying goes, plan your trade, trade your plan. Plan your trade the night before the next trading day. Plan everything including your schedules the following day to identify if you can make yourself available for a possible trade. With my current situation, I will be strictly applying only End-Of-Day(EOD) trading since I can't monitor stocks while listening to my professors. It is an unhealthy habbit as a trader to practice planning while market open or before market opens. Also, I should have time for my school stuffs. As much as possible, I am trying to keep things in balance. This would challenge one of my weaknesses as a person. Time management.
5. SAVE for my dream. As a student, I still don't have salary to get money from. All I have is the allowance that my parents would give me. Very dependent, should I say? But it would be so difficult If I would try to study at school while stock trading and having a part-time job. Saving money before I graduate with my second degree is the key to unlock my passion. These savings will be my portfolio value when I decided to go actual trading. 
6. THE REAL DEAL. My rules are simple before I start to go real trading. Have a 100% return on paper trading. In Investagrams, I would be starting with the default amount of P100,000 and the goal is to make it double and this is limited to Momentum, Swing and Bounce plays. Borg or TF plays are excluded but don't get me wrong. I would still execute paper trades on this kind of plays. I just don't want to have the mindset like "Goal hit! Pwede na mag actual trade" when in fact, it is not sustainable. I have the dream of going full time but the goal for now is shifting from virtual to actual. Hitting my goal and unlocking the quest is a great achievement yet I don't expect it to be sustainable since I was only able to achieve it because of one or two bagger plays. My point is, in a month or two, it is possible to NOT have this kinds of plays and if this kind of plays is the one that I made myself go real-time. How can I survive? It is better to know set-ups you could heavily rely on such as Momentum, Swing and Bounce because those kinds of set-ups are mostly, if not always, present in the market whether bull or bear. Well, I am just starting out. These rules are still subject for change if there come a time that my belief would differ from today.
7. QUOTA is essential. Having a monthly goal, yes, a monthly goal because there could be weeks that not even a single set up of mine might appear in the market, is essential because going full-time means that I will be solely dependent with the performance I will make for the month and I should push myself to reach the quota because this will be the amount I will be using on my expenses. Doing so while still trading part-time would develop a good habit and is healthy to be carried forward in preparation to a locked quest which will be discussed next.
   Note: Pushing yourself doesn't mean you should force a trade even if it is not a set-up you are familiar with. It is unhealthy. Pushing yourself could be trying to adjust to current market situation, trying to learn more set-ups, different set-ups, that would make you profitable in times that the market just don't fit with the set-up cards in your hands.
8. LOCKED: FULL-TIME TRADING. In paper trading, the goal is to have a 100% returns. I think I have missed the time element on that one because I didn't have time goal as to when I should have achieve it but I don't want to put myself in such a rush. I just want to make time to learn set-ups that would help me survive the game. In terms of going full-time, I would make myself restricted by doing so unless;

                - I have grown my port to as much as P 500,000.

                - I have a consistent 10% minimal monthly net gain of my whole port consecutively for a span of 6-months.

• I could still incur losses because that's inevitable but as long as I made 10% gain of my whole port for the month. It is counted as 1-month success. 
• This would also be a challenge to myself because as my port grows by achieving my monthly net gain, the next month net gain requirement also gets a lot bigger since my net gains are a variable of my portfolio. A challenge of consistency and sustainability since I have to do this consecutively.

9. UNLOCKED: FULL-TIME TRADING. The moment I shifted from part-time trading to full-time trading is where the real journey begins. The eagerness to be consistent and develop different set-ups. Sustainability in my growth not only to my port but as a person. To HAVE ALL THE TIME  in the world for my family along with the resources needed to provide my family all the happiness, all their needs and wants. Also, I'll make it to a point that every month, my family would visit a place, a person or a program that are in need. This is me initiating the #RAK(Random Acts of Kindness) movement along with my love ones. Instilling the presences of gratitude and camaraderie  specially to my children would make me a lot happier that any person in the world. All I dreamt of is for them to grow with the WILLINGNESS TO LEARN, TO GIVE AND TO SHARE love and happiness, to grow as a compassionate, empathetic, goal-driven, and passionate person along with the principles that I will share to them through these, but not limited to, activities because it would be a lot easier to make them experience rather than just tell them stories.

10. THE LEGACY. There was this post on Facebook that just crossed on my mind while writing. It's like

                - When you are young, you have (1) Time, (2) Energy, but you don't have (3) Money.

                - When you are around 30's to 40's, you have (1) Money, (2) Energy, but you don't have (3) Time.

                - When you are old, you have (1) Time, (2) Money, but you don't have the (3) Energy

The goal is to achieve the three while I am still young. I have time, I have energy but I have limited money. So where do I get the chance to be wealthy? This is the stock market has to offer. The potential to earn, as well as to lose, in the market is high. You just have to have control on how to minimize the ability to lose and maximize the potential to learn and then, earn. 

On this point in time, I, somehow, could tell myself that I am the successful person that I wanted to be. The dream turned onto reality... but it doesn't end there. With the help of the Zeefreaks' Tribe (ZFT), I wouldn't be even here and wouldn't be the independent person that I am. They are the ones who opened my eyes to the opportunities in the stock market. Their Blogspot, YouTube and Facebook posts served as my study modules. They served as my indirect mentors and to give back to what they have done to my life, I would also love to teach and touch other aspiring traders' lives by guiding and giving them a boost on the early stages of their trading journey. Be one of their model just like how ZFTs are to me. It would be such a fulfillment to see them soar high in their pursuit to success and from there it will no longer be just me, it will be more of YOU and YOUR LEGACY. How you, as my study buddy, pay it forward to the younger generation just like how the ZFTs made a huge difference in my life.

W illingness to learn, to give and to share
H ave all the time
Y ou and your legacy

I hope this inspires you to create your own plans, too. It's funny that you would see yourself smiling while dreaming of those things you wanted to be someday. I even imagined reading this blog when I already achieved my dreams and tell myself, "Look how far you've been through from the time you wrote this blog." And then everything went on a flashback, the position I am at while typing this, the sound of the keyboard and mouse, the mess on my bed, the time and the errands I have today, the noise of the dogs outside, the cars and tricycles passing by, the planes crossing above our roof, the laughter of my family on the living room, the Korean song my little brother is listening to on the other room. Oh well, I guess that's it. Time to make a step closer to my dreams. Until then! :)

Consistency gone wrong!

Just logged off my COL trading account and journaled my trades. Since I opened my trading account with COL first week of July. All I had was losing trades. Since the start I had never made a single cent. Consistency on losses. Gone were 1/3 of my capital. I had great execution of cutting losses but my chosen trades just doesn't materialize. What could I be doing so wrong? Haven't got to ride $ATN's monster moves since the start because I decided not to trade for now.

What I have come to realize from staying away for the market for some time now is that I was able to control my hands from riding every single stock that moves because If I wasn't, I could've rode that $ATN. Wouldn't that be nice? LOL! 

Anyways, some changes will be made as I return to the jungle. A lot more disciplined and patient from now on.

Transitioning...

My Guiding Light

Today, upon reading ma'am Nina's blog,I was inspired to create my own blog. I am not a fan of writing. I never joined an essay contest but I would like to give this a try. Who knows, I might fall in love with it just as how I fell in love with the stock market. My vocabulary was not as deep as $CHP nor $X but I can still write, right? Giving this a shot because you missed 100% of the shots you don't take, said that high risk trader. Yap, I've read that somewhere on Ms. Nina's blog. Check it out! 👌

So here's my story.

Photo from symbianize.com

To start it of, Batang 90's tayo. Hindi pe-pwedeng hindi ka nakalaro ng tagu-taguan when it's around 5-6 in the evening. Mataya-taya, langit lupa, Jolens, Teks, Agawan base and a lot more. This has been the games I am playing until I became addicted to a PC game. I am very much hooked to this MMORPG game called Ran Online PH from E-games. The game is played where you earn your way up and level-up from killing monsters to gain experience. Get quests done on different places to be able to advance on a new map and be a better player. Of course, I failed different quests and died a lot of times and as the journey goes, my connections started to widen out, found friends and gaming buddies. Look for person/s to guide me through the game and you say "Pahelp/paboost po maw." (maw = mamaw or someone strong in the game). With all the time I spent playing the game, I became more familiar to different maps, strategies, the market, cost of items, etc. and became very much into it that I even played until around 4-5 in the morning. I spent a lot on E-points to be stronger and better. I am still an average player in the game but I don't want to be just that yet I failed. I wasn't even half way to become a successful player in the Ran World. A bad news came, the game was, I guess, sold to a different company, levelupgames. They changed how the game is played, put a lot of items and accessories that made a player even stronger but that comes with a price, of course. The dream that was not even half way there, was now light years away. I wasn't able to adapt, I was left behind by the changes and the money required is a lot costly than before. I quitted.

Continuing my childhood gamer's life, come Special Force, spend a lot again, same story. Imagine my buying power if I was able to save all of that!!! Really, nasa huli talaga ang pagsi-sisi. 😔

Fast forward to year 2016.

Bringing back the Ran Online PH's life. I long to play it again and found this so called two-man privately owned soon-to-launch server called Equinox Classic. 

Photo from google

With all the experience and hard work I earned through the years of playing this beloved game. I started playing again since day 1 of the launch and I conquered, ripping up the rewards. I came in first place on my chosen class(Archery) in their so called Race-to-cap event. An event where top 5 of different classes who get to max their level wins prizes and the prize is all I needed in this game. I turned my addiction into business. Puyat at tyaga ang puhunan pre! Hirap kaya magfarm, baba ng drop rate 😆. I am selling stuffs in game in exchange for real money. Since I was one of the pioneers in game, I was able to get stuffs the newly joined players would want to have and that's the market place of this game. Sooner or later, I quitted. I found the market place too populated with sellers. It gets harder and harder to sell stuffs that I was able to sell in just a matter of minutes before. The supply overpowers the demand. I even messaged the management of the game to do something about the market place since market equilibrium is slowly fading away. There's too much gold circulating in game that the exchange rate to sell golds to PHP is also dropping. Sellers are lowering their rates day by day and buyers keep on bidding lower. Luckily, I was out of the game before this major drawdown happened. Sold my account and took a rest on gaming. Besides, I profited about P20,000 from the game without spending a single cent. Thanks to my parents for taking charge of the overhead costs, though.

And this whole experience could very much relate to the stock market. You start of as a newbie, you explore the game and how it is played. You start slow and struggling, you practice and study the game, you find some peer group, or mentors. Yung kasama mo maglelevel up at kukuha ng quest para makapasok sa new map. In the game, there are those who are kind hearted, who will help you grow without asking anything in return, and those who are not. Yung tipong kapag namatay ka at nadrop-an ka ng item ay kukuhain tapos hindi na nila ibabalik. MAPAGSAMANTALA SA MAHINA O BAGUHAN. Yap, there are those kinds of people in the game and the stock market is never different. 

Come September of year 2016. When my money turned half. I notice that sooner or later, if I didn't do something to earn. I would waste all this hard-earned money of mine. What to do now?

Photo from newmediaandmarketing.com

This is when I started searching answers from Google and YouTube and found myself watching a video about how to make money work for me. Lo-and-behold, the gamer(me) and the game(stock market) met. I was amazed on how stock market works. Simply buying at a low price and selling at a high price. Sounds easy right? After watching tons of videos about stock market and how and where to acquire shares. I decided to open an account. The easiest way of them all, of course. Opening without even having to personally visit their office. Well, it would only be possible if you have a bank account with them.

Here comes 14 September 2016.

Gmail screenshot of trading account approval

My trading account was activated and I deposited immediately that same day. Got credited a day or two, I guess.

16 September 2016

MY VERY FIRST TRANSACTION! Filled with excitement, I decided to buy shares of stock of Megaworld Corporation($MEG) without involvement of recos(recommendation) from stock guru-guruhan and stock hyping from FB groups. Just a simple click on that BUY button and I celebrated being a shareholder of a bluechip company.

Why $MEG? With the size of my port I decided to buy the cheapest bluechip I can find with the hopes of riding the waves up to the time when its price is the same as Jollibee or SM or even TEL. LOLOLOL! Looking at myself before, I found myself laughing at the old me. What a day dreamer am I? Buying a stock without knowledge or a study behind and hoping for that one-time-bigtime jackpot trade of the lifetime. Well, I forgive myself and it's acceptable. I am that 1-day old baby of the stock market that day, though.

From then on... day by day, I checked the stock price of $MEG, hoping for it to soar high to the neverlands. BUY-AND-PRAY strategy intact! All signals say go! HAHAHAHA!!!

Joined different Facebook groups to learn more and see if they also have $MEG in their ports and then I ran across this group where I paid subscription to learn and yep, parang ganun na nga, looking for someone to be accountable on my investment instead of myself. Relied on someone with experience. To cut things short. I relied on stock recos. I am still thankful to have met this person since the study e-books and videos this person provides are the ones that helped me understand the basics of technical analysis - supports, resistance, price action and up to Fibonacci retracement and extension, divergences and to the most advanced, Harmonic trading. The bat, gartley, butterly, crab, and whatsoever patterns. I absorbed it, but never applied it in the real market. I know how to plot the pattern but afraid to execute because what if I've drawn the pattern incorrectly? So instead of applying what I learned, I relied in recos. Sold half of $MEG to start trading since I felt I am missing out some gains because in the subscription group. They are posting before and after photos of stock charts with their gains. Bought some recos but if the stock I bought would not drop, it would not move and I am still missing the gains so I decided transfer from a stock to another hoping to catch some big waves only to end up in losses.

Come a time, my subscription expired. I stopped and just do the BUY-AND-FORGET strategy and look after years on my investment.

Year 2017

A little more than a year of my investment. I check my trading account only to find it green but small. Yes I gained, you might be saying, "That's still a gain, profit is profit, and so on..." but I wasted an element in this trade. The element of time. Two years, with that gain, there's something wrong in this market that I knew or should I say, something is wrong with me. I never thought it would be like this. All I knew was when I put money in the market, forget about it, and go back after a significant amount of time and you should have acceptable returns. BEAT INFLATION!

Still in the hunt of how to trade... I then re-subscribed to the same person. Buy recos after recos to no avail. The system we are using requires some time to materialize but I was too impatient and besides, I am trading blindly. Consequences served!

Though I am still not having success in this journey, I won't consider quitting as an option.

Lost track of time...

I then again, scanned different facebook groups and read comments and suggestion and suddenly, I stumbled onto a link posted by someone on the comment section. It says read this blog "zeefreaks.blogspot.com" and follow zeefreaks on facebook, if my brain cells remembered it right.

I followed zeefreaks and I was surprised with those massive gains and port snaps! WTH! is this even possible? I believe on gaining a lot for the long run(investor)on a single stock, but having gains that big, multiple times, different stocks, short span of time. That is something! I need to learn how he did this, this is what I want, A profit that took consideration of the time involved.

I checked out his blog, and followed different people through the post that he is sharing and the chain goes on until I surrounded my social media with, I never knew they was, the Zeefreaks Tribe(ZFT). I was more than blessed to find this group that will guide me, indirectly, to the right path in this market full of psychopath.
 

photo from medicaldaily.com

Yep, I didn't even knew that their were groups that adopt fresh bloods in the market to buy up or manipulate a stock until I've read it from one of Ms. Nina's blog. ZFT is strict on this. They play it clean and it's all about skills. No manipulations or some sort.

From there, I started to think about the stock market differently, it changed my perspective on how the market works. That you should trade independently and your trades are your own responsibility. Even if they are a group, each member still trade on their own. That fictional character started the paradigm shift in me.

Now, I am still in pursuit of finding the right mix of technical, mental and psychological skills to achieve every trader's dream of consistent application of system, discipline on execution, and sustainable growth. 

Also have been trying to make my personal friends surrounded by the tribe as much as I could so that they won't have to be somewhere else. For now, I only have two of my friends who are into stocks and are both starting out just like me 2years ago. It's really that rare to find someone you personally know who has the same interest as yours., ain't it? Glad to find this two. We had dreams that when we are able to "walk the talk" we would be looking for aspiring traders that would know in the future, surround them with the ZFT and guide them just like how ZFT guides us.

I just hope, sooner or later, incoming fresh bloods and those who are lost in the dark would find their guiding light in achieving financial freedom...

Because me?

I found the ZFT!