Ten years. 18,000 trades. 14 notebooks. One account that survived — and grew.
When I started trading gold in Hong Kong, I thought I was smart. I had a degree, a plan, and enough capital to be dangerous. Six weeks later, my first account was blown. Not because I didn't know the markets — but because I didn't know myself.
Here are the 10 lessons that actually changed my trading.
1. The market is always right
I spent my first two years arguing with gold. "This is overbought, it has to reverse." Gold didn't care. It kept going. I learned to stop predicting and start listening. The market tells you what it wants to do. Your job is to follow, not fight.
2. You don't need to trade every day
Some of my best months came from 3-4 trades. Some of my worst came from 20+ trades. Quality over quantity isn't just a cliché — it's the difference between a trader who survives and one who doesn't. If there's no setup, there's no trade. Simple.
3. A losing trade with good execution is a win
This took me five years to truly internalize. If I followed my rules — proper position sizing, logical stop, valid entry based on structure — the outcome doesn't matter. A loss with correct execution is still a win because my process was right. The probabilities will play out over 100 trades.
4. Three consecutive losses means stop
Not "maybe stop." Not "let me check one more setup." Three losses and I'm done for the day — or the week. I made this a hard rule after 2016, when I lost 40% of my account in two weeks by revenge trading after a losing streak. Now I walk away. The market will be there tomorrow.
5. Your stop loss is not an opinion. It's a rule.
The moment you move your stop loss, you've lost control of the trade. I did this dozens of times early in my career. "Just give it a few more pips." Every time, price hit my original stop and reversed. Moving a stop loss is not risk management — it's hope. And hope doesn't belong in trading.
6. The notebook changed everything
I hand-write every trade. Date, pair, entry, stop, target, outcome, and most importantly — what I was thinking. After a losing trade, I can trace exactly where my psychology broke down. After a winning trade, I know what I did right. You can't improve what you don't track.
7. Risk 2%. Never more. Never less.
Two percent per trade. Not 1.5%. Not 2.5%. Every trade risks exactly 2% of my account. When position sizing is fixed, your brain stops treating each trade as an emotional event. It becomes mechanical. And mechanical is profitable.
8. The best traders I know are the most boring
The most consistent traders I've met in 10 years don't have exotic strategies. They don't trade during news. They don't check their phones every 5 minutes. They have a simple system and they follow it without deviation. Excitement in trading is usually a sign you're doing something wrong.
9. Trading is a mirror
This is the truest thing I know about this business. Your P&L will reflect your personality. If you're impatient, you'll overtrade. If you're greedy, you'll over-leverage. If you're undisciplined in life, you'll be undisciplined in trading. Fix yourself first, then fix your trading.
10. I don't predict. I prepare.
This is the only phrase I've kept from my first year of trading. Back then, I said it without understanding it. Now I live it. I don't ask "where is gold going?" I ask "if gold goes here, what will I do?" Prediction is ego. Preparation is survival. And after 10 years, survival is the only goal that matters.