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So today I want to talk about a character trait that I have realized that you need for trading. Or really business in general. And it is funny that it never really occurred to me before a few days ago when talking with my son about entrepreneurship.

But before I go into that I wanted to tell you about a free webinar I am doing next week. So next week on March 7th at 12pm noon eastern time, I am going to be hosting a free forex trading webinar, and I want to invite you to it. This webinar is not going to be a pitch fest like every other webinar out there where they try and sell 400 products down your throat.

This is going to be pure content on exactly what you need to know in order to become a consistently profitable trader. Now this webinar is unlike any other webinar you have most likely attended in the past from other so called “gurus” out there, because it is literally designed to be like a miniature condensed master class.

I am going to be giving you actionable information that you can take from the webinar and immediately use it in your trading to make better trades and ultimately make more money.

And for those that register, you will quickly find out that it gets even better than just the webinar. I even give you a free mini class video on trading before the webinar even starts.

I am bringing all my best stuff to this webinar and I hope to see you on there. Now one thing though, space is limited and seats are filling up very fast. And no I am not just saying that either.

And there will also be a ton of time at the end of the webinar to ask all the questions you want answered.

So to register for the webinar, head over to karmasenge.com/webinar and register asap. Again that website address is karmasenge.com/webinar

Ok, so getting to the content of the podcast. As I was saying before, I realized from talking with my son, the #1 character trait you needed to have in order to become a successful trader or entrepreneur is…..wait for it…..wait for it……..

Persistance.

Yes persistence is the number one factor between those that are successful and those that are not. Everyone that has ever been successful as failed miserably over and over and fought through all the adversity UNTIL they became successful.

You never saw them give up. Ever!

In the trading world this can’t be truer. 90% of traders out there will give up on a system after just 5 loosing trades. Did you know that? The actual statistics are:

70 percent of traders will give up on a system after 2 loosing trades
80 percent will give up after 3 losses
and
90 percent after just 5 loosing trades.

They somehow think that it is the systems fault and then they proceed to go out and find a new system to trade. Learn the rules and immediately go out and trade with it. Of course, since they have no experience with the system up until this point they most likely loose the first few trades and then once again go out and find yet another system.

Now I am not saying that it may or may not be the system that is faulty. Hell, most of the systems and bots that I have seen being sold on the market are absolutely shit systems and would never be profitable no matter what trader was trading them.

And another stat here is that after 3 short months of traders trading, 70% of traders give up on trading altogether due to them repeatedly loosing trades. This is sad guys, and I mean really sad.

Let me remind all of you about what happened to me back in August 2015. Back in August 2015 I had lost 19 trades in a row. Yes you heard that correctly, 19.

That was the time of my worst trading ever. Before that I was extremely consistently profitable. But then I lost about 4-5 trades and I became very emotional about it all. I tossed my trading plan aside and said “F’ it, I am going to get my money back” and traded like a crazy emotional nutbag.

Loss after loss came. And damn if they came quickly and consistently. One right after the other. it was after I lost 19 trades and not wanting to hit 20 that I decided to stop trading for the rest of the month. Boy was I an idiot during that time.

Sure I had thoughts of quitting and never trading again. And I could have done it too. But I didn’t. Most other traders would have gone insane and stopped trading long before that. But I couldn’t stop. I knew this was for me. I knew it in my heart.

So after a few weeks of breathing and reassessing myself, I knew what I had to do. And that was to continue on, no matter what happened but this time I was going to stick with my plan no matter what.

The first trade I made after my little sabbatical was a win. I was so happy that I made a winning trade that I even had a little party. By myself I mean. Had some cake frosting and a soda (both which I never get to have). Yes I know what you are thinking, man he’s weird. lol  Yes I am.

But now the story that I tell usually stops there. You know about the 19 loosing trades in a row, but you don’t know the rest of the story.

So after those 19 loosing trades and that one winner after I came back, the next 4 trades were again losers. Then a win and another 3 loosing trades. Inside I was slightly falling apart. But I knew I just had to stick with it no matter what happened. And then something magical happened, my wife came over, gave me a big hug and a kiss and told me that she knew I could do it and that I just needed a “magical” kiss from her and everything would be ok.

Well after that the next 9 trades I made were all winners. Then one loss and another 12 winners in a row. I had just made up every single penny I lost in those 19 trades and then some.

The point of all of this is to make you see that yes, I could have quit. And then get thrown into the statistics of people that quit trading. But I was determined to be in the statistics of people that become so successful that 100 years after my death people will still know my name. That is my goal.

If you want to be successful in ANYTHING that you do, you need to have that persistence to drive on through all the rough times no matter how tough it gets. That again is what separates the successful people from everyone else.

So you see, persistence literally is the #1 thing you need to have. And if you don’t have it already that is ok, you can develop it little by little, day by day. That is perfectly ok. Just make sure that you get it.

Links and Resources Mentioned in this Episode:

• The Ultimate Forex Trading Master Class Online Coaching Course
• The Community

Show Notes:

Links and Resources Mentioned in this Episode:

• The Ultimate Forex Trading Master Class Online Coaching Course
• The Community

Show Notes:

Links and Resources Mentioned in this Episode:

• Structural Analysis Course
• The Ultimate Forex Trading Master Class Online Coaching Course
• The Community

Show Notes:

And today I am actually going to be talking about my use of Timebook. I love Timebook so much that I figured I would just do an entire episode on it to show you tools I use and how I am using them.

It occurred to me a few days ago that instead of just creating content that I think you might want, I thought about how great it would be if I document things that I am doing and the tools that I use so that you can get some great benefit from what I am doing and things I am using.

One of those things which I have recently started using is what is called a Timebook.

Now a Timebook is essentially a daily planner. But holy hell is it so much more than that.

I know what you are thinking, I’m a trader and I sit at my desk trading, what do I need a planner for. Let me tell you how I use mine.

First let me talk about the product itself. Things like quality and so forth. Kind of like a review first.

So when it arrived at my house, for one it got to me really quickly. And when it did I opened up the box and the very first thought I had in my head was, wow, this is packed up really nicely.

The Binder

Everything was individually wrapped in its own cellophane wrapping. And the first thing I took out of the cellophane was the binder itself. I personally got the Professional binder. I liked it the best. It is a brown letter binder that is very very nice. Very high quality. The inside pocket area has pockets to hold 2 sets of business cards, another small pocket to hold whatever else you might want to hold, and then a third, larger pocket.

The binder is a 6 ring binder that has a penholder, a magnetic closing strap, and also has 3 different colored ribbon bookmarks. The black one I use for my monthly goals, the yellow for my weekly stuff and the white one for daily.

Oh, and the binder has a very cool eternal knot on the face of it.

Overall, the binder is incredibly well done.

Timebook Calendar

The next thing I opened was the daily planner pages. The paper is very high quality paper. Great for writing on both sides without any ink bleeding through. And I found out that it is the whitest recycled paper made as well. So great for the environment to boot.

On the pages you will find not only the planner section with times of the day to mark what is going on that day, but little checkboxes as well. One for exercising and workouts, one for learning and reading, and a great checkbox for a Power nap. lol, I know some of you out there will enjoy that one.

By the way, I am going to do a video review of the Timebook and I will put it over on our YouTube channel for you to see.

So the pages also have not just daily planning, but weekly, monthly and quarterly as well. The planning pages are broken up into 4 segments for the 4 quarters of the year. So you only install the current quarter at the time. Not all of them at once.

Timebook content

Now with just this, it might seem like just a regular planner. but besides the planning pages you also have the four separate Timebook Content sections. Each time book is broken down into sections. The first section is “Timebook 1 – The Foundation of Good Life”.

What you do is place the timebook pages inside the planner along with the daily planner pages. Now remember, there are 4 timebooks and 4 quarterly sections of the planner pages. So for the first quarter of the year I have Q1 of the planning pages and I also have Timebook 1 in there as well.

In the second quarter of the year I will have the Q2 section of the Calendar pages and Timebook 2 content in the binder. And so forth.

Now the Timebook pages themselves are unique. Each page is designed to assist you and teach you, not only how to use the time book but in assisting you with bettering your life. Being more productive. Developing yourself in all areas of your life.

Virtually every page offers a QR code for you to scan and watch a video on some aspect of bettering yourself or business. Whether it be in helping you with goal setting or setting up morning rituals. Time-management, secrets of millionaires, organizational skills, meditating, how to sleep better, etc.

The guys over at Timebook really thought of everything. I am really impressed. And what I did was interweave all the pages so that every single day, I learn something. Even if it’s an exercise or skill or video I have already watched, I still do it to reinforce the knowledge and skills.

Now as a trader, my day is for the most part sitting right here at my desk. But I still use my Timebook. I of course do the Timebook pages to learn, but in the planner, calendar parts I plan my entire quarter, month, week and days for everything I do.

I have a plan to film and produce 3 new trading courses for you all this quarter alone. So I write in all that in the planner. Break it up and fit in into my schedule.

Every night I plan my next day. What I need to do. What news I should be following the next day. Any new tools I should check out that I heard about. What exercises I should be doing that morning. And guys, let me just say this, if you are not exercising daily, get to it already. No matter how much money you have, if you don’t have your health, you don’t have squat.

Everything guys, everything I do, goes in there. Even when I write down what pairs I want to keep an eye on that day, I write it in there. I even utilize it to plan down time away from my computer. Time to just do nothing. You could use it to plan out your daily routine for trades. Whatever you think of, you can do it with the Timebook.

What I want you to do today, if you only do one thing today, go check out Timebook. You can go to karmasenge.com/timebook and check it out. When you purchase the Timebook, use the coupon code “Karma” for an extra discount and free expedited shipping.

Now I know some of you are thinking, “I wonder how much they paid him to talk about this”. But just so you all know, I don’t get squat for talking about Timebook. They don’t pay me one cent if you purchase anything from them. I am telling you about Timebook because I think it is incredibly beneficial to you and believe it can change your life. Or in some way help you. That’s why I decided to do this episode.

Now I’ve seen countless other planners go for like $70 for only 60 days worth of planning days. With no where near the amount, or quality of content as Timebook’s.

Go check them out, you will be so glad you got yourself a Timebook. Trust me.

Links and Resources Mentioned in this Episode:

• The Ultimate Forex Trading Master Class Online Coaching Course
• The Community
• Timebook.life

Show Notes:

Email from: Darrell from Montana

Darrell writes – “Yo Waz up Karma. I been trading in a demo account for almost 19 months now and am wondering when I should stop demoing and do live trading. I want to make money but I feel kind of stuck here in Demoland. Scared to get out of it and loose some real money, know what I mean?”

And he goes on just talking about some other things. But this was his main question.

First off, thanks Darrell for listening to the show and taking the time to email me. I really appreciate it.

So to answer your question.

Are you kidding me? Nineteen months?

OMG! that is about 17 and a half months too long mate. I can’t believe you have been trading that long. That is way way wayyyyy to long to demo trade. I’ve said on the show many times and I think recently as well, I think demo trading for longer than a MAX of 2 months is silly.

Now I know I’m going to get a ton of slack on this topic from the “Gurus” out there, but I don’t believe in demo trading that long.

Now while the “Gurus” will tell you to demo trade for 4-6 months or longer in order to first become profitable in trading, while I can see their point of view, I really don’t believe in it anymore.

I once did though. Hell I myself traded for 4-5 months before ever going live. But looking back, I now think that was the wrong thing to do.

Now for anyone listening to this episode that does not know what Demo trading is, demo trading is simply trading in the market using fake, pretend money. that is essentially it. Everything in the market is virtually identical to how the live market is running, maybe a slight delay in price, but virtually the same.

You can place trades using the fake money, Win fake money, loose fake money, etc. you get the point.

Now demo trading is mainly for just two reasons and two reasons only.

1. To test a strategy / system.
2. To learn the platform.

So lets look at number one first.

Test a Strategy / System

When first presented with a system of trading, or when first discovery of a system, it is at a stage of hypothesis. You have no idea if it really works or not. Even if someone tells you it does, you don’t. And NEVER just take anyones word for it. Test it as much as you can. Try and break the system to pieces. Make sure it does work, and works for you.

So many people make the mistake of hearing someone talk about how awesome their system is only to find out later it doesn’t work or at least doesn’t work for them. Hell, the system I use which is Harmonic Pattern trading doesn’t work for everyone. I have taught many people this system and have found that 3% of the people I teach, this system is not for them. no matter how hard they try. But instead of just giving someone a system of entering and exiting the markets, I try to teach them how to trade.

It’s a BIG difference. That type of difference enables them to go out and utilize any other system and be profitable. They have the foundation in place.

This is one of the big reasons to use a demo account.

The second reason is:

To Learn the Platform

The biggest and least respected aspect of trading I think is misunderstanding how important proper execution is. You could have the best system in the world, have the best trading plan, be committed to sticking with that trading plan. but if your execution sucks, if you forget to place a stop loss and screw something else up in the order process, you could loose everything.

So in this way, I think a demo account is not only valuable, but essential. You have to be able to execute a trade FLAWLESSLY. Read that line again.

No mistakes allowed here.

Those are the reasons to use a demo platform. Not to trade for an endless amount of time to make yourself feel better.

Now again, the gurus will tell you to trade until you are consistently profitable. Now while I see and understand, and even partially agree with them, I disagree with them more.

You see, when you trade in a demo account, you have absolutely no psychological connection to the money you are trading with. None whatsoever.

So if you loose say, $100k in your demo account, it really doesn’t matter. You can reset it and away you go again. Loose it a second time, hey no problem. It is like respawning in some video game.

You don’t respect that money.

Now, if you learned your platform well in demo trading, and tested your system in demo trading, that should take really no where longer than a month and a half to MAYBE two months max. And that is not even doing it for 15 hours a day.

Then once you have this, open a live account and start trading incredibly small amounts of real capital. In this way, you will learn much much faster due to having that real money on the table. You will be more cautious and not place ignorant trades. You will also be well on your way to potentially making profit.

I know people that have demo traded for years and never have the courage to more into live trading. Demo trading and live trading are two very different things. And yes it can be intimidating a bit. But if you ever want to make any type of money in the world, you have to take some risks. Plain and simple.

So my advice to you Darell are those 3 things.

1. Learn your system
2. Learn how to flawlessly execute trades on your demo platform
3. Open a live account and start trading.

I hope I answered your question for you mate, and again a big thank you for listening to the show and emailing me. I love getting emails.

If you want your question answered on the show and a big shout out, email me at karma@karmasenge.com and I’ll make it happen.

Links and Resources Mentioned in this Episode:

• The Ultimate Forex Trading Master Class Online Coaching Course
• The Community

Show Notes:

Got another email from Kapono from Maui Hawaii.

“Hey Karma, just curious, I am a 19 year old guy living in Hawaii and am interesting in trading the Forex. But how realistic is that? Like, are there a lot of people my age trading the Forex? Or is it all older people like my dads age? Can people my age make money in it too? I don’t want to be broke like most people. Thanks”

Absolutely you can do it. There are a ton of people your age making money in Forex. My son Joshua has started his career in trading forex and he is only 16 years old.

People of your generation (Millennials) can easily make money doing this. You all have it so good right now. With things as they are right now, and with technology the way it is, you all can be trading while walking down the street and chatting with friends right from your smartphone or tablet. Its awesome.

Essentially all you need to do is open an account with a reputable Forex Broker and away you go.

Now with saying that, I do not recommend you throwing down some cash to open an account and you to just start trading. You definitely need some education first. Check out our website for courses for that.

But once you have that education, go for it my friend. Go for it. I really admire those of you that are out there wanting to better yourself at such an early age. I wish that when I was 19 years old, someone, anyone would have taught me something about making money.

You know, I went to school for 23 years, got my Ph.D., and not one person, not one teacher, taught me anything about making money. Nothing. And yet, schools are supposed to be preparing us for real life. But when they don’t teach you about balancing a checkbook, creating budgets or anything money related, you know there is a problem.

So when I see people like you Kapono, someone of your age out there wanting to make your life better at such an early age, makes me feel amazing. I love to see it. I admire you for doing so. So many people your age and hell even my age all they want to do is get their paycheck and blow it at a club, or a bar, or just go spend it somewhere. Not take control over their life. Not better their situation.

There are no shortcuts. You will have to work hard. but if you have the drive already to do something like trading, I can definitely see you in the future in complete control over your financial situation being able to do whatever it is you want to do. Want to retire by the time you are 21, it could happen.

So to answer your question, anyone, no matter what your age, as long as you are over 18 can do this.

I wish you tremendous luck my friend. And if you need any help, don’t be a stranger. Email me more, I would love to hear your progress.

Links and Resources Mentioned in this Episode:

• The Ultimate Forex Trading Master Class Online Coaching Course
• The Community

Show Notes:

You know a few weeks ago I took a vacation to Mexico. It was during the time of Day of the Dead (Halloween). We have a house there right on the ocean on the island of Isla Mujeres which is right off the coast of Cancun.

My wife thought it was a good time to take a vacation since we had not taken one in years. So I said ok.

So we hoped on the plane and flew into Cancun. Took a private shuttle over to the ferry. Which took about 30 minutes or so. Got on the ferry over to the island which took another 30 minutes. And btw I can’t stand boats. I get sea sick, although I didn’t I this one. So we got to the island, took a taxi to the house and finally walked in.

Once we got inside, we went upstairs to the bedrooms and unpacked a bit. I remember at one point I came back down and looked out at the water and thought to myself.

“Man, It has taken us 6 hours to get here. How much work could I have gotten done in these six hours?”

All I could think about on the entire ride down was work. Even though I told my wife I was not going to do any work, I still couldn’t stop myself from thinking about it.

Now we did a ton of awesome stuff while we were there. We went snorkeling, many times, we went swimming with dolphins, ate at some really awesome places, went shopping, etc. Had a blast.

But honestly, the entire trip, even when I was having fun, I was still thinking about work. And then it dawned on me.

“Work is better than a vacation.”

At least for me it is. I have said it before, I am completely obsessed with trading. And for me, I don’t need a vacation from that. That is my vacation. I understand my family might need one, but I, Karma Senge, have no need for it. Maybe if I did something, like a job, that I was not passionate about I would need one. But I don’t.

And to be honest, I don’t even know where I am going with this. I guess I am just trying to say, you have to find passion in what you do. And if you are currently not doing what you are passionate about, work HARD and be diligent in taking your trading and investing to the next level in order to give you the ability and financial security to do what you find passion in.

I am thankful that after 30 years of my life, I found my passion. A lot of people don’t ever get there. Or if they know what their passion is, they never have the opportunity to do it because they are stuck in a situation where they need to work just to pay the bills.

Take your trading seriously. As seriously as you would anything else in your life. Trading is a way out. A way for you to do what you really want to do. To have enough money and freedom to live how you want to live. And that is what it is all about isn’t it? Freedom.

So do what you need to do to become a success in trading. Get the education you need. I have courses that can help you with that, and loads more coming out soon. Study hard, develop your plan and treat it like a full fledged business. If you do all this, I promise you that you will have the life you need, you want and you deserve.

Links and Resources Mentioned in this Episode:

• The Ultimate Forex Trading Master Class Online Coaching Course
• The Community

Show Notes:

Fundamental analysis in Forex is a type of market analysis which involves studying the economic situation of countries to trade currencies more effectively.

It’s the interpretation of statistical reports and economic indicators like changes in interest rates, employment reports, and the latest inflation indicators. All of which fall into this area of fundamental analysis.

This is actually not that much different than studying different companies for trading in the stock market. Only we are studying entire countries or regions instead of a mere individual company.

Now I will say this, Although I firmly believe in studying the fundamentals, not every trader in my opinion needs to know all about the fundamentals. I know this kind of sounds like a contradiction, but it’s not, let me explain.

There are different types of traders out there. Position traders, swing traders, day traders and scalpers.

Position traders (those trading on timeframes like the daily, weekly or even the monthly charts), those in the trade for the long term, need to know everything that is going on with the fundamentals** of whichever country they are trading the currency of. So if you trade the Euro, you need to know everything that is going on with the ECB. You need to know when President Mario Draghi is speaking and what other analysts are saying about what is going on within the Euro Zone. It is incredibly important to know all this.

Position traders need to know more about the fundamentals than anything else. Over the current market sentiment, and even technicals. Why, because it is the fundamentals which that move the market at these longer timeframes.

Then there are Swing Traders

Swing Traders also need to know the fundamentals. But now, due to the timeframes that most swing traders are utilizing such as the daily, 4-hour, and maybe even 1-hour timeframes, they need to also know more about the currency sentiment of the market, and the technicals as well.

Day traders

Day Traders need to also know about the fundamentals but, their concentration is now primarily focused on the market sentiment and technical analysis. But I still say that you need to know the overall fundamentals for overall knowledge of market direction.

You see, the technicals can tell you the past, like is this particular currency pair in a trend or not, But the fundamentals can tell you if that trend is going to continue or is it going to change directions. Technicals can’t give you this.

Then you have Scalpers

Scalpers in my opinion should still know the fundamentals, but honestly, they don’t play any type of role in their trading. They need virtually all technicals and sentiment. Thats it. But I believe that if you are a trader, you need to know the fundamentals. No matter how you trade or what you trade.

How I set everything up.

Now for me, I use two screens for trading. I used to have a ton more but realized that all they did was bloat my ego and distract me. So I cut down to just two.

My left hand screen is where I do all of my technical analysis. All my charts are set up here. I have a very nice 27” 5k display for this. And on my right screen is where I do all of my fundamental and sentiment analysis. This is where I have all my news feeds going. It also is a 27” 5k display.

Now I do have a 42” flatscreen tv as well that I run Bloomberg on, but honestly I almost never watch it. it’s on, but 99% of the time, there is no sound and I am not ever paying attention to it. Only time I really do is when there is something MAJOR going on.

Now the first news feed I pay attention to is a premium feed called Ransquawk. Ransquawk (RS) gives me up to date information on everything going on. I will see something released on Ransquawk sometimes an hour before it is ever released on TV. Usually it leads by at least a couple minutes but I have seen it go even longer.

I like RS because again it leads everything else, but I also like the nice squawkbox it has. So when some important news is being released, you will have an analyst come on and tell you what is happening. This is not like Bloomberg where there is always someone talking. Only when there is news to be said do they say something.

The next tool I use is Twitter. I like Twitter because for one, it’s free. And I get real time information updates. Its a great resource.

And of course I use other resources for news.

But let me first say that “I do not trade the news”!

What I use fundamentals and sentiment for is to help me better identify which trades have a higher probability of success than others. I am not sitting there waiting for FOMC to come out so I can get in the market and profit from that particular news announcement.

I don’t trade that way. And I’m also not saying for you not to trade that way. I know a lot of people make money doing it, it is just not the way I trade.

So let’s do a mock up of a trade here for a second. Lets say that I am interested in taking a trade on the EURUSD. I see a Gartley pattern that looks good. Now most people would take that trade just because it is a pattern. But I don’t.

Most people miss the point of analyzing the pattern. And it is so funny. Everyone talks about analyzing everything like crazy, but when it comes to patterns people will only analyze the ratios that make up the pattern but not the pattern itself. They are missing this step.

So after I find the pattern, I want to see what the fundamentals show. Is the fundamentals and sentiment inline with this pattern? Is the direction I want the price action to go, go in the same direction as the funddies?

That is all I am looking for. Again I am not trading the fundamentals, just using them to help assist me with a trading decision. That’s all.

I always want to know the fundamentals and sentiment. I might go to Bloomberg Currency section on their website and look at recent articles. What I am looking for primarily is

1. The particular currencies in question.
2. What is the overall direction the currency is moving.
3. What is the catalyst that is making the move.
4. What the analyst believe will happen with the currency pair. A clear opinion from credible experts.

And I keep all this information in a journal sitting on my desk. And I use this information to help me make my choice to enter or not. It’s that simple.

So that is the basics of how I use fundamentals guys.

Links and Resources Mentioned in this Episode:

• The Ultimate Forex Trading Master Class Online Coaching Course
• The Community