Hey, I’m Raul… I’m 37 and let me share a little about me, my experience and how I can help you take better trading decisions.

How I got involved in the Forex Market

I first got interested in trading in one of my classes (International Markets) in my senior year in college.

The professor gave each one of us a demo trading account and we were supposed to trade it.

No one had a clue about what we were doing but must of us got a little excited about it. Mostly because the one with the most returns would get 10 final points.

Of course I didn’t win, in fact, I think I blew it… But it was then when I realized the potential of trading the markets.

When I got out of college I tried to get involved with trading-related companies and I have to say, I got lucky.

Two months after I graduated from college got first job, not as a trader, but as an apprentice trader and learned a lot about trading.

Then I decided to try with my own money and realized it wasn’t that easy.

About the Methodology I use to trade

I tried everything, every possible indicator, robot, strategy, system that you could find in the internet. And when I say everything, I really mean everything (well, almost everything).

I was lucky to find 3 likeminded traders (from Australia, UK and the US) in which all 4 four of us worked together to develop something simple, based on price action and with good risk & trade management.

And that’s how the methodology I use right now came to life.

It has evolved though, because markets are always changing and we need to learn to adapt to those market conditions.

And let me tell you something, it’s been a long way here, but well worth it. I have learned so many things, not only about the markets and how they work, but about myself.

I sometimes get the feeling that we are not fighting against the markets or brokers or other traders, but against ourselves.

Because we are the ones who take all trading decisions (well, at least 99.99% of the time):

• We are the ones who take profits earlier
• We are the ones who decide to trade even though there is no signal
• We are the ones who decide to hold our trades during important news releases
• We are the ones who don’t pull the trigger when there is a signal

One of the things that I think have helped get good results is that when things don’t go as expected, I always question myself: why did I do that? Could I’ve done any better?

So please try it, try it every time things don’t go as expected and you are going to find stuff about your strategy that aren’t working, but most importantly, patterns about yourself that would be very difficult to notice without an exercise like this one.

Anyway, what I’m about to share with you is what I think is critical to succeed in the forex market.

Put in practice the following ideas and you’ll eventually reach your trading goals (provided that they are realistic) and believe me, they will save you an enormous amount of time and money.

The 4 tips that will get you the results you need:

• Simple is better. Go back to the basics. Even with thousands of technical indicators and tools, I always came back to the easiest of them: price and support and resistance levels. And you will too, eventually you will.
• Market condition. What ever you do in the short term charts, the market will always move based on what is going on on the long term charts. Keep an eye on them, and only trade when both, short and long term charts are connected.
• Confidence. You need to be confident in yourself and in the trading system you are using. The only way to get there is if you are comfortable with the system you are trading. So tweak it until you make the system you are using YOUR own system.
• Risk. The fact that you open trades doesn’t mean that you accept the risk of taking that trade. Understand that risk is part of what we do and every trade has the possibility to move against us, therefore you need to manage your risk, capital and trades.

Follow these 4 ideas and you’ll be on your way to get consistent results. I can help you put these ideas to work.

This is how I trade

I first analyze the long term charts to determine:

Which currency pairs to trade, and
Determine whether the market is ranging or trending.
Once I have a list of the clearest currency pairs for the day, I switch over to the short term charts to look for my entries.

I use some of the easiest to use tools to trade the forex market:

• Support and resistance levels
• Price action
• Candlesticks

I don’t use technical indicators, nor Fibonacci or Elliot Waves (I find them too subjective).

I have a very well defined trading plan, including risk & trade management.

The common denominator in everything I use to trade is: simplicity.

I contribute to the following sites:

Since 2006 I’ve been a contributor to FxStreet.com the largest and most important forex portal in the world.

I’m also a contributor to ForexPros.com, one of the largest forex sites, providing analysis and webinars.

I provide daily analysis and trade ideas to forexnews.com the largest provider of forex news.

I’ve written several articles to the Traders Journal Magazine and the Forex Journal Magazine (Now a forex portal).

I provide articles to Trade 2 Win one of the oldest and largest communities of traders.

A few other things about me:

• I have more than 15 years of experience trading in the forex market
• I got interested in the Forex market in a senior project back in my college days
• I majored in economics with a specialty on financial derivatives
• I trade a self-developed system based on price action

I’m a husband and a father

When I’m not with my family nor trading, either, I’m running or playing classical guitar.

Here I am crossing the line on my first Ironman.