Up From the Ashes: Joel Pinto Romero by Justin Paolini

Today’s blog post is a reminder of the rewards of perseverance and skill. Today we will tell the story of a previously struggling trader who has, in the past year, found his “place” in the markets and has started to repair much of the damage that his account had sustained previously.

I believe we have all been in the same place sooner or later. We have all struggled and been close to throwing in the towel. So today’s post is a bit of inspiration for us all: with perseverance and the right information, skillful trading can be learned and practiced.

I would like to personally thank Joel Pinto Romero for wanting to share his story with our readers.  What follows is his personal recollection.

In the Wilderness

When I first started off I guess it was like everyone else: looking for a way to invest my money on my own, without having to  depend on financial institutions (who have typically higher fees, and don’t always have your best interest at heart). [I would also add that most people do not have the sizeable accounts that are required to access people like Bridgewater or Tudor Capital].

So I decided to trade my own account and as you would expect, it was a disaster! Just to be clear: I tried to act in a mature fashion:

  • I watched a bunch of videos and tutorials on YouTube;
  • I did pay for personalized consultation;
  • I did try several trading methods and at that time I found a certain “affinity” with a particular technical tool: the Bollinger Bands (which continue to be at the core of my current trading system); [I would like to highlight a fact that isn’t immediately apparent here: Joel was “exploring” in this phase and he was open to new things. I like the fact that he stuck with Bollinger Bands as a tool not because there’s something special about them, but because they “fit” his personality and beliefs about how the market moves. This is the very essence of “aligning your beliefs with your technical tools”]
  • I tried to do some scalping – and failed.
  • I tried to use a higher timeframe: 4H charts – and failed.

Basically nobody had helped me find a way to put together all the notions I was collecting and studying. A lot made sense, but I was not able to use it all in a simple and streamline way. I was not completely sure about what I was doing and WHY I was doing it. I was basically chasing the price all around, attributing meaning to certain candlestick patterns but without a strong understanding of what the market was doing. I do believe that any results obtained in that period were down to luck.

At that point, I felt I needed to take things seriously and invest in some education and training if I really wanted to make trading work as a secondary business venue for me, so I decided to hire a professional trader to train me.

My First Experience with a Mentor

1-on-1 sessions with a seasoned market professional are really useful. That’s when it all started to come together. My mentor took me on a long ride to understand how the market behaves, what the drivers are, how to understand the news and how it all affects my trading. After reviewing all the theory he then took me down the practical route. It was then that I became familiar for the first time with the Supertrend Indicator (which continues to be in my trading tool box today).

With this mentor I learned about money management, stop losses and take profit calculations, and many other things. He also taught me to build a trading routine with which I analyzed markets every single morning (for about hour and a half) and then make my trading plan for the day.

However, one of his beliefs was that it made sense to aim for 1R at all times so you did not have to sit through retracements. He was not in favor of “letting profits run” because he believed that most traders lose control of their trade management and just become prisoners of hope!

The only problem was that his system and recommendations were fundamentally oriented to intraday trading from 5 mins to 1 hr timeframes, which I cannot do simply because I need to trade around my full time job as an independent consultant.

Then I Found FXRenew

I decided then to take it easy and continue to look for proper education. Funnily enough, that’s when I found FXRenew and a more fruitful relationship started. I took the System Development Workshop completely, submitted my homework and started to learn a lot with Sam, Justin and the Tribe. And that is what I continue to do. Now I have become a patient trader, reviewing markets once per day, when New York closes, deciding what pairs are offering me the best trading options according to what my understanding of the market tells me. I also build a weekly economic calendar to be aware of significant events that could pose a risk to my trades.

It is a more professional approach to trading.

Killing Bad Habits

At the beginning, despite all previous education, the worst habit I had was to chase the price all over the place. I did not have any plan, any understanding or anything. I was just all over the place. If price moved up, I was going to buy. If price was moving down, I was going to sell. How much? When? For how long? When to enter? I didn’t have a proper plan. That is the first thing I needed to get rid off… and I did.

The second one: not paying attention to fundamentals and ignoring market dynamics. That was really hard for me. I got beaten all over the place without really knowing what was going on. I also got rid of that bad habit too. Now I find myself doing my best  to understand what is going on, to analyze information, to build a bigger picture and then deciding what is going to be the best instrument to trade based on the bigger picture I have.

The last one: Trying to make $10.000 with a $$1000 account. I learned that money is not important. What is important is sticking to your plan and making sure that the potential rewards justify the risk outlay each time I enter the market. To be honest, I continue to work on this habit as it is very tempting to look at your charts and “want to jump in the market”. But bad habits can be killed if you put your mind to it!

I continue to believe trading is a wonderful business opportunity and as such, it needs to be taken seriously and requires proper education, discipline and patience.

My Current Routine

  • Every weekend I carefully review Sam’s video analysis  along with his own recommendations.
  • Every weekend I also put together an economic calendar in which I highlight important events and news scheduled for the upcoming week and try to figure out what kind of an impact it might have on my trades.
  • On Sunday night, around 11 pm, I open up the trading platform for the first time and take note of the opening prices for the week and any significant price action or candlestick patterns that would be worth noticing, and from that initial approach I then decided the pairs I am going to be watching for the week and what would I do next if an entry configuration is found: low volatility breakouts or re-entries on established trends.
  • Then it is every night, at 11 pm that I sit in front of the charts to manage open positions, to see what happened during the day and how can I get ready for the following day, checking if any of the opportunities I decided to follow has materialized or not.

I am still in the process of rebuilding my account, but I feel much more confident now than ever before. A lot more confident.

Some Trade Examples

Here are a couple of examples of how I now trade.

Over to You

At the beginning and at the end of each Webinar, as well as throughout our site, we try to tell traders that “we’re here to help”. At FXRenew we really do try our best to help traders that are struggling. We’re not perfect, and we also have our fair share of losses – but that’s just part and parcel with this job we call trading.

Joel got in touch with us, used our resources and then worked with the knowledge, tools and processes we transferred to him, and came out with a viable trading model. He is a great example of how you can “find your niche” amidst the multitude of different agendas playing out in the markets each and every day.

If you find yourself at all in a similar situation, follow his lead. We really are here to help.

About the Author

Justin is a Forex trader and Coach. He is co-owner of www.fxrenew.com, a provider of Forex signals from ex-bank and hedge fund traders (get a free trial), or get FREE access to the Advanced Forex Course for Smart Traders. If you like his writing you can subscribe to the newsletter for free.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.