Welcome to Stage 1 of the The Social Traders killer Pattern Play & SMC strategy. This section contains seven in-depth episodes, based upon the science of learning and covers the key components of trading which includes an introduction to Forex, a Tradingview setup, Understanding True Market Structure and more. This is the start of your trading journey with The Social Traders, for this reason we highly recommend you grab a fresh pen and paper ready to soak up our educational content.
Welcome to The Social Traders written content.
Alongside our video content we have provided a written guide of our Pattern Play and SMC strategy.
First of all, let us tell you a bit about ourselves!
The Social Traders was founded by Max Baker and Dylan Lavin; we have both been around the block with multiple trading strategies for a combined 10 years in the markets, experienced the good the bad and the outright scams in this industry.
However, having done this we have developed a trading strategy that we now want to pass onto others, building a community with low barriers to entry and providing real clarity when trading the Forex, Commodities and Cryptocurrency markets.
Both Dylan and Max have traded both small and large accounts, been through the peaks and troughs associated with trading and most importantly know the industry inside and out and what to avoid. And this is a key point WHAT TO AVOID as most of you have an interest in trading you would have likely been enticed by signal providers offering “free signals” and flexing nice watches or cars.
- For those who are completely new to trading, ‘trade signals’ are essentially trading tips to help people in the market, most of the time they will come in the form of an entry point, take profit and stop loss.
Directly following signals without a true understanding of trading itself will only be detrimental to your trading in the long run. From our experience, purely following accurate ‘trading signals’ won’t work because by the time a trade has been sent out to the community the best entry has already gone, not to mention the fact that you will never actually be honing in on the skills that makes a profitable trader, you will simply be copying what is put out there for you.
That is why at The Social Traders we will never send out a trade idea with an entry point, take profit and stop loss. We simply highlight areas of interest so that the traders in our community can capitalise on these areas having used the strategy learnt in this course.
Our setup gives the less experienced traders a confidence boost in the markets whilst also providing a great discussion point within our community for the more experienced traders. With this strategy you will learn how to execute trades with precision, allowing for better risk/rewards, how to become mechanical with entries and how to master your trading mindset and psychology. You will experience a true representation of two traders who have been through it all, and want to pass on their knowledge to others.
What kind of strategy are we teaching?
So it wasn't that long ago that traders used to think that technical analysis was just some form of magical hocus pocus. Now all experienced traders will be using some form of technical analysis to forecast and enter trades.
The market has changed and technical analysis has become the ‘go to’ for most forex traders due to its reliability and predictability in the long run.
All traders will have what is known as ‘an edge’. A trading edge is a technique or approach in the market that creates an advantage over other traders.
Our edge is our Pattern Play and SMC strategy alongside our community.
The Pattern Play and SMC strategy will tip the odds in our favour so that every trade we place we have a higher chance of playing out then if we didn’t have a strategy at all. By the time you have finished and perfected our edge you will be able to enter the market with a tangible advantage over the other traders - which in turn, will make you more profitable in the long run.
- We will be looking at raw price action to get a clear and simple understanding of where the market is heading next.
- We will be providing a mix of patterns, structure and more technical smart money concepts to create a clean, easy to use and understand edge.
We have found there is real reliability with this type of trading. Having worked with both technical and fundamental traders, we have found that our simplified swing strategy incorporating smart money - institutional concepts, will align with the most powerful strategies available whilst being easier to understand and execute.
Overall, It is an adaptable strategy that allows you to leave the charts behind to get on with other tasks during the day or alternatively can be adapted to lower time frames and intraday moves.
You will not have to sit at the charts all day.
And this is key really…
When I first started trading I would wake up in the morning desperately looking for positions on the live markets just so we had the thrill of being in a trade (I’m sure the majority of the traders reading this would have done the same).
With experience we have found that the more time away from the charts combined with more time backtesting, forecasting and planning will lead to considerably better trading results. So with our strategy it means we can take up hobbies, run errands or even work a 9-5 as a transitory form of income before your trading results meet consistency.
Finally what really separates us from the rest is how simple and clean we will be keeping our chart work.
Clean chart work makes your analysis so much easier to understand and more importantly makes it easier for others to understand. WE KEEP OUR CHARTS CLEAN. Having come from multiple different strategies and communities we have seen it so often where the analysis in the chat rooms is just way too complex to understand. Traders combine too many indicators or strategies into one.
Putting every single indicator onto your charts will not make you a better trader. To master your trading ‘edge’ learning and communicating with other traders is so important to you in the long run.
Remember, feedback is key for personal growth - if people cannot understand your charts then you may struggle to get feedback on your setups.
What you’ll need for the strategy
When I first started trading I didn’t really know where to start. I thought trading required you to have 6 different monitors, displaying 4 different charts, Bloomberg and BBC news all at once.
While this isn’t 100% incorrect, it is important you go into the trading with the correct basics and the right mindset. Through this section I’ll be running you through what I found really useful to have in order to become a successful trader.
One. Notepad
First up, we have the trusty Notepad - with trading I found a notepad to be my best friend and one of the most useful things to have.
I found if you write something down you are more obliged to be disciplined and stick to it.
Trust me when I say, trading requires A LOT of discipline - poor habits and ill discipline will cost your psychology and capital.
Writing something down makes you accountable for what you are learning or experiences you are going through. A notepad can also be taken anywhere, so if you’re unsure about a particular pattern, candlestick or news event you can simply turn to your notepad.
The 3 stages process is great to implement with this.
(1) Watch this content on its own (with no notepad) to absorb the content in its most pure form.
(2) Then watch it again, this time take as many notes as possible, pausing the video when needed.
(3) The 3rd time you watch the content, go back over your notes congruent with the video and update them with any small details you may have missed.
This process will create a really solid foundation and round off the technical process so that you can begin to implement it on the live charts.
Two. Time
My second necessity for this strategy is time.
Becoming an FX trader WILL NOT happen overnight, I've been in so many communities where people will drop out after a month, 2 months or half a year purely because they haven't seen significant gains or lack the dedication.
I live by the saying ‘become the asset’ giving up after, say your first string of losses will not make you a successful trader, spend some time, put in the work and you eventually become an asset from the skills you possess. In trading we have what is known as the 90/90/90 rule, The 90/90/90 rule is a basic rule of trading.
It means 90% of new traders lose 90% of their capital in the first 90 days of trading. I've been doing this for a long time, I still find myself learning everyday, perfecting your entries exits and trade management will not happen overnight these are skills that require experience both physically and psychologically
Now, you’re probably thinking how can a trader avoid becoming a part of this statistic? By creating a trading strategy, testing it via virtual trading, being preferred and trading with a 1% risk model mindset - a trader can avoid this common pitfall for new traders.
Keeping a Neutral mindset, your Psychology will be the hardest battle. This ride will be a rollercoaster, don’t let the highs be too high and the lows too low, learn from your wins and losses, have a neutral mindset when trading - the feeling of ecstasy after a few winning trades will almost certainly result in you blowing your gains over your next few trades. And it's the same for losses, if you’re suffering from a larger losing streak don’t give up. I once took 3 -1% losses before seeing my forecasted trade finally go my way and back me 7 or 8 %.
I recommend all members of this strategy read 2 books, ‘The Chimp Paradox’ by Steve Peters and ‘Trading In The Zone’ by George Douglas - every Forex Trader should be reading these. Both helped me an untold amount with my trading psychology and mindset, chapter 7 in trading in the zone is especially good. Go back over this multiple times.
Three. Sacrifice
You might have to sacrifice some spare time or a night out to master this skill. You may have to wake up at 4,5,6 am to catch trade during the Asian session. You will also have to sacrifice some free time in order to properly backtest and forecast.
Now, I won't go into too much detail of what backtesting and forecasting is right now (we’ll cover that later in the strategy and how we have mastered this technique), you get the idea that trading won't come to those people that sit around and wait for others to do their analysis for them. Unfortunately it’s like anything in life, you have to go and get it, and what I’ve seen through my journey is that the people that do really want it and are willing to sacrifice some free time do end up being successful and full time traders.
Four. You get out what you put in
My final point is something we touched upon earlier.
“Become the asset” is an excellent mindset to have. Through my whole learning process I have had so many people doubt me, saying “isn’t Forex trading gambling?” “Shouldn’t you get a real job?”
Not all people will take trading full time and there is absolutely nothing wrong with this. If you don’t, then use it to stand out from the crowd, it’s so competitive out in the business world having that extra string to your bow can make all the difference and of course adds another stream of revenue to your income when you do decide to trade, it truly is a skill for life.
In the next video we’ll be going over why people actually trade forex, why I started and why you should be here. Trading isn’t easy if you have the wrong mindset from the get go and it will only be a matter of time before the markets swallow you up and spit you out. So without further ado let's jump into it.
Summary
Trading Forex is not easy and never will be, at The Social Traders we provide you with all the right education and facilities to statistically have an ‘edge’ when trading the live markets.
Everything you will learn within this course can be tried, tested and shared within our
free online community.
If you haven’t already we highly recommend joining our
Slack community to discuss, collaborate and share great trade ideas.
We have traders from all backgrounds and all experiences you are sure to connect with some amazing like minded individuals that are all on the same path as you are.
