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Nial Fuller

NIAL FULLER Nial Fuller
Professional Trader, Author & Coach

3 Ideas That Transformed My Trading Career

tradingcareerimproveLong before I began mentoring and coaching other traders, I was stuck in the same ‘one step forward, two steps back’ cycle of boom and bust that you are likely suffering through right now. Unfortunately, I’ve noticed that most traders never get past that point.

Most traders spend the majority of their – often short – careers trading over and over, day in and day out, over-analyzing short time frames in the market.

What’s worse, is that when these traders don’t get the returns they want, they often double-down on what’s not working; they try trading even more than the unsustainable rate they’re already at.

In today’s lesson, I’m going to share with you the three ideas that completely transformed my trading career, allowing me to move beyond the boom and bust cycle and keep my equity curve moving upwards. By the time you get to the end, I’m confident you’ll have gained some seriously actionable insight that will allow you to start transforming your trading career as well.

Trading on Higher Time Frames

I’m very fortunate that relatively early on in my career, I learned the importance of trading on higher time frames. If I hadn’t, there’s a good chance I would’ve joined countless others who simply burned themselves out, and who knows what I’d be doing now.

I literally went from being a frazzled, confused and frustrated chart watching addict, with no other hobbies, to a relaxed and much less stressed out family man, all in a matter of months, after I stopped watching lower time frame charts. To this day, I truly feel sorry for the poor trader still trying to analyze low time frames; every five to fifteen minutes is a new adrenaline-fueled trading cycle. Four times an hour, they chase noise and signals. This wouldn’t be a problem if they were successful, but as it turns out, the vast majority of them crash and burn quickly, largely due to analyzing these intra-day charts so much.

The reason I have gone so far as to write an article calling daily chart trading the ‘Holy Grail’, is multifaceted:

  • Daily charts give the most important view of the market.
  • Less noise and false-signals than intraday charts.
  • Teach you that patience and discipline pay off in the long-run.
  • Trading daily charts is less time-intensive, gives you more free time.
  • Daily chart or end-of-day-trading allows you to fit trading in around any schedule.
  • Less chart watching and involvement means less temptation to over-trade.
  • Daily chart trading slows everything down and allows you to focus on one trade at a time, forcing you to become laser-focused rather than scatter-brained.
  • Trading less often on daily charts does not mean you take on more risk per trade and does not mean you can’t make as much money per month (two common daily chart trading fallacies).

These are just some of the reasons trading higher time frames transformed my trading career, you can read more about it here.

On a side note, I do teach 4 hour and 1 hour chart trading in my course in addition to the daily charts and weekly. However, I emphasize the daily because I firmly believe they are the most important time frame to learn to trade. I consider any time frame under the 1 hour to be a complete waste of time and energy and extremely dangerous for most people to even look at.

Low-Frequency Trading

Most beginning traders are at least somewhat attracted to the adrenaline-junky lifestyle that traders are often depicted as having in movies.

Either from movies or through the grapevine, most beginning traders have some notion that day-trading is ‘cool and will make them rich fast’. Sorry, but I have to laugh at that, because it’s just sooooo far from the truth, which nearly everyone finds out for themselves once they start trying to day trade.

Now, to be fair, you can trade this way if you want to. You can do it for about a week. Then, you’ll either be out of money or your energy levels will be so shot that you can’t possibly go on.

This dovetails nicely with my point above about trading higher time frames. Shortly after realizing I needed to focus on higher time frame charts, I also switched to what I call low-frequency trading.

As I mentioned earlier, trading higher time frames (and trading less often) means you will be less likely to over-trade and lose money.

However, that’s not where the benefits end.

Another reason I made this switch – and stuck to it – is because it meant I could afford to take bigger risks on the trades I did take. I refer to this as capital preservation, and it’s an important concept to understand. The basic premise, is that you want to preserve your trading capital for the trades that meet your trading strategy criteria and that are obvious well-formed setups. Rather than risking money on those setups you aren’t sure about.

This is how you can still make good money trading low-frequency. Think about it. If you’re entering 30 trades a month, what is your risk per trade going to be? If you’re entering 3 trades per month, you can still risk the same overall amount if you want, but you’re breaking it into 3 parts rather than 30.

When you’re trading high-frequency, you’re naturally going to suffer a higher percentage of losses. There simply are not a high number of high-probability trade setups in any given month in the markets. The lower in time frame you go and the more frequently you trade, the closer you are getting to gambling, simply because the element of randomness and false-signals / noise comes more into play.

I can afford to take on a bit more risk with each trade since I trade infrequently. For one thing, this is calculated risk – literally. I have the time to sit down, analyze the risk involved and decide whether it makes sense. I am not just entering trades ‘on the fly’ without measure or careful consideration.

If one of my riskier trades doesn’t pay off, I’m not in terrible shape because I’m not about to make a dozen more. I can sit back, regroup and focus on a higher-likelihood opportunity.

In my experience, this kind of trading is usually difficult for people because it’s so counter-intuitive. We’re taught to believe that the more we do something, the better we’re going to get at it; if you want real results, you have to put in repetitions.

This is not going to help you with trading. What will help you is putting in the time by studying your markets, learning the ropes and trading only when it makes sense.

Another reason the low-frequency, sniper or crocodile trading approach is so awesome is: Quality of life.

In my experience, people who chase the ‘white noise’ of trading are constantly stressed, full of anxiety and almost completely unable to relax.

No thanks.

I much prefer enjoying life in and outside of trading.

Price Action Signals and Confluence

Finally, the last change that really transformed my life as a trader was finding higher-probability trade entries based on price action trading signals from confluent levels in the market.

Let’s break those down for anyone unfamiliar with this concept:

  • Price Action – This is the movement of a price over a given amount of time. If you’re able to read this, you can also ascertain the market’s directional bias. You can confidently trade based on reoccurring price patterns.
  • Confluence – This is a point in the market where at least two levels intersect, or a level and a signal, forming a confluent point. The main thing to remember here is my T.L.S. principle or Trend Level Signal.

Here are some common examples of confluence that I look for:

  • An upward or downward trend
  • Exponential moving averages (e.g. 8 and 21-day EMAs on the daily chart)
  • Static support and resistance levels
  • Event areas
  • 50% to 61.8% retrace levels

There are other forms of confluence as well, and I discuss this concept much more in-depth in my trading course and members’ area.

When I realized that I could boil down my technical approach to looking for a few key market conditions, it had a huge effect on my trading. No longer was I sitting there, staring at multiple indicators every day, trying desperately to make sense of their contradicting signals. When I discovered how to use price action combined with naturally-occurring chart-based confluence, the veil of confusion lifted for me.

Leveraging the Combination of Confluence and Price Action Signals

When I look at the markets, I’m searching for obvious signs of a price action pattern that has originated from a confluent point in the market.

The only reason these things are “obvious” to me, of course, is because I’ve put in the hours to learn how to spot them. Fortunately, anyone can easily learn to do the same.

Combining confluent price action signals with higher time frames and a low-frequency approach is the most succinct way to describe my trading philosophy and approach. There’s obviously more to it than what I’ve described here, and you really need to see many examples before it all truly sinks in. But, that is where my price action trading course comes in; I have distilled down everything I have learned in 15 + years as a trader, into a comprehensive training package that in my opinion and the opinion of many others, is the fastest way to learning the best way to trade.

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT BELOW – I WOULD LIKE TO HEAR YOUR FEEDBACK :)

QUESTIONS ? – CONTACT ME HERE

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Nial Fuller

About Nial Fuller

is a Professional Trader, Investor & Author who is considered ‘The Authority’ on Price Action Trading. His blog is read by over 200,000+ followers and he has taught 25,000+ students since 2008. In 2016, Nial won the Million Dollar Trader Competition. Checkout Nial's Professional Trading Course here.
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  1. Soroush

    i was using RSI, MACD, CCI, MA, ichimoku, Elliot, Fibbonacci, Pitchfork but with all respect to those people who are trading based on them and also with all respect to giants who have discovered them to be helpful in the market, right now i am profitable with pure price action and time frames 1 hour, 4 hour, daily …

    thank you Nial

    Reply
  2. Harrison

    Great piece if information

    Reply
  3. Habibur Rahman

    Thank you very much

    Reply
  4. MANO

    Hi Nial,
    Higher Time Frame, Low freequency Trading, Price Action and Confluence will be my primary conserns.

    Thanks Sir,
    Mano

    Reply
    • soroush soltani

      low frequency trading is a smart way to earn money

      Reply
  5. Mavis Phokunani Mkhize

    Always when I read your article I become revival . Nail you are an Angel to me through your advises I see myself a millionaire.

    Reply
  6. Kingsley

    Pure wisdom from a compendium of usable knowledge. Happy you shall be when these ideas are consistently implemented. Thank you Nial for your priceless efforts sincerely educating people.

    Reply
  7. Brian phiri

    Hy Mr Nial you are truely good on what you i salute you i give you all the respect sir

    Reply
  8. tee

    Thanks Mr Nial, its very educative

    Reply
  9. Taiwo

    Thanks so much it’s very educating and full of profitable advises

    Reply
  10. James

    That’s simply great

    Reply
  11. glenn zellars

    As usual you are spot on. Are you aware of some good proprietary forex companies I can trade with. I have studied your course and now I would like to work for a forex trading company. My capital is limited currently. I am in USA.

    Reply
  12. Thabang

    I don’t have million words to express my gratitude for your ideal and comprehensive teachings but you’ve made a huge difference to me as a novice trader. I still have a lot more to grasp from your rich trading philosophy. Thank you my Mentor. Salute

    Reply
  13. S'fiso

    Nial Fuller it’s the first time i’m commenting in your Blog , I’ve been following you for couple of weeks now and all your Articles that I’ve read has been very informative like this one and the others before, Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us and your Students are lucky to have you as their Mentor. I wish I was one of them as a Novice….

    Reply
  14. festus

    Having come this far, no going back

    Reply
  15. philip

    Thank you Mr. Nail.
    this has been an eye opener for me as a new trader.

    Reply
  16. philip

    Thank you Nial. This has been an eye opener for me as a new trader.

    Reply
  17. Paul Samoey

    Good

    Reply
  18. deborah

    yes this is also what I have learned recently. Right now I’m using the weekly charts for the trend then use the daily charts to buy the dips. Your blogs really helped me a lot on building discipline and a system as well. Thank you for giving your time in sharing your experiences.

    Reply
  19. Elijah

    God bless you Nial

    Reply
  20. Jovita

    Great article. These lessons are just what everyone serious about trading should learn and apply.

    Reply
  21. Doris Setiawan

    Trade like a Sniper, be patient like a crocodile
    save your bullet/resource for the best shot

    Reply
  22. Victor Adebayo

    Thanks for your write up

    Reply
  23. hesam heshmati

    Happy Persian new year Nial . there are many iranian people learning from your weblog .

    love and respect sir

    From Iran-Tehran

    Reply
  24. Ivane Zurabishvili

    nice article from PA’s guru, thanks Nial! Good luck to you!

    Reply
  25. Danjuma

    Awesome article full of vital info

    Reply
  26. Richard

    The simple truth hurts, but so beneficial in the long run:

    Reply
  27. Omar Sayeed

    Wow, It is a very essential guideline for every trader. Thank you.

    Reply
  28. Annas

    PATIENCE IS KEY, AND CAN ONLY LEARN ON DAILY TIME FRAME.

    Reply
  29. Rosario C Songcuan

    Tnank you Nial. This is an eye opener.

    Reply
  30. Sanusi

    Am really learning here…thanks

    Reply
  31. siphiwe

    Thanks….i feel some load being lifted off my shoulders

    Reply
  32. Mangut K. Mafwalal

    This article is very educative in terms of trading. Thanks for this article because it expands my trading knowledge.

    Reply
  33. Gervas

    Well said !!!!!!

    Reply
  34. Sithembso

    Sounds very informative I would luv to hear more

    Reply
  35. rahmat

    Thank you. How to measure retracment 50 to 61.8% in practice?

    Reply
  36. Sez

    Beautiful piece .. Thank you.

    Reply
  37. Mandeep

    Awesome.. you nailed it !
    You simply said it right..

    Reply
  38. Damian

    Nial you slowly become a legend :)

    Reply
  39. daniel frith

    nice overview… well done!

    Reply
  40. Lufuno

    I never meet mentor like Nial Fuller, I learned for a year now from Nial.
    My trading career is now professional.

    Reply
  41. kingsley

    Yes coach true talk. l had been a member since 2011. The picture kept getting better and better by the day/month/year. thanks

    Reply
  42. Geoffrey Irwin

    Thanks Nial reading your articles helps me keep on track. often times I notice a point that I have missed in my trading

    Namaste Geoff

    Reply
  43. Andy Moore

    Hi Nial,

    Thank you so much for this timely reminder. I have studied most of your course and having gone through it, thought I was ready. I did ok to begin and then seemed to lose the plot and revert to my old ‘trade anything if it’s moving’ days. As we know, it doesn’t work. So back to the job in hand of patience and looking for daily price action to get back on the winners side.

    It hurts when you’ve made some nice profits only to watch them dwindle away because of over trading.

    Thanks, Nial
    Andy Moore

    Reply
  44. Said Alwashahi

    Thank Mr. Nail
    It is a very educating article.

    Reply
  45. Lukas

    Hi Niall. Good article as always. I now noticed that I feel well on h4 and even better than h1. My problem is that h4 is for me a long time for a large time frame. In turn, h1 is the right one but it gets me less profitable trades. How do I fix this? What I mean is that I h1 less profitable but h4 there are more. He wanted me to trade on h1 and be as profitable as h4. And yet one always trading with the trend d1 :)

    Reply