From 3K to 11K in 30 Trading Days

(Update: Just noticed that my subject title was misleading. It read "from 3k to 8K", which is incorrect, coz Michael's profit is 8K. So it should read "from 3k to 11k")

These statements are not mine.

They are Michael Woo's.

After I announced that I was going to show that it's possible to double one's trading account in 2 months starting with as little as 5K, Michael started his own project, and he started with 3K.

In less than 2 months, he's turned 3k into 11K (my math sucks, so do your own - all I can see is that that is more than double the amount he started with).

He sent me his statements a few days ago, as a way to spur me on.

I nearly cried when I received his email.

Truth is, after I stopped posting, I've gone on a trading spree to find out my fatal flaws.

I found them, and I'm glad it wasn't too expensive an exercise.

All of us will have to pay our dues to learn something about the market and about ourselves.

I had stepped out of my comfort zone to explore what is out there, and within me, that could ruin my trading career if I continue to be blind to them.

I did so because I sensed that something was amiss even though I was making - according to D - very good progress in my 5k project.

I have to say, that I don't regret my decision to take a step back to evaluate the feasibility of continuing the project. I recognized that I was making money at the expense of learning and growing and I knew that the result would not be a sustainable one.

Michael, on the other hand, has had many years of experience doing what he's doing now, and is the perfect candidate for an "account doubling" project. His trading result is a clear demonstration of what one can do when he can confidently and faithfully apply his winning strategy in his trading day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year.

It took me 2 full days to go over all his trades and I am confident that I know now exactly what he was doing, and how he managed his risk. What he does supports what Carl has posted on his blog recently, which is actually a comment that Ziad has left on a trader's blog that was posted on Emini-Player's.

Michael has kindly allowed me to publish his statement. I decided to remove the details of his trades coz I think that's only fair to him.

I am very fortunate to have Michael as a friend and a mentor. I knew him when I signed up for his basic trading course last year. I paid him less than USD 1200 for a 5-month course (that was AFTER I paid more than twice that amount for another basic trading course which still leaves me wondering today if it was worth it).

Like I said many times before, I have a very short attention span, and always run before I learn to walk, so needless to say, I didn't complete the 5-month course, and instead sat in the intensive 2-day version, without paying an additional cent.

Michael introduced me to eminis last August and took a day to show me exactly how he traded the TF (ER2 back then). I was very much a scalper, and a very ignorant one, and simply couldn't grasp the significance of what he was showing me.

In the 12 months that followed, we would meet up now and then to talk about everything under the sun, and I would hear more of how he traded, and he would tease me about my fear of losing money.

Let me be clear - Michael has NEVER once criticized the way I traded. Whenever I shared my frustration over my lack of progress, he would ask what I was so afraid of, and give very zen response which would take me days to fully digest and appreciate.

Michael is the kind of teacher that makes you think, and allows you to explore, yet periodically checking up on you and providing updates on his own progress (in a way, showing you how he does it), without making you feel that he's in any way imposing his philosophies and strategies on you.

It's taken me an entire year to grasp the essence of his every seemingly light-hearted remark on how a REAL trader trades.

Within that one year, I've made many mistakes, some rather costly, and I gather that's what they call "paying one's dues".

But I don't believe that one has to keep on paying.

If you are really serious about trading, keep a positive attitude and build the mental toughness that you need to stay in the game.

Conscientiously STUDY THE MARKET and seek out a truly wise and experienced trader that has a good heart and temperament to guide you.