2015 was a tough year for me as I suffered a breakdown, a few days in the hospital and then a burn-out phase. Stress was the cause as my doctors pointed out and that was the time I knew I had to change something. My name is Pravind and I am from Port Mathurin in Rodrigues. We are an autonomous island with a population of about 42,000, 6,000 of which live right here in the capital of Port Mathurin, and a Mauritian dependency as we belong to the outer islands of Mauritius. I am 52 and a full-time, small scale cattle rancher as well as part time forex trader. I understand that at first glance those two don’t go together. When you live in a small community with challenging economic conditions, you simply need to make it work.
I took over the cattle ranch from my parents after they passed. It was their pride and I felt a duty to continue to tradition as it has a positive impact for my community. I won’t mask the truth, it is tough. I grew up on this farm and it is my home, I won’t abandon it because it challenges me. What I intend to do is upgrade it, modernize it and grow it. Exporting cattle, beef and other items is an expensive task on its own and imported goods are often cheaper. We are rather remote even by island standards, 560 kilometers east of Mauritius. We are home to the main harbour of Rodrigues and two ships, the MV Mauritius Pride and the Mauritius Trochetia, anchor here five times every month. We also have an airport located in Point Corail.
My passion for forex trading slowly developed over the past seven years, you are never too old to learn something new. I started out as many other new forex traders, on the quest for a new revenue stream in order to ease the burden of my budget. In my case I also had to deal with the struggles of our cattle ranch. I was first introduced to the potential of forex trading by a business man from the UK who was here scouting the area for real estate in order to develop a solar farm as well as a small business service center. Unfortunately, it didn’t materialize, but I am thankful that our paths crossed. It would have been great for our community here, but undisclosed challenges caused the business man to drop his plans.
Since I was busy turning a profit with the cattle ranch, I only had limited time to focus on forex trading. From my understanding, technical analysis in forex is key in order to identify trading opportunities while fundamentals are crucial in order to remain on the right side of a trend or to spot potential price action reversals. Needless to say I focused on learning how to spot trading opportunities, but given external pressures it was too much at some point and 2015 marked the time my body shut down. I had to take a time-out from everything and figure out my next steps as I had too many individuals depending on me. The cattle ranch, my wife and my two children and our small community to a certain extend as I employ eight workers who are the main providers for their families.
After I left the hospital, I took a trip to the UK as a change of scenery was recommended. My son and my daughter managed the business while I was away for three weeks. While I was in London, it was recommended that I give an isolation tank a try. I visited an old friend whose doctor advised him a few years ago to de-stress in one. He claimed it worked wonders for him and I had nothing to lose so I set up an appointment for a treatment. An isolation tank is basically a sensory deprivation chamber, lightless, soundproof and filled with salt water heated to skin temperature. A session usually lasts one hour and you basically float in the chamber deprived of all your senses. There is a panic button for those who need it.
Different people will have a different experience in an isolation tank, but for me it is precisely where I had my breakthrough as a forex trader. When I was stripped of all my senses, I felt free and at ease. No stress and no obstacles in my way, just a transcendent form of existence. After I left the tank, I had an idea about my forex strategy which until that point has returned me nothing but loss and the stress associated with a contracting balance when you need it to expand more than anything else. After I returned back home to Port Mathurin, I opened my MT4 trading terminal and looked at my charts. They were cluttered with indicators and support/resistance lines I added which gave me a complete sensory overload.
I felt like there was so much information on my forex charts, that there was no information at all. That is when I decided to strip my charts of all the noise, I placed them in an isolation tank of their own. I was left with only the chart, no indicators, no drawing on it. A simple grey background with a candlestick chart. This is often referred to as naked trading, as you only have the chart. It is the purest form of price action trading. This has changed my results forever. I did spend some extra time to learn everything about candlestick patterns and what the suggest. Japanese rice traders have developed candlestick charts and used them for over 300 years and they have become the most popular chart in financial markets. There is a good reason for this.
My trading results have drastically improved and within a year I turned profitable, in 2017, I turned profitable. Since 2018 I am generating monthly returns which I partially invest in my forex portfolio so that the balance can increase and partially in the modernization of the cattle ranch. A naked chart allows you to see trends clearly and I highly recommend that you learn everything you can about candlesticks as well as chart patterns as that is all you need in order to trade a naked chart successfully. My PaxForex account is now growing and thanks to their excellent trading conditions I earn more pips per trade which really adds up over time. I can only recommend that you try my Stripped Down FX Strategy as I am sure it will turn around your trading experience as it has mine.
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