I received a PM this morning with a question about how I trade long-term and short-term. This is a brief explanation. I have 4 "short-term" trading accounts that are used for day trading, where a trade may be open for 10 minutes to a full day (multiple accounts to mitigate the impact of FIFO). I have a single long-term account for trades that I hope to have open for weeks rather than hours. When I enter a trade in the long-term account, I usually open the same position in a short-term account. I will keep trades open in the long-term account for as long a the structure of the pair holds. But trades in the short-term accounts will be held to targets and then closed. So, if after a week, I were to have three trades (typically the maximum allowed given margin requirements) in the long-term account, I will also have traded three trades or more in my short-term accounts.
Quick summary: Long-term account has 2 open trades, with trade 1 up about 100 and trade 2 up about 40, stop on these trades is at 84.86. In short-term account, first trade I captured 85 pips, and another trade is now open and up about 40 pips, stop now at +10 pips. I have open trades in other pairs, so this is just a sample of how I trade, using the AJ as the example.
Short-term trade was closed before the big push down, so total in the short-term account this week, on the AJ, is up about 125 pips. As I look at the chart, there was another entry opportunity after that move, but I was away from my office at the time. Of course, both trades in my long-term account survived and together they are up approximately 180 pips total.
Not sure anyone is benefiting from these posts and it does take time out of my trading to post this material. So, I am wondering if it's worth the effort, and by worth, I mean is anyone getting anything out of this effort, because if not I can stop bothering people. Just wondering...
It's the end of the week, and I am working on closing the week. All short-term trades are closed and recorded. My trading notes and daily analysis worksheets are done and filed.
This leave my long-term account to close out. At the end of the week, I have to decide whether to keep trades open over the weekend, or close them out and reopen them on Sunday night. I had 3 trades open: 2 standard lots at 84.88, 2 standard lots at 85.39, and 2 standard lots at 85.62. That was an average price of 85.29. My stop on all 3 trades was at 85.11. I made the decision about 20 minutes ago to close all three out at 86.15. So, the plan for Sunday is to re-open 6 standard lots at a price close to 86.15, or lower if the opportunity presents itself. The stop will be re-calculated over the weekend.