The Vortex Trader

I feel the excitement of starting this thread. I also hear my mind telling me to stop now because this is a commitment that I am making. Looking through this thread, I see a lot of people have started journals and only a few are active. I am guessing that one of two things happened; it became to bothersome to continue posting or the author quit trading.

So why would a sane person (questionable at best) go through the rigors of creating and maintaining a journal for any length of time? For me it is the desire to become a better trader. I have reached a plateau in my trading and am at that pivotal point where I am bored with what I am doing. That is significant because I have this desire to start experimenting. In the past I have had the pain of blowing up an account when this experimenting urge overtook my being. So in a way, this is my way of being creative in the market and still keeping my account intact.

My journal will be more of the mental side of trading though I will throw in some trades and results and be open for ways to improve what I am doing.

I have tried everything under the sun, purchased systems, followed threads, tried every indicator known to man and a few that aren’t and given up several times.

Today, I have settled on trading the 30 min time frame. I say today because one ever knows what will show up in the future.
So why the 30 min time frame? At heart I am a short term trader. I put weekly and daily trades on and find I don’t handle the volatility well. My emotions get the better of me, my fear of loss mostly and so I get out early or I take the trade off the table an hour before it becomes a successful trade. I have tried shorter time frames and find that my emotions get the better of me and I churn myself to death. My worst day trading was losing $15k chasing one pip. Now that was a nightmare. I have learned from though I have yet to recover from the experience emotionally and financially.

I still let my emotions get the best of me with the 30 minute timeframe though I seem to be able to feel good about a smaller profit then I could have had. I also have several set ups I am looking for on the 30 minute time frame so I can be in the market most of the time. Keeps me on my toes to say the least. Hardest thing for me right now is to remember what got me into the trade so I know how to manage the trade.

I also only trade 2% of my account based on a 50 – 75 pip stop loss. (Lesson learned the hard way.) My stop losses are typically half of this so in essence I am trading less that 2% of my account. I also try to add to my positions before taking ½ of my position off the table and let the other half run. This is my weakest area because I will quit often take everything off the table instead. Not sure if this is worth working on at this moment or not.

Right now I have three set ups I am looking for. I use a 21 SMA as my only indicator. Mostly, my trades are based on price action.

First and foremost – I trade the same hours every day; I trade the same set ups every day. Well this isn’t quite true but it sounds good to say that.

Hours: the later part of the New York Market – 15 GMT to 20 GMT. I trade the later part of the market because I read somewhere that the market will retrace from the day’s high or low at least 20% roughly 95% of the time. This gives me a backstop to trade against. Also because I am in a terrible time zone for trading the London market and the start of the New york.

Primary methods – Slingshot, 21 SMA, inside bar breaks;

Sling Shot Method (a couple of threads already cover this) I use this on the 30 min chart, though I am experimenting with it on the daily chart at the open of the London market. Haven’t traded it yet so it is still in that place in my mind called “holy grail”. I am also very controlled on any trade that goes against the 21 SMA.

Inside Bar (a couple of threads already cover this) my twist is that I will go with the break out if it is in the direction of the 21 SMA. If the break is against the 21 SMA, I will put in an entry on the other side of the trade and ignore the breakout. If the breakout is in the direction of the SMA I will also put in a stop and reverse order on the other side of the bar.This catches those trades that break one way and then go the other way forever.

21 SMA
Price crosses the 21 SMA and closes on the other side of the MA. I wait for the first candle to close in the opposite direction of the Set-up Bar then put entry 5 pips above or below the set up bar. Stop is the high or low of the set up bar. Sometimes I will put on a trade off the first bar. Just depends on the set up bar move.
I like these three set up’s because I can be involved in any kind of market and make a few pips every day.

Mostly for me, this journal is to give me a forum for accountability. Am I doing what I say I am doing or am I being to undisciplined to be successful? I welcome feedback that helps me be honest with what I am doing. In my mind this is the first area of success in any endeavor – honesty with self and others.

So with that I am off and running. As Frodo Baggins once implied “you never know where that first step down the road will lead you.”

ok my first pending orders for the day based on the 21 sma. First pending order is USDJPY Buy at 90.07 stop will be 89.78, EURJPY Sell at 117.21 stop will be 11770, EURUSD Sell at 130.49 stop will be 1.3090, AUDJPY Buy at 59.36 stop will be at 59.00, AUDUSD Buy at .6598 stop will be at 6567.

This is one of those mornings that I find myself wanting to force a trade. Because its so quiet I begin looking for trades to do instead of doing something else. Hence the Reason for this Journal. Give me another focus.

Of course as I write this I am entered on the AUSUSD Trade and instantly down. The part of trading that bugs me. Time to stay patient and turn off the charts - either the trade works or it doesn't. This is also the area where I am having trouble - which methodology do I give more credence to. I could also see this trade as a Slingshot and do a Stop and reverse order on it. If I do that then I run the risk of being whipsawed and loss on both trades.

That is the quandry I don't want to think about but it exists.

Ok so my EUR and EURJPY trades also kicked in - what I am mad about at the moment is that I broke a rule on the AUD trade by not entering after a candle in the opposite direction forms. My nemisis is to do trades like that. This is the trade that actually ruins the account. I put the rule in place because in essence the 21 is a counter trend trade and I want confirmation that a change in market direction is real. Actually I talked myself into this trade based on the previous two breaks of the 21. Bottom line, I need to learn to do 2 things exit the trade because it is not the right trade and not get involved in trades that don;t meet my criteria.

Ok - I did well on the Euro and EuroPjy, left money on the table becuse I didn't do what I would like to do. the EU is a classic example - Had an inside bar, slingshot and 21 break all at the same time. Instead of entering a sell for each one, I only did one sell thereby leaving myself with nothing to work with as the trade went in my direction.

I am now in a GBPUSD slingshot trade and have exited all my other trades. I also have a pending USDJPY 21 trade on the books as well.

So my mental stuff happened this morning all in about 15 minutes. I am up for the day and still mad about the Aud trade which of course is now spilling over into the GBP USD trade. I have a pretty good set up - bounce off the 21 and 21 direction is up so this buy is not bad. I just closed it out for 5 pips. Still freaked with the Aud trade.

Welcome to my day. Since my confidence was shaken I am happy to be up. This is the purpose for the journal - the get my mental stuff out so I can find a way to change it.

I am done for the day - I usually like to trade longer to catch the afternoon market. Right now, to continue trading would be entering the realm of overtrading. A kingdom I have very little interest in visiting today. So I have closed all my trades and pending orders even though the USDJPY is still a valid setup. At 89.48 the market could give up 30-50 pips on this trade.

I was thinking this morning how to make this journal more meaningful. Yesterday was the day that showed my trading flaws and what I need to work on. My first potential trade is a slingshot on the EurUsd with an entry at 12871 and a stop at 12843. An exceptable risk with the upside at 1.2900 or so. Per my rules - I took this trade off at 20 after the hour unfilled.

Two more possible trades - GBPUSD on an inside bar break in direction of 21 SMA entry at 4360 and the EURJPY 21 SMA with at an entry at 115.84. Just following my rules for trades. Ust realized that I need to work on my entries when price does what the Euro did - one bar up above the 21 and the next below - that is a good entry to go in the direction of the 21.

Picked up 25 pips on the GBP exited because it was a big move on the entry candle so hoping to reenter at a lower price or back at my entry. So once again I find out the market is king - here was a time when it would have been better to fade my position instead of get out all at once. How long does it take for one to learn how to properly manage a trade. That is where the money is made -

could do a long on the Chf on a slingshot trade but with the previous 3 long wicks I am going to pass. Still smarting a little bit over the GBP trade and how I missmanaged it. The good news is it was my only trade today and I made a few pips. Gotta love that.

Next trade is a slingshot on the USD JPY - lets see if I can manage this one better if it happens.

good luck on your journey...

i'm as well planning to open a journal. Will make an announcement when it happens . This would definitely boost my discipline in trading and stop me from taking dumb trades for no reason (which thankfully doesn't happen too often). Sorry to hear about the blown account.

keep us posted and stay well motivated. That's the base for succes.


for me the opposite is true. What i mean is that i have problems taking profits of the table. I tend to wait for the big move securing a portion of my trade just to see it reverse and take me out on a breakeven or a small loss. I'm not sayin that my approach is bad. As a matter of fact it's beed quite profitable because sometimes i manage to catch a really nice rally of few hundred pips. The point is that it's really frustrating to see all these lost opportunities to take a profit in the right time.

I guess though that it has to be the price i pay for catching larger movements. Unfortunatelly they're not so frequent in these volatile days

I am up a little early this morning, My first trade is the CHF based on the 21DNA (Dinopoli Moving Average). The 21 DNA is basically the same as the 21SMA. I like the imagary of a DNA spiral as price coils around the 21 DNA, so I am going to call it the 21 DNA from now on. Anyway, the Entry was Sell 1.1627. My stop is 1.1660.

If one doesn't want to trade early, don't turn on the charts. I am not really ready for the day.

This week, my goal is to stay in the trade by the following rules. A Slingshot trade is already defined, until the close of the candle. Right now my rule for Inside Bar Trades is to wait until two candles after the break. For the 21 DNA trades wait until price gives me an entry signal in the other direction. At this point, I don't have a better solution other than take a portion of my position off at a profit objective. Only seems fitting for the 21DNA trades at this time though because they are normally the longer trades.

The other thing I am toying with is making my stop loss smaller by using slingshot trade set ups as the stop loss and do stop and reverse orders. Seems like that is getting too crazy at the moment so I will track it and keep it in the back of my head.

My next entries are USDJPY (B 89.91) an inside bar break in the direction of the 21DNA, EURUSD (B1.2824) an inside bar break in the direction of the 21DNA.

the USDCHF has caused me to question my rules for exits - of course it would. Anytime I change something in my trading plays, it takes a while for my confidence to build up enough to trust the play parameters. The good news is that I am sticking to my plan - I normally would have unloaded a portion of my positon when price got close to 1.1600 and I still may put that back into my plan - thereby changing my rule to taking a portion of the position off and letting the rest run - that just feels better to me even though I know most often what feels good is usually the wrong thing to do.

This is the moment when my mind starts to take over and the worst outcome becomes the most real. For me to move through this mental area in my trading is the reason for the journal. Just writing about it is helping me stay focused on the reality instead of my minds fear based trading plan.

Next trade entry is the EURJPY (b115.29) inside bar break actaully a double inside bar break - I made a mistake on the EurUSD trade forgot my that my rule is entry 3 pips + spread so realistically I should not be in the trade because my entry was only one pip. I am staying in because it was with the daily trend.

My EurJPY just kicked in as well as my JPYUSD so now I have several trades to manage.

Ok I am done for the day good day - I just got back from a meeting so I forced myself to stay away for an hour. Followed my plan.

Will try this again - my first post got lost in the either ware of the internet.

I was lamenting how I didn't take the inside bar trade on the GBP at 8 because of the large candle before it. In hindsite, I can see the break of the 50 would go to 4400. Sometimes its best not to trade and wait for the next set up. This morning I made that choice. I am also passing on the retrace trades that have set up. I am not comfortable with news trades. To fast for my mind to grasp and therefore I don't make good decisions. what I will look for on the next candle is a slingshot trade - even though its against the 21 DNA there is enough distance between price the the 21DNA that I can see a good risk reward scenario developing.

I have a several inside brar trades GBP B 4364, JPY S 88.70, Euro B 1.2985, CHF S 1.1430, EuroJpy B 115.16

Nice little run on 4 of my trades - I am now out and done for the day.

Its Tuesday and time to evaluate my week.

Today I did not follow my rule about staying in an inside bar break trade until the close of the candle. I am now ready to beat myself up for my lack of discipline. Actually, I am doing much better since I started this public journal. Like right now, I am acknowledging my lack of discipliine in hopes that in the future I will do a better job of following my rules.

Tommorrow I get another opportunity to make a change in my mental attachment to fear based trading. What I am noticing now is that I want to put on more lots with each trade so I make the money I would have made if I had kept the trade on to its conclusion. From Experience I know this is not going to be a good outcome. That is how an account gets blown up.

Its my thoughts that are creating my trading problems, not the market. In a way I think its easier to battle the market than my own thoughts. And with that insite its time to close and get ready for tommorrow.

I have to cop to something. I entered a couple of trades on the Asian market and didn't say anything in my journal. That is being totally out of integrity. One of the mistakes I repeat is to trade the asian market and to be honest, I am not successful at all with it. What happens is I piss away some or most of my profits that I made earlier in the day. Quit honesty, when I trade the Asian market I feel out of control as the market and I are totally out of synch. I know its phsychological and yet one must trade what one is prepared for. I find that I am a much better reactionary trader instead of a trader that can figure out where the market is going. So I trade the inside bar break outs, The 21 DNA crosses and Slingshots and leave the scalping, pivot levels, support and resistance, fib's and all the indicators and stuff alone. Because I am struggling financially at the moment I am putting way to much pressure on myself to perform beyond what one can expect from the market. It's the basis for fear based trading. Feels like an AA meeting.

I meet with a group of men every week and they are reviewing this journal for my benefit. It's because of them that I started the journal in a public domain. A huge stretch to be so exposed and open to the judgements of others. Mostly though its my judgements that are getting in my way.

I closed out my Asian trades. I feel much better because I have no residual thoughts in the way for tommorrow.

I am set up in the local cafe - one of the reasons I like to trade is that I can take my businss with me anywhere. With the news at 8:00 I am not anticipating a trade set up yet and I am here fully ready to trade. Today I am going to focus on descipline - wait for the set up and wait for the exit. I am also ready to take a 23% retracement trade if no other trade presents itself.

first possible trade is a sling shot on the euro - entry 1.2869 second possible trade is the Euo Jpy entry at 114.86

per my rules took both possible trades off so now I am waiting for the next set up.

next possible trade USDJPY S -89.55 a slingshot trade it is against the 21 DNA but with 3 up candles before it - might pick up 5 - 10 pips

4 possible trades - inside bars - Euro S 128.72, Chf B 1.1589, EuroYEn B - 115.88 and CAD S 1.2229

Done for the day - Euro and Chf worked and the Euro Yen and CAd never triggered.

I am really out of integrity - did not post my trades this morning and am now down big time because I did not follow my plans - I feel like shit at the moment