Hi all,
This is going to be a trade journal following how my trading goes. I don't have years of experience under my belt like some people here, so this probably won't be the most "educational" thread, but I'm quite happy for others to read and follow what happens. I've been studying Forex for probably about 6 months, or coming up to that point now, though it's only lately that I've been 100% ALL OUT timed myself out on it, i.e. putting every spare moment into stringing in every single piece of appliable knowledge and information.
So first off!! Hi, my name's Kate and I live in New Zealand. I have a live account with a Swiss broker, known as Dukascopy. It's a standard size account, 100,000k with their usual leverage. I started out demo-ing with a broker called Forex.com and I actually had very little idea when I first jumped on there, what a broker actually was and the fact there were HUNDREDS of them. I was 10x more of a n00b then, than I am now! It's quite funny looking back. =P
My experience with strategies thus far...
To start out with, actually, I never bothered with indicators except a 200EMA and one or two others I don't recall. I didn't read up on all the moving averages or MACD, or Stochs or anything like that. What I did was this - I just stared at weekly, and daily charts. On my first demo account, I did lose some money because I didn't actually look at any charts, I just had pairs in front of me with buy/sell options, so I'd just jump on for fun and watch what would happen. Made 10k, lost 8k, made 5k, lost 8k, made another 4k, that kind of thing would happen. 'Was all good with me, I was just happy with the beginning of trading.
Then I began branching out. Started watching tutorials, reading lessons, watching other traders and venturing around Youtube and a few other places that had video lessons. It was all very intriguing, and after about two months, maybe three, I bought myself a little journal which I have here beside me, so I could take notes and make theories of what these guys were teaching. So then I started hunting for a serious broker, one that didn't have complaints of all these stop-loss hunts and spikes. I eventually ended up with Dukascopy, in Switzerland which I was quite pleased with - CHF may not be the strongest but I'm confident in their economy, among other reasons. SO this in mind, I began fiddling with THEIR demo accounts, quite amazed as to how I'd made money back before when my knowledge had been completely, and utterly ZILCH.
The first 2 weeks.
The first two weeks went BEAUTIFULLY! I was making 10-20k+ a night doing longer term trades, watching overall trends. The thing was, I hadn't tasted the stress of when you have real money go into the red. I slept easy with the demo account, left it all day and would venture back to check on it later on, grin to myself and click out when I had enough money before looking at another pair just to get a better feel for the market. Eventually, I stopped my demo trading during the day to focus on theoretical, fundamental and technical analysis which took up the better part of the coming months.
DURING those months, I forgot about my daily/weekly charts. I started getting absorbed by all these EMA crossings, pairings for showing speed and momentum, the MACD and all its possibilities and the Stochastics with it. Indicators out the wazoo, if you ask me! Still, I drank it in, began to understand it and shucked it on the market. I didn't yet understand (fully) the overbought/oversold conditions that Stochs and Macd chuck at you, which is probably for the best because had I been eying those up I would have made some bad decisions based on conflicting information thrown out by all these indicators going left and right.
Dont get me wrong, they do send good signals and they do work for a lot of people it seems, but I went back to another demo account and I started trying to use them. I made money, lost money. Back when I had done nothing except chart study and use one or two indicators on long term trends, I had done far better, but it took me quite a while to remember that. So, remembering my past accomplishments but not how I did them and with my fiance and I wanting to get things moving, we rolled open our live account. That got funded, and the LIVE trading began, even though I still wanted to muck around on the Demo a lot more.
First day I made several hundred dollars. I didn't want to be greedy, especially because I had jumped on the bandwagon in a mid-price swing (fast) to the upside, which lasted about 10 minutes. I got out, could have ridden it longer, but I was glad not to have been caught by its prevailing down motion. I was studying 15m and 30m charts, shrinking down to 5m and 1m to get a more "down-to-earth" look. This is where I went long. Over the next few days, I made money, but when I lost, I lost a LOT more.
Then I began wondering where I went wrong. I opened up a week trial at FXBootcamp recently, (just about to end), and started listening into the guys as they went through it. They had all the EMA's and such, so I just watched and tapped my chin, tried to make back what I had lost on the live account before I ran back to the Demo to find something solid that I enjoyed using and trusted it. I must say, I don't entirely TRUST MACD and STOCHS, I know they're lagging but I still dislike them a little. Maybe that'll change.
Now.
So, after looking back and realizing that grasping OVERALL LONGTERM trend is a far better "indicator" to go by, I want to try a few various things. One thing that puts me off these longer term trends is the fact my broker has a "rollover" system, so at the day close, the position (though "GTC") is effectively closed, then re-opened at the next day's open. Any loss is taken out of your account as if its actually been a filled order and a new one has opened. Now I know you'd make this back if the price went your way, and either way you WOULD have to get out but it's still a bit of a nuisance - it means you don't have as much swing if you don't want to see it in the red.
So while I think all these indicators can still be used, by all means (I still enjoy the fibs, most definitely) I think that for a time I want to drop back to my older, more original and apparently plausible methods. I got sucked in to those smaller time charts, and even after just a brief glance around here and reading an article for new traders, it seems I did exactly what NOT TO DO in forgetting the long term trend. Even right now I've gone long EURGBP, I'm $200+ in profit and happy to watch it rise to the next possible level of support/resistence, which isn't for quite a time. I do have that little nagging voice going "that could have been the live account!" but hey, I'm taking this as a good sign regardless. Learning is learning, as long as its profit I'm happy. I don't want to do what I did before and sink into that 15m chart, (ICK).
This is as much for me to look back on, as it is for others to relate to and argue, either/or.
Wait for my next entry over the next few days!
- Kat
This is going to be a trade journal following how my trading goes. I don't have years of experience under my belt like some people here, so this probably won't be the most "educational" thread, but I'm quite happy for others to read and follow what happens. I've been studying Forex for probably about 6 months, or coming up to that point now, though it's only lately that I've been 100% ALL OUT timed myself out on it, i.e. putting every spare moment into stringing in every single piece of appliable knowledge and information.
So first off!! Hi, my name's Kate and I live in New Zealand. I have a live account with a Swiss broker, known as Dukascopy. It's a standard size account, 100,000k with their usual leverage. I started out demo-ing with a broker called Forex.com and I actually had very little idea when I first jumped on there, what a broker actually was and the fact there were HUNDREDS of them. I was 10x more of a n00b then, than I am now! It's quite funny looking back. =P
My experience with strategies thus far...
To start out with, actually, I never bothered with indicators except a 200EMA and one or two others I don't recall. I didn't read up on all the moving averages or MACD, or Stochs or anything like that. What I did was this - I just stared at weekly, and daily charts. On my first demo account, I did lose some money because I didn't actually look at any charts, I just had pairs in front of me with buy/sell options, so I'd just jump on for fun and watch what would happen. Made 10k, lost 8k, made 5k, lost 8k, made another 4k, that kind of thing would happen. 'Was all good with me, I was just happy with the beginning of trading.
Then I began branching out. Started watching tutorials, reading lessons, watching other traders and venturing around Youtube and a few other places that had video lessons. It was all very intriguing, and after about two months, maybe three, I bought myself a little journal which I have here beside me, so I could take notes and make theories of what these guys were teaching. So then I started hunting for a serious broker, one that didn't have complaints of all these stop-loss hunts and spikes. I eventually ended up with Dukascopy, in Switzerland which I was quite pleased with - CHF may not be the strongest but I'm confident in their economy, among other reasons. SO this in mind, I began fiddling with THEIR demo accounts, quite amazed as to how I'd made money back before when my knowledge had been completely, and utterly ZILCH.
The first 2 weeks.
The first two weeks went BEAUTIFULLY! I was making 10-20k+ a night doing longer term trades, watching overall trends. The thing was, I hadn't tasted the stress of when you have real money go into the red. I slept easy with the demo account, left it all day and would venture back to check on it later on, grin to myself and click out when I had enough money before looking at another pair just to get a better feel for the market. Eventually, I stopped my demo trading during the day to focus on theoretical, fundamental and technical analysis which took up the better part of the coming months.
DURING those months, I forgot about my daily/weekly charts. I started getting absorbed by all these EMA crossings, pairings for showing speed and momentum, the MACD and all its possibilities and the Stochastics with it. Indicators out the wazoo, if you ask me! Still, I drank it in, began to understand it and shucked it on the market. I didn't yet understand (fully) the overbought/oversold conditions that Stochs and Macd chuck at you, which is probably for the best because had I been eying those up I would have made some bad decisions based on conflicting information thrown out by all these indicators going left and right.
Dont get me wrong, they do send good signals and they do work for a lot of people it seems, but I went back to another demo account and I started trying to use them. I made money, lost money. Back when I had done nothing except chart study and use one or two indicators on long term trends, I had done far better, but it took me quite a while to remember that. So, remembering my past accomplishments but not how I did them and with my fiance and I wanting to get things moving, we rolled open our live account. That got funded, and the LIVE trading began, even though I still wanted to muck around on the Demo a lot more.
First day I made several hundred dollars. I didn't want to be greedy, especially because I had jumped on the bandwagon in a mid-price swing (fast) to the upside, which lasted about 10 minutes. I got out, could have ridden it longer, but I was glad not to have been caught by its prevailing down motion. I was studying 15m and 30m charts, shrinking down to 5m and 1m to get a more "down-to-earth" look. This is where I went long. Over the next few days, I made money, but when I lost, I lost a LOT more.
Then I began wondering where I went wrong. I opened up a week trial at FXBootcamp recently, (just about to end), and started listening into the guys as they went through it. They had all the EMA's and such, so I just watched and tapped my chin, tried to make back what I had lost on the live account before I ran back to the Demo to find something solid that I enjoyed using and trusted it. I must say, I don't entirely TRUST MACD and STOCHS, I know they're lagging but I still dislike them a little. Maybe that'll change.
Now.
So, after looking back and realizing that grasping OVERALL LONGTERM trend is a far better "indicator" to go by, I want to try a few various things. One thing that puts me off these longer term trends is the fact my broker has a "rollover" system, so at the day close, the position (though "GTC") is effectively closed, then re-opened at the next day's open. Any loss is taken out of your account as if its actually been a filled order and a new one has opened. Now I know you'd make this back if the price went your way, and either way you WOULD have to get out but it's still a bit of a nuisance - it means you don't have as much swing if you don't want to see it in the red.
So while I think all these indicators can still be used, by all means (I still enjoy the fibs, most definitely) I think that for a time I want to drop back to my older, more original and apparently plausible methods. I got sucked in to those smaller time charts, and even after just a brief glance around here and reading an article for new traders, it seems I did exactly what NOT TO DO in forgetting the long term trend. Even right now I've gone long EURGBP, I'm $200+ in profit and happy to watch it rise to the next possible level of support/resistence, which isn't for quite a time. I do have that little nagging voice going "that could have been the live account!" but hey, I'm taking this as a good sign regardless. Learning is learning, as long as its profit I'm happy. I don't want to do what I did before and sink into that 15m chart, (ICK).
This is as much for me to look back on, as it is for others to relate to and argue, either/or.
Wait for my next entry over the next few days!
- Kat
|/ Dream as if you'll live forever... Live as if you'll die today. \|