trublu's trading journal

I've decided to start a journal so I have a place to put my trades and have better organization when it comes to trading.

I trade based off of HL's and LH's off the 5 and 1 min charts while getting the trend direction from the 1 hour chart. I also look for pullback's to the 34 and 13 EMA's or psych levels or pivot levels and look for candlestick patterns at these levels and try to trade with the trend as much as possible.

I didn't create any of these techniques, I got them from a couple of threads here at FF which I will post links to at the bottom of this first post and I'd also like to thank Vantage, EV, acumen and Islander who have influenced my trading a lot through the two threads I've listed below.

I trade the NY/London overlap and I try to trade once asia session opens up for a couple of hours if there are any good trends. Some days I try to trade past London close but a lot of days the market seems to stall once London closes.

NOTE: I have only been trading HL's and LH's for about 2 weeks and the psych level and pivot trades for about 6 months but I haven't been trading a lot so it's still new to me and I'm still working on being consistently profitable. I am right around break even so don't think of me as a experienced successful trader but more of a newer trader trying to get better and learn more.

Vantage's HL's and LH's thread: http://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?t=108544
Acumens' Pysch Level's and Pivots thread: http://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?t=98028

I will post some pictures of the trades I took today and if you have any questions feel free to ask and I'll help you out as best as I can.

trublu

Here are some charts showing the 3 trades I took today during the NY/London overlap. The first chart shows the EU 1 min where I took a HL trade for +20. The bar I've highlighted with the blue rectangle is the one I considered as a HL and I took the trade long on the next candle ( the one with the lime arrow under it). The price labels show where I got into and out of the trade.

The second chart shows a LH on the 1 min EU which I closed at -7. One thing I messed up on is price never broke the low on the 5 min chart so I never should have entered anyways but I tried to get an early entry by using the 1 min.

The last chart is the 1 min GJ which I closed at -17. Price had been in a nice uptrend for the last hour and a half or so and I missed some HL trades earlier and I finally got in one but the move had been exhausted when I entered.

If you want more info on how to use stops and profit targets for the HL's and LH's trading, read Vantage's thread, that is what I read and what I base my trades off of. I'm going to try and trade more 5 min HL/LH trades instead of trying to jump in early on the 1min.

Total for the day was -4 pips and I'm done for the day so hopefully I'll have some more trades to post tomorrow.

trublu

Here is an example of using the 1 hour to see which way to trade and where you could have traded a HL on the 5 min on the EJ (There was also the same trade on the GJ).

The first chart shows the 5 min EJ and the arrow on the right side of the chart is showing the HL that is formed, you'd go long two candles later when the high of the HL candle is broken.

The second chart shows how the last hour's close was pretty much a pin bar with a long tail downward which shows that an up move very well could be coming and could have been a clue that the downtrend could be ending. As of now it's being rejected by the round number at 129 so if you closed there that's a quick 30 pips in about 10 mins, even more if you took the same trade on GJ.

I'm currently in a LH on the EU which is not doing much right now so I'll make a post when that trade closes.

trublu

Here is an example of re-entering a trade using the 1 min chart. This chart is of EJ and the arrow shows a HL where you could have added on to your 5 min trade. As you can see price stalled at that pivot line but it could have gotten you an extra 10 pips or so if you closed there. This also gives you the opportunity to get into the trade if you missed the 5 min trade like I did. I missed this though because I was editing the previous post and was looking at my EU trade.

trublu

Here is the chart of my failed EU trade, got out at -7. Tried to trade the LH where the arrow is. I was up about 10 at one time and should have closed but held on. I should have at least gotten out at BE or -2 when I realized price couldn't close below the 25 psych line. Now time to forget about the loss and look for the next trade.

trublu

Asia session has just begun and so now I'll be looking at the markets again but I'm still looking for some trends to form. I've attached a chart showing EU on the 5 min and you'll notice the severe lack of a trend which is why I'm not trading between London close and Asia open since the market just dies after London closes. The red vertical line represents noon central standard time.

trublu

Really good trending before NY open which seems to happen a lot. So far this morning haven't seen anything worth trading, was thinking about a few trades right after NY opened but they didn't move how I wanted and then the news messed things up so now I'm waiting until I see a move I'm comfortable with, hopefully will see something before the 9:30 US news.

trublu

Missed some good trades on the 5 min today as well as a lot of easy 1 min continuation trades since a lot of pairs just tanked and kept forming some nice LH's during the down trend but I missed them. It's frustrating missing all these good trades, I guess I just need to keep practicing and keep working at it.

trublu

First trade of the day was a Dark Cloud Cover on the GU 5 min chart (second chart). I took it because it was hitting the 13 EMA, with the overall downtrend, hitting the 25 psych line and yesterday's low. However the one hour candle was moving up. I lost -16 on this one, got stopped by one pip and for now price is stalled.


Second trade of today was a Bearish Engulfing pattern on the EJ 5 min chart. I took it even though it was a convincing pattern it was off the 34 EMA and it was technically a LH. However the current 1 hour candle was moving up so maybe should have waited for a HL which came and did work out. Result was -15 trade.

Time to look for more trades and see if I can actually get a winning trade for once.

trublu

Most recent losing trade was a LH on the 5 min GU. Won't go much into detail on my thoughts on it as I've posted a question on vantage's HL/LH thread about it. The result was -15. So definitely not a good day so far, but that happens, can't win them all, or very many in my case.

trublu

First trade this morning was a 5 min LH on EU. Got stopped out at -12. The chart is attached, at most I was up 6 pips which didn't feel like enough to move stop to break even. Price wasn't moving to fast until the last bar stopped me out. Time to move on to next trade.

trublu

Finally a winning trade, closed when I was up 1 pip but at least it's better than losing more pips. Chart is attached, the arrow shows the HL I based the trade off. The check mark is where I got out, it looks like more than 1 pip but after the spread it's not.

As of right now the trade would be at about +15 so not a very good job by me for closing. The reason I closed when I did was on my last trade I was up 6 and then it reversed. This time price stalled and came close to stopping me out and I was up about 5 and then it came back to 1 so I just got out with 1.

I'm still having trouble letting trades run because I don't know which trades are going to be good ones or not. I obviously need a lot more practice.

trublu

I just wanted to add my thoughts on the 4 pairs I watch for the London/NY overlap. EU was ranging basically the whole time so no way I would have tried to trade that, I can barely trade trends so why would I try to trade a range.

EJ and GJ both had some opportunities that could have had 20 pips at least, I count at least 3 I could have taken, maybe more with re-entries on the 1 min if there were any. I did see one EJ I planned on taking but it was right before the USD news so I skipped it.

The best pair was the GU. I count anywhere from 3-5 HL trades just on the 5 min chart that you could have traded. Of course I only took one of those for one measly pip but if you were a good trader (not me) you could have entered off the first HL and built up positions and rode the whole trend.

The hardest thing is figuring out which pair will move the best. Looking at the charts now it seems pretty obvious that you should have traded the GU but at the time you had no way of knowing which way it would move.

Overall I'm not that happy with my trading this morning since I missed a really good trend on the GU and some other good opportunities on the EJ and GJ. I'm going to keep watching the charts in the afternoon just in case anything happens.

trublu

Actually started today off with a winning trade. 5 min GJ LH with the current hourly bar bearish and price closed nicely below the 8 LWMA. I was up about 20 so I moved my stop loss to +10 because there was USD news coming out. When the news came out price shot up and took me out at +10.

trublu

Next trade was a LH on EJ 5 min, -15, I guess it had already moved down too much and couldn't go any further. It seems like every trade I don't take works out for at least 10 pips and every trade I take doesn't go anywhere, very frustrating.

trublu

Actually off to a good start today. Hit 3 winners and 1 loss. I'll post the 4 charts here. EJ, GJ, and EU were winners and GU was a loss. While I'm happy I got some winning trades I'm upset because I left a lot of pips on the table. I need to work on letting trades run.

Charts should be self explanatory, arrow indicates the LH and the check mark shows where I took profit. On the EJ chart the highlighted candle is a perfect add on entry which I missed. There were also plenty of LH's on the 1 min you could have added on with. These charts just show how easy it is to catch a trend, the hard part is riding it for a lot of pips in my opinion.

Forgot to add the total for the trades were EJ +15, EU +20, GJ +30, GU -12, my daily goal is 50 pips so I might just stop now and watch the market and demo trade.

trublu

I got some things to do this morning so I'm going to call it a day. Might try to trade tonight but with Obama speaking, probably not a good night to trade, who knows if the market will react but might as well not risk it.

Overall I'm happy with my trading this morning. Missed some re-entry's which would have been good and some other trades I could have scalped some quick pips out of. Still got plenty of practice and some stuff to work on but I'm getting there, slowly.

If anyone actually reads this and has any questions or comments, please post, feels like I'm talking to myself only here.

trublu

Not sure what happened, I wrote this post earlier and maybe I forgot to submit it or something but I thought I did.

Anyways not feeling good today so I went back to sleep and woke up and saw big moves, of course it happens when I'm not watching. Oh well still a positive week.

I can only trade a couple of hours tomorrow and there is some news so I don't know if I'll trade any. If not I'll be back trading Monday morning and hope to catch some bigger trades.

trublu

I had some PC issues to take care of this morning. Finally got them solved but now I have some stuff to do so no trades this morning. Maybe I can take some trades tonight during the Asian session if I see some good opportunities. If not I'll be back tomorrow to hopefully make some good trades.

trublu

First 2 trades were losses, -17 on GJ and -8 on EU, EU was a HL and GJ was a LH both on the 5 min chart. Not seeing any good trends so far so probably not a good idea to make those trades but oh well, live and learn.

trublu