4 hour chart trading journal

Well I would like to start out by explaining what I'm doing on this thread and its reason. I would like to keep track of my trades a little better. Of course I could do this in a spreadsheet or whatever but I tend to get lazy. With this one being online and the possiblity of followers I might be more inclined to stick with it.

I have noticed that most that keep a journal on here tend to disappear after a long stretch of bad trades. I hope not to let this happen as this is what I'm trying to learn from.

I would like to say I have been trading forex for about 4 years. I have not been able to make a profit until the last 4 months. Things changed, along with my attitude and discipline at the game. I still have big doubts in my trading because forex never seems to fail to disappoint me. (This is also something I'm working on)
In my studies of trading the forex market I have noticed that things change in this market for weeks at a time. This can affect the way I trade big time. This is also another reason why I need better record keeping. I am not confident that my winnings for the past 4 months are real just yet. I feel though I have found a better road to take in this game.

I work I full time job as a CNC setup Machinist. Forex is not my number one thing in life. I have been down that road before and glad I broke it.

I am not made of hundreds of thousands so I will be trading my small account on oanda. I will never load thousands until I feel more confident. I am a gambler outside of the markets. I feel If I can waste money in poker or horse racing I can stand to lose a couple of bucks here and there on trading as a confidence booster.

How I trade,

I only trade 4 hour charts.

I trade support and resistance breaks.

I don't give a crap about what others see with s/r . I trade what I want because of the patterns I have picked up on my own.

I tend to use pending orders and a trail stop of 35 pips only for the reason I can't watch the market all day. I have kids and I work full time.

I only tend to get in 1 or 2 trades a week. I try to only focus on one chart for the week. Mainly eurusd but I do switch around from time to time.

Good or bad I will be posting my trades with results and reasons why I think the trade did not work out. For any that do watch this thread I hope this explains my goals and who I am and that I'm really nothing special. Average person with a hobby in this market.

So with out any time delay I will post two pending trades that are in at this time.

EURUSD,
Pending
Short @ 1.38633
Stop @ 1.39983
Trail Stop of 35 pips

Long @ 1.41607
Stop @ 1.41257
Trail stop of 35 pips

http://i1135.photobucket.com/albums/...sep7th2011.png

Hi

did you mean you already put an order for these 2 trades? How do you determine that those breaks won't be a fake breakouts ?

thanks

Yes I did place two pending orders. I dont really worry about false break outs. I have been burned a few times from them but, thats part of trading and money managment will take care of that. Most of the time a false break out is enough to push the trailstop into a profit or a smaller loss.

Ok, maybe I put it in another way. Say for the short order, how do you know that 1.38633 is the level that you want to trade a short? I can't see very well the scale of your chart but is 1.38633 the level of the 6th candle (doji) from the last? So once price hits that level, you short?

hi naddix,that was one of the best thread i've seen on ff ,there are many who show their mastering of technicalities of indicators and all but i found u to be real thing

As for a update its funny how we talked about the a false move and I was hit with a 17 pip loss on the first sell. I don't really find this to be a bad trade quite yet because we had some news come out at 8:30 which caused some volatility.

To help clear things up with false break outs and such. I have noticed that when I pick the right trade the market tends to move very, very fast towards my take profit. When I pick the wrong trade the market tends to hang where entered. When this happens This gives me a good sign that there's a lot of support or resistance.

I have put a new pending short order @ 1.39369
take profit @ 1.38369
stop @ 1.39719
trail of 35 pips.

http://i1135.photobucket.com/albums/...dagainsep8.png

Thank you! I feel there are a lot of people on here afraid to show who they really are. I been there too. We need more people showing the real thing. The average forex retail trader with a average job and forex not being the first thing in life.

I know I made this thread more for myself than others but im glad there is a few interested in it.

Win or lose, my post will be here. We all are here to learn. If we were not, we would not be on forex factory.

Ok, my sell order was filled @ 1.3936 and was stopped out by the trail stop @ a 11. pip loss.

This is a normal pattern of my trading. Small pokes at the market until I hit one. I have lost 28 pips on two trades for a total risk 70 pips.

I have said this once before when the market moves in my favor it tends to move fast. When it is against me it tends to hang.

We will see if there will be any more trades this week.

I will be pulling out the pending long order.

Done for the week.

Getting charts ready.

Trail stop ate me up last week on a very nice move that I would have normally been a part of. I hope not to have the same issue this week.

Ok little sooner in the week than I like, I placed a buy limit @ 1.3725 on EURUSD
Stop of 35 pips and one take profit @ 1.3780 and on that will be 100 pips away.

A limit sell has been created @ 1.3480, 35 pip stop, 100 pip take.

http://i1135.photobucket.com/albums/...1311eurusd.png

I have a bit of a dilemma that has arose with my job situation. I work 3pm to 1pm gmt -5 right now. I'm able to see the charts in the morning around 10 am close to the New York goodness and than at night around 11:30 pm or so and see some late night pressure developing. I might be taking job that is on first shift. My setups occur more around night time closer to 1 or 2 in the mourning and that's about the time I go to bed. This will greatly change the way I trade and I'm not quite sure how I might adapt.

This is one of the problems facing a retail trader that trades part time. Have to play this one as it goes.

I pulled both these before they could go in. One would have been entered and would have brought in a nice return. This life is full of should of and could of.

I am going to take a two week break because I am changing jobs. My focus is going to be all screwed up and I will also need to see how my strat is going to play out on different times. I have been on a 2nd shift schedule for the past few years and now I will be moving to first by taking another job.

So I'm all settled into the new job and 1st shift is great! Been Watching charts (eurusd) and could possible get into a trade tomorrow. I wake up at 530 am est time. I am hoping not to miss the setup by that time. So for those who think I joined the people that give up after a few loses, YOUR WRONG. lol.

Moving on, I have been having a tough time adjusting my strategy to my new times. I really liked being up for the London open and now that im asleep at this time I feel I am missing my setups. I'm sure I will be able to work around this in time.