GLJ

My overall understanding of where we're at.

The following situations are how i would like to trade.
My environment offers plenty of distractions, i don't always have enough time every morning to properly analyze my charts, and i don't always have the clarity of mind not to break my own rules.
So this is my aspiration for the moment.

Trading starts at 8am ends at 2pm eastern.

Simple money management.
2.5% over 25 pips equals 0.1% per pip

Day 1: 55 pips
Day 2: 1 pip
Day 3: 121 pips
Day 4: 267 pips
Day 5: 74 pips

Week: 518 pips 51.8%

Trading my style perfectly is attainable, especially since i've developed this based on my years of observance and my knowledge of market structure.
My record for hitting all my possible trades and following my rules is 18 trading days. This week i strayed from my plan and i missed out on trades i could have taken and ended up in the wrong ones. Intention of this journal is to trade as i should be trading.

How i'd like it to be


How it was

Very nice journal. Will be back to read more.

Stay honest with yourself . Think you're on a clear path.

FX4

Thanks.

I appreciate the effort you've made to create "It's a Heart-Mind Game" thread. It's a great resource for a new trader and experienced traders alike. Threads like this can serve to enlighten those who have yet to experience the things you speak of or to remind others where they've come from.

So i recently changed my timeframe of trading to the 5min. I can make 60 pips a day on that timeframe. But that requires me to be on my game.

The most i've been pulling is about 10-12 pips a day (which is really not that bad considering my risk management). Problem is that i've been trading against the recent moves (looking for trend reversals), not present at the screen at the time for a trade (much too busy for my liking), and missing entries by 1 or 2 pips (conservative entry mixed with a little bad luck).

Not enough screen time and missing entries isn't that much of a problem for me. Easily fixable. While trading on the 5min i've discovered how easy it is to be faked out if i'm not keeping aware of the overall situation. So i think i've actually created my not enough screen time problem to defend myself against my trading against the recent move problem.

Ironically i've had enough screen time to be in the fakeouts and have pretty much just been missing the good trades. But the reason why all this is happening is because i've become much busier during my chosen trading time. I will finish this week on the 5min but will probably change my charts to the 10m or 15m and the 30m.

On a side note for the last 7 months every single trade i set before going to bed has been profitable by atleast 25 pips. Something for me to look into during my weekend review.

I've already posted the 6/25/12 trades

6/26/12


6/27/12


6/28/12



6/29/12

June 4th week

6/25/12: +13 pips
6/26/12: -9 pips
6/27/12: +2 pips
6/28/12: +47 pips
6/29/12: +21 pips

Total: +74 pips +7.4%

Made some silly calls and missed a couple of trades. All in all not a bad week considering.

Here's a trade i took on one of my main accounts.



Forgot to add in the picture that i entered because the AU showed a lower high while the EU showed a higher high. Based on my observations and where price was (high or low on the curve) i decided that the EU rally will be short lived and there will be a drop.

Now i can't say that what i did there was a setup that will always work. I don't look specifically for these types of setups either. I watch price's actions (rejections, rallies, drops), watch a bit of news (only the ones that everyone thinks is important), setup the technicals, look at correlation relationships, watch the curve (high/low on the monthly,weekly,daily,and 4h). This is all an attempt to create a bias on the flow of orders.

I recently began trading the 5m chart and posting them here in this thread. I don't think i'd ever trade like that on my main accounts. Way too much excitement for my liking. I'd take a losing trade and be stressed. I'd take a winning trade and be stressed. I don't think i could ever trade 10 lots comfortably on this system. I'll continue to do it in my fun money account. I want to see if i can actually hit +60 pips a day for 2 weeks. Who knows, maybe one day i'll get comfortable with it.

An observation

Yesterday i said my bias was SHORT EU and LONG AU.

Check out these numbers.

Hedging
Strat: Short EU Long AU
Test: Open position at 8a est, calculate amount of pips gained/lost every if position were to be closed every 30 minutes up until 12p.

Chart


Prices
_______EU______AU
8:00___1.2302___1.0225
8:30___1.2270___1.0216
9:00___1.2281___1.0235
9:30___1.2296___1.0238
10:00__1.2274___1.0228
10:30__1.2258___1.0223
11:00__1.2255___1.0207
11:30__1.2245___1.0208
12:00__1.2254___1.0216

Individual Gain/Loss
_______EU______AU
8:30___+32______-09
9:00___+21______+10
9:30___+06______+13
10:00__+28______+03
10:30__+44______-02
11:00__+47______-18
11:30__+57______-17
12:00__+48______-09

Total Running Pip Gain/Loss
8:30___+23
9:00___+31
9:30___+19
10:00__+31
10:30__+42
11:00__+29
11:30__+40
12:00__+39 FINAL

If one was to have opened a position (buy AU sell EU) at any point during that session the outcome would still have been positive pips.

Tools
Thick black lines - Daily lines
Thin black lines - 4h lines
Dashed black lines - 5min lines
Colored lines (including grey) - Pivot Points



1. Screens On

2. EU showing rejection at yellow pivot, Au showing rejection at 5m line. AU Buy entry at box.

3.1 AU showing early rejection close to Red pivot and daily line, also AU has previously rejected at this point. EU not showing early rejection.

3.2 AU stalling right at daily line and Red Pivot. EU stalling at grey pivot.
EU Sell entry. (very high chance of a price drop)

4. AU showed rejection at blue Pivot then pierces through to stall at 5min line. EU shows rejection approaching green pivot then stall at green pivot.
Buy entry at boxes. (Either the blue line entry or the dashed line entry would have been fine)

Made 2 trades on the 2nd of july. Both were losers. I attempted to sell a pending down move but was in early twice. Right before i was going to sell the 3rd time i was interrupted at work and decided to stay out the markets until i could pay attention. Missed the move :<

Decided to stay out the markets for the week of july 4th

Also went to the dr on thursday so no trading.



Overall +20 pips

Missed a bunch of setups. This week should have been a big pip week but trading while distracted got the best of me. But at least i'm up 2%.

Have a bit more free time now so i'll begin posting again.

I want to create a system on entry and exit around some of the observations i've made concerning the EU and the AU.

1st questions "I" want answered are:

1. How do i know when to enter.
2. How do i know when to exit.

So for now i will follow my curiosity and work on that. Later i will add more questions.

Putting this thread on pause for a week or two. Have some obligations that need handling.

I'm back now. I should have the time to develope some simple ideas over the next month or two.

Earlier in the thread i spoke about 10% monthly gains and keeping your risk small. From this point forward i will use this thread to develop 10% monthly minimum gain using Supply and Demand Zones, my Dashed Lines, Rejection/Reversal along with a bit of Sentiment Analysis (a really small bit).

The goal will be 10% a month while risking a maximum of 2% per trade.

It's funny how once you start living, life won't stop coming at you! I'm putting this thread to sleep till i have the time to keep it awake.

Thanks. Keep up the good work.

FX4