My way to highway

Hi all,

today was a special trading day.
not really because it was 6/6 winners for 100% win rate for the second day in the row, not because all entries were done as singles both days, not because i made good pips.
it was special because it started with a small cake from my son in the morning, and a happy birthday song from my wife.
ProfitFarmer now is officially 42 years old (also according to my original birth place timezone and the time of birth too!)
of course i am happy that the market took easy on me, and made the day even better (+0.34% today).

happy trading!

Congratulations, on both things!

Happy birthday PF

Happy Birthday PF! Have a great celebration with your profits!

Ah, ah following your journey is highly educational, and icing on the cake, your posts are always entertaining :0))

"Bon Anniversaire" then profitfarmer, and I wish you to keep it up with the green pips.

Cheers,
J-F

weekend is getting closer, but the week isnt over yet.
however, some days just not that suitable for one's trading style than others.
and once in a while it isnt that difficult to see it.
today was one such day.

as said before, i trade reversals.
it is simple enough concept, with basically 1 main prerequisite: the price need to move some before a reversal can be anticipated and traded.
London open came and passed, and from all the 14 pairs i monitor as usual suspect to scalp, only 1 pair get a decent move compare to its ADR (EN).
when conditions arent ideal, the best to pass.
what to do?
today it was cinema something i promised for my son last week...



came back, and GJ was ideal. and i was patient, but still let myself shaken a bit early, even though promised myself to wait...and waited more than usual, 9 pips
looks like that is for today. good for 0.11%.
a Friday left before weekend.

happy trading!

one special memorable Friday!!

it will probably be one i remember forever.
not because the trading was outstanding.
i was able to do only one entry, GJ, for +0.05%.

not because the trading week was outstanding, at +0.8% it was an OK week, but not a great one.

not because today it is the first day of Songkran, the Thai New Year (year 2561).

and not because this evening due the heavy rain we had both a 2 hours blackout that not only involved the electricity but also the mobile lines to bring any chance to trade for a complete stop. ( and there was some good chances, though there will be another trades next week, for sure).

today is memorable for me because of a scorpion.

living countryside has many perks, and drawbacks alike, like the "wildlife" of bugs, ants, wasps, bees, snakes, and scorpions too.

well, today, first time ever i got stung by one scorpion.
for those who didnt experience this yet, i can tell it first hand:
it is pain like hell!!
an approx 4 cm long "baby one" must slip into the room under the door. ( yes once in a while we get the big ones too that are more like palm size and piano black)
it isnt the first time, usually we spot it without accident and they get dealt with on a no prisoners taken manner quickly.
this one somehow made it under my computer desk, and me sitting down not seeing it, was enough to get in trouble.
the pain was almost instant and searing! damn, such a small creature packed with a big punch.
it was my 2nd toe, and i can tell 6 hours later the pain is still very intense.
while it get my revenge, i dont feel the victory.
some of you may be into animal right, and protect every moscitoes, and that is fine.
my rule is simple: 30m circle around my home is warzone. without merci. any snake, scorpion, buys etc are safe as long as they keep out of this circle.
those arent, especially the aggressive one like this has zero chance to survive.
it is life of death!
we get a couple snakes 'accidents' also every year, and no i dont stop to google first if it is a tree snake or a spitting cobra.
it is like scalping, quick in and out, but with a machete. only cut everything short.

on a happier note, half of the month is over now, and up about 2%...looking forward what the other half brings.
the drawdown isnt gone, but it is a slow stable recovery in the past 5 weeks or so, with no high risk and extremely low drawdown trading since the beginning of March.

happy weekend!

Business as usual: stung by a scorpion, what else!!!
Talk about entertaining ;0)))))

Have a good "hopefully not too painful from the toe" week end!!
Cheers,
J-F

that scorpion was anything but entertaining for me
back to normal, can confirm that approx 20 hours it took, but now it is good as new.
trust me, now i will more often look under my table before sit down.

once about a year and a half ago my wife and son had sitting in the kitchen eating breakfast when felt something strange down...that was a snake.
i woke up for the screams i thought the house is on fire!
me hunting the snake around the kitchen ( and mind you, being on the country side this is a big enough kitchen of about 25 m2) half asleep and dreaming and half driven by adrenaline...that was funny thinking back.

with scorpions is always straightforward: they all can sting you.
with snakes, it is little more like russian roulette: some is benign and scared more than you, some a fricking cobra that can send you to hospital straight away, or worse.
we are leading so far in the war, family vs critters....our injuries 1+1 scorpion from the scorpions (wife some time back) and 1 to a spitting cobra ( also wife, that was a hospital visit and some serious vision problems for few days)

trading is like a war too, but feel a lot more humane somehow.
no killing involved. ( interesting fact: my wife is a believing Buddhist, but maybe cos her experiences she doesnt have a second thought killing critters attacking us).
but trading nevertheless is a war!
you against someone. someone against you.
and just no idea whom is on the other side of the trade up against you!
your wits vs. the unknown enemy.
that is a real challenge to tackle.
but entertaining too.

happy weekend!

mid week update.

Monday was slow and ended without trade, then yesterday and today activity picked up.
yesterday was really nice with 10/10 singles, today was however not so much though only 2 part trades at most, and very limited working drawdown still.
but especially today i had once again some nasty internet connection issues, that cost me, dearly. in my estimate approx 150$, so, not happy for that; at all.
i am in progress of relocating from the farm to the city, a more conductive environment to "farm profit". will result for the time being seeing family less often ( but still a lot more often than working at sea!), but it came to the point when it seem to be a necessary move forward.
the farm is on sale, but this is something i cant rush to happen. wish i could. there is interest, but not interest with cash in hand.

on the positive side the 2 days was enough to gain +1.04%, and shave off again a little from the drawdown.
so far the month is progressing along well, and just passed the 3% line.
i am looking to protect this, but right now trading seem to be very focused and with maximum a secondary entry only it remains very much on the safe side the past 5 weeks or so, that i am not looking to limit myself, although due the ongoing drawdown wont also push too hard.
risk remains the same as was, and see what comes.
overall i am happy with things this month, and basically right where i want to be.

today the main action was involving GBP.
first GU then on the later news GC.
will add both charts as an example for need to be flexible.

1. GU
my timing was early twice, but good enough with small correction.
while in hindsight all could be fine holding to every and all entries, that is hindsight, and dangerous.
especially the first 2 trades are a good example how not trying to hold for the better profit would save a scalper from the drawdown.
subsequently the second entry set timed better, again with a spot on exit, and there where i got little tired too, with wife wanting to go to shopping (tesco).
usually as my unwritten rule, if 2-3 times i have the timing off, then i prefer to hold a little longer as then tend to be a better rebound, after all also getting things at a discount.
well, i have to work on the holding this case, but all in all it was a good hour work for my "afternoon session"



2. GC
also an early entry for the first rebound around the 00 area, then seeing weakness still was holding out for better entries. not a perfect close but not a bad result.
for bonus, GC gave later some good short as well, better holding there...11 pips from a single entry (scalping) is not a bad one, at least for me



EC shorts added a little more gain, but not a major part for the day.

happy trading!

Hello!

Your journal attracted my attention, %2 - %10 a month seems wiser than anything.

Consistency is the holy grail, %50-100 annual return is far more better than any other interest rates in the world.

I'll be following your trading journal, I wish you good luck on the way of reaching your goal!

2 charts of the same trade(s)....
similar pattern i was telling last time, early, then correcting on close, then better and close, and finally the great entries but close early on being tired.
flexibility and not expecting rigid results. RSI itself is not holy grail, and never was, same for CSM, or any other things.
position sizing, that leave room for some mistakes, and keep the risk low enough to not panic, or get margin call on a relative small mistake, like being initially about 100 pips wrong where the bottom may be ( it was the near the BRN, but one BRN lower).
those who wonder there is no martingale lots, apart from a scout i use same size entries, but what i dont use is a classic X pip grid. that is not flexible.
this one actually was way out my trading hours, but since i was around, why not?
some excitement, moderately, but in the end this late action made a OK day a great day!
0.27% was my normal time, vs. 1.04% where the day ended. surely and hour of my life well spent.

M5



M1



happy trading!

the week ends here.

even though technicallly there is some time left, i think i had enough for this week.
and couple of times trying to catch the last little bit is what cost the dearest.
so, the week ends here!
and it was an interesting one, started out with a no trade Monday, and still ended up an outstanding +2.49% week.
i know, still in negative for this year ( on this TE account!) and still well bellow the HWM too, but that doesnt change on the fact that this was a good week.
as an added bonus, 2 of the 4 days traded had 100% win rate, M. Douglas would say i traded in the zone
today particularly, as i was patient enough to somehow average almost 7 pips per entry! yes, that is big, for a scalper at least! ( between GC shorts and EU longs)

next week will start with a long weekend, that i am not sure yet exactly how long, but likely to stretch to Thursday.
it may or may not involve some trading that most likely will be confined to my personal account.
but it will relate to relocating for the time to the city to enjoy better trading conditions since i had currently too many internet related problems here out on the sticks.

in a move to better diversify my equity between brokers, added some more to Axi ( part of the former Fixi master funds).

happy weekend!

Scorpion agility on that eurusd trade, really nice one!
I had a few attempts to manually scalp when the market boils, ..., mt4 freeze, price entry issues, ... not easy! good job!

Thanks. True, not always easy, especially if my internet is acting up ( and that is the ultimate ingredient for scalping), but today got it right, mostly.

today i got back home, after being away since Saturday.
the mission was to find a city place where i can work with better conditions than on the farm we can have currently.
success in the end.
the driving between the 2 places wont be fun, but well, my"previous life" on a cruise ship wasnt exactly fun neither.
time will tell how things work out, likely will include some photos after moving in on the 1st May.

the trading, i just got home about the time of ECB, and missed ( or probably not missed) trading on it, but did a good 2 hours scalping session on EurUsd after.
10 entries, all EurUsd longs, as so often finishing just at the bottom of the cascading when i could start to have things easier. but also my usual trading time was coming to end too, and there is no need to force things, really, when recovery is progressing steadily in general.
a net +38 pips, that isnt bad, as there was 2 entries that closed in losses. +0.62% gain.
here is the chart for those interested to look at it visually:



happy trading!

very good performance sir .. i hope i can be like you

hi
my simplified target: be able to pay the bills and live in a simple yet comfortable life.
i dont see any reason why you couldnt be profitable, and make a living.
( as long as you have enough equity to keep you on track; both producing enough profit to satisfy the greedy needs and producing enough fear to keep you to risking blowing all away!)

end of another week.
and technically it is also end of the month for me, as Monday (and part of Tuesday too?) will be taken up by driving/moving in.

today trading was revolving around GBP, my choices were GbpAud, and for lessen exten GbpCad ( +1 odd EurUsd scalp).
sort of deja vu, initially little early, but overall quite respectable day in the end, the net +28 pips worth a decent +0.46%.
this in turn help to lift this 2 days long "week" for a +1.1%, what is just fine with me.

April as is, ends at +5.72%

April was a month of recovery, continued the slow but steady day to day work that started after the 2 days back-to back DD of 28thFeb and 2ndMarch.
it is still not at its end, by any means, and this TE account still shows a -4.3% loss for the year!
on the positive note, today just seen the 29th consecutive winning day ending, not quite my personal best, but it is a promising one, especially as during this period the worst DD stayed within 2%.
i wanted to stage a slow, steady consistent recovery this time, cos the deeper back-to-back drawdown, and i am happy with the progress so far.

i am lucky, because dont have instant money pressure on myself, and while want to recover TE account naturally a little quicker, on the other hand since my personal account balances the big picture rather well, and in turn helps keeping a level head.
also, while in the prop world drawdown isnt a positive event simple cos no HWM= no performance fees; the same the ability to recover is always a confidence booster for both the prop firm and potential prop opportunities, and of course the for the trader himself too.

Psy/Axi account had a partial deposit last week that has done some good already, and even though there is still a drawdown there, i am near even on my total deposits now. as per the rules, May may see a readjusting of my prop account there upward to reflect the addition of equity ( current prop acct size likely should be moved to 50k..., rule: Axi funds = 5x of trader's own at current level).
if and that is a big IF probably!, things stay on track performance moves back to positive, it is a possibility that things progress further thereafter.

there is still plenty to do, and i am looking forward for what trading in May brings...the goal is to BE for the year ( and of course thereafter ultimately a new HWM), but the plan is flexible.
for the better picture of the above, next the the TE account i include a shot from the private one ( that one is carrying the bulk of my trading funds).



happy weekend!

PS. planning to write up some thoughts on continued motivation and goals settings as i see it now, a couple of months down the road trading full time, if time permits probably this weekend. since the thread is quite, i think most isnt interested in these thoughts much, not that i am getting many technical questions, lol.

PPS. decided to withdraw some money from ICM. took some time on this, as still looking to build my trading equity up. but having a long runish profit run, taking out from active trading circulation 10% of ICM funds seem to be a good precaution. bank transfer out represent around 5.5% of total equity, leaving still enough to satisfy my target trading equity needs, but the same time cover some of the ongoing and upcoming expenses.
money has a function in end of the day, and i made some years ago the mistake not paying myself regularly ( and there we are on topic about the ongoing goals and motivation...)