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My simple journal... Read at your own risk.

  • #1
  • First Post: Nov 6, 2006 8:31pm Nov 6, 2006 8:31pm
Ok. Last night started my first week of trading with a new mechanical plan. I love to gamble, so until I can save those urges for the craps table, there will be no discretion involved. My plan was to solely concentrate on the pound-dollar, and use MarkJ's strategy (daily range trading thread). I was also contemplating using Micardo's strategy, but in times of emergency... as will be explained in a paragraph or two.
To make a long story short, I overslept and didn't wake up at the London open (I'm near Philly - effin' Eagles). What the shit... after all calculations were done, my drunken late night Saturday (and lack of sleep) caused me to miss $440.00 (44 pips). That's alright... I still have Micardo's strat... (50 pips from 00:00 GMT, go for 30 pips). So I place the trade, because I was like 52-53 pips from my base price. Back to sleep I went. Fast forward ----> closed the day out down 17 pips. That's alright, I have faith in either strategy.
Moral of the story - Being one half of the team to beat on the beer pong table leads to possible disasters in your trading gameplan. Those two hours of glory cost me a gross total of 61 pips.
Get to sleep now to wake in 3.5 hours and implement Markj's strategy. Hopefully it will work out tonight.
P.S. I hate my tenants. Why do they think I'm rich? I don't own houses... the banks own me. I hurt my wrist repeatedly punching a heavy bag, while picturing one of their faces. Let's see if I get paid tomorrow.
  • #2
  • Nov 7, 2006 7:40am Nov 7, 2006 7:40am
I'm such an asshole. I implemented the strategy and got stopped out for a loss of $600.00. Shit! I was comfortable with it taking my straddle short, but I was shell-shocked and didn't replace my entry order for going long again, once the strategy called for it. WHY!!!??? ...Because emotion got the best of me. If I would have followed my plan perfectly, I would have made back $440.00 of the initial loss, with my stop loss moved to break even on the final position.

Hey asshole. You are gambling and trying to guess where the market is going. This is not for fun or your own enjoyment. You have decided on a system that has been backtested successfully, and forward tested successfully. Stick to it. Now I have no entry and unless the pound decides to take a serious drop, I cannot enter into the market until 3:00 am tonight. Learn your lesson. Trust the system. Losses will happen.
  • #3
  • Nov 7, 2006 7:45am Nov 7, 2006 7:45am
Why I must follow the rules of my system:
1. To become financially wealthy and no longer stress over money.
2. To give my family everything it needs or desires.
3. To free myself from all of my rental properties and the asshole tenants that come with them.
4. To reinvest in vacation property.

Trading is simple if you can master yourself. You've done it with real estate when everybody told you not to. You have milked it for all it is worth, but it is time to move on and forget about the headaches of other peoples lives.
  • #4
  • Nov 7, 2006 7:55am Nov 7, 2006 7:55am
Hmmm...Living on the east coast and waking up at the London open, back to sleep, audible alarm goes off when a price area is hit = wake up again, back to sleep, wake up to go to work at 'normal time', 1pm in the afternoon tired as hell with bags under my eyes large enough to go grocery shopping with, home at 5pm, tired as a mo-fo by 7pm, day after day...sounds very familiar. It was getting to me quickly. BUT, I was making money BUT, I was a extremely tired in the afternoons, BUT, I was making money, it finally got to me and had to abandon those hours. Hope things work out better for you. I've got about 3 weeks of leave before the year is out so I'll be up for that at least.
  • #5
  • Nov 7, 2006 8:14am Nov 7, 2006 8:14am
Quoting brick911
Ok. Last night started my first week of trading with a new mechanical plan. I love to gamble, so until I can save those urges for the craps table, there will be no discretion involved. My plan was to solely concentrate on the pound-dollar, and use MarkJ's strategy (daily range trading thread). I was also contemplating using Micardo's strategy, but in times of emergency... as will be explained in a paragraph or two.
To make a long story short, I overslept and didn't wake up at the London open (I'm near Philly - effin' Eagles). What the shit... after all calculations were done, my drunken late night Saturday (and lack of sleep) caused me to miss $440.00 (44 pips). That's alright... I still have Micardo's strat... (50 pips from 00:00 GMT, go for 30 pips). So I place the trade, because I was like 52-53 pips from my base price. Back to sleep I went. Fast forward ----> closed the day out down 17 pips. That's alright, I have faith in either strategy.
Moral of the story - Being one half of the team to beat on the beer pong table leads to possible disasters in your trading gameplan. Those two hours of glory cost me a gross total of 61 pips.
Get to sleep now to wake in 3.5 hours and implement Markj's strategy. Hopefully it will work out tonight.
P.S. I hate my tenants. Why do they think I'm rich? I don't own houses... the banks own me. I hurt my wrist repeatedly punching a heavy bag, while picturing one of their faces. Let's see if I get paid tomorrow.

How much of your account are you risking per trade? $440 for 44 pips means 10 minilots...I wouldn't be trading with 10 lots a trade without at least a 5000 balance. That could be half of your problem, the emotions wouldn't be so strong if you risked less.
  • #6
  • Nov 7, 2006 8:59am Nov 7, 2006 8:59am
I've got a $10,000 account on this one. I'm still an amateur though. Feel free to tell me I'm an idiot. I need to break this mental block.
  • #7
  • Nov 7, 2006 9:49am Nov 7, 2006 9:49am
Quoting brick911
I've got a $10,000 account on this one. I'm still an amateur though. Feel free to tell me I'm an idiot. I need to break this mental block.
well I've never heard of a forex trader who didn't blow their first account. I would start with a smaller amount, because in the next few weeks or months, the 10,000 will be tuition for your forex learning. The secret is, the price of this tuition is up to you. It doesn't have cost 10,000, it probably could cost as little as 300-500. And then the 1000s you've saved will be waiting for you when you've mastered the art.
  • #8
  • Nov 7, 2006 10:28am Nov 7, 2006 10:28am
Brick911.... I'm happy to see you trying to stick to rules.... They are important for so many things.

1. You extract emotions from your trades. As long as you are happy that you have done everything before hand then your trade should judt be a formality.

2. Having rules is the only way you can measure your progress effectivley. With out rules and reasons for entry as you quite rightly indicated you are gambling and you don't know why one trade won and another lost.

I am routing for you buddy.... Make it happen.
  • #9
  • Nov 8, 2006 4:58am Nov 8, 2006 4:58am
Ok - last night I set up my trades to make 14 pips on one position, and have the other two closed out -40 for a total of -26. I cannot reenter going long until after 9:00 am, if the opportunity is there.

Following the rules perfectly is a lot easier when your trades are proving successful. I cannot jump ship though. This is my plan and I am sticking to it. This is what happenned to me with the last few systems and I bailed because they weren't perfect.
  • #10
  • Nov 8, 2006 7:02am Nov 8, 2006 7:02am
Hey Brick.... you should be in profit by now right.... Took profit on lots one and two.... moved the third to break even. You should now make at least 18 pips today.

Its nice when in turns in your favour :-)
  • #11
  • Nov 8, 2006 7:11am Nov 8, 2006 7:11am
By the way a hunch as to why this week and last week have been ranging....

Last week you had Non Farm which always produces a thin week. This week you have the Mid Term Elections and the BOE interest rate announcement.

Mid Term Elections = people sitting on the fence until conclusion

BOE = People have priced in the Hike and are now just waiting.... I think if it stays the same then well see some good movement.

Once this week is over we can return to a few weeks of normality until next Non-Farm or FOMC.

I was speaking to a trader friend of mine the other day who does extremely well and he mentioned that Non farm week he nearly always come out breakeven or small loss.

This is why money management is key... These days/weeks do happen but as long as we can sustain it then we can prosper....
  • #12
  • Nov 8, 2006 7:25am Nov 8, 2006 7:25am
Thanks Micardo! Yeah, I am in profit right now. I moved my stop loss to break even, and avoided the HUGE urge to close it out with an additional $300+ profit. I'll cry if it gets stopped out, but this is part of my discipline training. I'm gonna have to get used to the idea of trusting the system and letting the trades run their course. Thanks for paying attention to my progress. Your thoughts are always welcome.
Bob
  • #13
  • Nov 8, 2006 7:32am Nov 8, 2006 7:32am
Lol no problem... Always happing to help.

Your Lucky... I am not trading those systems live yet as I don't have the screen time to monitor at the moment.

At the moment I am trading just a break out strategy and I was stopped out with a 30 pip loss on 2 lots so total 60 pips. Ouch.....

Part of my rules for this system is to only take one trade a day.......
  • #14
  • Nov 8, 2006 8:10am Nov 8, 2006 8:10am
Alright, my break even stop loss was hit a little while ago... waaah. Oh well. At this point I just placed entry orders at 1.9081 (20 pips from London open). If the price gets back to 1.9061, I will wait till the second hourly candle afterwards to replace my short order at 1.9041. I'm guessing I won't have any more orders placed today, but I will be prepared.

*Looks like I may have my first full day of error-free mechanical trading. Maybe I'll end up in profit.
  • #15
  • Edited 11:28am Nov 8, 2006 8:36am | Edited 11:28am
Quoting aicccia
well I've never heard of a forex trader who didn't blow their first account.
No offense but this is a terrible outlook for opening an account. You should think to yourself that it is a possiblilty if you don't follow your rules but it can be avoided if you stick to your plan. Simple as that.
  • #16
  • Nov 8, 2006 8:49am Nov 8, 2006 8:49am
Yeah - I first traded live on 8/24/06. I haven't blown my account - I've actually profited, although I've given a lot back through foolishness. I will say that I have overleveraged it in the past, but came out unscathed. But, with research and all the FF people, I have learned that I can't be lucky forever. I believe that I won't encounter this problem. I've listened to everyone who has traveled the forex road before me, and I have learned from their mistakes. I can definitely see how it happens to a lot of newcomers, though.
  • #17
  • Nov 8, 2006 9:31am Nov 8, 2006 9:31am
Quoting hidethereal
No offernse but this is a terrible outlook for opening an account. You should think to yourself that it is a possiblilty if you don't follow your rules but it can be avoided if you stick to your plan. Simple as that.
but how many newbie forex traders have a tested proven system and solid plan?
  • #18
  • Nov 8, 2006 11:28am Nov 8, 2006 11:28am
Quoting aicccia
but how many newbie forex traders have a tested proven system and solid plan?
The ones who take it seriously and trade like it's a business.
  • #19
  • Nov 8, 2006 11:35am Nov 8, 2006 11:35am
That's what I'm doing. At first it was exciting. Then I realized that I felt like I was in Atlantic City. Now, although I still feel it, I deal with the losses, and the wins don't excite me much because I know another loss could be around the corner. But like they, the turtle wins the race...
  • #20
  • Nov 8, 2006 12:26pm Nov 8, 2006 12:26pm
Quoting brick911
That's what I'm doing. At first it was exciting. Then I realized that I felt like I was in Atlantic City. Now, although I still feel it, I deal with the losses, and the wins don't excite me much because I know another loss could be around the corner. But like they, the turtle wins the race...
I'd be more proud of myself if I could pick up a rattlesnake like in your picture, lol. I live in Texas and I've never been a fan of them.
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