Pippin' Ain't Easy with fxpipper

Hey everyone, I decided to start a journal to chronicle my trading adventures, as I've started a new $50K prop firm challenge.

Max trailing drawdown is 5% of the account or $2,500, so risk per trade will be based off that amount. Basically I'm treating it like a $2,500 account. What is the cardinal rule of trading risk? 2% of your account size, so I will be risking $50 per trade or less. The best part for me is there is no time limit to complete the challenge, unlike FTMO, which I don't think I'd be able to pass. Also this is only one-step approval. Max daily drawdown is 4% or $2,000.

Target I'm looking to achieve is 10% or $5,000. After that, I am funded. So far I am up $71 (yay!)

So I'll share my trades here that I've taken, and some setups I'm looking at as well. I'll try to update as much as I can. I'm also going to attach a TE, once I figure out how to do it.

So here we go...

First couple of trades were done Sunday night on EU, (admittedly not the best time to look at this pair), and both were screwups - first one was just a horrible entry, as I was fooled by what looked like strong breakout. The second was a much better precision entry. First was targeting a very shitty not even 1:2 RR, second a much better 1:6. Both were eventually running together and went into some profit, but I was asleep when that happened so I missed out on said profit. I woke up the next morning and saw the trades back in drawdown, but held on hoping for a surprise turnaround, but it didn't happen and both were stopped out for a combined $70 loss. So I guess it was good to get that out of the way first.

A couple of days later I looked at UJ and identified liquidity being created on both sides of the market. I put a sell limit order in the supply zone above believing it would be hit first and then come crashing down to take the bottom liquidity. It did crash alright, during FOMC, but missed my entry by a 2.3 pips and blew through my target, which was the demand zone, in a very short time. Would've been a 1:10 if this hit. Even went as far as the lower demand zone, which would've been close to 1:18. So annoying!

Another missed trade happened last night. I was looking at EU again and saw the large rise which I attributed to a Wyckoffian upthrust (UT) aka liquidity grab, which this pair has been doing over and over again since June/July of 2021. I'm of the mindset that we're in a clear downtrend, so up moves cannot be trusted. I put a sell limit in in the middle of supply zone, and yesterday evening price got close but never triggered it. Literally one pip short. This would've been almost 1:11 RR. But it is what it is.

Then finally a winning trade. Saw a break-and-retest happening, and put in a sell stop and got in. Was targeting 1:6 overall. SL was a bit too wide at 20 pips, could've cut it down by 7 pips or so to give myself a better RR. But oh well. I went to sleep with the trade in motion, and woke up to see myself in good profit. I moved SL to BE and watched it consolidate on the 15m. Not fully sure if this was going to be a legit down move, I closed out the trade at NY open, fearing a reversal. Turned out to be a bad move, as I only got a little less than 1:3 out of it. Price ended up getting within a couple of pips of my target. But it's all good. I admit I do need to let these trades play out, or at least start taking partial profits instead of closing the whole thing. This has always been a weakness of mine.

So that's it so far. I am looking to sell EU again at the same price that I got out this morning. I see price is getting there slowly. Let's see what happens.

Future posts will not be as in-depth as far as explanation goes, probably just a chart pic and small blurb.

We'll see how it goes.

Happy trading.

New trade last night on UJ. Was long at 130.44 which was a perfect buy limit in the middle of the demand zone. Trade hardly went into drawdown while I was awake, and even went into decent profit as high as 1:2. Before going to bed I moved SL to BE, but when I awoke I was stopped out with zero damage.

Actually made a few cents on it.

Obviously this had one more leg down to travel, which was the lower demand zone. Oh well, next time.

Oh wow great idea ! I will definitely be reading you. You always take good care of your posts and explain things really clearly, which I have much enjoyed (and been lightly jealous of to be honest since my communication skills are ) Looking forward to this!

Oh stop it. Your communication is wonderful, and the funny pictures add a lot to your posts.

Thanks for the kind words, buddy. I hope to share good info and analysis.

So like I posted in Ata's thread, my EU outlook for next week is below.

Wow great to see you finally have your own thread! Looking forward to learning a lot from you and wishing you the best of luck on your challenge!

Great trading day today. Overnight buy on EU, and two sells that triggered this morning.

The buy position almost got stopped out by a hair. Was literally 0.2 pips away from being a loss, but it turned around and shot up. I woke up at 7:30 this morning and saw myself in good profit, and just closed it where I drew the black line. Making decisions upon waking up is not really a good idea, as you're not able to think clearly. I was originally targeting 1:5.5, as I was looking at the 1hr imbalance. Still ended up with 1:3.6.

The two sell positions were 1/2 risk each, so combined they were $50. Was targeting the very low liquidity level at around 0471. One trade was targeting 1:4.2 and the other one 1:7.6 or so. Combined almost 1:12. Saw it drop and was *thinking* of getting out at the bottom of the 15m imbalance around 0518. Been watching a lot of ICT material lately, and he's heavy on the imbalances for targets. I could hear him screaming in my head, but I ignored it. Price then shot up pretty fast and my sixth sense told this wasn't going to be a normal retracement, but a reversal to go higher, so I got out at 0535 or so, (the black line). Good thing I did because it kept going up. Combined RR was about 1:4, but since they were half positions each then the RR gets cut in half too, so let's say roughly 1:2.

Total RR of all trades today was 5.6. Not a bad day.

Price has completely absorbed the 1hr supply zone I was looking at, and I see further topside liquidity right now that I think will be tapped before crashing down. Let's see what happens overnight and tomorrow.

Might look at some UJ or GJ tonight.

Cheers.

Took a loss today on EU.

Was up 1:1 for a second, then it started falling. Price seems to have stalled where it stopped me out. Watch it shoot up during Asia.

Oh well, all part of trading.

Hello, here's a couple of trades I took Wednesday evening on UJ on the 1m time frame. First one was a complete dud. I was impatient and paid the price. It didn't even satisfy my entry criteria, but I took it anyway and was swiftly stopped out. No biggie.

Second one was better. Almost got stopped out early. Entry was short at 129.86, SL was 129.91, so 5 pips. Was targeting something like 1:16 RR. TradingView had me stopped out but my broker didn't, so I adjusted the TradingView position simulator to 129.911 for visual presentation sake. Watched it go down to about 129.72 or so and took a 75% partial, and then moved SL to BE. Not just BE, but 129.852 or something like that to cover commissions. Bad idea that was. Price came back up to stop me there and then absolutely tanked the rest of the night and into the next day, so I missed out on a LOT of profit. I'm still a little pissed off about it, but I'll get over it. I'm not going to be moving SL to BE anymore - at least not beyond BE. Until price has gone considerably in my favor.

Anyway, it's a new week and I'm doing some micro shorts on EU, where I'm not really looking at RR. Let's see where that goes.

I haven't been around much, and have pretty much abandoned this thread. I remember I was so pumped when I first started it, but it became so exhausting keeping that same level of energy going, so I just punked out.

But I did a couple of great trades today that I felt the need to share. I've sort of scaled back on my Forex trading and focused more on the S&P 500 (SPX500 CFD), and am finding it much less problematic. I began studying ICT's material and he is phenomenal. The level of precision is uncanny. I highly recommend checking out his 2022 Mentorship on YouTube, which is 100% free of cost. You just have to invest your time. I rushed into it and experienced a longer learning curve that I should have, and as a consequence my prop firm challenge account went into drawdown. A little while ago I made the commitment to stop procrastinating and take this seriously and invest the time, and as a result I haven't had a losing month since June and the account is doing much better. Things feel like things are finally starting to click, as I am getting better and better.

So today I took a couple of trades on the S&P, both hit for good profit. First one was about 1:4 RR, second one I got lucky on, as it was supposed to be a 1:3.5 or so, but the price moved so fast that it slipped my TP by almost 10 points and I ended up with close to 1:5 RR. Had a small loss earlier in the day trying to short, but that's okay.

I took these entries based on what I learned from ICT's teachings. Basically identify the high and low liquidity points and look for Imbalances and OBs and enter off those. Ridiculously simple stuff, but so effective. I made sure to avoid the NY lunch hour and took my second trade off the OB that formed. Went up farther and faster than I anticipated.

Overall I'm happy today.