pipprincess' trading journal

I thought i'd take a leaf out of other people's book and start my own blog. Im hoping this will be a be a good way for me to keep track of my reasons for taking trades, as I don't use any "system" to speak of. Instead i watch price action, s/r and trendlines on different time frames, so it can be quite confusing when im reviewing things sometimes and i want this to help focus me, especially on my mistakes. I'm still fairly new to this; i found FX in early '05 and went live about 6 months later. '07 has been the first year that i haven't blown an account, and actually i've been overall profitable this year thanks to risk management. But still alot to learn and any help or comments are most welcome. As much as i can ill post my observations and trades in real time; wish me luck!

Hi pipprincess,

I won't wish you luck ... I'll wish you much success!!

^^ Thank you!

GJ, Long @ 227.85, SL 226.50, open target.

Missed the start of the down move at London open. I was waiting for a pullback to go short, but after the rejection at 226.50, the break upwards of 227.70 looked like a resumption of Friday's long. Long at 227.85 - not a great price, but it shouldn't matter too much if it works out the way it looks. Mental alarm bells @ 227, hard stop @ the day low.

Great thread pipprincess, i'll be watching it closely. Wish you lots of success and lots of profit.

^^ Thanks hon ~~ wishing the same to you too!

Wow.. that was some boring price action after i took that trade; glad i wasn't watching it! Tightened the stop on it to 227.30, around where the pullback from the London high ended. Im in serious danger of being bored out of this now though; the move i thought might happen (another test of 229) didn't play out, but I'm up around +30 at the minute and I'm usually out of my day trades by this time. So, trying to decide if this is worth holding or close and take a fresh look at it tomorrow.

Nothings really happened yet to shake my reason for taking today's long trade, but boredom won and i just closed it for +43 @ 228.28 Will see what things look like again tomorrow at London open.

Yep, I've been waiting for the break off 229 for a couple of days myself and it has been slow going indeed. I picked up a few pips after the open yesterday short, then went long for a few and I'm short again now for something to do. I'm working the 5m charts at the moment and so far it's been going ok although still slow.

Good luck pipprincess!

Good morning MickD. Yeah... seems like we were looking at the same thing yesterday. It didn't work out to plan, but i read your blog and i thought you played it excellently.

Anywhoo... I thought a break of the swing low to 227.20 looked promising earlier. Got the slightly better price of 227.24 with a stop 70 pips away at the top of the pullback. Things looking better now the monday low's been broken. Around +100 at the minute.

Closed @ 226.19 for +105. Reason: the down move looks exhausted in the short term and i'm happy with the pips gained for today.

Hi pipprincess, goodluck in your journal, i just have a few questions for you. When you say you use price action do you use pin bars, inside bars, candlesticks, aslo are you trading full time?
I have been trading for a year and have mixed results so i want to move forward and trade full time within the next year.

Hi Fxtrader,

No, im not trading full time yet; i want to see *at least* another full year of profitable trading before i think im ready for that, so if things work out ill be trading full time some time in '09. As for price action, I find it difficult to adapt to pin bars visually, so i use candlesticks and plan the trades on IBFX metatrader charts.

Hope this helps.

Possible trade tomorrow: Short on a break down of 225.85/60 with a stop at the top of the overnight rally. Not seeing anything to trigger a long as it looks right now, but it's just a provisional plan anyway. Everything could look very different at London open and if that's the case oh well... back to the drawing board...

Wow.. things sure do look different, so scrapping the above for now... i've no clue if what's happening now is a pull back on the long (226.50 - 227.40) or part of the retracement of the short (228.40 - 225.55). London open will give some more clues hopefully. The new lines i've drawn are just watch levels.

Just sold the break down of 226.90, slightly better at 226.93. SL at 227.43, the high of the overnight long. Open target.

Reason: price broke one of my watch levels as posted above. An agressive trade for me, but the stop not too far away and risk managed. Also, cable was looking very heavy while UJ was stood still.

I just closed it for +52. Reason: wasn't expecting the move to be so fast and I get nervous in fast markets, even if they're in my direction.

+200 for the week now, and i might leave it at that for the week. It's NFP on Friday anyway and i don't usually NFP days cos the markets act weird - waiting around all day and then going crazy!

All my watch levels broken now... i didn't stay in and maximise profits but i hope someone else did and made money.

very nice work. I got the same move on EUR/JPY after price failed to hold above the R1 pivot and created a shooting star on the hourly. I targeted previous resistence to act as support and bagged 50 pips. I also started in '05 and this is also the first year without a fried account - lol. We walk the same path it seems.

Well done MACDoug and thanks for the encouragement. Wishing you luck on your journey.

Well, it's been a decent week and i don't want to spoil it, but... gold looked sooo good for a short earlier at 802.25. That box on the chart is an order i messed up by cancelling it accidentally (luckily before it triggered!!), and i took it at 802.28 at market instead. Just a small position on this because i know gold can be EXTREMELY volatile at times.. it can make GJ look like EUR/GBP!

Short @ 802.28, original SL at the day highabove 807, moved down to the high of the 15 min pullback at 803.88, open target, conservative risk management.

... decided to make it a scalp. +40 @ 801.88 and I'm not really in the mood anymore; maybe im just pissed cos i made that fearful newbie mistake earlier and closed a good trade early - so im gonna call it a day.