pipprincess' trading journal

I know i posted about it yesterday, but if this SNAFU didn't teach me to stay flat during big news then nothing would. NFP spiked me out by about 30 pips (which is nothing for gold), then it ran straight up past my 803.00 level. So "thank you" Market for that lesson and i won't EVER try that on my live acount!

Stopped @ 797.18 for -230. Strangely enough though, it hasn't eaten all the profits from my gj which was only +41. Not really sure why pip values for gold vary so much with different brokers.

Anyway, i look foward to normal trading again next week; just two to go before Christmas. Thanks everyone for all the well wishes, encouragement and contributions and have a nice weekend.

Hope everyone had a nice weekend.

There's some changes on my charts because starting this week im testing an idea in a demo. Im happy with my live daytrading method at the moment, but i also need a way that let's me trade without checking the charts during the day - so that's what this is about. Only the thin blue lines are the w/levels for live trading, everything else is for the demo. I won't post every twist and turn of the experiment, but i might put up a statement after it's been going for a while.

So, the w/levels are light blue; gonna see what the overnight market does to them and check back before London opens.

Okay, things haven't changed too much. I think a channel might be useful here as well as the w/levels. Atm the bias is up and the candles becoming spikey-bottom above 226.50, so im thinking about going long around 227.00. Staying flat for now to see what London does.

Took gj long @ the 227.30 w/level with a target of 50 pips. Target 227.80 hit about 10 minutes ago and that's good enough for me. Monday is often an unlucky day for me so it would take ALOT to make me go back into the market today... it would have to be something i thought was really good!

Okay, these are my w/levels for the overnight session. Will be back to look again before London.

... and i've missed everything. Looks like we're going up again today, but hanging back for now and waiting for some pull back before i even think about doing anything...

Same mistake, now two weeks in a row. Chased price after it broke out of the 229.40 w/level, went long @ 229.60, stopped out for break even. Thinking i might be better off placing orders instead of entering @ market... maybe that will help.

This is one of those days when i thank ye gods for stop losses because i wasn't around when this happened. I went long at 229.40 on after a pull back below, sl at the bottom of the pullback, it didn't work, out for -50. I got my price this time and the sl was in the right place, so no mistakes - i just got it wrong. Thinking i should leave it at that today and take a fresh look at everything tomorrow. Break even week so far.

GREAT Outlook......you were simply wrong on trade direction but right on everything else you did.....bought pullback....placed stop....took loss and move on.....EXCELLENT

I feel your pain, in fact I even wrote myself a little proverb to remember in the style of TAOW.

"Don't send your soldiers into a battle that is taking ground quickly lest your soldiers be trampled in a hasty retreat!"

cheers, and keep on pippin' on,
Mick.

excellent proverb. It is the worst possible time for entry and nearly always ends in tears. I need all the help I can get to resist the temptation so Im adding your proverb to my list of trading tools

btw I entered short eur/jpy last session after it broke the central pivot and got 200 pips. I used stochastic and bollinger bandwidth to trigger the trade on the pivot point break. If I only ever took those set ups I would hardly ever lose, thats another lesson Im waiting to learn

Thanks M.A.C.Doug, I have a few more I'm working on as I go, I just finished TAOW and I'm meditating on it a bit further, will post them in my journal soon, better get this one up for starters.

Thanks for the encouragement swingtrader - it's nice to hear feedback on trading psych; that's one of the main reasons i made this blog was to help me in that area. MickD that proverb is good advice - i'll remember it next time price is getting away from me instead of trying to catch it.

Watching gj again: they bought it cheap overnight like they usually do after a big drop, but atm it's still looking like a retracement of the short. I'm watching this on a three tfs but the 15 min looks the most interesting with it's spikey top around 227.30 If it's not broken, then im thinking that's the end of the retracement and a short from 226.80 could be worth a try. Just first impressions of the market though - im gonna wait this out for more clues.

Edit: actually that 226.80 level can be 226.60. If it keeps long then im waiting on a pull back.

What a day - and i missed it. I wasn't around for the pullback at 9 am GMT, but when i got back to the charts i made a set up to long @ 227.50 with a stop at the bottom of the pullback. It woulda worked - and im glad for that even though i wasn't able to get in it. I didn't chase it this time though, even though it prolly would have been profitable this time, i need to learn that lesson so i bagged some pips on a demo instead (and im not gonna count that, otherwise i have to count the gold fiasco of last Friday. )

This week is nothing so far pip wise, but on the good side; it's break even not minus and im still on target because of a good week last week. I think i just need to take care not to try to force a trade on Thursday and Friday; just stick to doing things the normal way and i'll be okay.

PA of late tells me trading is over for the year - its ugly out there!

Merry Christmas everyone. have a nice break, forget the market and go spend some quality time with friends and family. Its been a great year at FF for me. Ive learned alot from all of you so Ill see you all again next year

I think you're right MACDoug, it sure is ugly and this is prolly the market's way of telling us thanksbye, lol.. but i kept my word, i said i wouldn't try forcing anything and i didn't.

I'll be enjoying my break soon and have yourself a very Merry Christmas too!

^^Ditto that about the market...sheesh! I got burned yesterday. oh well.

All the best for Chrissy and the New Year guys. I think I might take it easy and work on my MM strategy for the new year, then I think I'll go live.
Cheers,
Mick.

Sounds like a good plan Mick.

Apart from a longer term position i took on Friday night I haven't done anything since i last updated.

I took a long cable from 2.0200 when because that's the bottom of a channel the pair's been respecting since last year (sl @ 1.9800) on one of my sub accounts, but these aren't my kind of markets for day trading, so im also winding it down for now until we're into the new year.

It will be next week before i get back into this properly, but i need to make a couple of updates.

I closed the above trade @ 1.9936 for a loss of -264. Nothing like as bad as it sounds because i only penny trade on this sub account and i use it like a demo. Still, ill be sticking to my tried and tested pullback/breakout method for my regular trading because i know what im doing with it, while trading "bounce" off of s/r feels like trying to pick the top/bottom, i guess.

This was a regular account trade: I placed an order last night to short GJ if the price returned to 224.20, SL just above the 224.90 high. Closed manually @ 223.50 for +70 a couple of hours after it was triggered. Nice 'n easy.. wish it was always like this.