Hi all,
I decided to finally begin a trade journal to prove to myself that I can do it, and hopefully help any others who may read this not make a few of the million mistakes I have made along my way. Im calling this the dumb blonde trading diary because often I really feel like Im making dumb blonde mistakes…or asking dumb blonde questions or thinking dumb blonde thoughts…no offense meant to anyone…not especially myself, Im willing to forgive me for it…it’s the nature of the game I think.
Ive been trading for almost three years and I have to say I haven’t tried it all but pretty close…Ive traded news (yeah yeah I know what youre going to say) and Ive traded technicals, but Ive never really had a system of my own to follow…until recently. On my journey I have decided that I personally prefer the higher timeframes, I like trend trading and I am working up to making a consistent profit I can live on every month…Im not there yet, but I have been profitable in a small way for about a year now, which I am very happy about.
On saying that I have to give huge thanks to Jim at J16 and all the helpful posters over there, as well as more recently Jacko, who I have been following avidly, and a few trading buddies who have put up with me along the way.
Ok my first piece of advice I would give to anyone is forget the money. If you can hide your p&l I would do that immediately, you have to disassociate yourself from the money right away…its got to be a numbers game not a money game.
What I am working on personally here and what I will be posting are my trades using what I think is essential …a scaling in scaling out of positions. I recently read (thanks to cateful) a thread called ¨How to trade for a company¨ in which there are many very interesting posts by a trader called trader888. I think I had my AHA moment when I read what he posted about scaling in and out of positions. The penny dropped right then…I have been trying to understand about adding to positions for such a long time, but I know you are never meant to add to a loser, but it seems so risky to add to a winner…so what to do??
Anyway, the key is never to enter with a full position, I am the dumb blonde here remember so Im going to say anyone with good advice about exactly how this methodology works is welcome to butt in and tell me the correct way to go about it…but in the meantime I am going to have a go with my oanda micro account…Its obviously absolutely crazy to enter a position with your maximum risk, what we want to do is minimize the risk and maximise profits…as in stay in with your largest position possible the longest time, and get out as quickly as possible with the smallest position possible when the market goes against you.
So,the plan is, decide my bias on a pair, for example currently eurusd LONG bias, and decide on my buy area, and around that area start buying, but not with a full position, say half to start and then add on dips as it goes in my favour, or cut as it goes against me from say 50 pips.
So this strategy is what I am working on for long term positions…I am going to start now taking a 100 unit position (wooohooo this is big time folks) on oanda long at 1.4840, and will allow it to go against me 50 pips at which point I would close this position and reassess the market,perhaps look for a new entry point lower down . Ideally I would trail the position by 50 pips but as Oanda doesn’t have ts then Im stuffed
basically. On the other hand if this decides to go up from here, I will add another 100 units once we have had a push up and a pull back, say another 50 pips above here…
Ah and of course anyone reading this will understand that this works with whatever strategy you have in mind, I am not going to discuss any particular strategy just my addition and subtraction on each one…so no questions about why do I get in here or whatever please…normally though it will be a fib pullback on a longer move or a PA setup of some kind …ok that’s all for now, Speak soon, Raz
PS My worse fear is that I start this and then cant be consistent so really hoping to keep it up...
I decided to finally begin a trade journal to prove to myself that I can do it, and hopefully help any others who may read this not make a few of the million mistakes I have made along my way. Im calling this the dumb blonde trading diary because often I really feel like Im making dumb blonde mistakes…or asking dumb blonde questions or thinking dumb blonde thoughts…no offense meant to anyone…not especially myself, Im willing to forgive me for it…it’s the nature of the game I think.
Ive been trading for almost three years and I have to say I haven’t tried it all but pretty close…Ive traded news (yeah yeah I know what youre going to say) and Ive traded technicals, but Ive never really had a system of my own to follow…until recently. On my journey I have decided that I personally prefer the higher timeframes, I like trend trading and I am working up to making a consistent profit I can live on every month…Im not there yet, but I have been profitable in a small way for about a year now, which I am very happy about.
On saying that I have to give huge thanks to Jim at J16 and all the helpful posters over there, as well as more recently Jacko, who I have been following avidly, and a few trading buddies who have put up with me along the way.
Ok my first piece of advice I would give to anyone is forget the money. If you can hide your p&l I would do that immediately, you have to disassociate yourself from the money right away…its got to be a numbers game not a money game.
What I am working on personally here and what I will be posting are my trades using what I think is essential …a scaling in scaling out of positions. I recently read (thanks to cateful) a thread called ¨How to trade for a company¨ in which there are many very interesting posts by a trader called trader888. I think I had my AHA moment when I read what he posted about scaling in and out of positions. The penny dropped right then…I have been trying to understand about adding to positions for such a long time, but I know you are never meant to add to a loser, but it seems so risky to add to a winner…so what to do??
Anyway, the key is never to enter with a full position, I am the dumb blonde here remember so Im going to say anyone with good advice about exactly how this methodology works is welcome to butt in and tell me the correct way to go about it…but in the meantime I am going to have a go with my oanda micro account…Its obviously absolutely crazy to enter a position with your maximum risk, what we want to do is minimize the risk and maximise profits…as in stay in with your largest position possible the longest time, and get out as quickly as possible with the smallest position possible when the market goes against you.
So,the plan is, decide my bias on a pair, for example currently eurusd LONG bias, and decide on my buy area, and around that area start buying, but not with a full position, say half to start and then add on dips as it goes in my favour, or cut as it goes against me from say 50 pips.
So this strategy is what I am working on for long term positions…I am going to start now taking a 100 unit position (wooohooo this is big time folks) on oanda long at 1.4840, and will allow it to go against me 50 pips at which point I would close this position and reassess the market,perhaps look for a new entry point lower down . Ideally I would trail the position by 50 pips but as Oanda doesn’t have ts then Im stuffed
basically. On the other hand if this decides to go up from here, I will add another 100 units once we have had a push up and a pull back, say another 50 pips above here…
Ah and of course anyone reading this will understand that this works with whatever strategy you have in mind, I am not going to discuss any particular strategy just my addition and subtraction on each one…so no questions about why do I get in here or whatever please…normally though it will be a fib pullback on a longer move or a PA setup of some kind …ok that’s all for now, Speak soon, Raz
PS My worse fear is that I start this and then cant be consistent so really hoping to keep it up...
Never say never.
..thnks BW, Raz
, well we could pool the 50 cents Im going to make on this euro trade and with a bit of compounding...just kiddin, take care, Raz