Bodra's Trade Journal round 2

OK, so I accidentally closed my previous journal without even putting anything in it. Woops. This is my second attempt. This is simply a place for me to track my trades. Let's go.

I'll add details of my trading system as I go.

Main theory is I trade with the trend. To assist with this I have weekly pivots plotted.

Rule 1: If price is below the Weekly pivot, only trade short. If price is above the pivot, only trade long.

S USD/CAD @ 1.0079

Target 1.0000

Stopped out -39 pips

Wasn't the cleanest of signals. Oh well. Can't win them all.
Looks like I may have set my stop a bit tight.

L EUR/JPY @ 156.74


Stop moved to 156.80

Stop moved to 157.20

Stop moved to 157.40

Stopped out at 157.40 +66 pips

L Gold @ 919.6


Moved stop to breakeven

Stop moved to 920.5 - Possible signs that the retrace could go further. Want to lock in some profit.

Summary of day one.

Trade on the USD/CAD was a good signal it turns out. I just had my stop a little tight.

EUR/JPY was a great signal. Could have gotten more out of it but everyone has to sleep sometime.

Gold is still running. Stop is at breakeven at the moment. I'm still waiting for a good support level to move up to. If we get some good movement up this morning then I'll move the stop to 925.0

Day 1 Closed pips: +27

Today's trading plan.

Pretty much all the USD pair are showing support or resistance levels that need to be broken for the trend to continue. I'll wait for these to be broken or wait for price to retreat and show reversal at a previous level.

L EUR/USD @ 1.4786

Stopped out on my gold trade.

+9 pips.


Stopped out on EUR/USD

-46 pips


Still got work to do on my exits. I'm trying to let my profits run and that's fine. I know I'll give back a lot of pips at times, but that's fine because I'll pick up more when I hit a trend. I need to be more vigilant in cutting my losses though. I should have bailed out of the Eur/USD trade earlier.

L USD/JPY @ 107.12


Closed @ 106.95 -17 pips

Tuesday 29th Jan Summary

Not a good day.
Gold was up +100 at one stage. Only manged to take 9 out of it.
EUR/USD trade was a dubious trade. I should have waited for a better signal. As it was though I should have closed the trade earlier.
USD/JPY - Not a great signal. Way too choppy. Lesson learned on this one though was to close the trade as soon as it's obvious the trade is going against me. -17 pips is better than -60

So action points from today:

1) Cut losses
2) Patience. Wait for the nice, clean, low risk trades.

EOD: -55 pips

2 positions opened this morning

S USD/CHF @ 1.0916 (Bad fill - should have been more like 1.0921)

Closed at breakeven


S USD/CAD @ 0.9971

Closed @ 0.9958 +13 pips

I took a Long on GBP/USD @ 1.9915

I was stupid enough to keep it open during the NFP release and ended up dropping 43 pips. The spikiness and inevitability of this trade turning into a loser caused me to bail on my USD/CAD position to offset the losses. I had already moved my stop on the CAD position to breakeven ahead of the news so I should have just let that one run. The Cable trade was in profit but too close to my breakeven point to move the stop so I should have just closed it. If I had taken those actions then I would have taken 8 pips on the Cable trade and still be in my CAD position up around 30 pips.

Once again I'm showing I've got to get smarter with my exits. All 3 entries today were good, but it's the exits that are killing me.

Lesson for today:

Protect positions ahead of major news

1 Silly trade from yesterday

S USD/CAD = -49pips

It was a pretty stupid trade really. There had been a big reversal sign. It pays to check the higher time fames.

Still making a lot of mistakes, but then that's what this journal is here for. To keep track of trades I have taken and analyze what I've done wrong.

It hasn't been a great week for trending. I think a lot of people were expecting the continuing weakening of the dollar, but news hasn't exactly supported that. It's been very choppy. Having said that, the 4hr time frame has looked a lot more stable. I'm starting to buy into the "anything less than 4hrs is just noise" theory.

Todays outlook: NFP today, and charts all across the board a consolidating getting ready for the news. Today is a good day to wait it out I think.

Total for last week.

-107 pips

New position

L EUR/USD @ 1.4823

Closed @ 1.4826

+3 pips

Weak price action. Looked like it still had some upside, but after 12 hours i felt it was getting into gambling territory. There was no clear direction.

Playing catchup a little here.

I entered 2 positions yesterday.

S EUR/USD @ 1.4610

S GBP/USD @ 1.9595

I watched both of these go sideways through most of yesterday and today ahead of interest announcements. There were mixed opinions all over the place talking about how the EUR would go long or how it was headed for 1.43.

In the end the charts told me everything I needed to know.

I've closed both positions now as my targets were met.

EUR/USD @ 1.4502 +108 pips
GBP/USD @ 1.9471 +124 pips

May have been a bit premature on closing these but there is housing data later today and I'm reading both of these being way oversold now. I rest easier knowing there are pips in the bank.

More catchup

I finished off last week with a couple of minor losses both due to market stagnation

Friday Feb 8

L GBP/JPY @ 209.38 - Closed at 209.30 = -8 pips

S USD/JPY @ 107.39 - Closed at 107.44 = -5 pips

It seems after going though my trading statement I failed to record a 20 pip loss on EUR/USD. Thus the need to keep my journal updated.

So end of Feb week 1

Total +202 pips

This was a much better week. I was more patient and quicker to cut losses but at the same time using the 4 hour chart to look for appropriate stops. All positions were closed manually which is what I want in the end.

Start of this week has been slow. I picked up a quick short trade on the USD/JPY

S USD/JPY @ 107.17

I ran out of confidence in this trade and closed it for +39 pips

I also entered a short on the EUR

S EUR/USD @ 1.4505

Which i subsequently bailed on for -16 pips. This pair seems to be trapped between 1.4500 and 1.4550 at the moment.