WhiteForex price action journal

Welcome to my journal
I will try to post here my daily eur/usd transactions and predictions.

Simple price action (chart and candlestick patterns) is something that inspires me mostly. Price action itself is therefore the most powerful system for me.

I am daytrader hunting for the main move of the day. Of all time frames daily, 4h and 1h are most important for me, because they are quite often telling me what to expect next. When I know what to expect I am shifting to lower time frames 30min, 15 min (my favorite) and 5min looking for opportunity to enter.

My basic trading formula is as fallows:

Long signals:
1) after the sight of bullish candlestick like: morning star, hammer, bullish piercing or bullish engulfing rejecting at least for a second time s/r level
2) after the first light candlestick ending (engulfing) a bullish flag consolidation or symmetrical triangle consolidation or rectangle consolidation, or bullish wedge.

Short signals
1) after the sight of a bearish candlestick pattern like: evening star, shooting star, hanging man, bearish engulfing or dark cloud rejecting at least for a second time s/r level
2) after the first dark candlestick ending (engulfing) a bearish flag consolidation or symmetrical triangle consolidation or rectangle consolidation or bearish wedge.

Exit strategy:

Initial S/L is depending on the time frame, but I do not feel comfortable to place larger stops than 30 pips that’s why I am finding entry point using 15 min charts (or 5 min sometimes). Most of the time my SL is 20 or 25pips.

- If I am scalping then my min. SL is -10pips and min TP + 10 pips
- If I see possibility of bigger move then my SL is maximum 30 pips.
- If price goes minimum 10 pips in my direction I am tightening my SL and seriously considering placing it at B/E point.
- When Price goes 20 pips in my direction I definitely place SL at B/E point.
- if price reaches nearest S/R level I protect ¼ of my profits by moving SL
- If I open few positions simultaneously I close some of them at different S/R levels.
- If I open one position only I am trailing it with kijun-sen (3-5 pips below it if going long). If price is going fast I use kijun-sen from 5 min chart and if price is going lazily I use kijun-sen from 15 min char.
- In case I open only one position usually my transactions are closed by SL but sometimes I am closing them manually when I have no faith that price will go more in my favor or they are closed by predefined target level (TP order) if it is reached first.
- I always try to calculate targets using price action and fibo but I do not always put TP order.

080331 Monday
It was consolidation day.
I made 4 scalping transactions; +4; +1; +35; 0.
Tomorrow price may go down.

I use PA as well but on longer timeframes, the only indicator i sometimes use is the MACD just for divergence. I look forward to see how you will trade using PA. Good luck in your journal

Thank you for kind words my friend

080401 Tuesday

It was nice trending day.
I made 4 transactions; +84; +6; +2; -9.
First entry was proper reaction on strong bearish signal from 15min chart.
Three other entries were some kind of 5min open scalping (without TP) with hope to catch the next wave. They were not successful. After those four transactions I finished my trading day. Later on another two proper 15min signals appeared.
Tomorrow we may see consolidation or maybe some continuation of south movement.

080402 Wednesday

large scale ranging day
3 transactions; 0; +6; +4;
I was busy with other duties today and I should not actually trade but when I saw my favorite signal in the morning I could not say no. I was stopped at BE because I moved SL too early. I did not reenter as I normally try to do because I was about to leave my home.
When I came back few hours later i decided to open-scalp on a little flag break. I stopped trading before Bernankie’s speech.
Technically It was quite interesting day which is not over yet as now it looks like ABCD fibo if trying to form on 1h chart...
Tomorrow anything can happen as Mr Bernankie is speaking again and we are approaching to first Friday of the Month.

080403 Thurdsday

another large scale ranging day
4 transactions; -10; +10; +10; 0;
I do not feel comfortable during such days. If I do not see my favorite conditions and setup i prefer to stay back.
the first transaction today was a mistake. I jumped on a rapid volatility increase and I neglected the rule of waiting till candle closes.
Three immediately following transactions were made after seeing double bottom (15min and 5min).
That was it for today. I did not feel comfortable to trade more.

080404 Friday
0 transactions

====================
Summary of the week
15 transactions (+143pips):
- 10 winners (+162)
- 3 be (0)
- 2 losers (-19)

Good Stuff, keep it up.

What charts are these? Oanda?

thanks Rosco_P
Yes, these are oanda charts. they look slightly different because I'm working on mac.
Looks like triangle or wedge consolidation is forming on a daily.

Tomorrow I may not be trading because of other duties.
Regards

080408 Tuesday
7 transactions: 0; 0; -10; +2; -10; 0; -10;
it was difficult day for me.

080409 Wednesday
day of two consecutive triangles followed by strong breakout.
8 transactions; 0; 0; +10; -10; +10; +10; 0; +2;
tomorrow we may see test of 1.59

080410 Thursday; no trading;
080411 Friday; no trading;
==================
Summary of the week
15 transactions (-6):
- 5 winners (+34)
- 6 be (0)
- 4 losers (-40)
===========
next week I will not be trading

My adventure with forex begun some 4 years ago. I was learning, demo trading, testing, searching, etc… but I never traded real money for long enough to say I am experienced trader. After loosing something like 5% or 10% of initial account I just stopped trading. The stress and fear of loosing more than that was just unbearable.

What I am presenting here is my third trial with live account. This account is funded with the money I was collecting for one year working hard in London as a barman and van driver. That makes my approach to trading more serious than ever before I think.

My main problem with real trading is and has always been stress and negative emotions associated with trading. My goal therefore is to find a way to get rid of stress during trading.

After two weeks of trading I have to admit that this experience again was very stressful for me – especially during second week when I was scalping almost like a blind man…

Because of this I decided to take week of break to relax and make some corrections to my trading formula.

According to theory I believe that devoid of stress trading = healthy money management + clearly defined entry point + clearly defined exit strategy.

So, how are those items looking like in my case?

Money management: I am not risking more than 3% of my account on a single transaction. 10 pips is 1% of capital and I am comfortable with this.

Clearly defined entry point: This is a problem in my case because the system I am trading is very discretionary and nothing is clearly defined, but I would like to change it, simplify the system and make it more mechanical. Also I would not like to open more than 3-4 transactions a day

I think that this is the remedy.

After defining potential price movement based on higher timeframes analysis I will enter long at the close of 15min candle only if:
1)osma >= 0
2)tenkan sen >=kijun sen
3)close >= tenkan sen
4)close >= ema55
ideally price action should look like beginning of 3rd or 5th Elliot Wave

This is my most favorite signal. Trading it only will not give me more than 3-4 entry points a day (during ranging day). Usually that signal appears once or twice a day.
This signal of course must fulfill also one of the conditions described in post no1.

So this will be my only entry point for next coupe of weeks - unless something extraordinary happens and I will not be able to keep my hand away from the mouse

managing open transaction – this is my weakest point. I have serious problems with patience and stress while the transaction is open and price is not moving as fast as I would like it to move in my direction. I need to fix that problem.

Right now I have no solution to this problem, but I strongly believe that in due course of time the solution will be reviled to me. I need just more real trading experience.

Whish me luck please
govinda

today I made more than 10 transactions (I did not plan to make more than 3) and what is more important I did not feel stressed at all during my trading hours. That is definitely something new...
As far as tenkan kijun cross signals are concerned I was entering exactly when I should.
Only forth signal was a winner,
It was not very profitable day for me but I rely enjoyed both loosing transactions and winners.

Tomorrow I will try to execute tenkan kijun cross signals on a separate oanda sub-account because this signals are most important for me and I would like to clearly se how I am managing those transactions.

080422 Tuesday
other duties do not allow me to count my pips or maybe I am too lazy or tired. Today again I was making so many transactions...
but it was nice winning day for me.
I decided to make two changes for this journal entries
1) instead of describing my entries I would like to focus on something that caught my attention each day.
2) since tomorrow I will try to describe my results in loss/profit percentage for each day instead of pips.

080423 Wednesday
daily result -4.81%
total result -7.97%

It was very difficult day for me. There was no even one winning transaction.
Loots of BE and looser after looser. I finished my trading shortly after US open
The worst thing is that I was speculating and I did not follow the system. This was proper punishment.
I hope I have learned something from this lesson.

080424 Thursday
daily result +1.78%
total result -6.34%

I did not trade much today
My first entry was in the place marked on the chart but I was stopped (-20 pips). I jumped again short after Euro news and quickly collected some 50pips.
Looks like I see my problem now
I am tightening my initial stop loss 30pips to fast and I am actually stopped. Yesterday at least two potential winners were stopped -20pips and I did not reenter.

There are at two possible solutions to this problem comming to my mind...
1) force myself not to move stop for at least 30min (two 15 min candles)
2) put buy/sell order 10 pips higher (for short) or lower entry signal.

anyway I have to do some research...

080425 Friday
daily result +0.58%
total result -5.79%

there was one main short transaction marked on the chart.
I did not move initial SL until price moved 30 pips in my direction and reached important support level. and because of this I did not loose which is my biggest success today
then I protected 25% of my profit and got stopped. After that price moved strongly south but I was not in. I jumped once or twice but it was not the same as one correct entry and then peacefully trailing the stop.

another thing to double check - what is more profitable: protecting some profits (25%) when price reaches important support/resistance levels or just staying at BE no matter what?

080501 Thursday
daily result +7.53%
total result +1.31%

I made only one transaction which gave me 160pips
The result is nice but I entered litlle bit too early and exit was manual (not by kijun trailing stop).
So far it my best transaction and also the longest one (8 hours).
money management restriction:
Until my total result will be +5% I will continue risking no more than 1.5% on a single transaction.