Bodra's Trade Journal

In an attempt to keep myself more disciplined, I have started this new journal to track my trades, the logic behind them, and hopefully be able to review this to improve my results.

I am mainly looking to trade swings on the 4hr timeframe. My strategy has in part come largely from Plutonites trading method. Most important lines on my charts are the Bollinger Bands and Blue linear regression line.

New Trade

Sell EUR/USD @ 1.4695

Reason: In time of strong trend, taking the bounce from the linear regression.



CLOSED @ 1.4963 +2 pips

Comments: Price bumping up against support. Direction unclear.

New Trade

Sell GBP/USD @ 1.8425

Reason: In strong trend, taking bounce off linear regression.

New Trade: Short EUR/USD @ 1.4783

Reason: Ranging conditions with bias to downside. Bounce off inside BBand in conjunction with previous resistance. Multiple tests of 1.4800


Closed @ 1.4768 +15 pips

Comments: Possibly should have held this one open longer. It crashed right after I closed it. Charts were showing indecision though and I still got out of it with some profit.

Closed GBP/USD trade @ 1.8370 +55 pips

Comment: Again another trade that was closed early. There were signs of indecision though and I took a profit so I can't be disappointed.

Trade from earlier in the day

Long USD/CHF @ 1.0932

Stopped out @ 1.0890 -42 pips

The setup was valid but I didn't set my stop below the next major resistance. I paid the price as a result.

New Trade

Long EUR/JPY @ 160.53

Reason: Ranging conditions. Bounce off bottom Bollinger band in conjunction with previous resistance.


Sopped out @ 159.80 -73 pips

Comments: Well maybe I was a little quick to judge this as being "ranging". The trend still seems to be intact actually. I probably should have waited for a close and test above the linear regression, or another test of lower band.

New Trade

Long USD/JPY @ 108.85

Reason: Double test of Lower B Band also in conjunction with major support zone.

Stopped out USD/JPY @ 108.35 -50 pips

Comments: Bad decisions all round on this one. The entry was reasonably valid but probably should have never been taken. There was quite a strong downwards trendline. Despite all of that, the trade should have been closed out at -4 pips at the close of Friday but due to the bank holiday earlier in the week I got it in my head that it was Thursday.

Summary for Week ending Friday August 29

Net Result = -93 pips


Well I started the week quite cautiously. Bailed out of trades maybe a little early on some occasions, but I still took a profit on those and can't be too upset about those.

What went wrong then? Well it started with a trade on the swissy with a stop set too tight. That turned what would have been a winner into a loser, and had a big impact on the net result. I then also misread conditions on the JPY trades and took trades against heavy trends.

Lessons:

1) Don't set stops too tight. Look to place stop above/under last support/resistance.
2) Look at the big picture. Look for trendlines that would indicate a bias in one direction or another.

What went right? The blue linear regression continues to be an excellent trigger for "with the trend" trades. Look for these and ride them until signs the trend is over.

New Trade (from earlier this morning)

Short AUD/USD @ 0.8471

Reason: Linear regression bounce with the trend.

New Trade

Short EUR/JPY @ 157.95

Reason: Strong down trend. Selling Linear regression bounce.

Playing catchup here.

Open trades were closed on Sep 3 due to leaving for holiday.

AUD/USD @ 0.8724 +194 pips
EUR/JPY @ 156.42 +153 pips

There were no obvious signs that the run was over, these trades were closed simply because I wasn't able to check these any further.

Summary for week ending September 5

Net result = +347 pips

This was a short but nonetheless very effective week. I skipped Monday due to public holiday in USA, then I was off on holiday on the Thursday.

I did have time for 2 very successful 'with the trend' trades that netted some good pips.

Opened Trade yesterday.

Short GBP/USD @ 1.7520

Reason: Opened on a close below the Linear Regression.

Stopped out @ 1.7630 -110 pips

Comments: BAD BAD BAD trade. I went in to this without any other sort of confirming factors. There was no where obvious to put a stop (that was close enough). Taking a linear regression cross on it's own is not enough. There needs to be some other kind of confirming factor (S/R, Fib, trend). There are plenty of good trades to be had. I just need to be patient.