Arthcub's Day Trading Journal

The first trade today was the same setup as yesterday. I entered going north, but price formed a small double top and then reversed to take me out at +6 pips profit.

2nd trade...looking for a continuation. I was stopped at breakeven.

Last trade for the day...looking for a continuation. Stopped out at -7 pips.

Today I took 3 trades with 1 winner, 1 loser, and 1 break even trade.

Results:
Today -1 Pip
Week +92 Pips
Month +122 Pips

Due to a hostile take over of my computer by malicious software, I have been unable to post my screen captures the past few days.

Currently, my account is up about 5%, which is around my monthly average. I have decided to end trading for the month to take an extended holiday weekend. I will return to trading on next Tuesday, provided that the Hurricane brewing around Haiti doesn't interfere.

This month was a forward test of new system, and while it did end with a positive result, the drawdown was greater than I had hoped for. I have made some modifications and retested, and hopefully I will see more stable results in September.

Previously I used three types of entries: a trend initiation entry, a pullback entry, and a trend continuation entry. Now I have eliminated the pullback entry and altered the criteria for the continuation entry. Also, moving forward I will only hold one position at a time instead of a possible two like before.

I hope others have had a profitable month, and I will be back here next week ready to battle the Forex once more.

Monday was a holiday, yesterday yielded no signals, so today is our first trading day of September.

The initial trade of the day was with the emerging upward movement that formed during the pre-NY open.

Next, I was looking for a continuation of the upward momentum, but price pulled back after the news announcement and hit my trailing stop for a small loss.

I think its probably best to report my progress by percentages instead of pips. This is especially true since the pip value on each trade can vary depending on how wide or narrow the stop is placed. The maximum amount risked on any one trade will never be greater than 2%. My monthly goal is an average of 5-10%.

Today I took 2 trades with 1 winner and 1 loser.

Today's Results:
Approx. 1.3%

Well, I thought I was done trading for the day, but at the last minute an additional signal was formed. I took the trade looking for a possible reversal, but stocks fell and price reversed to take me out at my trailing stop for a small loss.

So I took 3 trades with 1 winner and 2 losers.

Today's Updated Results:
Approx. 1.1%

I caught the initial downward movement for the day first thing this morning. After being taken out by my trailing stop, price moved into a wide range. There was an additional setup at 10AM EST just prior to the downward break, but because of the high volatility and sideways movment, I decided to pass. This wasn't cherry picking, since I actually have this in my rule set. I don't anticipate any additional trades this morning, so I'm posting my results at this time.

I took 1 trade which was positive.

Results:

Today - Approx. 1.29%
Week - Approx. 2.39%

Today was a difficult day due to Oanda's platform. I entered 1 trade on the downturn of the EUR/USD and trailed my stop until Oanda's platform disconneted, and it still hasn't returned. I still ended the day with a profit, but my stop should have been 17 pips lower.

Today I took 1 trade which was a winner.

Results:
Today - Approx +.3%
Month - Approx +2.69

Here is a trade entry that just formed, but I can't take it due to Oanda's platform being down. I'll monitor it just to see how it would have played out. I almost hope it losses 17 pips to make me feel better about the previous trade :-)

Moved stop up.

Moved trailing stop up into profit.

Moved stop up.

Ok. The trade was finally stopped out with the trailing stop.

The trade potentially would have ended with +25 pips or .5% with 1% risk.

Today in the New York morning session we saw heightened volatility in a sideways channel. Right before the close of the London trading day the Euro broke downward. Now, I didn't take this trade in my primary account, but I do have a smaller aggressive trading account that I did take this trade in. I have only been documenting my primary account trades here in this journal, but since there weren't any trades in that account today, I thought I might show this trade instead. This is the same type trade that I mentioned on Sept 4th, but I didn't trade in my primary account. That trade was worth about 52 pips, while the trade today was worth only about 13 pips.

I have fallen behind on updating my Journal, but here are the latest trades.

Friday I took 3 trades with 2 losses and 1 win totaling a .23% loss.

Today I took 2 trades, both being winners, which produced a .94% gain.

Results:

Month - Approx 3.32%

I failed to post my results for yesterday, but I had 3 trades with 2 losses and 1 win resulting in a .48% loss.

Today I took one trade after the Euro topped out for the morning and rode it down until stopped out for a 1.03% win

Resutls:

Today - Approx +.55%
Week - Approx +1.49%
Month - Approx +3.87%

I apologize for my laziness in posting updates.

Here is where I stand since last Thursday.

Friday I took 3 trades with 2 losers and 1 winner which resulted in a .31% loss. Monday I took 2 trades, both of which were losers totalling -.89%. Today I took 1 trade, and it ended positively with a .25% gain.

Results:
Today - Approx +.25%
Week - Approx -.64%
Month - Approx +3.23%

Well, trading for September has ended, and so has my forward testing. I am happy with the results and the rule set that has emerged from it. This month the system ended with around a 7% gain with less than 2% drawdown. I am closing this journal since it has served it's purpose. I may open a new journal that will log some trades, thoughts, and ideas, but this will be the final post for this journal. Thanks to everyone who took the time to watch.