My GBPJPY trade journal

Hi Spiceymonkey,

I don't know if answering your question is going to help your trading much, but here goes: When I started trading ten years ago and didn't know what I was doing, I was like a crazy man driving a car at high speed without a steering wheel. I dropped well over $fifty thousand the next many years playing the forex tables. Expensive school, high tuition. Evenutally I hit rock bottom. Don't know if you've ever hit rock bottom, but there is such a place. I couldn't go any lower.

They say that if you are experiencing more losses than wins, you're a gambler vs. trader. I was a big-time gambler, I belonged in gamblers anonymous. I should have been placed in a rubber room and hosed down every night.

Anyway, to answer your question, when I finally got my act together a couple years ago, I was down to two thousand dollars and change. The rest is history, as they say. I was pretty aggressive with that two thousand dollars. I didn't follow strict money management principles when I saw a good setup, I went after it. I guess I was lucky because I rapidly began to build my stake again. Now I trade a very small percentage of my capital.

Truth is, I finally bunkered down and learned the lessons I needed to learn. I made notes, kept a chart journal, studied the charts. I practised, practised, practised. Still do.

That's about it.

Good trading,
Greg

Tuesday/Wednesday morning session: No trading for me due to U.S. presidential festivities and the slow, unpredictable market temperature. Off to the sack early, preserving my pips for another day.

The candlestick on 21st Jan - g/y, is called a hammer. The g/y has been
trending down so far after breaking through 130 support. It has been
showing many signs of trending up last few hrs - more than i could write below.

If prices dip below 123.45 (CPP), may want to enter a buy with a small sum -
which could possibly take a downward hit over 100pips. also use
slow stochastics (on the 1 hr chart)to time the entry. Wait for the momentum to build
and the stochastic to cross. wait one more hour. If the prices are closing
higher this hr, wait for the prices to hit 127.54 ceiling, set stops at breakeven!

Caution:If the prices are closing lower next hr after stochastics cross,exit immediately

If everything goes according to plan, it is 700 pipper all the way to130.2(R2)

happy trading!

Chart and analysis

Ongoing trade: chart and trade summary. Note: "dropping to R1" should read "dropping to S1."

The market doesn't suffer fools gladly

Hi Greg,
I have been following your thread for some months now and I must commend the good work you are doing. Thanks. I have been trading for about 18months now and I must admit I'm not there yet, but I believe it's only a matter of time, all I have to come to terms with is myself. I have a simple trading method working for me, its just a combo of divergence, historical S n R and following the main trend. I'm no longer looking for the spectacular cos for all I care, it doesn't exist, every individual is his or her own holy grail. I just love reading your thread, I so much enjoy your analysis and of cos I could always learn a thing or two from your experience. Thanks for taking time out to share.

@Sree
I'm intrigued by your analysis, but in my opinion, I just wont go against d main trend, I dont mind missing d big retracements, d bigger d retracements, d better for me. I believe by following d main trend alone, d odds are on your side, why will I want to complicate something that is already too complicated on its own? Ciao ciao

Did you grab those pips greg, as on my charts it seems it didnt quite get to 121.05..........,....came very close...i had TP at 121.1 but it didnt get hit, but i had brought my stoploss down to +50pips.......just in demo though....

I captured a few more pips, decided to call it quits. Glad I did.

Cheers,
Greg

hakins,

I like your comments. I think you have a good outlook, and you have found something that is working for you.

I'm happy you enjoy my charts and analysis.

All the best,
Greg

This was a demo account experiment. My live account had roughly the same outcome for the session. One of the two losing trades was the result of trying to trade two accounts at once. The other loss was knee-jerk fuzzy analysis, and I got bit. Ouch! Goes to show, I have to keep everything simple and stay focused. "One account, one currency," Simple Simon says. But what a week this has been. GBPJPY heading down all week, and new all-time lows each session. Hello. Pip heaven. Trades summary and account summary follow chart...

This was a demo account.

reversal is dragging its feet. underestimated the under lying long term trend strength.

trend is changing upwards but still hanging on to a few downward thrusts.

for early next week, trading down (short) even with momentum & long term
downward trend, may get riskier.

Laughing...



Who knows what tomorrow will bring?



I don't know.

"There's an old saying in Tennessee -- I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee -- that says, fool me once, shame on -- shame on you. Fool me -- you can't get fooled again."

Greg
I was wondering what "getting your act together" consisted of. What were some of the things you changed in your trading that allowed you to turn the corner to success three years ago.
To go from 2k to what you post now is very impressive.

Thank you for the thread.

Hi masterofnow,

I prefer to keep the focus on my daily charts, analysis and trade results. I'm reluctant to steer very far from that. But without going into detail about my own case, each individual has challenges to master toward the noble goal of becoming a consistently winning trader. These include, as I see it:

1) Mastering the necessary technical trading skills, 2) developing a trading strategy, 3) money management, 4) tolerance for and understanding risk, 5) mastering the psychological side of trading.

I received a private message from someone a couple days ago, who wrote that they were doing very well at trading after just two months. Considering that you need to master the skills I mention above, that's a rare trader indeed. For the majority of us it will take years to become successful, at least that's been my experience.

These days there are countless mentors, experts and books out there, most of whom charge money to teach you the skills they think necessary to become successful. Probably a trader can speed up his/her learning curve if they find someone who will show them the ropes. But there are things a mentor, book or coach can't teach, such as the psychological side of trading. Another is the discipline to endlessly commit to practicing the skills you have learned. You have to love this game deeply enough to hang in with it for the long haul.

Three books I highly recommend:

1) Currency Trading for Dummies
2) Warrior Trading -- inside the mind of an elite currency trader
3) The New Market Wizards

All the best,
Greg

No trade. Chart

it's happening, just took a while that is all.

made my profits (exited at 125 though - made a 100+pips) after 3 long days of waiting. missed a lot of other opportunities to trade the intermediate runs though. wiser for the wait.

started trading intermediate trends for some pips(made another 100pips on one this morning). not my cup of
tea! Seems fine until i could spot a mega trend. mega trends are much
less stressful once you could get into them. the one we have going is
against the main trend and the pivots turned too low - close to 118.75 - reason why
recalculated my exits out at 125 instead of 130 as originally planned.

"There's an old saying in Tennessee -- I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee -- that says, fool me once, shame on -- shame on you. Fool me -- you can't get fooled again."

Ain't no foolin' here Travip! Mega trends are real and just because this one didn't turn out as good
as expected, doesn't mean they don't exit or they couldn't be ridden.
.

well isnt that where you should be preaching your method - cause IF i was interested then i could visit your thread there?