WEEKLY RECAP
Starting Account Size: $48.10
Profit (In Pips): +131 (Not including scalp trades)
Ending Account Size: $56.60 ($62.15 [with scalp trades])
Percent Increase (of original investment): 17.67% (29.21% [with scalp trades])
Percent Increase (of weekly start amount): 17.67% (29.21% [with scalp trades])
Below is a graph (that will be updated weekly) of account growth starting with the opening balance and date, and ended with the current week closing balance and date.
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/145/4...4a88f637_m.jpg
Notes:
This week has been a good week in trading, mainly because any week you end in profit (especially 30%) is a great damn week. The end of this week was a little shaky though, which happens, and it wasn't like it was THAT bad. I am determined on following my system as close to the rules as possible, but being naturally discretionary affects my trading, more times for the best than for the worse, so I am not that angry for it. And I have adapted my system so that it calls for a discretionary decision (for stops mainly) and so I still feel like I have input in my trades.
And because I am following my system as close as possible, no entries were made yesterday and the entry for the day before that came just too late for me (it was 8:30AM, I would of been dead tired for work if I would of stayed up from 12AM to 8:30AM). Even though some market movement was there, none of my standard trades could be made.
Because there was a loss (and I don't like losses ) I had to make up for it, so during the past day I was making scalp trades. The reason i didn't post them was because I HIGHLY DON'T RECCOMEND THEM. My scalps are for 5 or less pips, using the full available leverage which is soooooo dangerous. I have been practicing scalping for almost a year now, and I still don't consider myself good at it, but I only did it to try to make up for my losses. So dont try to do them, unless you know what you are doing.
The reason why I started this journal is so I can help discipline myself, make my system better (either from personal realizations or help from others) all while helping people any way that I can. Looking back at the loss I had this week, I have made a decision on how I will now exit my trades:
Position size is split up in fifths, so lets say I traded 5 Lots
1/5(1 Lot) of my position closes at 5 pips profit (7 pips for GBP/JPY)
3/5(3 Lots) of my position closes at 10 pips profit (14 pips for GBP/JPY)
the Last 1/5(1 Lot) of my position I will let ride the movement and exit using my old exit strategy (3LB) and will have a dead stop of +5 Pips profit.
The reason why I decided to change my exits to this is because, if you remember what I said earlier as Long as I get 10 pips a day, I am extremely happy (I am honestly happy with 2 pips, refer to my first post of why that is all you need), so this ensures that the majority of my position will lock in pips, and also leaves the opportunity for me to gain profit on a powerful move. This fits my trading style more anyways, because the reason I first added 3LB was so that I could only catch the powerful moves if there were any, and just exit if there weren't. Now that I have most of my position locked in at 10 pips, this will prevent me from being greedy and waiting to exit, and still satisfy me enough so I wont be kicking myself because I missed that huge bullish move. I am also considering just placing a stop at each of those points and letting the whole position ride, like lets say I entered long at 1.3000 an my first TP was at 1.3005 and the price was shooting up and was at 1.3009 I would place my stop for the first 1/5 at 1.3005 (5 pips profit) and let it ride until the next TP point; reset stops for it and so on and so on. This allows me to still stay not greedy, but also catch more of a strong move if it was to happen right then. If it doesnt happen then I dont catch it, which would probably be the scenario most of the time, because 5 pips profit does not require that strong of a move.
I believe that that modification will be for the better, and I can't wait to see how it works out next week.
Well this ends my recap of the week, I will be delighted to read any comments and question anybody might have. Have a great week end.
Until next trading week,
Nip
Nothing is hard, some things just take more time and discipline.