stoiters trade journal

Hi folks.. this will be my forex trades journal.

background - im a 25 year old male from australia. Ive been in forex for only a few of months.

method- I will be trading only the daily charts using price action to get me in.
I will be focusing on only a couple of setups.

pin bars and inside bars. (5 months on and im really only trading pin bars till i get them down pat)

I plan to trade this method and post all trades in this journal for at least 3 months before making changes/ giving up.

I am live trading but on a very small account.. Im taking this seriously but the amount ive deposited is easily replacable.

june account balance +4.4%
july account balance +0.7%
august account balance -1.2%
september ac -0.3% (1 trade)
october ac - 0 trades. was overseas.
november - 0 trades

see post 147 and 148 for my latest entry rules. (9/10/09)

this was my first trade using this method..

entry was on the 22/4 sell stop at 24.14 sl above wick on pin bar..

i use fxlite demo for my charts but trade off an australian broker. So sometimes the trade details in the pic arent perfect but you get the idea.

notes on my pin bar setups.

-depending on the range of the pin bar i am looking to wait for a retrace of the pin bar before entering. This hopefully will give me a tighter stop.

-Im looking for wick to pierce some sort of level. ie support resistance, 50fib, moving averages or trend lines.. the more signals the better.

on this trade the pin pierced the 61 fib, a horizontal level and made the 3rd swing high on a trend line.

sweet!

this is a trade i have still open. entry 5080 SL 5150.
i think on this on ive got a trailing stop of about 80, but i cant remember. im not sure how to find out what your trailing stop is if its a custom amount.

its not the best pin bar with there being a fairly large lower wick..
it pierced a trend line and a horizontal level so i took it

oh yeh im always looking to go with the trend on pin bar setups.

this was a counter trend entry which i couldnt resist.. I didnt really mention this sort of entry in my intro but ill probably look for this sort of setup also.

when we have a nice stepping trend with higher highs and lower lows ill be looking to get in after a counter trend move.

entry 5850 SL 5970

was watching this one since the pin on the 21st.. kinda missed my entry a bit
hopefully this move has some juice left.. im currently down 80 pips but we will see what happens i spose..


So now im up to date with my open trades.. from now on ill be hopefully able to post my trades as i take them.

note- My candles close at 8am my time (NY close) and i leave for work at 7am. So i either make my trades about an hour before the candle closes or about halfway through the candle 8pm my time.

see above

2 trades stopped out overnight. eurcad for 120 pip loss, usdchf for 32 pip profit.

still have eurchf running at 50 pip profit.

now off to work

just shorted this sucker at 2119.. SL above the pin high.

this setup is a pin bar/ inside bar combo with signs on the weekly that this downtrend has a way to go..

while typing this ive realised ive got support 20-30 pips below my entry..
hmm this could be a nice little trade to chalk up to experience

2 more trades tonitght...

audjpy - entry- 69.66 sl -68.00
gbpusd - entry 1. 4760 sl 1.4630

eurchf was stopped out this morning for 5100, or 20 pip loss.

got home from work today to find the 3 trades i put on last nite up roughly 500 pips between them..

hopefully they keep going so my trailing stops can lock in some decent gains

tightened all trailing stops before goin out for dinner.. all 3 trades were nearing support/resistance and guess i got a little funny leaving all those pips out there to get taken away.

hehe moral of my story is i come back and all 3 trades are closed..

+500 pips in 3 trades though so im pretty happy..

i feel like the hardest part in all this for me is my exit strategy.
Set a TP and it might miss it by 2 pips and reverse all the way back. Also a TP can see you close a trade with plenty of juice left in the move.

Are you mainly trading James16-style, or do you employ additional methods?

hey babatot, thanks for stopping by.

I guess i am young compared to alot here. Alot of people in australia depend soley on superanuation and the pension to retire(my parents included).
Theres not a chance in hell ill be doing that. If im still involved in forex when its time to retire ill be one wealthy individual.

As for j-16 i have read a bit of it, however im just focusing on several price action setups for now.

Im trying to really get to grips with these setups before i even think about trying anything else.

set a buy stop on this one this morning. was triggered by the time i got home from work.

entry 1420. SL below pin. currently down 50 pips.

ok ill be posting weekly pip counts.. here goes

usd/cad +169
eur/chf -20
usd/chf +32
eur/cad -120
usd/cad +203
aud/jpy +200
gbp/usd +101

and usd/chf is still open at -62

so im up 565 on closed trades for the week.. if only this trading game were this easy huh.. we'd all be rich

im trading %1 risk per trade so some nice growth for my account

hopefully some nice price action can get me short in this puppy..

sell stop was triggered at 3250.. SL above upper shadow. TP at 1.3050

double pin, inside bar combo at resistance with trend..

stopped out for -100 pips..

maybe I should take more caution when a trend line is broken

edit- I should have waited till the candle had closed before placing my sell stop.. as it turns out neither of the pin bars really turned out to be very good. One had a lower shadow and the other had an upper shadow that was less than twice the size of the real body.

will focus on using better defined pin bars as entries.

Good to see your Journal and Trading......BUT IMHO.the RED BAR,you saw as a PIN, i thought the LOWER WICK was just a Tad LONG.....and it was a Holiday period here in the UK and Japan......
But its part and parcel of trading...
But all the best for your future trading......it looks good

baz

thanks for the kind words baz..

believe it or not i edited my post right before you posted! so i pretty much said the same as you.

I like how just posting these trades makes me think about them and how they could be improved.