MaryPippin's Trade Journal

Hi Everybody,
I have decided to start a trading journal with the aim to improve my discipline and cultivate the habit of sticking to my plan.
Plan your trade and trade your plan as they say. Sounds good doesn’t it?
Ultimately it’s about getting consistently profitable and building confidence in my trading and for that I need to pull together what I already know with discipline.

Most of what I have learned I picked up from Billy Ray Valentine (Steve) on this thread. He is a great guy and I believe very good at what he does, but don’t take my word for it you might want to have a look at his “No Brainer” thread where he posted live trades and explains his method.
It’s on FF at http://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?t=86429 or his blog www.nobrainertrades.com where you can find loads of helpful stuff regarding his method and himself personally regularly on the live chat, all for free.

The VSA stuff I got from this site http://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?t=157629 run by ShamusFamous.

There are probably quite a few more people I owe credit e.g. James16, Diallist, Iron-man and many more of whom all I was able to learn something and who where kind enough to pass on what they know.

I thought to make it more fun and take demo trades with this journal and post the profit/loss of a small demo account of £3005.30 as I go along and see how it compounds (or decomposes, as the case may be).

You might wonder why £3005.30? Well, for the purpose of this exercise I didn’t want to take any odd demo account but one that I opened and traded with since the beginning of March this year which I traded with mixed success but essentially stayed break even. During that time I was up 18.3% and down 7.4% from the initial deposit of £ 3000 and recently ended up back break even again.

The first period was good few trades and decent gains but then a few losses kicked in and I exacerbated the situation with it loads of shooting from the hip.
It would be interesting to see if I can turn this around if I acquired the right discipline.

Ok, looks like I have to have my Trade log Summary in the first post because there are limitations until when the other posts can be edited:

There you go, the good, the bad and the ugly all summarised in my Trade Log Summary

The Method & Rules:

The backbone of the method I use to trade is based on S/R, mixed with PA, trendlines, patterns and lately I look at VSA (Volume Spread Analysis) for confirmation.
The only indicator I use is called BetterVolume and is basically the volume you have on your MT4 only colour coded for ease of use other than that I trade indicator free.

I always use a S/L between 15-40 pip in size and risk 1% per trade aiming for a Risk Reward Ratio of at least 1:3, where my TP will usually be set just before a S/R line or trailed along S/R lines. I will be inclined to be more conservative in profit taking when trading against the trend and try to ride profits more in direction of the trend.

I move my S/L to breakeven once I’m 20 pips in profit, I understand that I will lose a few good moves that way as I will get knocked out on retests, but then again more often than not those retests end up breaking the level and knocking out my S/L, I want to avoid that as much as possible. (E.g. If that way a double bottom forms and I get my S/L knocked out on the retest i.e. second bottom of the double bottom, I would wait for the pattern to be confirmed through a clean break of the neckline to re-enter).

I believe position sizing is very important else one trades without a defined risk, for that I have set-up this little Micro Lot calculator to determine position size for US$ denominated accounts and accounts denominated in £ Sterling.
It’s set to tell me how many micro lots I can take out in relation to my S/L size and the size of my account without exceeding 1% of loss in case my S/L gets hit.

It’s my goal to have 3 consecutive months with at least 5% profit for each month before going live. In the desirable event of making 20% profit in any month I stop trading for that month. The deal is also off and the chain broken if I lose more than 10% of my account in a month. Should I lose more than 5% of my account I reduce my position size to 0.5% until I have gained those 5% and brought the account back the corresponding amount.

Here are a few levels that I'm watching

This morning a TL got hit and showed a decent enough reaction, went in about 6 pips above my ideal entry but the 30M pin was just comlpeted confirming short term support.


Got knocked out clean later on.

Sold EURGBP retest of the break at 0.8480 with a very tight 10 pip SL



Retest didnt hold and knocked out my SL, though I went very small with this one and only risked 0.33%

1st Pic:
Short at medium term resistance in a downtrend and H&S pattern on 4H TF


2nd Pic:
Moved SL to BE


3rd Pic:
Left the position open overnight and my SL got hit at +21 pips this morning after having been up almost 140 pips.
Taking profits seems to be a reocurring problem that I need to address.

1st Pic:
Placed order at previous minor pivot point with a 18 pip S/L and downsized 0.8% risk position.

2nd pic:
Position did not turn around straight away and closed position manually for a 14 pip loss.


It looks as if price rather moved to test the just broken TL.

So far I am 1.35% down on my account since yesterday.

Here btw is the equity curve leading up to the account with £3005.30 with which I have started this journal.

Pic 1:
Took a short at 1.3887, it was a bit risky because it was taken just before news but the overall picture with a H&S on larger 4H TF and the recent double top on the 5M leads me to believ in an overall bearish picture and this pivot level seemed like a good plac eto take a short.

Pic2:
A few minutes later EU moved 20 pips down and my SL to BE next level to watch for trailing is 1.3850 area

Pic 3:
Tightened SL to 1.3862 after price broke below after price broke below 1.3850 area

Pic 4:
Got knocked out on retest closing the trade with 25 pips up

1st Pic:
Shorted AUD at 0.7857 with a 24 pip SL after it just broke the 123 pattern as seen on the 15M chart target is 0.7760 which is a 76.4 fib & SR level from the last major wave up.

2nd Pic:
After struggling at that level for a few minutes it went a few pips into the green but then just turned around and knocked my SL out.
I think the biggest mistake was to take a 123 pattern counter trend and then not get out as soon as it showed signs of weaknes rather than thrusting into the anticipated direction.

Pic 1:
GU Short got triggered at pivot point at 1.6347, though it overshot a bit and I took some heat. It reached out to the high point of the 5M candle that touched this level last earlier today.

Pic2:
This was as quickly over as it began, got knocked out after a few minutes and a small dip into the green.

It was a mixed day as I won a bit and lost a bit leaving me down by 1% for today overall down by almost 2% this week so far.

Pic 1:
EU thrustet back above the 1.3940 level whilst forming a bullish 123 pattern in overall uptrend. Executed buy manually after a short pulback to 1.3946 and placed a 16 pip SL at 1.3930

Pic 2
Moved SL to be after 20 pips profit were reached after a a few minutes. It's a bit risky to have the SL now at that level but I got to stick to my plan with the aggressively moving my SL to BE at 20 pips profit.

Pic 3:
Price moved down and knocked out SL at BE, it's hovering around that area and methinks it's probably one of those trades where it's gonna take off tomorrow to new highs since the whole situation looks very bullish.

1 Pic:
Shorted GU at 1.6421 at London opening as it hit TL though was probably not the best of moves since it approached that TL and came back up thrusting against it after a short retrace.

2 Pic:
The obvious happened and GU overshot knocking my position out in almost a matter of seconds for a well deserved loss of 20 pips

Pic 1:
Shorted EURGBP at SR level with tight 15 pip SL.

Pic2:
It was a bit slow to react at first which was the first sign of a lowered chance of reversal. When it then reacted a bit dropping some 10 pips I tightened my SL to 11 pips butit then turned around anyways and knocked the position out.

I should be more careful when price is thrusting that strongly in one direction it might well take out the SR levels in its way. It's not the best of conditions to put a counter trade on at all.

Pic 1:
Took a GU short after after first touching and then penetrating the 1.6208 level and came back again to 16214. Shorted it with a reduced 0.7% risk position and 24 pip SL.


Pic2:
Got knocked out shortly afterwards. This was a pure impulse trade, taken just after the previous EURGBP loss.
The kind of trades I must eliminate from my portfolio.

I am down 4.2% from my last high (erm...which amount coincides with my initial deposit) one more busted trade and I have to go half size on my positions.

Pic 1:
Small triangle built on the 5M chart and upon London opening it broke out upon which I decided to buy with a 25 pip SL.

Pic 2:
After the initial surge there was no real follow through and price remained stationary. When price then started declining I decided that price is going to hit the SL and closed it manually a few pips ahead of SL.

Subsequently price went up again,which would have given me a chance to get out BE and then went further down , which would have hit my SL.

I've lost now 5% of my account and have to go half size with my positions.

Pic 1:
EU broke below small TL and retested it there where I made the decision to enter with a small less than 0.5% position and a 20 pip SL.

Pic 2:
Price went straight up and hit my SL, the small trendline obviously didnt represent any obstacle. It appears that TLs, especially small ones, should only take a secondary role compared to SR levels in determining turning points.

Pic 1:
Went long hoping for a decent bounce of the 4h TL

Pic 2:
Hopes got dashed as price continurd downwards hittin my SL. Possibly I just have taken heed of the fact that price already bounced once of that TL and that it came down hard on the retest.
Thoug it could have bounce and might still bounce only from a lower level. Will look out if it breaks this TL and closes the hourly below it and wait for a retest of the TL for a possible short entry

Pic 1:
Bearish drive of the EU today and constant pressure downward at the 1.3832 levelinclined me to take a short at the 2nd direct attack on that level with a 15 pip SL.

Pic 2:
It turned out that that price didnt break that level but bounced of once more and then waning between my entry and close to my SL. After it broke that level and raised my hopes only to bounc back and back enough to knock out my SL.

Pic 1:
Bearish GU is heading down and broke below the 1.6386 support at which point I shorted that pair. It still has bit to go until it reaches the medium term 4H TL at which point I have set-up my TP.

Pic 2:
Screenshot shortly after entry on 1M TF. Here you can see how price retested that level after the break.

Pic 3:
Price bounce on 1M TF a few times against the entry level building a triple top and triple bottom to finally break above entry and knock my SL out.