Stay a broke loser or be a professional trader (Journal to a dream)

I realize that I still have much to learn... in fact I can assure myself right now that I don't even know what I don't know.

This is what to put in a journal : quoted from highway

We often want to argue. But if you have a journal, you can only argue with yourself. Only you can convince yourself.
If you like trading on M5 etc..with indicators etc.. and etc... what ever you are doing Write down the time you spend after each trade. The results the amount you win/loss with stops, why stooped, why let winer run. How much time you spend with family. How is your mood with your family. what quality?
Eventually after a period you will have enough data. Then you have the pros and con and you ask yourself HONESTLY. Is that what you want ? Remember what SM Jones said in above post? You need to care only what is important to you.

Also... he kept saying that trendlines fails most of the time? I'm going to prove him wrong by learning how mike do breakouts and mix them with S/R levels... if I failed miserably... it's still on demo

And ah yes... the single most important thing is forex trading, and trend trading, and trading whatsoever markets, is once again : Support and Resistance... no doubt... it seems that we as newbies and smart alexes, don't know what we don't know until we experienced it on our own.

http://www.forexfactory.com/attachme...6&d=1192874272

And Lo and Behold... PPZs... James was teaching us the truth after all, who are we to not love the guy?

Today's trade.

I've been waiting for so loong... ooh, it's a bad habit to look for trades, I hope I got enough money soon so that I can open an account with interactive brokers... to trade stocks, I currently don't even have the connection to view their webinars... doh... I have to wait until I get to my old town to do that.

I'm going back there.

First the trade.

it's EURGBP 4H Setup, condensed price action located on an important place in my charts. behold :
http://content.screencast.com/users/...01-21_1852.png

and a trade's a trade, so we will let that play out...

meanwhile on the index front, I have an open position on a Hangseng index futures mini account, about 10 cents a pip, currently risk is about $60... that's a lot for me, I have a buy at 21100 and SL is at 20500, reasons are simply support touch... may be a waste of money... but I think it might be better next time if I enter after I see a PA on daily TF, dude, I've been watching this index almost my whole trading time, and I still screw up when there's money on the line, sadly, all my demo accounts on Hang Seng PA+SR are positive...

Aand... now for my life... it's been awhile, but it's been shocking too, and some bad news...

Turns out my fiancee's cousin won't be sharing the settlement money which he will got in 2 weeks time, that's kind a relieving, because I've been waiting so eagerly for that wad of cash I've been postponing everything else in my life, I don't wanna write bad things about my fiancee's cousin, except that he is a hypocrite, well ain't we all? but this one eats his cousin's money right off the bat and never did had any intentions of sharing anything, I'm done with that, just think of my emergency stop loss for that investment has triggered and I'll continue making money the usual way, by working my ass off... this too, teaches me that sometimes all you can trust is yourself.

and when something is too good to be true, it usually is.

Trade... USDCHF small pin from 1.05 resistance... also I am "anticipating" a EURUSD buy... the trend is up and right now is the best time for a retrace, there are also EURAUD which is in the extreme low, but EURUSD is my favorite because it is in an uptrend and EURAUD is in a downtrend and it has a positive swap, but I'll long it anyway with a small position, just to be sure, because currently I'm also short AUDUSD... that make sense

But if EURUSD doesn't provide a good signal on the 4H, I'll think of passing it because my current exposure is large enough, but just maybe a small position

http://content.screencast.com/users/...01-22_0042.png

I'm a little tired so no comments on the chart, the arrow below indicate my long entry ages ago.

This is today's trade, with the trend and from BRN, but not from my plotted S/R area.

http://content.screencast.com/users/...01-22_1950.png

Trading plan posted on post #1

I have viewed this video only today... thanks to Danku.

And have decided to change the way I manage my trades, will be adding it soon on the 1st post plan.

I Finally got a copy of Martin Pring's ebook "Pring on Price Patterns!" Yay!

Hi all,

This is the new trade of the day.

I was trying to look for the trend continuation setup, it was a nice pin with the trend on a nice location, one thing it lacks is space... but I will let it run and once price reaches 1.0420, I'll definitely move to break even... and that's that, the charts have spoken! it would be unwise for me to ignore... let's just see how this plays out.

http://content.screencast.com/users/...Short%204H.png

False Alarm guys... I downloaded the wrong book.

The compressed file was named : Pring on Price Patterns, while the book inside was Martin Pring's Technical Analysis for Short term traders...

I guess I have to keep searching... doh... this was posted too early too soon.

USDCHF trade was stopped out for a loss, of 0.4%.

Man, it didn't even reached the first PPZ I was looking at, I knew those consolidations would be a pain and the 1.05 round number are already exhausted of sellers, thus the breakout from that level, I've been trading too many bars and are exhausted of setups.

More rules to add in the first post : SPACE! SPACE! I need more SPACE! look to the left!

http://content.screencast.com/users/...SDCHF%20H4.png

http://content.screencast.com/users/...SDCHF%20H4.png
Luckily I have applied for a demo account in stock trading with Lightspeed Trading, hopefully I can now be more picky and look for the very best trades on the higher timeframes.

I still like trading the 4H, but I should add more confluence to my rule.

Trades for today.

each 0.5% risk

http://content.screencast.com/users/...6%20EURGBP.png

And GBPCHF

http://content.screencast.com/users/...BPCHF%20H4.png

I posted really late into the day because someone wants me to return their money ASAP, I was stressed out, luckily he was able to accept at 30% payment first, rest due at march, and then some more, too.

I'm killing myself with thoughts right now, but I won't surrender no matter what, my fiancee is stressed out too but she has helped me a lot already, she has sold every jewelry she has just to keep with the debt payments.

Case will be over next week, at least that's what the police promises, we will see.

Wish me luck guys, I think I'll need a lot of it.

I have finally found some data and a way to backtest asian futures market.

Hang Seng Index is one of my main concern since it is a very popular market in my Country, and since I have to day trade it to earn enough commission money just to eat, I have to found a profound and consistently profitable way to trade it...

After a series of lectures from Sam about market order flows and using my experiences from J16 Group, I've designed a discretionary method for day trading the Hang Seng Markets.

Because of the very fast and volatile nature, I have to move fast enough in daytrading the HSI futures, thus I was forced to ignore position sizing, and take the same contract size on every trade.

I have managed to collect intraday historical tick data going back 2 months... this is from my metatrader history though.

I'm currently looking for cheap intraday data going back for at least 2 years back... I'm going to rigorously backtest this in the weekends and forward test the method in a demo account and after I'm confident enough, mini account for 0.1$ per pip

Currently the 2 months profitability is very good, there are a lot of small losses followed by very big runs, the losses were ranging from 30-70 pips, while my biggest winner ran a whooping 700 pips, also when the market is trending hard, it is possible to add multiple positions.

2 months is a very short time for manual backtesting, I know this mainly because the market is ranging since a few months ago, I want to know how this method does in a strong trending market.

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Regarding my personal life, well I have talked to Jim about it and he suggest that I talk to fij, I'm currently waiting for fij to contact me by email.

No Trades for today,

More bad news, I have heard that the lawsuit could now be jeopardized because of something they have againts my fiancee's cousin, they even told me that tommorow they'll put him in jail if according to schedule, looks like my investments will be for nothing after all, I have to look and reassess myself, why am I in all this mess? I am responsible for everything and yet I don't know until it came over me and says :

"hello, I don't think you can take me on anymore..." and I couldn't, as a matter of fact, I just couldn't, I don't know what to do anymore right now, can't think, can't even look at charts, knowing the simple fact that I will make everyone around me dissapointed, I just hope I still have some place to live by then, it's better that way though I think, what's the use of living in false grandeur and delusional pride in a golden birdcage but with no money and even more debts than any other things in my life?

I need help, mentally, to cope with all this, LOL, right now I'm fighting the urge to drink up that alprazolam.

If a skilled worker loses his job (unless it is due to something like an injury) he STILL has his skill but NOT his income. in other words, he STILL has a means of making money but has to find another job.

If a trader loses his capital, he loses his MEANS of making money.

what big words, I'm no trader at the moment, I'm just a regular guy living in between jobs and drown in a large debt, my side income was from trading, until I used up all my capital to live and pay for that stupid lawsuit.

I think I'm not the only one, but this is a point in my life where I'd like to scream as loud as I can so that everyone would accept me as I am, not the mask I've always tried to show them, I guess my days are numbered and the time will come to finally accept reality, and I hope I can live through that, and if I should be alone afterwards, so be it.

I hope You will get back money from your fiancee's cousin. We don't want to lose so trader who makes so good progress. Don't give up, I like and need your journal and probably other traders too.

fairly related to my post earlier (see below)

Hey bro, cheer up.
no need for medications. they dont address the issue/s at hand. in fact, drugs/medications create further problems. same thing with denials, alcohol, etc
Clear your head. Think. take your time. this is a critical "Fight or Flight" situation for u: Fight, as the solution is right in your head.

everyone has problems... or had one or two.
WE will make it. YOU will make it.
in a problem, there is always a lesson (to be learned) &/or an opportunity/blessing (to be had).
After a storm, a clear sky ALWAYS awaits.

Bless you!

After reading your posts I become concern with your well being.I dont know if this would be of any consolation to you, but I am an Indonesian and I know what its like to work very hard in a crappy job just to get by.Because i still am in it.Ive been learning and trading for three years with no success.I am 36 married with a baby and worked as a salesman for a small pay.Ive tried many different small businesses in the past but all ended up in failure.I have excuse for self pity and frustration but i choose not to.Why?Because it wont do me any good.Instead i turn to GOD when i dont know what to do.GOD didnt create you so you had to struggle to frustration just to live.A quick visit to ICU in your local hospital will convince you that many people despite having alot of money cannot cheat illness.Life is a gift from the above.Dont take it for granted.If you are healthy you should be grateful and enjoy it because some people have to rely on life support machine just to live.Yes there are problems in life but GOD doesnt ask you to bear them alone.What HE ask is for you to do your best and trust HIM to do the rest.When my wife was pregnant we didnt have money for the labour not to mention all kind of stuff that the baby needs when she was born.So we prayed and surrendered everything to GOD believing that HE would help us.And HE did-suddenly we started getting money in ways we never thought possible.In short, all the baby needs and the cost of labour were paid and our savings for the baby was never touched and even increased.GOD is good.Beside that, i do not want to force myself to succeed in trading in the shortest time possible.I know it will take time.If it takes another 2 or 3 years so be it.In fact after years of losing, GOD has allowed me to get my trading psychology fixed.Learning patience, discipline, letting my ego go,admitting when im wrong etc.I believe that GOD allow us to learn all the wrong ways to trade while we still on demo and not having our life savings of clients money on the line.Maybe you should do that too May GOD bless you and your family

great post...i found myself in similar situation before...discipline has since improve my trades