My Trade Setups, and Accountablity Journal

I am going to be posting some of my trade setups and journal here with the intention that I can be better disciplined in my trading decisions, and to give back to the trading community. I intend to be consistantly profitable with a daily minimum goal of 1% ROE (Return On Equity) Which also comes to 20% monthly. I will be posting my actual updates here on post 1... The good, the bad, and the ugly.
This is a fresh commitment to truth and accountability.

Special thanks to several people here on FF who have influenced my trading style
James16 Price Action
Jankone Rsi6 divergence
Wisdomfx Power levels
Darkstar Stop Hunting


My System and what I look for in trades.
I use 4 emas; 10,20,60,and 200. I especially pay attention to ema 60, thus the heavy red line.
I use bollinger bands, and will show examples of what I look for.
I use the usual round numbers, calculated pivots, and S/R
I trade setups from 5 minute charts to Dailys,

Countertrend;
I look for double tops/bottoms with divergence, and Stop Hunting Reversals
With Trend;
I look to jump in with trend, on pinbars bouncing off my moving averages

My Trading Rules

1. Always place Stop Loss when I enter a trade
2. If 5% loss in 1 day , then trading stops for that day.
If 10% loss in 1 week trading stops for that week.
3. If up 2% at any time during a trading day, lock in 1% and quit trading if I give back 1%
4. I'm not smarter then my rules!
5. No random stupid trades... Each setup will be justified, complete with risk exposure and profit potential

Here's a trade example that I just took that netted me 1% ROE

Reasons I took trade;
M15 Reversal cluster
H4 double top
RSI,6 Divergence
Round number Resistance
Took profits at M5 middle bollinger bands, closed half and moved SL.
Closed the rest at round number, M5 EMA60, and outer BB M5

Not the best setup in my opinion, but a setup nonetheless, with small 10 pip risk. Entered 2% only on this trade, meaning .5 mini contracts

closed half at +25 pips and stop moved to BE

update; That was a fast trade and I averaged out, closing the last micro for 80 pips.
Great trade, risked $7 made $19, bringing todays ROE to 2%

Slow Friday, and everything I've tried for the last few hours have netted me about .5% negative ROE... due to a few scalps, some worked, some obviously didn't.

Currently long 1% of UJ from 90.04 SL 89.87 TP 90.35

closed half for +25 pips and moved SL up to 89.98, moved TP up to 90.50

Based on m5 PA, I closed final position at 90.35

Trade netted me back the .5% roe I lost earlier, so at BE now

Well its a new week, and Im in a EU long trade from entries 1.2388, and 1.2363, SL 2349,

Trade setups, fib retrace, 2 hour inside bar

If Im wrong, I risk less then 1% of my equity, Im hoping to stay in this for 200+ pips which would be a nice ROE


also AU long, same setup with small risk, about .2% Also hoping to stay in for a swing long

trade update; closed both trades, AU did well as I closed the last for +50 pips, and EU half I closed in profit, earlier entry got stopped out

So after being stopped out, I again like the long setup, basically what seemed to me, a rejection of new lows, 61.8 retrace of previous run up, and 2barhigh with divergence on M5.

SL as noted, TP open, hoping for 200+ but will evaluate PA

2nd entry long on AU as well, from .8300, currently up+20, SL .8280

update; closed half on my EU for +52 pips and set SL at BE
same for AU, +30

I like to fade the 60... and this is a setup I look for... usually with trend, and usually with a small stoploss, in this case, 6 pips. I'm about to get stopped out at the moment, but worth a try for me... TP 2450

Still holding a small position long from earlier

trade update; stopped out... going to stay the course on the previous entries though

First trade of the day is going well with half profits taken at +27 pips, and will let the rest run up if thats what it wants to do... may leave for 1-200 pips before taking profits.

Also took similar scalp trades off AU and GU but closed already

Reasons for trade. H1 pin bar, (although small... I didn't care for that too much, but with smaller SL as well) close to double bottom situation on H4, and BB restriction, indicating possible run when it breaks out.

trade update; got stopped out once again, at BE... Seems there's lead in this EU pair! Price touched ema10 to the pip on H1 time frame, and dropped away.. may try to long this again later if bottom holds

Yesterday was a bit of a crazy moves day and I "relapsed". I was short AU a small position and price moved against me. I broke rule number 1 and hadn't set a SL. Long story short, I added to losers and price just kept going against me and end result, I ended up where I started with this journal, and lost 2.78% I am reminded again, that, "I am not smarter then my rules!"

Heres a GU trade I'm in with small risk. I enter small here because of a couple reasons... first I'm not terribly confident in this trade, second, its a swing trade which I plan on keeping for awhile if I dont get stopped out, so the risk, versus possible reward are pretty good. I entered 2 positions, 1 TP is 1.4428 the other TP is open for who knows, hopefully days.

Scalped EU from 1.2250 area for +15 pips earlier, leaving 1% for swing also

trade update; profit target reached. Closed both for about +60 pips. I have a really hard time leaving swing longs open, and so it goes, Im out of this trade, can't complain about it though to much, its green

I'm a little down and disapointed at my trading results... again

SameSame, I never seem to sustain that edge, it comes and goes, mostly goes. I feel optomistic most of the time, but... What Im wondering at this point, is if I'm possibly diluded

I repeatedly over trade, and here,s May, Come and Gone, with 20% less in my account then a month ago. Check... I commit to be strong and impliment my plan in strength and groundedness, and emotional balance

What I'm trying to do here is get a clearer picture, on how it is possible to turn this around, once and for all.

It's not that I don't have the experience. My first trade occured 15 years ago on the Deutsch Mark.. I lost $75 on my first trade... and 30K since then... I will earn this all back plus some, by next year however... Ive been saying this for years.... but this time is different........................................

I've spent thousands of hours looking at charts, and I do recognize patterns with a very high success rate, yet I'm such a doer, I seldom wait like a sniper until those setups occur.
.. this is going to change... I see the light!

My biggest enemy has been not to set stop losses and then price gets away, and I try so hard to bring forex back to me, yes, haha ouch, meanwhile double or tripling up, thus speeding up my losses if as most likely, price continues to go where its going... Well this is typical, and stupid! I can do better and never ever let this happen again! I do and will however, average in and out, as a plan, not as a reaction.

In my heart I know that my time has come for success in trading and other areas of my life, yet I see myself faltering now and I can only judge my success in trading by how much my equity value changes.... because thats the goal isn't it... to make money... lots of money?

Next Month.....

These are trades I would've taken, without a doubt, and made money on all of them, if I would've seen them. Pin bars with divergence, and pin bar with trend after breakout

Hindsight is awesome isn't it!

OK so Im being especially careful now in placing trades and am risking much less because Ive been on a losing streak. Im being hard on myself as I tend to over trade still, and Ive come to a simple but profound conclusion about risk management.... Here it is; If on a losing streak, check in, and obviously, place smaller trades but more importantly, stop trading until a really great trade presents itself. This is good advice at all times actually. Here's the second one; Once Im on a winning streak, I can take somewhat bigger risks, position size... to a point, although I shall always have a top exposure rule not to break.

EU trade, I have noticed this setup again and again when price is ranging and theres numerous side by side candles, then a small bar, or inside bar which is often indicative of a bigger move. I especially like these as the SL often can be quite small. I did close half of this position now for +25, making this trade a no risk one. Hopefully my TP will be hit in short order
EU update; closed remaining position for BE... after thoughts; due to the ranging nature of the market atm, I would've been better off closing the whole trade before

UJ trade, M15, divergence + rejection of new high + round number resistance + hangman candle on H1 and over bought on rsi... +13 pip risk
UJ Update; Stopped out

Against the trend I know, but the signal is there... Not the best placement however and only .3 mini trade... if it takes off I'm going to leave 1 micro running for a bit

The above UJ got stopped out again, for very small loss but the GU trade I took at the same time made me +28 and +52

i like it when someones trade is based on some rules(not random).
surely this the way to success in this business.
good luck to you
Regards
Sho

Hopefully I can keep this trade open for a few days, or weeks?