review my trades and discuss

would someone review my trade journal and provide guidance
I am new to this and i think im having beginners luck


******* look at my next posts for a posting you can actually read ******


Im up to 82834 as of now
i started on friday with 50000

anyone have any advice for me?

Don't know what it all means but it looks impressive, try saving it into an excel spreadsheet then zipping it up.

You made 65% profit in three, four days, whereas most of us would be most happy with 5% a day.
Now you ask us for advice?
Not truly satisfied? Of course, you expected more of it....!!

I wouldn't know what to advise you.........

I read about everyone saying that they are happy with 5% a month
i can make 5 % by next hour

am i taking on too much risk?
This seems to be too good to be true to me.

I attached a cleaned up spreadsheet

maybe someone knowledgable could look at it?

I dont want to be a greenhorn and continue doing something dumb.

I just got into this about a week ago. I have a degree, but ive never done any trading before. I opened up several DEMO acccts before i was able to adopt a strategy that worked for me. I cant seem to make any money except in the EUR/USD

Discuss

im now @ 85034.11

i would laugh at you 98vert6spd, but we've all been there before

no one can figure out why you'd never see this type of "luck" on a real money account.

amen to that. theres no emotion when demoing which means everything.

yup.. even playing 10cents a pip brings out the worst of me ....

demo is nothing like real ... unfortunately.


ken

I really am trying to pretend its real

If anything im closing out positions way before i should to stop losses

or to take profits

Well, after looking at your spreadsheet, it appears that your using large lots trades and then closing very quickly after a few pips.

I can't tell you that's the right or wrong thing to do - that judgement is completly your own. However, I can say that large lots produce large risk. I have a friend who trades the same way and has very good luck doing it.

Many traders will tell you 3-5% of your account equity - but in reality, very few actually use that percentage. Large institutional trader use minimal equity for obvious reasons, but that mindset while commonly preached is rarely observed.

What I can recommend is before going live, experiment with less lot size and possiblely less leverage.

The true measure of a trader is not how much you make, but how long you continue to make it.

If after experimenting with less lots/leverage you feel that is more sensible, then practice it.

I, like yourself, took my demo accounts very seriously and was very emotional. After almost a year of demoing my transition to live trading was so easy and effortless that I often wonder why I worried so much.

I don't know how your entering or exiting, but you seem to have a good win/loss percentage.

Good job!

thank you

I calculated earlier that i was risking 14% at a time

i will cut it in half and see how I like it

I too spend most of my cash on women

lost 3k last night on a short of eur/usd @ 1.2129

wake up this AM to see it 100 pts south of my 1.2129
damn

If youve got a degree you are probably way to smart for this .. pack it in and go work for the government ...



sry . just kidding .. good luck ..

how many roads does a trader walk down ... or is it fall down ...

Are you using tight stops?

Another question would be, do you keep up onthe news?

Also, word of advice. Pick a currency pair and become as familiar with pair as you can. Stare at it's charts like a zombie till you know how it reacts to cetain conditions. That takes a lot of the guess work out of trading and eases your worried mind!

ive been using 25 to 30 pip stops
I wanted to beout of the market this AM cause i wasnt certain what the market would do so i closed out my position last night around 1am

i am only trading in the EUR/USD

today hasnt been kind to me
Im at 82k now

placed 2 3000 losses and several smaller wins

might be time to chill
I find myself trading just for the sake of being in the market and i need to stop that. I want to take a long position in the EUR\USD at around 1.2020 but it doesnt want to cooperate with me
id also be happy with a short around 12040

but the market is just going sideways for now

It seems that when there is alot of volatitlity i cant seem to do all that well. I do well when it doesnt move more than 35 points in either direction

Im such a newb

[quote=MuddBuddha]Are you using tight stops?

Another question would be, do you keep up onthe news?

Also, word of advice. Pick a currency pair and become as familiar with pair as you can. Stare at it's charts like a zombie till you know how it reacts to cetain conditions. That takes a lot of the guess work out of trading and eases your worried mind![/QUOTE

oh also ive jsut been using the news plugin that fxcm offers

is there a better one?

Well, you need to know beforehand what is happening that day. Use a decent economic calendar and check it each morning asap.

Market volatility is killing you because you are unprepared for it. Know ahead of time what to expect if B+C = D or reverses and = A instead. Most advanced traders check their charts, calendars, and news briefs first thing in the morning prior to ever entering a trade.

I personally review the prior nights movements and read up on what is expected to be the outcome of that mornings news releases before heading off to trade.

You said you use 25-30 pip stops - but what is your typical pip limit? Or your target, if you will?
It sounds as though your stops out weigh your limits or targets heavily.

Don't set your stops so wide that it takes a day or two to recover from the stop out. Often if the pair is approaching a stop you have set wide, newer traders will remove the stop because of the lack of willingness to suffer such a loss.

If you find that your trades are requiring wide stops just to perform, then we have sliced through the cheese and have hit the meat. That indicates that your primary area of concern is your entry. This will need to be refined prior to going live. A precise entry keeps you from having to use wide stops. I use 10 and 15 pip stops myself. I use 20 pip targets.

Many platforms allow your to set your limits and stops via percentage rather than pips. This way it is autmatically adjusted for the size of the lot you are opening with. For beginning traders, I think this is an excellent idea.

So, now that we've made it this far, what time frame chart are you using primarily?

I use a 1 day tick time chart

1 minute and a 15 minute candle

I do find myself moving stops to allow the loss to get higher but when i do that i try to look at the loss as profit

ie 9k is 1000 profit compared to 10k loss
its not really a sound strategy and ive been burned on it 3 times now

I have about 25 wins to 9 losses

but the losses are usually around 5k and the wins are usually 1000 -3000

ill have to look at the news and see if i can adapt that to my strategy

Ive also lowered my size of trades from 5000 lots to 3000 lots
so effectively ive cut my risk down to 60% of what i was doing

ok heres the latest journal

I cleaned this one up a bit and added a win loss tally and avg WIN and AVG loss

i was at 85k last time i posted
I had a drawdown to 70k but im back up to 85k

anyone know where i can get some info on scalping strategys
It seems to me thats how ive been making my cash
Im up 238 pips since 1/5/06

I lowered my trading size down to 3000 lots
anyone have any other advice to help me out