Togu's journal

I've been trading actively from 2008, but like most of us I've been attraced to FX as I would be making very easy big money. (day dreaming with my lurjet, thinking how I would spend all those money ) But the trading reality kicked me in my face just after I started trading with real money. So my rollercoaster life has began.
The emotional thoughts as I traded to my disaster, was beyond the words I can describe now, but I hope I'm alot closer to it right now.

Little History about what I did:
Read alot of articles and ebooks on any given subjects << This is I believe the most importand FIND because it shifted my trading to a different prospective. I won't say the names of the books because this is my little secret. But there are no secrets!!! Virtually all the books I read stated one thing to be a successfull trader. So you have to find trully yours. Maybe I have to mention that I've read only the books I could find for free. (torrents, google, etc) There are not alot of books out there if you know what to look. Because every trader I believe have some unique mentalities when it comes to trading. So don't try to read books about picking Top & Bottoms if you're Trend follower.

Now I can define what my problems were:
Basically I thought I had to know everything from NFP, CPI, Straddling, picking top & bottoms, triangles, break outs, fibo, pivots etc. But my trading really shifted as I sticked with one of them. Rules of engagement is crucial (Money management, planning, defined rules prior entering/exits)
The hardest part for me is psychology, at least I'm trying really hard not break my rules, but when I occasionally do break my rules it really effects on my trading perfomance. Just last Thursday I broke the rules as I moved my SL to BE, the trade which could have brought me some nice pips I ended up with BE. The problem was that as soon as I spotted profitable trade I moved my SL, so I didn't give some time for it cook before moving SL. So these little mistakes will eventually have some negative impacts in the longer run.

This is my smaller account for a public but trades are the same as my bigger account, since I duplicate my trades via EA duplicator. I'm not going to post charts to show how I'm right and wrong. This is not a show off but perhaps to learn about myself or you guys could learn on my mistakes. I will try to define my problems such as how I felt about a certain trade and how I handled it emotionally. I try to be free from any of these as I have my rules sticked to my monitor. But one last thing I want to mention here is that learning on your mistake is better than learning on someone's. Maybe you guys are wondering why I have this kind of philosophy. Because the greatest learn was when I had 50% DD on my account, that is where I've learned how devastating it can be emotionally. So don't revenge trade!

I am happy for you and wish me luck cause i'm in the same stage right now

Good luck, I hope you don't chase the market. Whenever I tried to predict the price my trades were terrible, but now I just react to the price. Now it is seems alot easier. Just seeing the chart made me almost cry if I didn't know where it was going, but when I get the point that I don't have to learn every move behind it you will almost feel or perhaps intuition will tell you something. Tell me what's going on

2 losses which hit SL, Short @ 4205 failed to BE it was in profit for at least 72 pips.
3rd trade AGAIN miss calculation error but thankfully I've spotted the error when it was in profit. Little errors still persists here and there. Overall no emotional detachments on trades which is always a good sign.

great thread!!! keep it coming. and it will be one of the most valueable thread in FF.

Thanks for noticing my thread. Picking my trades is the easiest part but when it comes to exit and my psychology it comes to different story. With this small account I'm trying to to build my mental strength and go for the Million dollar challenge. Let's see how it will perform. The leverages on the trades are quiete high but I believe on my trade picking abilities. My actual trading rules are RR1:2, as soon as I get to 1:1 I will BE. But with this I hit around 50:50 hit ratio and there is another technique that I'm implementing on this small account. Which I will scalp the market based on my longer term trades which will get me to around 75-80% hit ratio, so another words I'm risking 2:1.

I wanna say how I messed up my profits. Today EURUSD was choppy as I was entering with momentum, but the market behaved choppy killing the previous momentums. 3 trades, 3 mistakes. One mistake was that as soon as I spotted false momentum I have closed my 1st trade before it reached my initial SL(If I had not closed my 1st trade I would have taken my TP). Entering on 1h TF was my second mistake as I don't trade 1h TF, and then it reversed again thus confirming my 1st initial setup once again, No hessitation so I pulled the trigger and then market AGAIN reversed. 3rd mistake I kept trading the same lots eventhough the balance was in bad shape. Oh well, let's try again.