smallball's 2012 Live Trade Journal w/ Trade Explorer

Greetings to all---this is my thread ever,

I am going to start this journal with the following objectives:

1. Interact with some like minded folks around the nuts and bolts of trading success.

2. Conduct my trading business operations in a transparent manner.

3. Contribute and receive benefit from this community of traders.

Here is a little about me:
My family and I reside in the Pacific Northwest region of the USA

I started trading fx in the summer of 2009 . . . it has been a harrowing journey.

I really love trading and am convinced that it is the best business opportunity ever. To this point, I have lost considerably more than I've made. I believe that it is time to start digging out. I have spent approximately 6-7000 hours over the last 2 1/2 years reading, studying, charting, trading and losing money.

All that said, I believe that I finally have my trading priorities in the right order and am encouraged about the future. PLAN, MINDSET, MONEY-MANAGEMENT, TRANSPARENCY and SYSTEM ( in order of importance)

I will be day trading in the London and U.S. sessions ( mostly US--I live on the west coast)

My system is very simple--- 1 and 5 min. charts, a couple of moving averages, ichimoku cloud, and a ma_angle indi.

Here is a pic. of my chart view



I'll share more on the methodology as we move along

I lived in Port Townsend for a spell after high school. I loved the rain forest, but I hated the gloominess of winter for that region. I'll take sunshine and a bit of chill over that anyday. I don't do anything with TF's that low, so I won't add much commentary, but I wish you the best of luck.

Good luck!

Dust

OK, 2 losers and 2 little winners this morning and , yes the losers were bigger than the winners....yuck

So, the damage was held in check with my money management plan.

Here is how I am approaching MM :

The idea is to increase position size as I gain equity and reduce size during a losing time. I set a max loss for the week and implement a strategy to keep from getting knocked out in the early part of the week.

1. I set a max % loss for the week ........6% ( start of 500.00 X 6% = 30.00)

2. divide the $ loss amt. by 50 pips (I want to maintain a 50 pip cushion between me and the end of my trading week)

3. as I close trades in any session, I recalculate the distance between my current equity and my original loss threshold for the week and divide that new $$ amount by 50 pips ( if my most recent trade is a winner, my size increases,
and the opposite if the trade was a loser)

This morning I had a loss of $9.00 after 3 trades, so I reduced my size down from 6000 units <60 cents/pip> to 4200 units <42 cents/pip> to fit my new max dollar loss for the week (21.00) into 50 pips of space

My next trade was a small winner which increased my $ loss space to 23.00
which yielded a new position size of 4600 units.

4600 units ( 46 cents/pip) will be the size of my next trade

I hope that was clear.

Okay, Just had my last trade of the day

+8 pips ...... increased my $ loss threshold to 27.00/ 50 pips = 5400 units

My next trade will have a 5400 unit position size or 54 cents/pip

See post #3 for explanation

Good luck on your trades! I'm the west coast as well. I like your money management.

Thanks guys!

Before I talk about my entry criteria, I want to emphasize the fact that I believe psychology and money management are more important----- probably much more important than entry criteria. That being said, this is the entry criteria that I'm using.

Here is a link to a video I Just made on my entry criteria





Let me know if you have any questions.

I basically went on a binge of undisciplined trading this morning

Rats

OK, back on the wagon for the next session

Hey Small how's the trading going? The youtube vid isn't working for some reason. I always enjoy learning others systems.

Wishing you all the best
johnn2pips

Hi small,

I see you havent posted in a while. Let me help you out. Seriously. You must be losing your arse,because unless you are getting under 1 point spreads which is impossible almost in the USA, you cannot win on 5 min or lower charts. The house will get ALL your money. And #2, all the manipulation and games are directed first at guys like you to stop you out and steal your cash. If I may be so bold as to suggest moving to 60 min time frames at the least, you will enjoy much better success no matter what your system. Look at it this way, its like being a general and having a much better view of the battlefield. Think of General Patton in that great movie with George C. Scott.

I personally am involved now with Fibonacci clusters and Harmonic trading. Let me know what system you are using and maybe we can work together on something. You are right...trading is such a glorious game. Dont let it ruin your life,though. In fact,if you give me a PM, I will tell you the private system of money mgmt a professional trader told me about that allows him to run a fund with no worries. I dont guarantee it but its about the best money management I have seen.