In love with 4hr PA. Looking at Charts only 5 times a day!

Not a very good day today. Gave away all my gains.

Manually closed GBPCHF for a loss,
Current open trades EURCAD EURAUD shorts

Total for today -12 pips

Eurcad sl hit Euraud stopped at be

Seems like this first week was a rough one. Well there's still today to go. At the end of the day I'll make a post including what I learnt from this week of trading and what I can change/modify for next week.
I'm not giving up that easy.

Entered:

GBPJPY Long
USDJPY Long
EURCAD Short

I will count last friday part of the week since I started then.

Its interesting to see that My equity reached its highest at 7.53% @ $57 and lowest at 1.94% @ $19 but in the end of the week I ended up with a profit of 3.38% or $32.

I was in a live webinar with Jason Stapleton where he made $8000 for the week and lost $6000 and was left with $2000 of profit. And he was happy. The point is don't dwell on I could have made this much or that much.

After the first week there are a few lessons I've learnt and am taking into my next week of trading.

1. Only trade after the 4hr close into the london session. so times where I can put a trade are now reduced to 3 times a day. (Others I'm sleeping).

2. When price closes above my level on the 4hr and i'm short I must close the trade and vice versa for longs.

3. Take initial profit after 4 candles after the lowest low/highest high candle. and trail the rest 3 bars back.

4. Reduce the number of pairs I look at and go for the highest probability trades.

The fact is I don't know if the method I'm trading is profitable in the long run so I've decided on this journal which will help me root out the errors and increase the win ratio. This will also help me in my discipline.

The last trade from last week took me down to 1.8%
As I said this week I'm reducing the number of pairs and only looking at the majors.

Currently in 1 trade USDJPY short.

Bought EURUSD
Sold USDCHF

Still in USDJPY short

Despite there being less trades. I feel more confident and more relaxed trading only the majors.

Something which I heard earlier comes to mind. You dont have to be trading everyday to be making money. Trade when you see a good setup and enjoy your time away from the markets. Don't overtrade.

Closed 75% of USDCHF and EURUSD trades. Rest moved to breakeven.
104 pips EURUSD
75 pips USDCHF

Still in the USDJPY short from yesterday

nice trading day today.

No trades yet today. Still in my eu and uchf partially. Uj is moving very slow.
Since Its FOMC I'm expecting the market to be slow till then.
Also since I will be asleep during FOMC I'm hesitant to put new positions on.

I closed the rest of my position on EURUSD and USDCHF. Also closed the USDJPY trade since it hasnt moved much in the last two days and FOMC is tonight.

Total of 198 pips for today.
377 pips for this week so far. Looking good.

I've had bad experience with FOMC so I'd rather stay out of any positions cause markets do very unexpected things during FOMC. I may have kept my trades open had FOMC been while I am awake.

WEll will be back tomorrow during London to see potential setups.

There was a trade setup to short eurusd but I was spending some time with my friend and I missed the trade. Although not the best setup it was take able.
Now I see I could have made a killing from that trade. But that's not how the mindset should be. If you miss a trade wait patiently for the next one.

Note to self : don't lament the past. Be prepared for the future.
The market always retraces.

Last trading day of the week.
I must say I feel a little bad that I missed the trade yesterday but life must go on.

Today I'm looking at a potential buy setup in EURUSD and sell USDCHF
I'll be waiting for the German Ifo Business Climate high impact news then enter thereafter.

Everything is so much clearer to me in trading last couple months. Trading is meant to be an enjoyable experience and not a stressful one. I remember I used to always want to look and trade 15m and 5 min charts but there was always something that kept drawing me to the 4hr charts. And the stress staring at the 15m charts was killing me. Now trading has become a very relaxing experience.

moneydeep,

can you post a snapshot explaining the eurusd opportunity?

Longed EURUSD, GBPUSD
Shorted USDCHF

Smart money spiked everyone out and it seems a retracement of yesterdays move is due.

Here's dollar index analysis and my initial profit targets for the trades.

http://i.imgur.com/PTJq0.png

End of week 2 update

I'm still in the eurusd and gbpusd long and usdchf short. It's time to go to sleep. The smart money has been smacking price up and down going sideways all day.

Since its the last trading day of the week I've taken some profit from eu and uchf. Gu isn't in profit. I don't want to check my charts next week and realize price has gapped against me. Taking some off ensures that if it gaps against me I won't be hit that hard. And if it gaps in my favor I still make some profit.

End of week 2 profitable week.
400 pips for this week
8.43% increase in the account

I'd say I had a good week. Gotta sleep now so will post what I learnt this week which I can take into my trading next week later tomorrow.

Lessons to take into the next week

1. Don't lament the past. Be prepared for the future. The market always retraces.

2. I don't always have to enter on 4hr closes. I can enter on hourly based on PA and still manage it as a 4hr tf trade.

Updated first post with week 2 update.

New week. The trades from last week EURUSD stopped out for a minor loss.
Still in USDCHF and GBPUSD.

Note to self : I realise now that although my stop loss was according to plan I could have exited the trade for a very small loss earlier if I followed my rule and exited when the 4hr candle closed below my trendline.
I let my market bias get the better of me. Instead of closing the trade I thought it would go back my way.

Now that price is near my stop loss I am just going to hang in.

other two trades stopped out.
Probably won't get any other trades today.

Potential usdcad short setup but I will take it tomorrow when price retraces during London.
I've seen it happen too many times.

It was hard staying away but I did not take any trades yesterday. Revenge/depressed trading can kill your account.

Today I'm looking at two potential setups.

GBPUSD Long
USDCAD Short

These are the areas where I will be looking at PA Reversal indications. There's GBPUSD News so I'm expecting price will be pushed down into the zones.

Hah and of course when I want to trade then Price doesn't retrace LOL