Get a Grip: A Journal

Edit. I no longer trade at FXCM or on an MT4 account so cannot link with my trading account. I trade at CMC and have done for over 10 years, they do not offer MT4 so I use MT4 for signals and management using CMC for execution. Messy but good spreads and slick execution. Stop hunting too but so long as you know it can be managed.

This is a journal for this account:

http://www.forexfactory.com/hercules

For the record here are my indicators and templates. Credit for these all go to others particularly Stratman at pipware.com, Misspips and Cobraforex. Look them up at the main THV thread and at Stratmans own thread.

Looking for a simple trading system that does not take over every waking an sleeping minute of the day. I am currently looking at a system by SonicR. All credit to him if it works. Search for SonicR in trading systems for full details. Looks like its the most popular system here so something must be right?

To business. Initial trading account is a demo account.

Eurusd potentially forming down signal
D down, H down

Usdjpy,D down trend, ranging to up, H up, 15 mixed

0815
EURGBP bought 1 and .1. 2.4 pip spread. S/L 56 below open.
Eurusd potentially forming down signal
D down, H down

Usdjpy,D down trend, ranging to up, H up, 15 mixed

0815
EURGBP bought 1 and .1. 2.4 pip spread. S/L 56 below open.

8:30
Audusd 1. Error should have waited for bar to go above last.

10:33
Worked out ok. Closed all positions except small euro position when in excess of 100 pips on table. Not right according to strategy.
ERRORS: Should only risk 2% of capital at any one time. So for 5000 pot total stop losses should be 100 pips: equivalent to one lot at 5000 or subdivide. For 500 pot then 0.1 subdivided.

234 pips taken off two positions approx


WHITE - entry point
RED - stop loss
BLUE - take profit

In this case profit taken early as rally running out of steam and hammock in villa in Greece beckons. Account standing after morning session as follows:



But this with twice acceptable position with 5000 pot

Lessons from day 1:
1. If I had let profits run I would have achieved neArer 500 pips BUT I think this has been an exceptionally good day for this system - and any trending system

2. Money management rules need defining. No more than 2% pot to be at risk at any one time. Based on distance to stop and position size

3. It being Friday pm I was reticent to open new positions in PM despite having identified opportunities. Safe but possibly over conservative. Must review this over w/e.

Homework for w/e to read rest of SonicR thread. It's a bit long so we will see. Monday if all goes well should have all indicators set up and ready and have posted graphics...

Graphics for the above.

Mmm. Cannot get graphics in. Technology not quite there. May have to follow later.

Anyone know how to get graphics in from iOS?

Another attempt at using this to post my trading for a demo account of THV without cluttering up the main thread. We'll give it a go...

If I can get the technology to work I will post actual results here directly from my FXCM demo account. I do not trade live at FXCM however as the spreads are way to big! This account is nly for FF so it can link to it.

First off here are some of todays efforts at analysis and what actually happened.

I also did similar trades on UJ and EJ for a good result for the morning BUT I BROKE MY RULES and was lucky to get away with it.

In the diagrams below WHITE = SHOULD HAVE all other colours are what actually happened. I should add I tend to stop after 10am and wait for the US session so chose to exit my in the money positions early. My actual trades are logged under the hercules user name in the trades section.This might work as a link. http://www.forexfactory.com/hercules

I have not got the lot sizes right for my risk profile according to my own rules, for simplicity I am just trading 1 lot at the moment. I will look at that and make a decision how to manage it as it is not as straight forward with FXCM as it is with my live broker. I am running my main broker account in parallel so when I come to enter and exit this account will always be the second one I act on so entries and exits may be a bit late.

Nice to get lucky on first trades on an account...

Plenty left on the table though and critically made mistakes AND bent my own rules which could easily have landed in disaster so I need to learn from that and not be complacent and repeat such schoolboy errors.

Wrong side of the last move and was slow to exit - MT4 is not a quick execution platform. I need to think about how to deal with that. Not helped by trying to duplicate trades on second account but at the end of the day it was a mistake. Although the higher timeframe (M5) was showing a change in colour of the trix this retrospectively reversed itself - I am aware it does that but failed to factor it in. The result being what was a moderately risky trade actually was high risk. Learning point - Dont just rely on trix changing colour, it must show trend change in the higher timeframe (M5) as well as the current M1 timeframe. As this move is counter to the maintrend I am hopeful for a turnaround and another entry opportunity at say the next psyche levels

Anticipated turnaround did come but I horribly pre empted it getting in way too early and having to ride the wrong way. This means I broke my rules even though they were winning trades. It could have been a mess. Trades in log.

Hi Revoli,

You might like to know that FXCM recently introduced new lower spreads that are 1 pip tighter for the most popular currency pairs.

http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/9972/newspreads.png

Jason

Hi Jason
Thanks for that. I do have a funded FXCM account that I tried as a comparator with my 2 existing brokers IG and CMC who I have actively used for over 10 years. There was no benefit in using FXCM over these, execution was faster at CMC and spreads tighter - even now. Eurusd is less than 1 pip for instance. Customer service at the more expensive IG is second to none. Whenever I have queried an execution price (v rare) they have adjusted my trades. Their data also seems very reliable plus (the clincher for me) they will open a market for you in just about anything traded on an exchange. I will probably keep the FXCM account for less frequent longer term trades where spread is not so key. Execution and spread are everything.

Another reason for keeping the live account is to access your live data which I have found to be quicker and more accurate than your demo accounts data on occasions. so I will need to do at least some trading at FXCM. Am I right in thinking you have tighter rates for large accounts? CMC appears to have some limits and I suspect liquidity at FXCM is better if my FX trading ever reaches those dizzy heights. We shall see.

A learning morning for me this morning. I am still playing with different platforms for live trading (and to en extent configuring my chart windows for THV). Om the trading side I attempted to use the FXCM Desktop platform for opening and closing trades as I find MT4 clumsy and slow for execution. The result was to massively confuse myself and placing massive orders by mistake which quickly breached my account limits and closed. In cash terms I lost about 1% of my account doing this. Urrgh! Still that is why I am on demo!. On the plus side I corrected those trades and fully recovered those positions and went into profit nicely. I have had to excit early however as I have a lunch appointment. As I write I note I left alot of pips on the table by doing this. Need to learn from that and how best manage this. In terms of raw pips I am 80 pips up, In terms of £ 155 up but that includes £600 plus lost through my incompetent order entry.

Here's the changes I made to my template. I discovered the benefits of the pipware mini charts which enables me to see at a glance where the Trix is in multiple timeframes as well as the THV position. A significant improvement BUT I need to get used to the information presented as I was slow to imterpret wat was happening in froont of me. Screen time is the solution here.

Secondly I wanted to try order entry through the FXCM desktop interface and got caught out by lot size differences between the two platforms entering 6 lots by accident on three trades which broached account limits and left big losses. No matter, it's the pip count that matters and later trades recovered both.

So here's the learning bit. What should have happened is shown in white. Yellow represents my actual trades. I was too late into the office today and missed the first big run at A - so lessonn one isget in for the key times. On the up side I managed to resist the temptation to dive in half way through the run which is critica as that is risky with potential for significant drawdown. My entry at Alpha was late and risky it should have been refined further using the one minute chart. M1 trix was turning up again but M5 trix was already breaking down so a poor entry made out of frustration more than anything else. Exit when price showed weakness.

Entry at Beta was good, tracked the retracement of M5 watching that M15 remained up supported by H1. M15 remained up but was weaker and M5 slow trix had gone below zero line showing potential H1 and H4 both showed signs of potentially going higher. potential resistance at psyche level w an issue and I exited when M5 fast trix broke down and M15 was looking sideways.

All in all took 26 pips here as opposed to 118 on offer. Could do better. I did however take similar trades on other instruments

Some truly silly trades today trying to force pips where none on offer. Lots of excuses but at the end of the day the wrong mindset. After three bad trades I packed it in as a bad job. Come back fresh another day. I estimate I ended 80 pips down. Lessons learnt? I tried a slightly different approach to entry having watched another traders technique. This was stupid as I had not fully digested it and made some basic mistakes. I also had an interesting experience with FXCM where trades were not executed for at least 30 seconds from my execution so what started as in the money exits ended significantly out. Volume at the time was not excessive. I think there is a significant difference between their demo accounts and live service - certainly the data feeds are slower on demo so I suspect a time lag exists on execution As well. Even so my technique was poor today, forcing trades when direction was sideways ranging. Lessons learnt - patience and consistency of approach. I was also implementing a 10 pip absolute policy forgetting the wide spread at FXCM on these pairs which was just a non starter with these trades.

Heres what happened on GJ, similar trades on EU and UJ and EJ. White is waht I shold have done, Yellow is what I did.

1. I missed the first big run down at A as was not in the office - Late!! Get in on time
Realising a move was on I thoiught I would join it late by cleverly enterring on a M1 pull back - Huge mistake, the run was clearly tired with M5 Trix already turning up. What a muppet.

2. Having got some negative pips under my belt I thought I would make a quick few pips to recover the position at 2, technically a signal at M5 but M15 was down. Another very basic error which I can only put down to me being off the boil

3. I am not sure how I ended up with two loots in play here. Another mistake, not paying attention to what positons I had open on the two accounts I run in parallel (I have another account at CMC which has proper spreads so I can see what really happens but it is unable to report via MT4)

4. At 4 there was a weak M5 signal and M15 was beginning to turn. I should have tracked this and waited rather than firing so early when really my prey was still out of range - When playing at hunting you must
stalk your prey waiting for the right opportunity for a lean kill. Hows this as a learning point

S - Stay
T - Till
A - A
L - Lean
K - Kill

Watch the pros like pipwares videos on Youtube. He tracks his trades, waits until he has confirmation that the set up is right, waits again for a pullback and then ahd a clean shot at a decent run with minimal pullback (10 pips). He is also tracking using the M5 timeframe whilst looking at M15 and above for trend direction then looking at the M1 for entry point refinement.

All in all a poor days efforts with lots of mistakes losing 34 pips where 163 were on offer on GJ alone. My biggest concern is these are mistakes I repeat without learning the lessons of past trades. Hopefully this confessional will cement this in my head.

I have strayed far from my path in the last two days being thoroughly sidetracked by watching videos of other traders techniques and not applying my basic rules of the THV system The result is predictably a disaster. Still that is what demo accounts are for. As an aside I have a set of parameters I must follow before I will allow myself to trade these systems on any of my live accounts, so whilst I am pips and more importantly pounds up on my live accpunts with some other trades I have running I am way out now on my fx trading. To business. I lost a load today and got frustrated with the performance issues I am experiencing with the FXCM demo account. I could trade micro lots on my live account but my rules are strict on no live trading until the strategy is proven.

Once again I was late into the office so missed the morning run and once again broke my rules and joined late (at the top) to have top exit at a 6 pip loss. A basic check of THV signals would have warned me off this as well as a look at the trend line. I need to wait for pullbacks to the SMA 60 (Cobra) or the underlying trend line before enterring (Capture1).

In capture 2 I have drawn in the underying trend line to illustrate where the pullbacks are and therefore where a safe entry can be made with minimal stop loss or draw down.

A - Good Trix cross, Cobra is flat but it is a bounce off R1 and a developing trend line. An obvious and safe entry. I could have then followed this waith a trailing stop behind the next low and ridden it all the way up but realistically the choppy nature of thr trend should have meant an exit where I stupidly shorted at 1.

1 - M5 was looking down and it looked like resistance had formed BUT we are above all 3 moving averages when I should be trading away from them not towards them. This was a risk entry at best and I compounded this by failing to exit in a timely manner. Because I was in this trade I failed to enter a long at the next pullback at B.

B - Higher highs in all timeframes, and higher highs plus a good trix cross with slope over the zero line. A low risk entry. Only 10 pips profit but 18 pips in a choppy market is fine.

Capture 3.

So I left my last duff trade open and will do so overnight as I am not bothered what happens to this account. Ignore that for now. What I should have done is stuck to the rules. M15 was down, M5 turned up as it tested R2 for a while but then turned down down again with a clear THV signal leading to 34 pips. Again I was in an incorrect so missed it. Come back tomorrow.

Hi Revoli,

I appreciate the feedback you've provided about our platform in your latest posts and had some questions related to it.

You make a great point. You're already aware of our new spreads. Have you also enabled one-click trading on your FXCM Trading Station platform?

Yes, for higher volume traders, we offer the Active Trader program.

I'm glad to hear this was only on a demo! Please let me know if you still have any questions related to using our platform. Also, our customer support team is available 24 hours a day to provide you with help by phone or online chat.

Was this delay on a demo or a live account? If it was on a live account, I encourage you to log a case for the Trade Audit Committee to review. If there was an error in our execution, they will make the appropriate correction to your account.

I'd like to troubleshoot this tech issue you had with your demo. Could you tell me more about the problem you experienced?

Thanks,
Jason

I spent the last few days investigating how I might get better performance from my orders execution, working on the principle that it has got to be my end causing the problem and that realy I should not be in a position where a minutes delay should be significant to an oder execution. To that end I removed everyting that could slug my (reasonably powerful) desktop PC down, and interfere with my broadband (the fastest BT can provide) by remving all other demands on it. I then tried a series of experiments to test the speed of execution by both MT4 and the FXCM desktop application - ie I tried executions at various times of market activity. It has not worked and I am not going to waste more time on this. The final nail in the coffin was this morning being completely unable to enter an order for over a minute. I will park the FXCM accounts and request return of funds as I cannot see myself ever using it when a) execution is so slow b) spreads are so high compared to other existing accounts I have elsewhere (CMC, IGindex) and are available elsewhere (Dukascopy is one I keep thinking about opening). It was a useful and enlightening experiment at FXCM and despite Jasons repeated replies I am afraid the service is just not behind him.

Onwards. The upshot of that is I do not have an account that will report into MT4. I am not sure if Dukascopy does but will check. There are certian tax implications if I were to open an account at Dukascopy which will probably stay my hand so I think it is back to the tried and tested accounts I have had for many years.

My objective is to increase my account by 300 pips within one month. The account minimum is £1 per pip so I need to be careful as I only have £1028 in the account. I would like to keep within 20% max drawdown at any one time. I need to add a few more rules to make this manageable. Here is a summary:

1. Make 300 pips
2. Within one month
3. Absolute max drawdown no more than 200 pips.

Thats 15 pips per day average. I will aim for 30 pips and max pip stop loss of 20 pips on any one trade. Shooting for 10 but as I intend to trade GJ and EJ then 20 more realistic. I reserve the right to edit this as time progresses!

I have requested closure of my FXCM account and the return of funds. Just waiting to see how long they take to appear - will report back on that. The guys at FXCM were determined to save me as a client but its not for me. I am probably just too used to my IG and CMC accounts and the speed of execution there. So back to my (trusted? - stops being taken out before market gets there anyone?) CMC account. I am running a demo at CMC in parallel to my live account until I am sure of system and just as importantly execution.

My first two days have been mixed with positive equity increases both days and positive pippage overall but a slight pip loss on day one. I was saved by erroneous order entry which after some careful management inflated my profits slightly. The results look like this:

So I have blown my target for the month on Equity - not surprising as I am leveraged higher than I should be and I slipped up on two orders which multiplied my profits. The key for me however is not the Equity nor is it even the pippage chart which shows I have lots of work to do; rather it is the way I trade and the consistency I need to demonstrate to be comfortable that I am able to consistently make profits over a range of trading conditions. These charts helkp me to visualise my results, but my performance in terms of trading technique is another story. More on that in next post.

Lets turn to trading technique. The following is what I could have done (white) against what I did.

So on this pair I collected 17 pips where 71 were on offer - which is roughly 24% of what I could have achieved using this strategy. I am only measuring potential trades when I am actively trading - there were others available throughout the day but I have limited capacitu for this sort of thing. This is the figure I would really like to improve upon over the coming weeks - I will call it my Trading Accuracy Ratio or TAR for Short. What I am pleased about is my entries were timely, except one. It was my exits that were the issue. I was being cautious. Overall a good result.

I carried out similar trades on my other chosen pairs - EU, GJ, UJ which account for the other pips gathered today.

Note to self. Stop leaving your desk when things are looking boring, thats when it is time to pay attention; always wait until there is lots of excitement and movement then cash in and go for a break.

It happens a lot. Your concentration starts to flag so you think a quick cuppa will sort it, or a 10 minute break as it looks flat and going nowhere. A perfect entry developed just after I left the office, M15 was down, M5 was down, Fast TRix crossed slow trix and crossed centre line, cloud crossed, Fractals all fired down and short term up trend line cleanly broken. The problem was I had enterred this short too early and managed to get out with a modest 3 pips profit just before it shot up to test the open level and yesterdays low. A sitter if ever there was one. I did grab 17 pips as a late and risky entry but not minded to ride it as retracement looked possible. So I got 30% of what was on offer. My key trading times are 6am until 10 and 12 until 4pm GMT within which if possible I will look to spend time in front of the screen but I am somewhat limited by circumstance so I need to make the time I have count and stop missing trades.

Still no repayment of funds by FXCM.

What was a reasonable morning trading for me turned to fiacso in the afternoon as I tried to move from my achieved target of 15 pips (I had 18) to the stretch of 40. I broke my own rules taking trades where there were no signals attempting to prejudge the market and continuing to trade even though I had had three losing trades on the trot. As it turned out my judgement was right and I did persevere and recovered my account to reach my stretch target finally making 49 pips for the day BUT I breached the conditions of the test and went outside my 10% drawdown so back to square one tomorrow, set all counters back to zero and start again. For the record this is what happened in terms of the account:

Hi Revoli,

We typically process withdrawal requests in one to two business days. The time frame to receive funds for each withdrawal method are as follows:

 

1. Credit or Debit Card: Time frames will vary depending on the credit card issuer and may take up to one billing cycle to post back to the credit or debit card used for funding.
2. Bank Wires: Domestic bank wires take about one to two business days and international bank wires take about three to five business days, often less, to arrive.
3. ACH (only to US bank accounts): Approximately one to five business days to clear and process into your bank account.
4. Paper Check: Paper checks take about ten business days and international checks take about fifteen business days, often less, to arrive.

Shoot me a PM, if you'd like me to follow up on your withdrawal request.

Jason