From mediocrity to mastery

Very clear explanation FO you make very good videos. I get what you mean with the weirdness of sharing of your personal trading. We spend a lot of time inside our own heads as retail traders sometimes I wonder if this forex thing I do is even real. Maybe it's a dream.

I like your style but I would like to see you use trend lines more. I have news for you regarding not trading breakouts and/or retests - you did one here.

Have a look if you will at this chart. Your first positive trade pin bar (second blue arrow) was arguably a retest of a descending channel from below. Price reacted here to the channel line which thus created the pin bar IMHO. If you had drawn in this channel matching the two highs with the three lows from Tokyo session you could have used it to backup this trade. When price later breaks through this trend line and bounces higher (fourth blue arrow) there is a good chance of a long back to top of channel but I don't think there was a clear signal candle for you there.

Now to the few black lines where you see some of the areas where price has stalled or found resistance/support. Your first trade (looser) had a good signal candle but there was no sign of support around that candle, that support came around 10 pips lower. So would it be worth waiting for 5 or 10 candles of price stalling before taking a trade out in empty space? Your third trade (third blue arrow) which was good has this such support. So as I see it you had a good trade bounce off a channel line, a good trade bounce off found supp/resistance and a bad trade in empty space. The third black line shows your double top which probably kept you out of the pin bar between the tops while the fourth black line with channel line gives good chance of bounce higher. Maybe making more use of S/R lines (you said before you do draw some trend lines) could help you weed out negative pip trades?

Again great vid and excellent trading this week! Keep it up!

EDIT just added chart

Nice post Steve.

Actually I do use trend lines. I have a whole bunch of charts with different approaches to the market and I use it as I need.

Quick video about what I do after trading or over quick breaks I take while trading.

Not a good day for me so far.

I'm strugling to find the correct directions. I'm -15 pips and change. Typical monday

why you dont trade on mondays? (or cut position size by half)

I wish I could Sop. but I can't.

I have to keep a linear approach otherwise I will never become a real. professional trader.

I do have to exercise some judgement and be flexible but i can't afford not to trade on mondays or aim for 10 pips instead of 20.

Been there done that before if you start to change too much you lose site of your system and the whole thing crashes.

but IMO, it can be a professional attitude avoid operating on a bad day for your system.

About PS, you dont need to reduce your pip-target. Reduce your lot size only.

Anyways the goal today is capital preservation.

I have to lose the minimun possible in order to maximise tomorrows possible gains

I understand what you are saying but what about if I start to have problems on Tuesday?

I'm gonna stop trading Tuesdays too?

Got my point?

Professionals trading for banks or hedge funds can't afford to do this kind of things.

I managed to recoup a few pips but not enough to break even.

I was hoping for a sell off at the end of the session which just happen but I jumped in too late and bailed out too early.

Anyways, it was not my day. Not the first time it happens and surely not the last.

Tomorrow will bring new opportunities.

I will record a video later with today's highlights. The session was not profitable but very instructive.

Little video on what a losing day look like

quick update

I'm on my way getting back the pips I lost.

If faced with adversities when trading you keep a cool head and keep doing what you know is working your losses will be offset by you profits.

Now if you withdraw from trading or go like crazy trying to take some revenge against the market things can get even worse.

I'm pretty confident I'm gonna end up this week in good profit.

Probabilities and statistics tell me that if I keep doing what has proven to work for me I'm gonna end up ahead.

ok, 11:40 and I'm ending my day for +40 pips and change.

Again I was expecting for a sell off around the end of the session. Again it happened and again I was unable profit fully from it.

Anyways tomorrow is another day.

8:30 AM and I'm having a pretty decent day so far, +23 pips and change.

Relatively predictable moves but a little choppy. If not for the choppiness my pippage would be at least double.

Had to stop trading around 11 AM because of circumstances beyond my control.

I was able to add only 5 pips to my gains so I'm up 30 pips or so for the day.

I was able to get the correct direction 90% of the time today but the choppiness of the moves caped my gains.

Not That I'm complaining but I could be easily on the 40 or 50 pip range if the moves were more fluid.

Also I'm very happy the way I'm dealing with bigger lot sizes since Monday. Psychological side has been rock solid !

Pretty decent day so far 5:30 AM and I'm already +14 pips.

I'm better make as much as I can today because statistically for me NFP days are not very good.

Anyways as long as I don't do anything terribly stupid I can count on one more profitable week.

I'm currently a little over 50% in my forex gains VS expenses which put me slightly a head according to my schedule.

Things that I was struggling when I started this journal like trading hours, lot sizes etc are pretty much mastered.

I'm handling very well my new lot sizes started on monday so I don't think it will be a problem anymore if I keep this increment ratio.

I'm still fighting some mediocrity in the area of focus and working ethics. Gosh I'm not even supposed to be typing it here on trading hours,

I'm just waiting here till the market cools down and comes back to more predictability.

I'm not a volatility trader so I try to get out before big news, meaning that a lot of big news impact my trades.

Tomorrow if I can't make my pips on early London it will be a wasted day. But anyways I have to be here till 11:30 at least.

I'm around 75 pips for the week, not very far from my goal. I'm only taking AAA set ups till 12 PM so lets see how things will go.

I could not make any money this morning, early London did not make any sense to me.

Than came the news which I don't trade, even if I don't trade it I like to develop some theories about it.

Something that I notice very frequently is when the market is going up and you have a good number and instead of new highs price tanks.

I wonder who are the big boys with (deep pockets) playing this game. And maybe a more interesting question would be who they get money from, meaning who was short.

Anyways 11AM and things are getting more predictable now. I'm 5 pips up and I'm not giving anything back, AAA set ups or nothing for the next hour

An excellent real world lesson here in staying calm, focused and disciplined. You are seeing the benefits of not loosing your head. You could easily give all your wins back plus more if you were not so disciplined throughout your trading day. Do you think you are so controlled in your execution because you have fully accepted that if you trade as you have planned you will come good in the end? Or are you so controlled because of the pain of past losses? Maybe a combination of the two or something else? Or are you controlled because you are just 'following the plan'? In other words have you successfully removed emotion from your trading?