My Trade Journal - DCB

Week ending 24 April 2015
I had two days where I had gains less than my daily minimum goal of 20 PIPs, but I had enough to have a total of 100 PIPs for the week which is my minimum goal for a week. Today I had some decisions such as entering too soon after the U.S. reports. The EUR/USD had not settled down enough so I had a total loss of 25.7 PIPs, but my last trade had a gain of 32.6 PIPs leaving me with a gain of 7.5 PIPs for the day. I did not trade as well as I should, but I know I will have days like today or yesterday. My method is sound, but I will have to stick with my rules.

I use a split screen with the longer time frame on the left and the shorter time frame on the right. I use the one hour bar chart for five days for my longer time frame and the fifteen bar chart for one day for my shorter time frame. I primarily base my decision by the price action I see from the price bars, but I do use the stochastic indicator using the default setting of 5,3,3,MVA as confirmation of my trade decision. The longer time frame chart on the left helps me see the direction and support and resistance levels. Once the price gets close to the support or resistance area the stochastic indicator is going to show close to over bought or over sold. At that time I switch to five minute bars and move my stop loss.

Monday 27 April 2015
Today I had a loss of 10.6 PIPs. I had 6 trades, 2 winning and 4 losing. I monitor the pairs of EUR/USD, NZD/USD, AUD/USD, USD/CAD and USD/JPY and I may find a better opportunity in one of those pairs.

Tuesday 28 April 2015
I have had 3 trades at this time for a loss of 10.6 PIPs. I am not finished with my trading today so I expect to have a positive end of my daily trading. I can say that I missed the move of the EUR/USD or others, but at the time I was looking at the one hour bars and how I was interpreting what I saw was the market had not decided which way it wanted to move. Later I used the 4 hour bars and the 5 minute bars and although I thought I was taking a risk to enter at the top of the range, I decided to take the risk. I was up 8 PIPs which would had made up the 6.3 PIP loss I had earlier, but I decided to see if it would go further up. It didn't and I lost. I have decided to wait for a better set up using the stochastics. I may have to wait until 10:00 EST for it to move decisively.

Tuesday 28 April 2015
I am looking at the EUR/USD with the 15 minute bar on the left and the 5 minute bars on the right. I know the U.S. Consumer Sentiment is released at 10:00 a.m. EST. so I am hesitant to enter a trade until that is released and the market has time to settle down. What I look at on the chart is the stochastics at the overs sold area for the 15 minute bars and the area where I drew a horizontal bar of the recent low of the 15 minute bars. I want to buy in that area.

Tuesday 28 April 2015
I had a gain of 5.1 PIPs today. I always fear that I may not follow my rules, and that happened yesterday and today. Because of not following my rules I did not achieve my daily goal of having a gain of 20 to 30 PIPs. I did reduce the number of trades for those days, but my poor results are because of my not following by rules. The good thing is I realized my error today and tomorrow is another day.

Wednesday 29 April 2015
I had a nice run up to 17 PIPs, but although I knew the London session was opening in less than minutes I stayed. I violated my trading method to take my profit and then wait for the price to move back down to re-enter. I have to remember that my objective is to consistently gain 20 to 30 PIPs each day.

Wednesday 29 April 2015
Today was a challenge as I made trades before the U.S. GDP report was released. During that time I had a total loss of 30.40 PIPs. After the U.S. GDP report was released I had a gain of 32.20 PIPs giving me a net gain of 1.8 PIPs. After the FOMC announcement was released I had a trade giving me a gain of 30.10 PIPs. I ended the day of a gain of 31.90 PIPs.

Thursday 30 April 2015
I slept in this morning and did not open my charts until almost 6:00 a.m. EST. I missed some good moves, but I know I will have opportunities to gain my daily objective of a gain of 20 to 30 PIPs. I was watching the EUR/USD to see it want to start back up. At 6:22 a.m. EST I placed my first trade to buy the EUR/USD at 1.11732. My trade was filled at 6:26 a.m. EST. The price went up to a gain of 10 PIPs, but it was moving slowly and acting hesitantly. The stochastics on the 5 minute bar chart was in the overbought area, so I moved my stop loss to that area. Although the price may continue up, it may take a breather and may retrace some before continuing up. I take a small profit of 6.2 PIPs and wait for the price to tell me what it wants to do.

Thursday 30 April 2015
I closed my first trade for a gain of 6.2 PIPs because the price was stalling. I believed the price would continue up, but needed a period of time to start back up. I also thought it would pull back some before it went back up so I closed my first trade with a profit. Since my daily objective if to gain 20 - 30 PIPs it does not make sense to stay in a trade when the price pulls back to start back up.

At 7:31 a.m. EST I placed my second order to buy the EUR/USD at 1.11870. My order was executed at the same time at 1.11871. As the price moved close to my limit order it was stalling so I moved my stop loss into that area. I saw the price move up to a gain of 24 PIPs, but my stop loss was hit with a gain of 17.9 PIPs at 7:52 a.m. EST.

Thursday 30 April 2015
I have had two trades today for a total gain of 24.10 PIPs. I expected I had the opportunity to get a good move before the U.S. Jobless Claims report was release, but I knew that after that report was released everything could change. I am watching to see which direction the EUR/USD wants to go.

Thursday 30 April 2015
I have an event that I have to go to and getting ready for this did not allow me to focus on the charts. Therefore I did not have any more trades and I will not trade any more today. I attached the charts that show there were opportunity to add PIPs if I only could have focused on them.

Friday 1 May 2015
Today was a bad day for me and it ruined my week. I knew there were bank holidays and it was Friday which was enough to stay away but I didn't. I had a gain, but continued to trade and all of those trades were losers. I have to let this go get back to it on Monday.

Monday 4 May 2015
I had a rough start this week. I had 4 loosing trades so I stopped trading.

Monday 4 May 2015
I saw that I missed one trade and also had two additional trades so I have updated my daily results.

Tuesday 5 May 2015
I have a problem of trying to try different methods of looking at the price action and the last couple days that is what I have done and it has cost me. Today still trying the other way to look at price action I had a gain of 20.4 PIPs, but it was a struggle. I then had losing trades taking me down to a gain of 3.3 PIPs. I decided I have to stay focused on the method that works for me and keep focused on my goal of 20 to 30 PIPs each day. I one last one more trade with a gain of 20.7 PIPs giving me 24.00 PIP gain for the day. I can be my worst enemy.

Tuesday, 19 May 2015
I wanted to reduce the number of trades I have each day in order to gain my 20 to 30 PIPs. I realize using stochastic on 5 minute chars would cause me to close a trade to soon so I decided to find a better way. I decided that rather than using a split screen with a H1 chart on the left and a 5min chart on the right I would use only one chart. I decided to build three EMAs for 13 periods, but one is built on H4 bars, one on the H1 bars and one on the 15min bars. I thought I would keep in front of me the direction of the three time frames on one screen. I decided to not use the stochastic indicator, but focus more on price patterns.

Today I had 8 trades, seven winning and one losing for a gain of 21.7 PIPs. I am still not happy of the number of PIPs for 8 trades, but I will continue to work on that.

Today I traded the NZD/USD. I knew it would continue down, but I did not want to have an open trade when the U.S. building permits and housing starts were released at 8:30 AM EST so I waited. The only losing trade I had was entering a trade too soon after the release of the data.

Wednesday, 20 May 2015
I have entered a short sell for the NZD/USD. I could have exited with a profit that would have helped me reach my 20+ PIP gain for the day, but I decided to stay in the trade. I am working to limit my trades and I knew the only news of significance today is the release of the FOMC minutes at 2:00 PM EST. I also know that the crude oil inventories report is released at 10:30 AM EST, But the FOMC minutes will be the more important release. I decided to see if it will continue down as we wait for the FOMC minutes.

Wed. 20 May 2015
My stop was hit. I may have to stay with taking my profits and wait to re-enter.

Wed. 20 May 2015
I am watching the NZD/USD to possibly enter a short position. I have added the stochastic indicator that has helped me in the past to not stay in too long. I have to remember that my goal is consistently gaining 20+ PIPs each day.

Wed. 20 May 2015
I am still watching and waiting. I still believe I have the opportunity to sell the NZD/USD but not at this time.