Simple Trading Journal by Pipetto

Hey traders, newbies and old geezers who trade for a living or still try do so. This will be my trading journal to write down my thoughts, mistakes and successes. Right now I am far away from being profitable so take everything I may write as my personal ideas and not as an advise.

My goal is to publish a review of my trading day including the charts with entries and exits and an outlook for the next day or week.

In my progress as a trader I already made all the mistakes possible:
- overtrading
- chasing price
- adding to a loser
- double the risk because of a loser

but still my initial deposit survived somehow. ALL the 3297 trades !! So yes I do trade with real money but it is just a tiny rest. I know after one and a half year of real money trading that I want to finally develop a style of trading that gives me a high probability and quick profits or minimum breakeven trades. I still hate to have losers and I hate to give money back. Although I know that losing is part of the business I want to keep them at a minimum or at least very small!
I love to see trades run in the average daily/weekly range, imortant S&R zones or BRNs.

Now I want to give an example of a trade I made last week to give you an idea of how I trade. Before I post the picture I want to thank all the guys in which threads or books I read and took over templates, ideas and indicators:
Traderathome, Cobra, Clive, Petefader, Dee, doriotcapita, Larry Williams, the community on Forex Factory as well and my girlfriend who patiently accepts my passion for trading :*

Alright let's start this thread with a nice example.

I always start my trading routine with a quick scan of the daily charts after the US session. I am european so for me this means 11pm (GMT+1). There I look for typical strucure (trend reversal or continuation) If you have questions to this just ask me

Daily Chart GBPAUD


Now you can see a break of the low from the daily candle (23.12.). Now I assume that the downtrend will most likely continue or at least give me some decent movement to grab some pips or get the trade breakeven to hold it for a long run (BRN, ADR..) This is the moment when I switch into the 15min timeframe to find an entry which gives me a tight SL. I prefer entries at certain times as well. This means: London open and New York open.

So we find this scenario in the M15


As you can see.. After breaking the daily low price retraced with volume at London open and was rejected under high volume which means for me that sellers sold into this up move to push the price down once more (effort). The result was a nice 45pips move but I "only" took a breakeven trade. My plan here was to hold the trade for at least the daily low from 03.12.2015 and to watch its reaction there.
So the result was "just" a BE trade but I learned to be happy with a trade like this because I sticked to my plan and suffered no loss. Right now I also try to optimize the entries with divergencies but for the moment it is no entry criteria.

Trading this way is one of my tools. Another way to trade is the following style.
I study price behaviour at daily, weekly and monthly highs or lows. You can find very nice entry points with a very small SL and really good movements. Here is only one example for this.

AUDUSD H4

As you can see there were minimum 4 trades (I only marked the profitable ones) in which you would have a SL of maximum 5-10 pips and a reward of over 100pips. Speaking of a nice R:R ratio

I do know I am able to see these patterns which repeat over and over again. But I also know that my mindset is my biggest problem. With the help of this thread and maybe some good advises from you I will make my dream come true and become a trader working in my home office. Being solely responsible for my decisions and the only one who decides over success.

I am positive that all the nights, days, hours and tears... (yes tears ladies and gentlemen... !!) were worth everything
I invite you all to make this a peaceful and harmonic place where we can exchange our ideas and and also critics.

I hope the images are shown in good quality and I will post some trading ideas for the next week in the next days as well
For now.. happy christmas to all of you
Pip

Hey Pipetto,

I've done quite a bit of research into the Forex market and how to be successful and such and a few things keep coming back over and over.
I'll tell you about these things and you may take from it what you will.

The first thing is that some professional traders have a trading plan with rules that they back tested and forward tested. Their plan is verifiable, repeatable, profitable and testable. Once you have something like this all you have to do is execute it without mistakes.

The second thing is psychology, a lot of traders just can't handle losing but losing is part of the trading reality. your psychological state affects your trading plan too! You may want to get into trades too fast and rush things and end up being in a trade that doesn't reflect your trading plan. If you have a trading plan and it has been tested and it works and it's repeatable and profitable then doing any trade that doesn't go with your trade plan rules is a bad trade.

Third is basics basics basics. If you don't get the basics drilled into your head learning the rest can be pointless.

Not saying that this all applies to you but this is my 2 cents!
Hope it was somewhat helpful and good luck!


Happy Holidays!
AntiVi

Thanks for your input AntiVi,

any comment is welcome If it applies to me? I am sure some things do! Especially the lack of discipline to follow my own rules.. I know when to trade and to cut the losers but sometimes the fingers on the mouse have their own will. But this is the reason I am here and why I started this journal. First it shall help me and then it shall help others.

That is exactly why I am doing it too!
One of my issues is rushing into a trade and moving my stop loss and take profit. Since I'm still learning I still don't have a trading plan so I need that too.

Baby steps to big dreams

Today I want to present one of my instruments that I will watch closely next week.

CAD/JPY Daily Chart


As you can see there is a nice downtrend going on. I just will wait for the daily low to break and will then look for clues to find an entry to go short. Sometimes there are also hints before this line will break that price will go lower (behaviour at S&R, BRNs, Price Action) and if I see them I do also try to find a nice entry with very small stop loss. The first goal would be the daily low from 21st of dec and if price shows signs to continue I will try to hold it unti the next round number 86.00.

So you can see that my approch is no new stuff. Simple S&R, market structure and some break - pullback pattern with confluence of volume and intraday trend.. I do have 2 templates. One clean chart and one with the template of traderathome from the PVSRA thread.

Thats it. Looking forward to the new week. I also have other instruments on my watchlist like GOLD, E/U, E/G, A/U .... but I dont want to list them all here and tell why. One example should be enough. There are other tings in life that matter as well

One thing more.. All the work which is done before a trade like looking for possible setups can be useless within seconds and minutes and in these moments you have to adjust quickly in your mind that market has changed. Always be flexible in mind. The "pre setup work" is just a frame with a lot of "if" and "when".

Hope Santa Claus is/was good to all of you

I want to use this sunny sunday to write down my biggest mistake that led to the fact, that my initial deposit got nearly destroyed in 1,5 years.

To understand this whole mess I have to explain, that I am investing money in proven successful traders. Those guys create some nice returns for me since years. So far so good. I am able to watch their positions.. And this is how the circle of self destruction begins.

I saw them opening positions and getting into drawdown. Knowing they got out of drawdowns always breakeven or with small profit I instantly opened up the same positions ... hoping that price will do what THEY expect. Of course I took position sizes out of my limits. Of course price rallyed furter and further.. until I got too scared and closed my positions. While my investments where managed well to breakeven or nice profits I burned over 50% of my bankroll.. and this happend 3times... Yes 3 times.. Maybe there is some kind of masochistic guy in me who needed punishment.. I always asked myself after such an "event" what was the driving force behind that? What was the power that got me into this move? And now I know.. I saw "save" and "quick" profits.. I just got F***ing greedy... ! AND I was impatient.. I wanted a big bankroll and that as soon as possible..

But mirror trading is not the only thing that influences my own trading. Knowing that these traders have a certain bias, and knowing that they are successful, makes it hard to believe in my own analysis when I see things in a different way.. this leads to uncertainty and a "not taking" of trades which were good after my point of view. So I decided to just look at their stats once in a while. Avoid forums where they post and just concentrate on my own analysis.

This is very personal stuff and it is hard to write it down here. But I want to show that there are many ways to fail. Sure, this is nothing new as well for many guys out here but before trading on my own I never expecte I would fall for such idiotic and stupid mistakes. I maybe ignored the fact or didn' t want to see this side of me. Trading really is a journey to get to know yourself.. Knowing the baddest and best sides of your soul.. Now it is up to me and the reader to make the best of these insights.

I look forward to tomorrow. I will start my session with the New York open because I will be busy to London time. So I think there will be an update tomorrow in the evening.

edit: just want to make the reading a bit more interesting and show a nice entertaining video from Anton Kreil. Former Goldman Sachs trader and his view on how to be successful. This video may not be the source of pure wisdom but some things do correspond with my view on this topic. Enjoy!



Pip

Hello Traders,

Today I managed 3 trades which ended all breakeven.
One of those trades was the one I introduced on saturday. But I kept not to the plan as described. Initially I wanted to trade the pullback after the break through the daily line but I traded the breakout. I had good reasons for this because price was nicely trending and I the ADR was not nearly reached. Also a BRN was not very close. So I took my SL to BE after hitting the 50Level and got stopped out.


The first trade today was E/U which was taken in the London session. I had the chance to watch the charts earlier as planned and found a good sport to go long. Set SL to BE after reaching 14pips.. my goal was the round number 1.1000.


And the last one was in G/U in which a nice trend unfolded after we could see increasing volume on UP-bars at the BRN level 1.4900.


Overall I could save a tiny 0,16% on the account

Later I will post possible setups for tomorrow.
Pip

Here now an outlook where we may find nice movements with strong momentum. My favourite one is the GBP/USD:



By breaking the daily low from thursday we can expect a continuation of the downtrend at least to the daily low from 22.12.2015 or BRN 1.4800. This is the space where I want to grab some pips if the conditions fit like I said earlier.

Additionally a lot of EUR pairs seem to continue their upmove so that I will have an eye on them as well. Here is one example:

EUR/CAD daily


Happy trading and enjoy what you do
Pip

Hello Traders,

I think I am done for the day unless there will occur another obvious setup.
I managed 2 trades with one I am a bit angry about but I think I made the best of it.

First one:


The attentive reader may recognize that this is the trade with which I am not satisfied. Yesterday I stated that GBP/USD has a bearish sentiment and here I went long. I closed the trade when I saw the reaction to the green wide spread bullish bar at London open and assumed the possibility of the price to go lower is much higher.. well.. who knows the actual chat knows there was some spark of truth in it.

After seeing this weakness in the pound I switched to the EUR/GBP and found a nice long setup which was also in line with my sentiment I stated yesterday with rising euro and weakening pound. Set my SL to breakeven after ca 15 point and let it fly to the next round number 0.7400



Right now I am sitting on a nice +4,42% daily profit and watch GOLD, GBP/USD and CAD/JPY to eventually make some decent pullbacks and meanwhile prepare some bills for my company. The taxman wants to be satisfied...
Later I will talk again about possible setups for tomorrow or maybe present another trade.. or both

Pip

interesting journal so far ... keep up the good work

@cvds16 thanks for your kind words Motivates me even more to produce more and better content!

Found another setup with which in hindsight I am not really happy. My criteria of having a nice momentum with the trend was not there so there should have been no trade. The result was an ugly drawdown almost directly after opening the position. The thing I wanto to avoid the most! Anyways, managed the trade to breakeven after being 15-20points in the green and got stopped out. Target was near 1060.00 where you can find a nice confluence of 200% extension fib, BRN and ADR (Always aim big!! ) I will definitely watch GOLD tomorrow as well. Seems like a trend could unfold to the downside therefore I will wait for another pullback on the M15 to reenter.

GOLD


I will scan the instruments later and will present my favourites for tomorrow.
Pip

I took almost the same one in gold ... but seems I entered a bit later so didn't have the big drawdown ... same result: be ... I allready had a short position when there was the strong key-engulfer on the hourly in the morning ... so added to that ...

Yes saw that bar as well and looked for signs to enter this instrument. I think my entry was way too early. But the background looks like there could unfold a stronger move down (price action, volume) . We can be happy with a breakeven trade. Our capital is saved and tomorrow will be possibilities again ..

not wanting to criticise but I learned from the school of hard knocks you better not risk much like 1% of capital unless really really sure and are prepared to move your stop overall rather quickly ... I must admit I risk a bit more but that's on swing trades over several days ... I did other trades too today (managed to get the usdgbp like you entended to take) and got out for 3.5 R each time ...

Thanks for your advise cvds16 but I already trade in the smallest lot size possible

Now to my personal opinion to the markets. I think we can see overall an upcoming weakness in nearly all Yen pairs, so that these pairs should be watched. I also will - like mentioned earlier - watch GOLD and additionally two other pairs.

Here is the USD/CAD daily chart


With a break to the downside I see a break in the market structure and a possibility to grab some pips. In confluence to this the CAD/JPY where we can see a nice daily double bottom. (strong CAD /weak JPY)


Never forget. This is just personal opninion and all the thoughts about possible movements can be useless in seconds. Always be flexible
Pip

seems I am getting this ... almost have all the same candidates for trades ... but you mentioned one additional one I had missed ... I am going to try silver too tomorrow ... daily chart seems to look almost the same as gold, but sometimes it moves differently from it ...

Hello traders.. what a day in the office.. busy with work, busy with trading and overall I am only happy with a few trades but satisfied with myself that I cut the losers short and went on to the next pair.

Today I opened 8 positions with one position still open (NZD/USD short).

Here the trades for the day. With this amount of trades I will not post any reasons for entry. If I have time later in the day I may edit the reasons.














The last one was the winner of the day which gave me a nice daily profit. The ongoing trade in NZD/USD is already breakeven and I will add it when it reached its target or got stopped out.

See you later with the end result for today and maybe a preview where to look at tomorrow.
Pip

Last trade closed BE.



Overall nice profit today but could have been better. Both E/J trades could have been avoided. This happens when emotions take over control. Not good. Tomorrow better!!!

Now I will scan the instruments and prepare my charts for the next day.
Pip

Hello traders,

I truely believe that the technical part in trading can be learned and mastered by anyone. But the part where emotions kick in is hard to handle. At least for me.
I managed 4 trades and only one fullfills all the criterias for a good trade. Means that 75% of my trades were bullshit.

The first one: AUD/USD long

On the first view it looks like a valid trade but there were too many things that make it to a bad one: I opened the trade, knowing that I can not monitor the trade for the next 1,5hours.. Next point is that I did not set the SL to BE althoug price was 17pips in the green. At least I closed it with a small loss and added not more mistakes.

The second one: USD/JPY short

My favourite for today. Closed with a loss.. If I would have been able to stay in front of the PC the whole day I could have reentered easily and take that trade downwards to the 120.00 level. Anyways.. small loss... no pain..

Now two trades which were personally really disappointing. Same mistake like with the Aussie.. I knew I would be away from keyboard FOR HOURS, I knew that if I enter it means I am just chasing price, which also means I have a bad R:R ratio.. I was pissed because I missed these moves.. I stalked these two pairs the whole day and then in the most crucial moment I was not able to look at the charts.. I ALL KNEW IT.. still I took those trades ..

EUR/GBP short


EUR/USD short


The good thing is that I know what my mistakes are and that I just dont have to do such stupid things to become consistently profitable. Anyway I managed to stay green for the week. So the goal for the next year can just be to erase stupid behaviour because it is a serious business and not a game for gamblers.

Weekly trackrecord

I decided for myself not to trade the AUD pairs since either the spread is too wide or the moves are too small ... I look at older charts and it wasn't just worth the risk imo ... hope it helps ...
eurgbp got me too one time today ... but reentered on the retrace and that one was a small winner ...
with CAD I only trade usdcad and cadjpy since spread in eurcad is too wide for my liking with oanda ...
missing a trade seems painfull, had it happen to me in gbpjpy, but I shouldn't have traded it if I stuck to my rules ... so I looked at it as an extra warning sign that yen was moving and managed to take the other two yen trades that were according to my book ...
keep up the good work though ... I really like the ideas behind your trades when you execute them well ...