Tech's manual trade Journal

When I finally came to the conclusion that it was better simply to program an EA to make money rather than to try and trade like I would manually, I finally started making profitable trading systems. I finally stepped out of the box.

But as to your second statement, I almost always bank more pips with manual trading. Nothing beats human intuition... nothing.

Very interesting. Something I've come to realize on my own recently, despite myself. A different philosophy required for success in each area.

I haven't posted in a long while, but thought I'd revive this thread and post some new trades. They are contrary to a lot of what I read (Thompson IFR and the likes), but they fit my model and therefore I am taking the trades. You'll notice multiple exits now and I'm finding that I am more profitable banking some pips and moving the stops to breakeven after the first target. You'll see my 2 newest trades in the charts below.

Ended up closing the trades out for about 30 pips on the EURUSD and an average of 72 pips on the USDCHF. I've taken quite a few more trades this week, but it's too far after the fact. I'll try to post them as they happen this upcoming week as well as the setup and the reasons for my targets, etc.

Currently: Short GBPUSD and EURUSD

Still short EURUSD and GBPUSD from Friday

Added positions:

GBPJPY short @ 231.25 @ the open
EURJPY short @ 156.55 @ the open
USDCAD long @ 1.6120 @ the open
AUDUSD short @ 0.8045@ the open
USDJPY short @ 117.98 @ the open (Hoping this range holds for a while)
Tried to take an AUDJPY short, but Velocity is obviously having problems with liquidity on a few pairs including this one, but I'll live. WOULD have shorted in the 95.10 - 94.90 area.

I'd like to give details of the setups here:

From Friday:

EURUSD - Daily stochs were very much overbought. Price pulled back from the upper Bollinger Band. I have some proprietary indicators that confirmed this as well, but still, good old "normal" TA goes a long way as well. Price closed below the 10 day SMA so this was a decent bearinsh signal in my opinion and am looking for the 50 day SMA which is next. As in every trade managing money is important. I've moved stops to breakeven and even taken a little off the table. Targets are just that targets. Go to a shooting range, not everyone hits a bullseye. I manage my trades the whole time. Hell I even bought one of those handheld samsung Q1 tablet PC's (good investment). It's tiny and I'm not confined to my trading desk when in trades. I can't make entry decisions on it; it's too tedious, but exits I can do.

GBPUSD - Pretty much the same situation, after the fed announcement which I though the market had already priced in, it spiked against the USD as most pairs did. With it already pulling back from the Bollinger Band top the next day, I pulled the trigger. Again other indicators I have confirmed this, but again, I'm going over the TA parts of this. Given the positive correlation between the pairs, I went ahead a got in. It was a bit more speculative, but it's panned out thus far. It's currently hovering around the Ichimoku Cloud top @ 1.9589 according my to my charts and a decisive break of the cloud bottom which is very near (1.9577) should bring the 10 day and 50 day SMA's into focus as targets. Just a note, at key levels like that I prefer to observe. If they break, I might stay in longer. At the very least I'll take part of my position off the table and move stops to breakeven, or depending how far ahead I am, I might bring them down further to protect more profits.

OK, I have a few things to do, I'll post the setups for the trades I got into today already (above) when I get up to trade tonight.

Happy pip hunting.

Todays Trade Setups:

USDJPY: Simply put the range has been holding and the 118 area seems to be it's top. Stops are tight and I'm short. So far It's slow, but I think it'll be weighed down by the other JPY crosses, which I hope to be selling off today as well. If not, I'll reverse in somewhere above 118.

EURJPY: Daily studies have ben overbought and price has corrected over the past 2 trading days. Thursday was a bearish engulfing candle. Price has closed below the Ichimoku cloud but initial hurldes are the very near 10 and 50 day SMA's.

GBPJPY: Pretty much the same scenario as the EURJPY, without the Bearish engulfing candle. I'm hoping to see one of those big volatile moves the GBPJPY is known for. I think a decisive break below 231 brings the mid 227's into play.

USDCAD: Not a lot to say here, it reached an area I think was solid support and bounced. Given the daily studies, I think it'll be good for a decent ride up.

AUDUSD: Most of the price spikes against the USD that happened after the FOMC announcement have had almost a 100% retracement in all pairs vs. the USD if not more. The AUDUSD is almost there and being close to a 12 year high, I think it's time for a decent sized retracement if not a full fledged reversal.