Business Plan

In the early morning hours of November 9, it became apparent US voters had decided to once again to make capitalism the ism they wanted for the country. I decided to start my 3rd and final business.

My new business is the least complex business I have ever run. I buy and sell money. I have only 2 decisions to make. Up or down. I have a 50% chance of being correct regardless of choice. I don't have irate customers, suppliers, sub contractors, bad weather, time constraints, inspections, insurance audits, IRS hassles, OSHA, ect., ect. to deal with.

I have traded bout 5 years. I have made every mistake one can make -- many times over. I have opened 3 accounts. First one with $11,000. which I busted in 9 months. Made some -- lost some. First key to the puzzle was finding a style that fit my personality -- scalping. What I do. Last piece was help form a friend here at FF, Stu Effex, who is a very profitable scalper. He educated me on basic scalper attitudes. I am still filling in the middle of the puzzle. 2 of the 3 accounts have been closed. Only one open was a practice scalping account with a balance of $135.46.

THE PLAN
Start with $135.46. Plan to run 2 years or 99 weeks -- 5 weeks for vacations. Goal is to increase account balance 3% per week. I will add $50. per week ($100. every 2 weeks) to build my business. I currently trade 1 pair kiwi/dollar. My long term goal is to have a $30,000. account balance at the end of the 2 year period. Will reevaluate goals at that time.

I trade on a laptop and Ipad. I will post most trades as they are recorded as I still work part time and am a full time grandpa to 3 wonderful (naturally!!) little boys. I will post actual results (FXCM copies) quarterly.

I am not a good trader. On a scale of great to idiot, I am a low mediocre. I have no plan, no system and no grail, holy or unholy. I observe a few ma's, candles and trend lines. I try to go brain dead, look at the N/U chart and determine if it's going up or down.

My trade settings are set to take profit at 12 with sl at 21 -- all adjusted to fit the trade.

I always use a sl.
I always wait at least 60 minutes from close of one trade to open of another.
I trade high risk. Example: $1000. account @75% = $750. divided by 240 (margin) = 2.3 or a lot of $23,000. which yields $2.30 per pip. This is set every weekend and used all week. I only count pips -- not money.

I run my business for only 1 reason -- to make a profit. I don't offer advice -- I ain't look'in fur none.

Join in if you wish -- just keep it simple and plain spoken -- I'm a simple man.

Trades from the past week

Don't scale in like this often -- this time it worked

Looks more like "averaging" rather than scaling

Nice intro Jim and Good Luck.

First this one came to my mind:
"My trade settings are set to take profit at 12 with sl at 21 -- all adjusted to fit the trade."

Is adjusted = ignore, in a fancy wording?

Goodluck :-))

Ya probably right. Scaling just sounded more "important"!

Thanks Ben. Eldest grandson loves math and has watched me trade on occasion. Probably gonna open a small account and let him try his hand at it in couple years. Let him read couple threads for education. Curious what someone with a clear mind and no trading bias could do. Think you told me while back that your young one was curious bout your trading.

Not really. Set like that for the Asia session, which I trade on occasion. NZ jumps around a lot. I stick closely to a trade when I open one. I manually close most of the losing trades I have. I close immediately when I think it ain't work'in. Also, I don't open a Asia trade till Tokyo opens. It seems to me to determine the direction till London opens.

Thanks. Unfortunately, I need it more than I like to admit!

thanks for the answer.
dont take it wrong, i am all in for scaling in, even cost averaging, but especially when scalping, those sort of exits ( ie. initial entry back to BE, all other wins) are extremely dangerous proposals in my book.
unless you really planned at the start to scale in and divided your intended normal position size accordingly ( i suspect not), you simple had a lot larger risk, with less and less chance of "being right" about the market direction, and sitting in an increasing drawdown, that way more than any of the proposed SL value you mentioned.
moreover, the trade been open 2 days? scalping?

your thread, your way, no advice since wont take non.
only asked why to state a style of trading ( scalping) and rules like SL and TP...when even on the sample chart it is more about luck, than anything?
been there, done that, know how this is. also that it usually ends badly. after some lucky ones, perhaps, given.

good luck with the journal.

Hey profit. First, the advice thing is "southern redneck" for "I have a very low tolerance for jerks". If one can't be civil, go somewhere else. Your post is simply good trading dialogue -- which I welcome and enjoy. The reason for the trade is because I suspect NZ is going to "range" till FOMC. I didn't expect it to go quite that high, but would not have gotten into hot water till it went to almost 75. I only allow 50% of my scalping amount to be used when doing a trade like that. Those lots were $1000. lots with the one over 72 a $2000. lot. Capital is sacred.

The one drawback to this business -- it allows absolutely no slop! You can do everything right for couple years then lose it all because you didn't use a stop or you started revenge trading. All business takes a lot of discipline. This business takes a unique form of discipline, courage and patience. My problem is I am not patient. Fight it all the time. Successful traders a unique breed. Why I like their company.

Here is what I look at when I open'er up. The one minute ma is set for 3 hours. The 5 minute is set for 12 hours. The 15 minute is set for 24 hours. The 30 minute is set for 3 days and the 60 minute is set for 5 days. Use ma's only to see where NZ is headed. Don't use them for entries. I suspect money people will again try to get it above 73. If it gaps lower at open and heads higher, I'm probably in long. I want to be out of the market sometime after Monday nights (eastern std time) Tokyo open till after FOMC settles down.

To play trading as a game would be akin to demo which I suppose is the holy grail i.e unattainable like speed of light I think it goes something along the lines of the more you try , the greater your load. So we've got to find tricks to help us live with uncertainty to win consistently and not be tripped up by our ancient safety mechanisms...or find a small child to trade for us.

My eldest enjoys drawing the patterns but is more focused on tennis atm but I'll see what I can do

Hey Ben. Left early this morning for the lake. We are trying to get a footing and foundation in so we can start framing first of year. Saw your post before I left! Good for a few chuckles through the day. The idealistic grandpa and the realistic dad. You are, of course, correct. 5 - 15 minute attention span combined with no sweat and skin in the game just makes it another video game. Oh well, we will stick with football and shooting hoops! Decided last night to wait till after FOMC to jump back in. Think it's already priced in but wat'in don't hurt. U done much today?

Same as you mate just hanging back mostly and waiting.

Trading NU because it had favorable margin requirements when I started business 6 weeks ago. Took 7 pips per week to meet projections. My broker raised the margins last week by 50%. It is now same as EU. Now takes 10 pips a week to meet projections. May switch to EU in January because of the substantially higher volume. Only 3 small trades this week. Increased account 2.9%. First time I've not exceeded projections. On the road with ipad most of the move. Also under the weather and just not in trading mode. I never try to play a volatile market on the ipad or if I ain't in da mood.

Hey Jim. Nice thread here. I know how busy you are on the outside but it would be fun to see you continue when, and as you can if you wish. Best wishes buddy.

Hey Chris. Good to "see" U. You trading from the cab or got a couple days off? Gonna try to keep up with journal, however, time has become very limited. Gotta dump most rules and go for balls to da wall scalping.