dude's journal

https://www.myfxbook.com/portfolio/pipville/2625434


"The lower your expectations, the happier you will be." Linda Rashke


This public journal is designed to show that it is possible for retail forex traders to be successful, and to help me to trade well. Hilmy83 inspires me to be transparent about my trading, to be honest with others about what is possible in full-time trading, and to show my mistakes, struggles and successes. Hope my journey is helpful to someone....

Speaking of rules....One rule is, "verify market entries before pulling the trigger.: During one of my first live trades I lost a Real $1000 from accidentally entering 20 Lots instead of 2 Lots and then hoping for three minutes that the trade would quickly come back before closing it. It didn't come back, and I ate that three minute, $1000 loss.

Saw this chart on FF and had to post it as artwork.

Two nice set-ups today using 2-minute (time-candles) breakouts, following rules from https://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?t=583609 (rules attached). Entry is at the yellow arrow, Stop is the yellow line, and the Exit is circled.

Best missed trade today (Aughhh, I had marked its support lines, but was looking elsewhere when it opened) Entry is circle, Stop is line, exit is X

After missing such a great set-up I have some explaining to do...

Friday--should have done something else for entertainment. I treated this week's gains like a toy and did stupid %&#*: Opened a trade before CAD news, thought I had USD Fundamentals dialed-in today and traded them while ignoring price movement, played around scalping and shorting an EU rally that eventually ran me over and jumped into poorly thought out trades while missing system trades and generally %^#* up today. I acted like this guy and and felt like the cartoon character. Next week no more %&#* around, and making only well-planned trades.

Tuesday, 23 May. Traded well yesterday, and during London and early NY today. Profitable, and a new $ high every day so far despite an Entry Order mistake for 20 instead of 2 LOTS, and not exiting another Entry error immediately, and then today...started texting, after closing out my last trade. Then, several hours later, I return to my screens and find a $600 floating loss! WTF? Turns out I hadn't checked to verify a Take-profit order had been cancelled when I started texting. Bad. -39 pips.

Lesson: trade and do nothing else. Or, double verify that all trades and orders are closed before doing other stuff. My three biggest loses (half of my profit to date) have been due to sloppiness, negligence and "hoping" and Entry error would turn instead of exiting immediately. I know how to trade,. I just need to tighten up my $%%^#* up every day.

Today was the first day that I traded a single system exclusively. Sometimes it was hard to not jump in and trade reversals, swings or do stupid stuff like average down or widen Stops and let an underwater trade go "until it comes back." Being patient and smart with exits resulted in the losers from the London session being more than made up by the winners from the NY session.

We make trading expensive by being:

1. Fearful
2. Impatient
3. Greedy
4. Hopeful
5. Trading too many Lots
6. Not following a plan
7. Not waiting for the best set-ups
8. Not paying attention to road bumps (impeding news releases that could affect short-time frame trades)
9. Not paying attention to what pairs are becoming stronger or weaker
10. Not paying attention to divergence and support and resistance
11. Not paying attention to what price is doing now, and accepting it (without bias--"it should do x")

I correctly identified G as being the strongest currency after weak CAD news, and entered a system trade on Gcad. Unfortunately, I was impatient to get money back into my account quickly to make up for a previous loss today so I exited on the first pause. Not good! There was no technical reason to exit this trade.

you Joined FF May 2005, id expect someone whose an old member of this forum to atleast put a trade explorer when doing a journal, so it doesnt seem like its a made up story, its easy to create a journal and say "Oh today banked $87,982, could have easily made more" well lets see the proof, we dont have to see figures, % ROI is ood enough.. or else ure just decieving yourself.

It's his journal. It's his rules. And it's his business whether he shows a TE or not. What you would expect doesn't really matter mate.

dwe213,
Keep doing it your way buddy

After several days of trading while overtired--resulting in straying from my plan, holding losers and revenge trading, I'm back to demo for 5 weeks. If I can trade profitably nearly every day, stick to my plan, post every trade made, and trade well them I'll return to live trading.
(FF still does not link Oanda FX Trade v20 platform to create a Trade Explorer.)

+77 pips today.
Two trades after a big USD News Release.
CAD strength to weakness at the USD News Release was due the price of oil changing a lot at the same time! This strength change was reflected in Ucad having the shortest 5 minute candle after the News Release! I overlooked that important clue.

Here are two trades that I should have identified and entered shortly after the big USD News Release today:

USA Fed Rate Increase Trade:

Three late London trades today:

NY trades. Completely missed the JPY trades--all pairs went for 50 to 100+ pips, and I was busy looking for the best weak/strong cross to trade. :-O

The GA trade went for -31 pips.

-18 pips today.

Last two trades today (below). Both opened after London closed on no movement. Simply, revenge trades (for the Ucad and GA trades that reversed--and those trades were entered too late during the NY session, too).

I was up +39 pips today, despite missing all the massive JPY trades, then squandered -57 pips on these four, bad trades.

After settling on time frames & refining my trading system, I'm back to posting all trades.
Goal: 5 weeks of weekly profitability, trading only this system, no over-trading, and controlling risk well.
See: https://www.myfxbook.com/portfolio/patiencedude/2155371

5 trades today.
+27 pips.
Not great trade selection (ended up in choppy pairs).
Missed several better set-ups.
Good end of the day AJ trade.
Eager to take profits quickly today, on this first day of System Trading and posting Trade Explorer.
Not used to trading so many LOTS (@2% risk) with $250,000 USD account, and seeing so much floating cash.

+53 pips
Mostly London session
rushed opening AJ (from yesterday's bias)
tired (could have let trades run, especially UJ--so obvious)
good identification of strong/weak pairs, and judging choppiness