My Journal

Hi all,

I have been trading forex for almost 3 years now, still not profitable yet. This thread serves as my trading journal for the following 3 months, start from 19 June 2017. I will be using my methodology to trade the market and figure out what is my trading expectancy.

All trades are in demo account, but I will treat it like real account. Thinking about how embarrassing it is to open a random position or trading with emotion in front of public will make me treat demo account as a real one. Though, I have been using demo and real account for quite some time now.

Anyone with experience is welcome to give your precious opinions. I am all ears. Sorry, is all eyes, and brain.

There are 10 currency pairs on my watch list, all are between AUD, JPY, EUR, GBP and USD. I am using 4 hours chart, daily chart and hourly chart the most. But I will look at 3 hours, 6 hours and 8 hours chart as well. Trading platform: MT4 from FXPRO. Aiding platform: tradingview and ctrader from FXPRO.

I found it is very easy to type comment, draw lines, show my long and short position and screenshot the charts to share them elsewhere by using tradingview. The purpose I am using ctrader is to get charts of other time frame such as 3, 6 and 8 hours. You can have that in tradingview, only if you pay for the service. But I am not subscribing it until I am profitable :-)

My trading methodology:

1. Identify trend or range.
2. If the market is trending, then open position on price correction zone. If it is ranging, then open position on support or resistance.
3. Prefer limit order. But will use market order if the price already in my psychology entering area.
4. Stop loss around 40 pips 60 pips. Stop loss should be out of previous structure to reduce the chance of getting caught by stop sweep.
5. Minimum 1:2 risk reward ratio.
6. Set stop loss to break even if the price is at least 1r profit.
7. Position size 0.05 standard lot of every USD 1000 capital. (about losing 40 trades in a row to blow account)

So, let's see if I can dance with the market or swallow by sharks.

In my honest opinion, you have been trading too long to still be using demo. You need to put up real money. It will take you even longer to become profitable if you keep using demo. Using real money forces you to be serious about your risk management because you experience real emotions. Demo cannot do this for you. Even under these circumstances. This is just my experience anyway.

20170619 USDJPY


Buy limit : 110.800
Stop loss : 110.400
Take profit : 111.940
risk reward: 1 : 2.8

Result:
Cancelled buy limit order as the price has ran away.

Hi Madinvestor,

The purpose I'm using demo account is to try out my strategy. Once I get positive expectancy over a period of time, I'll go real. If I cannot gain profit using demo account, I don't think I can do that using real account. I have loss of about 1k usd over these few years. 1k usd might not sound that much, but u know, the currency in my country is weaker and weaker, my wallet becomes thinner and thinner. I save my capital for now and will use it when I'm ready.

Thanks for your opinion, Madinvestor!

I understand. Everyone has to find their own way of achieving profitability. Good luck to you.

20170621 EURJPY



Sell limit : 124.200
Stop loss : 124.800
Take profit : 123.000
risk reward: 1 : 2

20170621 GBPUSD


Size : 0.05 lot
Sell limit : 1.26400
Stop loss : 1.26800
Take profit : 1.24400
risk reward: 1 : 5

Result:

Stop loss : 1.26768
P/L : -18.25 USD
P/L : -36.5 pips

After just 8 minutes the limit order was triggered, the price hit SL.