+166 pips
+9%
Well, it's great. I still do some really bad trading but I can see that I'm improving. Latest thinking get me to decision that it would be best just to only take small profits as I usually do just because I enjoy in that. Where is enjoyment there are positive results. Let's put aside mathematics and optimization of trading to get the best risk reward ratios. I got to put me and my mental strength and weaknesses in equation. Whenever I'm in deeply red trade, or string of trades with averaging I'm thinking how will I swing other side with that size and take 50, 100 pips. It's just wishful thinking that does me any good. I just don't stay that long in positive trades and it's better for me to accept that, it's reality.
If I know that than I don't expect big trades and maybe don't bet the farm on any losing trade, because there is no big trade that can substitute loses made with that. If I trade small I take small wins and also small loses. I don't use all the potential that is available to me in markets. But that's me and I got to adapt to that. I should focus on thing that I do well and disregard anything else.
My new idea is also to take small winners if I have them and call it for the day. Staying longer by the screen put me under the pressure. I start to think and trade defensively to save my new profits. That sometimes give me the worst mistakes in a way that I don't want to take next loss in order to secure just made profit. That takes me into moving stops, averaging, insane risks. All that could be prevented if I took the winner, or winners however small they are and quit for the day. If I'm happy with that small winner I should listen to myself and stay happy.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Why did I exit my first trade?
Something was fishy and to me looked like there will be brake. I entered gbp/usd long and exit after +3 pips. Well I hate when I don't want to wait and risk that tiny profit however tiny it is. Maybe it's because I know that sometimes after some profit if trade goes back I would not exit it on b/e or some reasonable stop.
Than few minutes later brake came but in eur/usd and especially usd/chf. It was pretty much unusual that gbp/usd won't follow even from a sympathy. So I thought maybe 920 level is really hard and that mean only down action. From that idea came my second trade for +6 pips.
But all in all everything is range like so I'm happy with the scalp trade. I got to have some broader move idea to initiate the scalp. I exit it fast, and it's ok. It's better to get used to that than break my head with why I don't stay in trends.
Than few minutes later brake came but in eur/usd and especially usd/chf. It was pretty much unusual that gbp/usd won't follow even from a sympathy. So I thought maybe 920 level is really hard and that mean only down action. From that idea came my second trade for +6 pips.
But all in all everything is range like so I'm happy with the scalp trade. I got to have some broader move idea to initiate the scalp. I exit it fast, and it's ok. It's better to get used to that than break my head with why I don't stay in trends.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Monday, January 28, 2008
My trading today was poor
I had whole day for trading and I done nothing. Some bad averaging,saving positions, fighting the trend result is -8 pip for the day.
First two eur/usd trades were bad but lucky I was up +18. Than in the afternoon I was pushing for lower and with no reason got stuck heavily long. Stupid. I could get b/e but took -42. I could also bought 730 level, but no. Another example of not trading what I see and what is happening.
Eur/jpy trade and other eur/usd trades were on because I wanted to get loses back. Eur/jpy gave mi +16 and other eur/usd was just taking risks and no reward.
First two eur/usd trades were bad but lucky I was up +18. Than in the afternoon I was pushing for lower and with no reason got stuck heavily long. Stupid. I could get b/e but took -42. I could also bought 730 level, but no. Another example of not trading what I see and what is happening.
Eur/jpy trade and other eur/usd trades were on because I wanted to get loses back. Eur/jpy gave mi +16 and other eur/usd was just taking risks and no reward.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Blogs
I was surfing around today and I found various new blogs that I put in my Bloglines reader to check them out.
Attitude Trader
The Art of Day Trading
10kthrownaway
Daily Trading Log
Market Monk's Musings
The Impatient Trader
LearningToTrade
Trade Pilot Pro
Make Me Some Money
Scalper is better than loser
EST. 2007
Attitude Trader
The Art of Day Trading
10kthrownaway
Daily Trading Log
Market Monk's Musings
The Impatient Trader
LearningToTrade
Trade Pilot Pro
Make Me Some Money
Scalper is better than loser
EST. 2007
Friday, January 25, 2008
Bad trading quit early
I'm showing some very bad trading. I'm forcing the trades. My mind is on the money not on trading. So I will stop trading for today.
Both trades were only on because market moved fast, sometimes it works.When I saw that I entered gbp/jpy after spike of 40 pips in 30 seconds without even really looking at the chart before I entered, I realized that I'm trading like I'm drunk. I was from first second in deep loss, moved stop and who know what would I do next if market didn't return back.
On days like this it's the easiest thing to hold losers and average and lose as much as my stomach can take.
So with b/e (-4 +4) on the day I already took too much risk and better to shut down early.
Both trades were only on because market moved fast, sometimes it works.When I saw that I entered gbp/jpy after spike of 40 pips in 30 seconds without even really looking at the chart before I entered, I realized that I'm trading like I'm drunk. I was from first second in deep loss, moved stop and who know what would I do next if market didn't return back.
On days like this it's the easiest thing to hold losers and average and lose as much as my stomach can take.
So with b/e (-4 +4) on the day I already took too much risk and better to shut down early.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Some small scalping
Maybe I should do only this and never mind about big runs.
2/3 of the size +11 regular size pips.
2/3 of the size +11 regular size pips.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Don't try this at home
Fed cut rates, everything is flying. Eur/jpy spread remains only at 2 pips. I entered long in worst moment, but I got lucky fill at exit -20 pips. While exiting I reversed the trade with about double size and took +42 pips.
+22
+22
Volatile markets
I entered in gbp/usd long trade because price was acting funny. Eur was falling and gbp was just doing nothing, totally unusual, so I was thinking when eur starts to go up gbp/usd will fly up. It did.
Like I was talking to my friend who is also trader yesterday I have big down days, small up & down days but no big up days. I cut my profits. Certainly I didn't expecting this kind of movement but I'm guilty of not letting my trade run. When I first started trading I would cut my profits when they were 3-7 pips. I just couldn't believe that I have a profit lol. Now it's 10-20. I really got to learn to let them run and change mental concepts that prevent me of doing it.
Gbp/usd +19 +6 pips
There was some heavy buying in gbp/jpy
Like I was talking to my friend who is also trader yesterday I have big down days, small up & down days but no big up days. I cut my profits. Certainly I didn't expecting this kind of movement but I'm guilty of not letting my trade run. When I first started trading I would cut my profits when they were 3-7 pips. I just couldn't believe that I have a profit lol. Now it's 10-20. I really got to learn to let them run and change mental concepts that prevent me of doing it.
Gbp/usd +19 +6 pips
There was some heavy buying in gbp/jpy
Monday, January 21, 2008
The most scariest trading video
HPT got his Armageddon.
I can only thank him on this video because it's eye opening when you see something like that happen to someone else.
Youtube took it down but you can watch it here at break.com
I can only thank him on this video because it's eye opening when you see something like that happen to someone else.
Youtube took it down but you can watch it here at break.com
Everything was fine until
I first got two nice positive trades in eur/jpy. I saw opportunity's for bounce and took them and take profit fast. All was well.
Later reason why I entered long wasn't the fact that I see something in market action that gives me a clue of going long. No, I saw that usd/jpy was breaking down 106 level and I decided to fade it.
Difference between first two trades and this one was that now I didn't see market action that gives me that idea. I first have idea and play it against market action. Again I didn't trade what I see but what I think.
When I do that I usually try to save myself from loses with averaging. I'm angry and emotional.
After first stop, I took revenge trades and got stop on them too. In the end I took another two trades and a number of other smaller trades with mixed results. It was cooling of emotions. Emotion to get loses back immediately is very strong.
I could bet that I wouldn't average on my first two trades of the day if they gone wrong.
I don't know why I trade two different ways, one ok and other wrong. Maybe because I hit my boundary that I blog about the other day. Maybe first +20 pips was enough and because I was after more I got to lose somehow. I'm glad that my biggest problem isn't averaging but unconsciously slipping in another style of trading.
So today's roller coaster was roughly +10 +10 -80 +28 = -32 pips
Later reason why I entered long wasn't the fact that I see something in market action that gives me a clue of going long. No, I saw that usd/jpy was breaking down 106 level and I decided to fade it.
Difference between first two trades and this one was that now I didn't see market action that gives me that idea. I first have idea and play it against market action. Again I didn't trade what I see but what I think.
When I do that I usually try to save myself from loses with averaging. I'm angry and emotional.
After first stop, I took revenge trades and got stop on them too. In the end I took another two trades and a number of other smaller trades with mixed results. It was cooling of emotions. Emotion to get loses back immediately is very strong.
I could bet that I wouldn't average on my first two trades of the day if they gone wrong.
I don't know why I trade two different ways, one ok and other wrong. Maybe because I hit my boundary that I blog about the other day. Maybe first +20 pips was enough and because I was after more I got to lose somehow. I'm glad that my biggest problem isn't averaging but unconsciously slipping in another style of trading.
So today's roller coaster was roughly +10 +10 -80 +28 = -32 pips
Friday, January 18, 2008
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Boundary
Do you feel in trading that you have some kind of bound? Do you feel sometimes that you hit your boundary?
Today I had interesting entry for myself, not usual one. In the trade I was humming "small loss, big gain". I planed to risk just 5-6 pips. Trade turned my way and I let it run to some point. On first obstacle I checked my p&l and it was just enough. I had to go out.
It's not problem in the fact that I could gain 2 or 3 times more but that I have feeling that I'm bounded. It would be the problem also if I had 3 times more profit and again if I hit my boundary.
It's not problem how big is boundary 10 pips or 100 pips, but that bound in my mind exist.
Maybe you could say that you got to have bound and that you just make sure that borders are wide enough. But it's glass cage, like a prison. It's hard to be in prison no matter how big it is, it's not freedom.
Check out how Zenhabits used mantra Liberate to turn his blogging pro.
+13 pips eur/usd
Today I had interesting entry for myself, not usual one. In the trade I was humming "small loss, big gain". I planed to risk just 5-6 pips. Trade turned my way and I let it run to some point. On first obstacle I checked my p&l and it was just enough. I had to go out.
It's not problem in the fact that I could gain 2 or 3 times more but that I have feeling that I'm bounded. It would be the problem also if I had 3 times more profit and again if I hit my boundary.
It's not problem how big is boundary 10 pips or 100 pips, but that bound in my mind exist.
Maybe you could say that you got to have bound and that you just make sure that borders are wide enough. But it's glass cage, like a prison. It's hard to be in prison no matter how big it is, it's not freedom.
Check out how Zenhabits used mantra Liberate to turn his blogging pro.
+13 pips eur/usd
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Turning scalp idea in bad swing trading
The problem with averaging is that you make so big position and make so big risk. While you do it you are thinking that it would be great to swing that kind of size on positive trade. So you hope not only that position will come back to b/e but that you will profit really big with your size. Only, when things finally come to b/e you are not any more so convinced that it will move in positive side. You exit. Pain of being positive and than let it go down again would be to big to risk that. So only thing that you get with averaging is break even or tiny profit.
But why than I do it?
Probably because of situation like today, to get break even.
I think that it's not so much problem in averaging but in style of trading. By that I mean that I don't average all the times. Usually I average when I have some idea what will happen and than I don't want to abandon that idea while I'm proven wrong on it. It all than starts to look like some kind of swing trading but with sizes 3 times bigger than it should be for swing trading and adding 2 times more, size is 9 times bigger than it should be for swing trading.
Today that idea was that I saw some bullishness at the time I entered my first long. Than I took that and made a concept of eur/usd going up. It was only some up direction noise. Horizontal channel didn't break to the up but down. I could use that as swing signal but I was to busy with saving my position from loss.
So I took little scalping clue and turn it in some swing signal and it was totally wrong. That's why it's better for me to trade in more scalping style and took advantage of small triggers and small movements. If it's not working go out in a second and look for another.
+5 pips eur/usd
In usd/cad I saw that it could become top. I stayed in that trade long enough while I was busy with eur/usd. I could take more but I didn't want to risk it. In the end price came back so it's another confirmation that with my abilities swing trading is hard
There is enough oportunities for me in trading fast and taking small profits and small losses.
+15 pips usd/cad
In the end I took two 1/3 size positions in eur/usd and usd/cad I think just because of the rush of picking bottom/top.
Combined +2 pips
When I start day on the wrong foot with averaging and red positions I'm not any more for trading. I got messed up.
But why than I do it?
Probably because of situation like today, to get break even.
I think that it's not so much problem in averaging but in style of trading. By that I mean that I don't average all the times. Usually I average when I have some idea what will happen and than I don't want to abandon that idea while I'm proven wrong on it. It all than starts to look like some kind of swing trading but with sizes 3 times bigger than it should be for swing trading and adding 2 times more, size is 9 times bigger than it should be for swing trading.
Today that idea was that I saw some bullishness at the time I entered my first long. Than I took that and made a concept of eur/usd going up. It was only some up direction noise. Horizontal channel didn't break to the up but down. I could use that as swing signal but I was to busy with saving my position from loss.
So I took little scalping clue and turn it in some swing signal and it was totally wrong. That's why it's better for me to trade in more scalping style and took advantage of small triggers and small movements. If it's not working go out in a second and look for another.
+5 pips eur/usd
In usd/cad I saw that it could become top. I stayed in that trade long enough while I was busy with eur/usd. I could take more but I didn't want to risk it. In the end price came back so it's another confirmation that with my abilities swing trading is hard
There is enough oportunities for me in trading fast and taking small profits and small losses.
+15 pips usd/cad
In the end I took two 1/3 size positions in eur/usd and usd/cad I think just because of the rush of picking bottom/top.
Combined +2 pips
When I start day on the wrong foot with averaging and red positions I'm not any more for trading. I got messed up.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
I'm in bad mindset for trading
+13 pips
I first went short by mistake, it would have been nice trade, lol.
I trade what I think and not what I see, also I don't want to take losers. I decided not to trade after this trade.
I first went short by mistake, it would have been nice trade, lol.
I trade what I think and not what I see, also I don't want to take losers. I decided not to trade after this trade.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Do you remember NYSE Scalper?
I went to check his old blog, nothing new. But through his profile I found that he have new blog and is actively blogging in A Journey of Dreams. New blog is what I could found in 5 minutes some mix of positive thinking stuff and wealth aspiration and motivation. Not about trading at all, but he is still a prop trader.
I personally miss his trading blog and I'm not interested in his current stuff. You can't make person blog about something because you want to read that, but you can express opinion.
What do you think about his new blog and would you rather like to see his old trading blog back?
I personally miss his trading blog and I'm not interested in his current stuff. You can't make person blog about something because you want to read that, but you can express opinion.
What do you think about his new blog and would you rather like to see his old trading blog back?
Thursday, January 10, 2008
I didn't have the nerve to hang in there
I expected exactly what happened but it was to slow for me in the start. I didn't want to lose profits and got out for +28 pips.
If I only stayed in for another leg up it would be great. If I...
I still have much to learn. It's so easy to sit in a loser versus to sit in the winner.
The thing is that only after the 10.30 news pair made big move up. It was only 10 pips above my exit at that time.
If I only stayed in for another leg up it would be great. If I...
I still have much to learn. It's so easy to sit in a loser versus to sit in the winner.
The thing is that only after the 10.30 news pair made big move up. It was only 10 pips above my exit at that time.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Averaging is such a bad habit
For everything today -1 pip
I shouldn't trade trades where I have some kind of concept how things will develop. I had that today in eur/jpy and I slowly dig myself deep in that pair. I had luck with averaging, but it's only luck. It's some kind of swing trading thinking, but I enter with too big size for swing trading and too close stops.
All other trades were based on market action, and I'm happy with them winners or losers. I can easily see moments when to get in the market and if things start moving opposite way or slowing down get out. Some of this trades I can let run for more profits.
+5 gbp/usd
0, +7 eur/usd
0 usd/chf
-18, -5, +9 eur/jpy
+1 usd/jpy
I shouldn't trade trades where I have some kind of concept how things will develop. I had that today in eur/jpy and I slowly dig myself deep in that pair. I had luck with averaging, but it's only luck. It's some kind of swing trading thinking, but I enter with too big size for swing trading and too close stops.
All other trades were based on market action, and I'm happy with them winners or losers. I can easily see moments when to get in the market and if things start moving opposite way or slowing down get out. Some of this trades I can let run for more profits.
+5 gbp/usd
0, +7 eur/usd
0 usd/chf
-18, -5, +9 eur/jpy
+1 usd/jpy
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
My trading is cold by any standard
Funny that I try to go in the direction of the trend and it's wrong. It's hard to learn different style of trading. Bad thing is that I didn't get out in logical place for stop. I was in the mode of thinking give it little room, little more and little more.
Than I was angry and got in again with two positions. Gbp/jpy worked and I got out gbp/usd the same time.
-29, +2 gbp/usd
+17 gbp/jpy
Logical place for exit if long don't work
Than I was angry and got in again with two positions. Gbp/jpy worked and I got out gbp/usd the same time.
-29, +2 gbp/usd
+17 gbp/jpy
Logical place for exit if long don't work
Monday, January 7, 2008
Forex trading 01/07/08
Bad trading continues. I go in the trade with no clear idea about it. I than don't want to take stop loss, in the end I start saving the trade with some averaging in this example in other pair.
-5 pips in eur/gbp and +14 pips in gbp/usd
-5 pips in eur/gbp and +14 pips in gbp/usd
Friday, January 4, 2008
Forex trading 01/04/08
Bad trading, bad execution, bad trade management. I wanted to go long because gbp/usd had news and was going higher and the spread on the gbp/jpy get small first. But I didn't because of fear or something and than I go short. It's always bad idea and it happen to me many times. I was just lucky to exit it at b/e.
+2 pips eur/usd
+2 pips eur/usd
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Forex trading 01/03/08
I suck at trend trading but I'm trying.
I had short in gbp/jpy but it didn't came my way so I exit it soon when I was in profit. That trade would worth like 300 pips. Probably I wouldn't stay in it that long, but trade was there. Action was to ugly for me and I was happy to exit it in the profit at the time of exit.
Real trend down started at around 10.30 but I wasn't prepared for it.
I made a bunch of scalp trades for +29 pips today.
Last trade in eur/usd and usd/jpy were really bad and I shouldn't take them. I didn't see anything, I was thinking that usd will gain strenght because it's to much down.
-3, 0, -6
+7, +3
+6, +6, +5, +11
I had short in gbp/jpy but it didn't came my way so I exit it soon when I was in profit. That trade would worth like 300 pips. Probably I wouldn't stay in it that long, but trade was there. Action was to ugly for me and I was happy to exit it in the profit at the time of exit.
Real trend down started at around 10.30 but I wasn't prepared for it.
I made a bunch of scalp trades for +29 pips today.
Last trade in eur/usd and usd/jpy were really bad and I shouldn't take them. I didn't see anything, I was thinking that usd will gain strenght because it's to much down.
-3, 0, -6
+7, +3
+6, +6, +5, +11
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