Tuesday, September 30, 2008

September 2008. results

I had big down day this month and since than I was recovering it after a brake. So not many trading days.

+41 pips

+1.7 %

Lesson from this month is that how deep hole you dig you will eventually get out of it. So there is no need for a drama. Just trade as good or as bad as you can and that's it. There is no holy grail, no realization that will change you for good.

Monday, September 29, 2008

What a day

First I had nice scalp after gbp/usd news time and I got 20 pips out of it. From Monday Asia open gbp/usd was -400 pips at that time.


Than on the wings of my gain I decided again to take a long after it fell back. Well I got caught unprepared. After few pips in my direction it started to fall and it didn't look back. I freeze. I started to average on every bounce. After trade number three there was bottom. Now I was in situation down around 56 pips X 3. After few minutes I decided that I don't know on which side it will go, back or in reversal. So, the best thing would be to reverse my position if it started to fall again. So from that point I was in frenzy of reversing 3 positions long and short. I wasn't so crafty in that, it was mess. It would be better if I stayed just long in the end, but if market reversed back down hard it would save my skin. Also I wanted to make some money, not just to get b/e. It didn't go that way, I got only 7 pips for all 3 positions, I was hoping 10x3.



After all of that I was in good emotional state and I was prepared to trade more. Which is great and improvement. I don't get so emotionally drained as before. So I had two more scalps with regular size position and got 10 pips on eur/usd and 15 pips on gbp/usd.

There is nothing clever that I can say about my averaging session but I'm showing it here just as it was. It's funny how big need is not to have a loss and what stupid things can you do to accomplish that. I'm just glad that I can find little bit more hunger to make a profit than before and a little bit less emotional impact of trading and swings in p&l.

+ 52 pips today



Original content can be found on Forex Intraday Trading

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Aiming for higher profits

I'm very heavy on exiting losing positions. Third trade had after -15 loss +10 profit, I didn't take it. I left it to slide down and seek bottom. It's hard when most of the movements are somehow based on jpy pairs development. I averaged in that loser only because there was 15 pips spike from the bottom in one second, I entered second trade just behind that spike bounce. Than there was fight around 10:50 below previous low resistance. At that point I had b/e on those two trades but I didn't want to take it. I like that fact in my trading, previous I was just "give me b/e and I'm out". Than there was again slide down. Finally it started to shape like 3B. The problem is that when I go in profit with the position I lose
consciousness about what is going on. Previous to that I can see that if there will be reversal it will be real one of 3B pattern. After 1.4712 price level I'm just wondering what is going on, will it go further and I'm risk averse and want to take profit. So I did after +10 pips for two positions.

Well on my second position I also wanted to stay more at 9:55, because whole move happen in one minute. So after 750 level is rejected there will be more downside, but no, I'm fast on my exit.

On that third trade, losing trade, I was prepared to hedge it with gbp/usd trade in other direction but there just wasn't usd rally so I didn't hedge nor exit and than came bounce so I add one more long.

I can see that there is so more room for improvement. On taking loss easier, staying with the proven idea more, trail stops etc..

While I was writing this I noticed great level for eur/usd rally to stop so I shorted and got 9 pips more.

Well there is much room for improvement but in the end I got today exactly 50 pips of profit, which isn't bad. I decided to work more on number of trades that I can do in the day and a profit. It looks to me that I'm satisfied with smaller number than I should be. I'm most days happy with 20 pips of profit but why wouldn't I aim for 50 if it's attainable for me.

+ 50 pips





Original content can be found on Forex Intraday Trading

Monday, September 22, 2008

Just a scalp

I have no time today.

+6 pips


Original content can be found on Forex Intraday Trading

Friday, September 19, 2008

Flip coin market

On some trades lately I get out very quickly if it's not going my way, but when I stuck in losing position I don't want to take a loss or small loss. That thing got it's price so if I'm willing to pay than ok. Good thing today I think was that I didn't want to take b/e price, so I got paid if it goes in my direction in the end. Well after hour it did come my way. I took profit too early but good thing that I didn't take it even more early.

+19



Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Trades 091708

Bottom picking in gbp and try of break down in eur that finished as b/e.
+18




Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Bitter profit

What can I say, nothing changed. Today I had first some news trades with extra big risk aversion on my side. Some loss in eur, after it I closed profitable gbp trade to cover it. Than I got excited and opened trade against trend in eur. Move the stop in that trade and averaged when I was on -40. When it started to show signs of possible reversal I add one more trade in gbp. Closed last three trades in profit.
It's bitter profit because I can see how I got it. I'm not going to bitch about it to much because I can see that I'm trying to get hold on things, maybe on a bad course of action but I'm trying. I was whole morning waiting for b/o from the range and when it occur I trade against it. I think that loss in eur got me in bad mental state. I let that trade too much room in the first place, it came back and I hoped for nice b/o but it reversed on me again.
Currently I have bad trading and good trading going on at the same time. Maybe process of learning how to trade and ditching bad trading goes that way, slow and painful. Maybe not, but what can I do I'm where I am with all my good and bad traits and have this journal to show it all.
Oanda was acting funny today with not showing my losing trade in eur on chart, so I draw a lines myself.

+29



Monday, September 15, 2008

Update

I've been really having a break, I didn't even check markets last week. Been busy with buying new computer and installing everything because old one got really old and slow. I bought 24" monitor so it's now fun to have big desktop with chart setup that I always wanted, plus I have one of my old monitors for six more charts of other pairs.




I didn't have much thought about my lack of discipline and irrational trading when I hit a loss. Because as I said it's not so much trading problem, but problem reflected in trading field. I did make some progress regarding that so we will see how will it go.

Friday, September 5, 2008

Serious

My problems in the trading are more serious than I thought. I gambled today because I got angry of taking profit too early and from net positive I lost about 100 pips.
Well I'm also not open for discussion about that all so I will not participate in conversation via comments. I appreciate help but I clearly don't know where I stand right now so can't take advices or coherent decisions. It's little beyond me how I can trade o.k. for few days and than get too emotional even without good reason.
I will gladly hear what you think but I just don't feel good to talk about it. I have nothing to say.

My hint is that my life in general is reflecting in my trading and that it isn't trading problem. I got to make clear some general view about things in life. Simply making decisions how to trade or how not to trade will not change anything. My scalping is working nicely sometimes and I can't judge is it alone enough and net positive. Because my losses are so emotionally driven and big that they are not telling whole story about scalping and my trading methods.

If I make some trades or have some fresh info, I will post it as usually.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Kdice.com

If you got extra time to kill and want to be more in touch with your fear and greed emotions I have recommendation for you. Kdice.com is online multiplayer strategy game based on simplified version of Risk. Each game last for 5-10 minutes and it's very intense. People get very angry sometimes, you can see bad decisions, risk management, waiting for good moment for attack. It's all very much like trading. I think that it's more useful to play Kdice than paper trade. Give it a shot.
You can practice first against computer at Dicewars, but against 6 other persons it's a real deal.




Two trades

First trade it wasn't usd weakness so much but some yen pairs development so there wasn't much up potential. On second trade it would be better if I stayed little longer because the bounce where I exit wasn't big after all.
+21 pips


Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Nice scalping

I was little greedy after my first trade and add one more position. Bad thing was that I didn't close that one when it didn't advance rapidly as expected. I was lucky because it was downtrend so there was push again after bounce. Those two trades were at point of braking previous low from the early morning.
Third trade was all nice except that I didn't wait more. I did for that whole consolidation but than after it broke 400 it wasn't fast so as expected and I was than afraid off steep spike back so I took profit.
+27 pips today


Monday, September 1, 2008

Lessons from today

I do not promise that I leaned them or anything but let's state them:

1. Market is not your mother or any other person that you can manipulate with your anger or any other way. You can't manipulate market to do what you want, so don't try it.

2. Don't trade when you notice that you are not emotionally balanced because you are not on your optimal level and results can vary. It's than like you trade some questionable setup. Setup should be good, you should be good also on mental-emotional front.

3. Don't trade what you think, but what is proved according to your thinking. Not confirmed ideas are not enough, like going into pair that is not moving or counting on b/o before it happened.

4. You got to know where is your stop before you put your trade on. Is it max -20, or -10 or some other number or condition. It's bad to think about that after the trade start.

5. If you don't treat trading as any other serious business sometimes you will get away with that attitude but sometimes penalty will be so big that your head will spin.

Good news & bad news

Good news is that I didn't average or moved stops today. That really mattered because I'm positive that loss would be much bigger if I did some averaging judging from the emotional state in which I was.

Bad news is that I had a loss and after it emotional trading that brought more losses.

Market was in the range in the morning and when there was nice spike up in eur/usd at 12:03 I went in gbp/usd long because I bet that if we have uptrend gbp will bounce strongly being so down after a gap down overnight. There was nice flag in eur/usd and I was still positive that we will have uptrend just waiting for break out.

When eur/usd started to fall at around 12:35 the gbp/usd didn't so I decided to stay long. In the end it was like failed b/o up for eur/usd and my gbp stop got hit. Well trade gone wrong way, stop hit, that's it.
Problem was that I became very angry and opened more trades because I couldn't believe that there will not be rally up. So I had some other trades, all long in downtrend and for all it's -62 pips.


Emotions. Good thing is that I was now without moving stops and averaging. I did adapt to that and opened so many trades so it's kind of averaging but technically not. My emotional state didn't change much from my big loss last month. Today I had opportunity to see it from another angle. Having stops helped me in that. I can describe it as a syndrome of angry little boy that is angry because things are not the way he wants. So he is angry on his mother and trying with anger to manipulate her in doing what he wants. Well maybe manipulation worked when I was a kid, but market is not my mom and don't give a s*it about my anger. Well that is problem with unconscious mental pattern that worked in the past and now you try it to use in absolutely unsuitable situation. It's absurd that I'm trying to manipulate market with my anger and revenge trading but I do it. I didn't learn to be wrong and go past that. I'm in denial.

After my third stop I closed eur/usd also and went to lunch. I felt anger and wanted to destroy my account, never to trade again and feel those bad emotions. That self destruction mode was on when I lost several hundred pips last month. I think that emotional pain and shake down is now in trading so big that I just want to run away from it. Well in that state you can learn and change because it's unbearable.

So trading bring from deep inside of us skeletons and ways that we deal with stress. It can be hazardous and if we don't change things that are not align with good trading there is guarantee that trading will not be successful






*Update
One more loss so total today -84 pips. I went for break down of 8000 and than there was 50 pips reversal. I didn't want to get out earlier or reverse because I'm unstable. I feel like poster boy for how not to trade.