October 2008. results

- 280 pips

- 14 %

Trades today II

Add to today -52 pips more, yes I can see that I was shorting strong uptrend. This is not good scalping nor trading. It looks like I'm just testing me in regards stops. I lost near 100 pips today. Maybe I'm trying to convince myself not to have stops and sabotaging myself with awful trading. Whatever.

Or maybe there is no difference how I lose, with averaging or like today, I lose.

I'm not in a mood to think about that all, I'm just documenting how it is.

Trades today

First long I entered because I saw bullish action on 10 sec pushing higher and consolidating before the run up. It didn't happen, I had one more long with very close stop in a case that I was just shaken out.
Gbp short I entered because of that 50 pips drop in 3 minutes, that idea also didn't work.

Bright spot were stops. Pure trading with defined stops. It's hard market to trade especially when it's in rangy mood. It's not so brilliant to learn disciplined trading in such mess of market movements. I don't have an edge and that's why I don't trade this days, today I tried and got burned.

-45 pips

Practice of taking stops

First trade, not so much clever but I used it to follow my emotions. I was feeling bad and wanted to avoid being stopped out. Because of that I didn't want to get out on any price before my max set stop. I was hoping whole time that it will come back. Finally stop took me out and I felt misery. Really funny now when I wright about that. So I was in misery and I had urge to go back in, trade, get the money back. Ugly emotions, luckily I was just noticing them. When I think about it, too bad that I didn't start long before giving attention to those feelings after stop.
I cool down a little and my thoughts were that I got to lose identification with all of that emotional garbage.

I was writing blog entry and market started pushing again so I had second trade which was profitable.

-10 pips for a day

I think that I just get to go in that direction to get rid off bad stuff. Not so much attention at is every trade profitable or not, put emotions under control, especially those regarding stops. Emotions under control is when you have them but don't have to act on them forcefully. So I'm glad that I got stopped out and felt all the bad that I do. If that is the worst thing, it's not so bad and I can get custom to it. I feel little ashamed writing about it now after so many years of trading. It's such basic stuff. You get bad emotions when taking stops. So what, move on.

I will probably now pay less attention am I trading profitably or not overall, but more to execution and all surrounding each trade.

Reasons behind the trades

I was looking at all pairs, there was bounce from the lows today. Gbp was very strong, I was looking in getting good spot to go long on it or eur. At that time there was spike down in chf at second chart. So in tight congestion of 20 pips break out came with price quick return back. There wasn't such thing on other pairs but my idea was that now is obvious that there is strong enough support for the dollar. So I shorted gbp. It was slow and I made exit, premature because half hour later price is down 90 pips after my exit.






Euro trade came because sudden move came as result of eur/jpy falling and going for break
127 level third time today. There was break but price wasn't falling so strong and when it stooped I hoped for snap back. So I went long eur/usd because of smaller spread. I was in little bounce positive and my internet connection brake and didn't want to reconnect. That didn't happen to me for a very long time, maybe years. So I restarted pc and it worked than, I logged on platform an I was like 8 pips positive.
I didn't get out but I was waiting. When there came b/e, and -11 points that I gain in previous trade I was just frozen. I couldn't get out. There was stop at -20 and I didn't move it but I wasn't able to get out sooner also. My reasons for the trade didn't work. There wasn't snap back on eur/jpy and here I was with trade opposite of the trend getting in bigger lose for me. Still I couldn't get out.
This discipline thing is going to be hard, I have such strong emotions in those moments that I just can't override. Only time and repetition can maybe "cure" me. I need to have stop in because when I froze it can take me out if I don't move it.


Bad thing today was that I changed my mind so quickly. Idea on chf and gbp was working after my exit. So that was also valid for eur so that bet with eur/jpy snap back wasn't so good.
I usually do that, when I exit prematurely I start to look for the trade in the opposite direction, but the trend just started, it's hard to go back in, hard to stay out and fullish to go opposite.

+24 pips

So what happened today? II

I changed my mind I want to put on charts. If you missed there is post number one below this one about today.

There are two things that I want to take from today.

First death spiral of moving stops, not having stops, averaging is experience that I had too many times for my taste. If for anything I want to take max of -20 pips on full position just not to experience death spiral again. There are two kinds of freedom, freedom for and freedom from. Stop loss is freedom from death spiral.

Second I want to play around with stop line on chart trailing it from time to time. Just to get the habit of trailing my stop. I never trail, usually there is no point in trailing, but if I don't have a habit of doing it ever than I'm missing on something important. My first trade today was at the top of 400 pips downtrend.


Full size trade, first short, got 27 pips on it. Premature exit, reasonable as a scalp because at the time of exit eur started to go up, so I expected gbp to follow.


Gbp trades were half size and eur full size. I was trading with discipline on. I was trying to scalp picking the bottom, didn't get it on gbp, but did on eur.


Whole day. Death spiral after long trade in gbp, in few minutes it was -100 pips and than I realized that it's full size trade. I wasn't prepared for half size loss of that size, but full position...
After -170 pips I started heavy averaging going full margin in it, didn't get a bounce but more pain.

So what happened today?

I was trading well, no moving stops, taking stops, letting profits run for some time, scalping and I was at +43 pips. In the morning I had 7 trades, of that 2 losses.

Than later I took a half size trade, didn't want to take 10 pips profit on it. Didn't get out at b/e, I was counting that I have a room. I moved stop and it free fall. Than I realized that by mistake it wasn't half size trade but full size. I lost it in my head and went directly in panic save me mode, disaster mode. Some averaging and I finished day at -207 pips.

I don't want to put charts because it doesn't have anything with reason, my trades. Now I feel mixed. Again big loss, again averaging and all usual. On the other hand I was trading well in the morning, taking stops, waiting for good setup and all. I should feel down because I had -10% loss but I look at it that it will only take little longer to come back.

I now really want to trade with stops, I want to scalp because if anywhere I have an edge than it's in scalping. No matter will I be positive or negative, let's put that behind.
I guess this is struggle inside of me in moving away from bad discipline. It definitely isn't easy and mistakes are so costly. I don't see any sense in moving stops and averaging. I just can say to me that I forgive myself doing that today. It's pure addiction withdrawal.

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When you don't want to take a loss you take a big loss

It all started nice with me trading with half size. I pick a spot that gave me nice profit at first, looking like the uptrend is failing. Then suddenly it turned and fly higher and I didn't get out. I add another half size short. Than I was sitting and counting ticks of losing trades. I re shorted with full size, double down. It went more up. Than slowly down, but eur was strong in comparison to gbp at that time so I took around -23 x 2 loss.
Than I decided to be clever and went long double size, well now market started to go down slowly and not up to test a high. I even add another long trade with double size so in the end I was trading 8x bigger than I started with my first trade. My idea of being conservative.

Well it was going happen sooner or later with the way I trade. I only learn in such situations because I get a kick. If I got b/e or small profit, I would do it all again. Now, I have a chance to learn. It's not disaster if I don't, one day I will learn.

So I lost -114 full size pips. Also this week my positions were 20% bigger than before.

To rub a salt little more down you can see a chart what happened later.

Swing trading practice

I approached today market with swing trading and half size trades. Before Europe trading there was strong trend up in eur/usd, after that in early EU range developed. When that range broke to the downside I decided to dip my toe on idea that it's retracement and trend up will come again at least back to the highs. First trade I abandoned too early but in the end it showed as ok decision. Second trade was based on idea that quick drop was just clearing first longs and after it bounced from some fibb level I got in again.
Now I was in territory not familiar to me and that is holding the trade. I had great entry and for my swing trading idea I should just hold through swings. At 13:05 price approached previous lows and I felt it will be resistance. But I was in swing trade so let's hold on. Well from that point I fell in emotional depression as market slowly ticked down more and more. I was very depressed holding that trade and not taking profit. It was really bad emotional state and I usually do things in the market just to get myself out of emotions. My trade was still positive but I was depressed and sad. Then there was pause around the lows, I was still in bad feelings. Then it suddenly started ticking up again, I was contemplating adding to the trade but I didn't. Quick trend cleared resistance at the previous morning support. My plan from the beginning of the trade was to take profit at around 660. Than I simply closed the trade without much technical reason. I guess that I was just relieved after being depressed and didn't want to risk another cycle of depression with market going down. So I cut my profit short I just couldn't hold it any longer. I wanted out of emotional roller coaster.
Well I could have used some trail stop, but no, I wanted to finish with whole swing adventure. Now while I write this market hit 680 and my swing idea proved right. It's still in uptrend and some good trailing could keep swing traders long for more.

Trades were half size so it's +26 full size pips


I guess that for me some kind of trading around swing idea would prove easier. Like looking in hindsight taking trade of the table around 13:05 when there was resistance, all with idea of establishing long position again when reaction start to slow down. Than again holding through next trend up new position with decision of taking it off when I notice again reversal tendencies. Opening again new position when reaction fades away. It's not trading in scalping manner because you can be off in new trades but let them be in loss on account of previous trend wins.
If I see correctly that like today 570 is low and we will probably touch high of 670 I have core idea. Than I should scalp in the direction of that idea until it's proving right. All the scalps count as one big long trade with me being out of it on occasions and back in. Easier than just hold, at least for me. It's true that sometimes you can be wrong and take off the trade that continues but it's all in practice.
I'm satisfied with profit today and my practice of swing trading just to see what problems do I face that way.

Original content can be found at Forex Intraday Trading website

Unboxing

Check this out it's funny

Manic market

Well I will pass today as trading day. I like profit I made this week and let's cool things down and keep it.


For your entertainment this weekend I want to share with you one of the most funniest journal threads on Elite Trader forum.

It's especially nice to read it in this manic market.

Read through few pages and you will be hooked to see what destiny will be in cards for lead character of this comedy. Most laughs in past few weeks came from this piece. It for certain touches part of my character that averages and make silly risks in trading.

5% - 10% profit per day trading

Half size

Spread is big, market is funny, trades were half size.
First I found nice scalp in eur/jpy.
Than I tried to pick up bottom in eur/usd because all the weakens was based on jpy pairs movement. I let it loosely counting on profit from earlier trade. Finally when I get bottom I exit prematurely.
+13 full size pips

Tough market

First I got caught in spike up that I thought that will be start of trend up. I didn't want to exit with stop, probably bad decision. Watching other pairs it was all in range. Averaged and took small profit.
Other trade was pure momentum scalp. I could stay more in it.

+26 pips

!?

Swing in scalp out

It's nearly impossible to scalp this market the way I do usually so I got to use swing trading ideas for my entry. I did exit in scalp manner because I'm not used to carry positions with various swings. Overall it was very good day profit wise.

I bet on finding some support on eur against usd and jpy. At that time eur/jpy was more than 500 pips lower than Friday close, with gap down and selling through Asia session. It's risky idea but I'm not capable to go in direction of the trend like that into support. So I chose to go for bounce.

In my second set of trades I add to eur/jpy long because it reacted from the lows. From that point usd was falling and eur was in range against jpy. I wish that I had position in eur/usd also but I didn't.

My scalps exits were generally ok securing me majority of moves so far in those trades. I didn't expect so big fall after my last exit in eur/jpy. I go out on my trades against the trend where other people trading the trend initiate new positions.
Later eur/jpy broke 140 all the way to 143.80, than there was big recovery to 141.

I have the time but I chose not to trade US session because of risk of so many sudden news all over the world. It's spiky and unpredictable.

+58 pips



Original content on Forex Intraday Trading

Euro trade

Euro was in retracement from yesterday fall and I bet that it will fail to go further at that point.

+18 pips