Friday, October 30, 2009

October 2009. results

+183 pips

+21 %

Only first ten pips were with previously used size, from that point size was double the one before. So starting leverage for new size was around 12 times.

I'm more then satisfied with results because I didn't expect that high pips win with bigger size. I was mainly scalping and I was satisfied even with 4 pips wins, in the end it all add up. I didn't move from my emotional nature but I'm trying to prevent problems as much as I can. Great thing is that it's shown how only scalping can make very nice profitable month.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

So-so trading

In the start I was overheated from my trading lately so I went in without clear break out of the range. Then I didn't get out on the time, I even moved stop on that first trade. Wanted to move it again farther but stop caught me before. So I wasn't really in the game with right mind set.
I cut loss in half with next trade.
Third trade was very long in duration and market moved nowhere. Then I was shaken out right before move up. Good that I was eager to trade because in fourth trade I covered my loss so far and made seven pips.
Fifth was a scratch and sixth drove me back in a loss for a day. I had cushion of seven pips and eur/gbp was ready to break out to new low. When it did, but stopped without extending I had to get out. That is a catch. Sometimes it fly when level is broken and you can get nice profit in less then a minute. This time it didn't and I luckily saved all of the pips from that move.

+15 pips


Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Today's trades

First trade in eur/usd didn't look good after entry. Eur/gbp started going up and I wanted it to accelerate down to give boost for eur/usd short side. So I was quickly out and that was correct decision.

Lately I don't like to trade eur/usd so much because it moves back and forth and it's hard to get clear scalp. You need to get in before move starts because if you go after initial thrust, it stop and go back giving you a loss. Maybe it suitable for daytrading off 1min and 5min charts, but I don't find it attractive for scalping.
Gbp/usd moves clear and smooth. With Oanda's 1.8 pips spread on it, it's great for scalping. When I started trading at Oanda I think that eur/usd spread was 1.8 pips and now it's 0.9 all the time and 1.8 on gbp/usd most of time.

Trade in gbp/usd started tricky. From my entry for next four minutes market didn't move and gbp/jpy at that time drop 30 pips. Usually when Jen is rising and usd/jpy, eur/jpy and gbp/jpy go down gbp/usd go down as well. Maybe not much, depending on it's situation but rarely it just sit still. So it was possible that gbp/usd spike up if gbp/jpy first make bounce. On the contrary, usd/jpy stop falling and then gbp/usd made it's move down. I was out when gbp/usd ticked up at the level of trendline and previous wicks on 15min chart. Too bad that I was groggy after concentrating on the trade and didn't notice 30 sec later continuation of the move.
I had one more short scalp in the end.

+16 pips


Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Beyond worry for money

Today I got that experience very rare for me. Where I trade because I see the move and want to be in the market to capture that move, not worrying about money. It's such relief to enjoy at those moments free from worry. You got only positive stress, will it go your way or not. I've got that feeling after first couple of trades. I didn't use it too well because I was cutting profits because of trading from 10sec chart and I had too much trades. But anyway, it was great to felt that way and glimpse in to the state that I believe is the exactly right mind frame for trading. Absolutely detached from money, but cutting losses and capturing profits as best as I can.
It was similar experience like last year's Mental shift day.

So I started with some gbp/usd long trade that wasn't going very well. I was happy to be out of it. Then after false brake down I took very nice portion of next move up. Off course, too bad that I got out prematurely but it was ok trade and exit because move quickly melted back down

After that I was watching eur/usd, gbp/jpy and eur/gbp to tell me when to take next trade. In first attempt I took just scalp because it started getting back. In second I made mistake of getting out so fast because move materialised and I was out of the gbp/usd.
After that one were those detached trades, scalps. In and out.

+25 pips



Monday, October 26, 2009

Reversal

Equities were falling today and eur/usd lost ground, well Usd gained strength all over. I was surprised when I saw -200 pips for eur/usd. So I opened some small trades, I don't know why, for amusement I guess. With intention to hold them as swing trades. Then I opened one half size trade for scalping. I got bored holding it and watching. When there was bounce in equities from the low I won some profit but I didn't get much.
I closed those micro trades also.

+5 pips

Friday, October 23, 2009

Big news move in gbp/usd

I was ready to risk with this trade and wait for more downside from my entry even if it bounce 50, 60 pips against me. I could see it go to 6400 level after this kind of drop in one minute. Trades were half size. In this kind of trading it's not so brilliant to add position after last low is broken. I did it but it's a trade made after 30 pips already in that move since last peak. So it doesn't go much further. It stop or bounce soon. It's much more wiser to short it just when it rolls from last peak. But I didn't want to average down.
My intention was to take second trade and leave first one on. You know how I'm undisciplined when I lose. When I win it's even harder for me to watch open profit oscillations. I just couldn't stay so I closed the second one immediately after first one. It's just one of my emotional limitations that I have to live and trade with.
I didn't want to trade after those two profitable trades because I know that if something goes wrong in next trade I wouldn't be able to control myself. Simply I wasn't ready to risk just made profit and I have to respect that, better safe then sorry.

+27 pips


Thursday, October 22, 2009

Angry bet

I'm such a bad trader that I wonder how do I manage to stay afloat this much as I am. I'm so liable to acting on bad emotions that it's ridiculous.
I lost my full stop on eur/usd trade that wasn't really trade in which I had idea what is going on. Gbp was flying down after the news eur/gbp up and I gave a shot that eur/usd will go up because it was sold out whole morning. Well it didn't.
Wave of anger just flew through me when my stop was hit and price bounced up from it. I couldn't stand it so I guess I needed to react. So I was long gbp/usd. Nothing else but an angry bet. I guess it's easier to stand risk in a new trade with hope of profit and satisfying the need to recover just made loss. That is usual reason in all my "bad trading". Averaging, moving stops, huge risks for small rewards. It's emotionally easier then emotions of a loss. It seams that only reason for trading bad is managing one kind of emotions with different set even if it's long term financially unsound. In that moment of emotional emergency you just act to make it easier emotionally right now. You don't trade for a profit or a break even but for emotional relief.
That was my gbp/usd trade. I moved stop on it and I would lost at least 30 pips probably more and then who knows how would emotions hit me and what would I do next. That is how every bad sequence starts.

Only thing positive that I learned so far is that if you have very good reason for a trade if it goes in a loss it's not such big deal. So I try to avoid this half baked ideas like my eur/usd long trade because they hit me hardest. Maybe I'm just harsh emotionally to myself because I know that I just lost on mediocre idea and a trade. So I blame myself for that loss. It's best to dig out best mental attitude every time you sit to trade, just to be in the zone and avoid problems.

+6 pips


Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Gbp/usd fireworks

Trend day and after news time for gbp/usd action time. First scalp was o.k., all trades except last were made with half size. Second trade, I went long because at the time gbp/jpy just broke 150 that I believed would be harder at the moment. So I was looking for acceleration but it didn't came. I made very poor job of not getting out. So I lost all my profit from previous trade and much more. Gbp/usd was up 70 pips in 5 minutes after the news, I didn't pay attention to that and it was really extended and when wave of up momentum stopped I had to get out and not stay and wait.
Third trade was pretty much gambling that trend will continue. I wanted profits back. I add one more half size trade but it didn't brake previous high with strength. I did a good job of giving those two trades enough chance for two, three minutes and getting out when it reversed.
Fifth trade was a suckers trade because it spiked up seven pips in a second and I just jumped in and then it reversed back. Luckily for me it was really strong trend so it quickly came back and then I knew that we will have continuation most definitely. So I doubled that trade again with new half size trade. Unexpectedly it hit some kind of resistance after 5 pips and it was very unusual and I got scared and closed it.
Well soon enough it continued and then I made another trade now with full size. Foolishly bold, but it was strong trend. It would be better if I stayed in those two before it. I closed very quickly. Oanda's charts didn't update for 5-10 seconds and I just hit close to get out expecting that trend brought it more up while Oanda's hiccup in updating get resolved. It did. Funny I got executed at level that never existed inside of bid ask at that time, you can see it in a second chart. I hope that they will not take it from me, sometimes slippage goes into our favor.

Good thing about my trading today was that I didn't have one thought about going against the market in some short trade. Bad was showing how I was slow in getting out when I'm in a loss. Because of such fast market my trades were half size. So after first loss I was down only -7 full size pips. I was lucky with strong trend that forgave me and corrected with it's tide all my errors and questionable judgments. That's why it's important to go with the trend.

+16 pips



Friday, October 16, 2009

Ten minutes of scalping

On last trade I started to become "clever" with shorting this move up. Also, I was reluctant to close it when it went against me. I got lucky with taking some profit on it. I had reasons for shorting as for other trades looking mostly at gbp/jpy and eur/gbp but it's to risky and pointless trade.

+12 pips

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Gbp on rocket fuel

First short was with half size because it was against a trend. It's risky to even try things like this, it's not so good trade. It's attractive to be a contrarian on strong trend, but it's just ego wish.
I missed first part of strength in usd/jpy while I was trading gbp/usd. I took nice scalp as I should always, in the direction of trend when previous consolidation level give in.


+12 pips


Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Made up trades

With working in the morning I wasn't able to stay at home and trade. So I catch some time at work. In the end I was trading trades that were mostly in my head. Not really nice market for any kind of trading. I gave myself opportunity to gratify the urge for trading even if I knew at the time that it could backfire. Better to be consciously irrational then unconsciously. At least I was trigger happy regarding exits.

+5 pips





Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Three trades

Two scalps in gbp/usd after the news time at 10:30. They were made with half size because I didn't believe that 12 pips stop would be enough if things turned against me because of volatility. So I doubled the stop and cut size.
Trade in eur/usd was with full size. It gave 4 pips. It looks pretty much random. I took it because of developement in eur/jpy and jpy/usd at that time. They were going down and by the speed of eur/jpy there was a chance that it would pull eur/usd as well especially if usd/jpy hit some small support.

+15 pips


Monday, October 12, 2009

One trade

There were five attempts to go through 5800 before gbp/usd did it. I was close to being stopped out after twenty minutes in the trade with stop at 5780.
+14 pips

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Bigger size

It wasn't good day for my kind of scalping. Also I was in the start impatient. I wanted to trade and I didn't wait for right chance but I took first one. Second trade I had nice profit but I still believed in break out of the highs. After third profitable trade I lost all in fourth getting in on spike up. Really impatient. In the end I got lucky in gbp/usd where I picked up bottom and recovered losses.

To all that I have to add that my position size was double from the one last month, so that also added to nervousness. I now need to get accustomed to trading with that size.

+4 pips


Thursday, October 1, 2009

Two scalps

On my first trade I was surprised how gbp/usd came back after spike off resistance that you can see on 5min chart.I closed because it stopped ascending in front of figure, so I didn't want to risk pullback.
Second trade in eur/usd was interesting. I included 5sec chart so you can see how hard fighting was even if there was fair pressure to brake down. I didn't want to risk staying in here because it was going against major support on daily and it wasn't nice for clean scalping.

+10 pips