December 2010. and year end results

I had busy December at my work so I couldn't trade at all. I didn't even open my charts.

For December
+6 pips
+2%

Year
-17%

This year I made many subtractions from account as I promised myself last year. Total loss when everything is taken in account is -17%. In term of pips it's about -100 pips of a size that I use lately. So it's not that much but nevertheless it's a loss. I'm yet waiting for profitable year. It's a sad notion for now seven year trading career, although first three years before this blog were mainly trying out things with really nothing on the line in terms of risk.
Like Harvey says looking for consistency is now the main thing. So from that is coming the willpower to continue something like this that looks like losing proposition. Even though losing days hurt much more then we feel good on winning days, winning days give us hope that one day our p&l will be as good as of The forexbird.

This year I had experience of doubling my account from the low point around Spring. So now I know that it can be done with regular effort and not something special. At second half of the year which wasn't so good I pressed myself to trade with bigger positions to break out from range of comfort zone I had before. Also by trading full margin most of the time I wasn't able to average down which was my mountain high weakness before. With that I wish to continue in the future because if I give myself opportunity to average down, soon I will.

To all my readers I wish Merry Christmas and Happy New Year with peace in the mind and love in the hearth.

- 19 pips

Things simply didn't work out for me. I didn't understand today's market. It's not an excuse but spread is whole day above 1 pip and not usual 0.9 and that means holiday market conditions already.

+ 12 pips

It looks like it was nice trading with only one loss. But it's not so nice. On that losing trade I lost all profits gained so far and was in red on other half plus I opened that trade again at the bottom. It could go down from that point easily and I was emotionally unstable for good decisions. First of all I didn't cut that loss when it went against me on two half size trades but left it for twenty pips against me.
I wasn't in great mood today

+ 8 pips

I took my bite and don't care what will market do next. I'm not concerned about is there more potential, could my profit be bigger. I waited long for my trade, executed it and took profit that pleases me. That is all that should matter in any trade. I'm not paid to trade perfect. I shouldn't worry about missed profits, missed trades and various market movements on numerous time frames. Less I trade, less I'm exposed to emotional roller coaster.

Half size trade

+ 5 pips

Around half size trades. Didn't want to stick longer in front of charts, just to book this little win while I have it. Good for moral. :)

November 2010. results

-30 pips

-10 %

- 5 pips

Refusing to take profit, swing trading. Lame and unprofitable. When I suppose to let profit ride I don't do it, but when I force it like today I get nothing only losses.

+ 10 pips

- 32 pips

Part I
Little indifference today toward scalp profits. Trades were half size and I let them run their way without interfering. Probably because of that bottom 1h chart of gbp/usd which shows my yesterday's trade. This swing trading bug gets me from time to time, questioning my scalping way of trading. There is nothing wrong to be sometimes emotionless about losing scalp profit, letting it slip away. Especially for me because I'm usually ultra emotional about every tick.


Part II
(chart 4.)
Later in the day after first two positive half size trades I had circus performance with nine full size trades. From +10 to -25, then -15 and finally -32 pips. Interesting how I put a trade after my max loss was realized. I won on that one but it wasn't enough for me to stop. No point in explaining anything when it's mostly irrational. We can call it gambling, whatever. Point is that I'm obviously emotionally unbalanced (better sounding then emotionally challenged). It isn't really a trading problem but it sure does impact my trading and make me trading problems.

+ 11 pips

Half size trade.
Holding on to a trade is very hard for me. Whole time I'm guessing should I get out or hold it more. No matter where I exit in the end it usually feels bad because it continues in that direction and I miss out or it bounces before I exit and I don't take what I had moments before. That's why I usually scalp fast market because it doesn't give me this kind of headache.

+ 27 pips

Trades were half size.

- 26 pips

Low morale

- 28 pips

What to do when you are fuming with anger about yesterday? Go against the trend. My max loss rule invoked, I probably wanted to try out that novelty.

- 60 pips

Carnage.
It wasn't bad at first but those two sudden losses at end of first chart flipped me real bad in negative and catch up game was unsuccessful. In truth from start all trades were kind of second quality at best.
So to cut long story short I was looking through my records after summer and came to conclusion, real one, to have max loss rule. Before I was averaging and couldn't really make clear math of what is better. But in last two and half months max loss rule would be a real winner. Math as it stands is 14 negative days -42 pips average total -594 pips, 21 positive days 16 pips average total 349 pips. Negative days with max loss of -25 pips implemented would have average of -21 pips and total of -294 pips. I need to add that I didn't count in small subtractions from account that I have on some positive days that I use as paying myself kind of deal that are profit also.
Also I checked would there be any changes with implemented max loss on profitable days and losing ones below max loss, no there would not. I even think that things would be even rosier without -104, -70, -67, -76, -45, -48 and -60 entering my world.
With this I didn't touch problem why when I recognize success in my mind like last week's +70 I have such brutal loss.

+ 15 pips

NFP quickie with half size.

+ 21 pips

I was shaken from first long by a 4 pip spike down so I didn't ride position today.

+ 7 pips

Today I was again practicing my waiting game and self talk with the chart can it go more up. I really like that new thing, something on the right side of good trading practice.

+ 21 pips

I had short in gbp/usd which run three times in support and didn't broke it. On fourth time I went long and it put me deep into loss. I managed to scalp back that loss in next two gbp/usd trades.
In eur/usd I was right about when to take trades and direction but I cut them short. At least at the last one I've done a good job. On that one I made an exercise in hoping for my profit to go up. I was saying: "Can you go to 65? Can you go to 70? Can you go to 80?" In that way I moved my attention from how much open profit I have and can I lose it. It's just a little difference but important one, and I want to practice it.

+7 pips

October 2010. results

-64 pips

-17 %

It will be better..

- 19 pips

Gambling mode today. Urge to risk and gamble was really, really strong. The longer I was trading stronger it was. I wasn't waiting for the market to show me a trade but I was compulsively jumping in and things didn't work my way.

+ 11 pips

First one was reaction to sudden momentum out of nowhere. After I didn't adjust from being short to the long direction.

+ 15 pips

+14 pips

Mixed some good some not so but at least positive. I was waiting majority of the day and I started trading when volatility showed up. That is good. I had too many trades that wasn't so good. On some trades I had good reactions on some not so.

- 48 pips

I suck at trading. Trading isn't only you win some you lose some of the trades. Trading is being able to self control. So what if I know sometimes how to scalp? Majority of the time I'm not able to cope with the losses and I just make them bigger and bigger.

-24 pips

I'm going to stop now to prevent bigger damage. I recklessly entered long in seconds after I log on to platform. Mentally I wasn't prepared to lose so I lost too much, 20 pips. On second trade I didn't want to take scalp profit because of bigger loss before. On third I cut my loss to -14 but then on next again I didn't close loss when needed. At least I got profit later to make me feel better so I could finish the day.
What a difference make being mentally prepared or not. It's so easy after big mistake to make everything else also wrong.

+ 19 pips

Sometimes I'm too much of an chart junkie, reacting to every whim of price. That can be seen on my trades after 10:40. I don't put in consideration that it's strong support and that market is indecisive about where to go. So movements on 10sec chart doesn't have follow through. It's better to approach that kind of action and chart position with mini position trades. I mean enter and wait for 10 pips of a t/p or s/l. Going in&out just churn my account.

- 14 pips

Breakout really didn't want to materialize.
I notice that I close many trades that are marginally profitable around b/e or +1 in a moment when they turn against me. They continue in my direction afterward. So I pretend to stop loss from developing but I'm effectively cutting good trades. On another hand when trade goes in a loss of -3,-4,-5 pips I tend to hold it, then I'm not so eager to prevent loss (bigger loss). Just the opposite of what I should do.
A lot of skill would be needed that I don't currently hold to make today profitable day without breakout through 1.4000. Those little things add up as edge against me when I have 14 trades. I'm not dissatisfied because I'm learning and this is better trading then some other stuff that can be seen on this blog.

+ 10 pips

-1 pip

Every day I say to myself don't do stupid stuff today. Every day I do it. Stupid stuff is staying in the trade that reversed, not exiting with small loss but riding it to who know where, waiting for breakdown when price returned, not scalping but trading when I'm supposed to scalp, entering revenge trade like it will make things good if it's profitable. I'm tired of that. Losses are not the problem but constant battle with myself.

- 45 pips

Desperate trade after desperate trade. I abandoned scalping mode mind-frame on my second trade in eur/usd. From that bigger then needed loss I played catch up game so bad. I feel so bad when something like my scalping plan that I had high hopes for get dismantled so brutally.
-72 pips


Update: One more desperate trade that happen to be profitable +20 pips
Update 2: I had half size trade after NFP, I couldn't help myself and so I traded again +7 pips

+ 18 pips

Sometimes I have very good feel when to enter. I was surfing and charts were in the background, I noticed slight move on eur/jpy like it will brake down. Five seconds after my eur/usd short strong spike followed.

September 2010. results

-45 pips

-10%

-76 pips

Real bad. Got spike up against me and I moved stop and lost 25 instead of 13. When it started to go down I reshorted but it reversed and I lost 10 more. Then I went long and it started to go down basically all the way and I didn't close it. I averaged with small amount that I had left and didn't took the chance to exit at b/e for last trades but 20 pips lower. That exit didn't get me anything, to late to think about scalping. Then I just chopped myself because I was desperate for a move and market was just jumping around. I made all the worst choices that I could.

+40 pips

I'm very pleased today. Nice profit and many, many trades. Good that I was able to scalp and not get tired or emotional when volatility presented nice opportunities for trades.

Only on one occasion I moved away from scalping mode. Fortunately it went in my direction, but at the time (11:35) I had half size trade in gbp/usd and full size in eur/usd. I risked basically all that I gathered until then, around 15 pips, maybe even more. It took 15 minutes to show profit. I expected that gbp/usd will explode to the upside, but eur/usd did. Even thou it was my biggest profit it wasn't scalping and was wrong to do it. I had opinion about gbp, high probability one, but trading by opinions is different then scalping because I don't know where to exit in a loss or I don't want to.

On a positive side I like how I switched from short mode to long in eur/usd when market reversed direction of pressure.

+ 27 pips

In the middle of my first set of trades after the news Oanda crashed but was back in a few seconds. After my last trade with full size and another nice win I started to feel strong emotions of joy and then I knew that I can't trade any more.

+6 pips

Didn't trade very well for this kind of market. It was basically range market with down slope. I was trading like it's break out. For this entries need to be at extreme points opposite of the immediate trend. I like only first and second trade. Yet I was only thinking about scalping and that is good.

Update

I was trading last few days and went deeper in the red. Nothing worked with me getting tilted very soon. At 20. I started with nice short but with half size so I continued with trading less optimal setups because win was too small (my subjective opinion at the time). From profit went into loss disgusted in the process.
Yesterday 21. wasn't so bad only thing is I wanted big profit. So I turned down scalp profits and got small loss for the day.

Finally today the reason I'm writing this update I got wind in my back. I was thinking after yesterday why do I have to be so stubborn and refuse to trade the way that suits me. Turning down scalps is ridiculous when basically they are the only thing that I can do so-so. Everything else get me just losses in the long run. So today I was oriented to do just scalps however market behaves. Only bad trade was not acting on a loss and cutting it in a third gbp/usd trade. Fortunately market moved in a big way and scalping fast directional market was winning strategy for me.
I scalped 33 full size pips and with that I covered losses in previous two sessions. I'm just happy that I finally made some profit in a nice way.

20.


21.

22.