October 2011. results

+4 pips

-8 %

(size varied a lot)

Spectacular bad trading after being up eighty percent at first part of the month.

More bad trading

I even moved stop because I made it available to do it. Not taking profit, not taking break even. I'm kind of tired of reporting this stuff.

-61 pips

I have trouble controlling myself

From +17 to -26. I had hard time implementing daily stop. As usual chasing imaginary reversal. It isn't even funny anymore.

b/e

Addicted to drama

Still looking for big runs. Had a close eye on daily stop. I even entered territory but didn't want to make of it child's play so I had one more trade. Refused to take scalp profit on many occasions. Didn't want to cover break even for the day after twenty pips loss. That strong was my emotional need for the runaway market. Not good but it will subside and daily stop will stay, so something good out of difficult situation.

b/e

My trading is flawed

It's crystallized now that I have another compulsive behavior in trading. First there was averaging (adding new position in the direction of previous that is in the loss) I averaged and averaged, there wasn't day without it. Somehow I managed to leave it behind by trading full margin (so there is nothing to average with any more). Then came moving stops (widening). I couldn't stand stop being hit, so from small initial stop some trades run to five times bigger stops. Now I compulsively enter so many trades and take small losses on them all in the anticipation of big run. Big run that will cover all those stops and make some profit on top. So again today I had 22 losing trades in a row and one scratch. Average loss on them was 3.7 pips, you do the math. That's simply unacceptable.

I need to abandon trading without clear setups. All this today were anticipatory trades in which I try to catch big move. I don't have clear scalp setups. There are no setups that I see or wish to take, but I trade anyway. Sometimes that big move comes and all is golden, but on days of smaller range there is no real move. So I'm left with my numerous small losses. That is not the way I want to trade.

So finally I decided to use max daily loss of around twenty pips. It's not to prevent big losing days, but to prevent my mind from looking for that saviour trade. It wouldn't matter if it comes or not because it will be to late. It will be unpleasant at first, but that's the point. I expect that it will hurt so I will not do it again. I really don't have a problem with getting stopped on a trade in which I believed and get daily stop that way. But if those nonsense trades bring daily stop I will be probably enough frustrated to be wiser next day.

-47 pips

Cautious day

Very cautious today with this out of nowhere move. Few scalps and bye bye.

+21 pips

Madness

I didn't capture chart on time so only madness shown on 5min chart. In first red part I had 33 losing trades and one scratch. I really need to limit my downside somehow effectively for me to banish this kind of days.
All started when there was downside spike that took my stop. I was immediately short but didn't take profit of around ten pips on that one. I was looking for epic break down. Well it turned to be fake move, market reversed but I didn't reverse my beliefs. I knew that I was wrong from very start but that's spiral of death when you can't acknowledge something and you press on doing wrong thing. I didn't trade chart or market but my false idea that maybe market will turn back down. But anyway it's not the way to trade in the first place, looking for some home run, just to cover losses.
On few occasions I didn't take 30 pips profit when I had it. That strong was my madness.

-81 pips

2-way market

Hard to trade. Nasty jumps of eight pips in a second. I burned out waiting for something to happen.

+6 pips

Great session

Win by win I managed to climb up to thirty pips of profit. Then I had minor psychological meltdown. On next trade I lost and then I didn't trade the market but my p&l, trying to get back to the highs. So I managed to lose around twenty pips on next three trades. I couldn't close those losing position at small loss, but had to leave them to take out full stop. Fourth trade after those losses could easily be another loss but it turned out a win and my mind went back in normal predatory mode.

+41 pips

Quitting while ahead

Nasty little losses made negative whole session until the last trade. At first I was very close to throwing down the towel after -25 pips in five pip range. I was afraid that emotions will kick in. After next winning trade things were easier but not too easy.

+10 pips

Sneaky and weak market

This kind of market can drive break out trade mad. All there is are false starts of a move.

+5 pips

Corrective move

It took me long time to realize that I can make something on the down side. It started slow as were up side probes so I didn't believe it's potential at first and then it's hard to enter thinking it could stop any moment. It did get some real momentum on the bursts to the down side so I was able to take scalps.

+20 pips

Trading for the buzz

At first too many trades for the buzz and not for profit. I started late and then didn't have proper setups so I imagined things. After twenty plus pips loss I made it all back plus 15 or so pips of profit with that gbp/usd trade around 11:00. Then I made mistake of continuing to trade. It went pretty much downhill. I finished the day with forty pips loss or so. I had to go to work. There I opened charts to capture screens for blog and started trading again. At least I was concentrated. Too bad I had to close last long at the trendline around 15:50 because I had to move from screen. But move up started and scalping brought positive day.

+3 pips

Scared of profit

After my first trade I got scared of profit. So I entered some garbage shorts into strong uptrend. After that I came back to zone and managed to take few great trades. Finally after 10:50 high I started over-trading. Addicted to good emotion that I had previously while I was in profitable trades. At 11:35 things changed, price started to move differently. Somehow my last trade wasn't stopped and finally price flew to new high taking my intraday profit back to the highest point.
Movements of price in first part were very nice and friendly so I could enter with ease.

+36 pips

Healthy profit

Ugly market movements on small time frames last few days. Today also. On my first trade 2-3 pips slippage and fast stop loss. I held my second trade even it didn't look so bright at the start. I thought that at least I have a trade with good entry and it's questionable will I get another opportunity to get in at reasonable chart point. It could go south any moment. Then forty pips in minute move came (there is no entry for that except some limit order). Now I had to decide where to exit. It's hard when at one moment there is fifty pips profit and seconds later it's thirty five. On next push weekend gap down was filled around 385 but it wasn't so strong to go through round figure so I took my profits before market change it's mind.

+51 pips

September 2011. results

+40 pips

+1%

(size varied a lot so only small percentage up relative to pip gain)

Break even month in which on second day my account was at -50 % intraday and followed +100 % move in next four trading days.