10 Trades

[mb325]

Added following a deep pullback, took half off and have a free trade, doubling my size on the remaining original position.

 

[mb325]

New position got stopped for BE overnight, back to having just 1/4 of my initial risk on and looking to add if the opportunity presents.

 

[mb325]

Sitting on hands here, horrible rally this morning but i'm giving it as much space as possible, looking for a move to my next zone around 1.0810 and will take another portion off just above that. Not only is this a good support zone but also fib extensions from a few of the recent moves. Touch of selling starting to come in now so fingers crossed we can break this low properly.

Have already booked 1R and paper profit on the current position is 1.5R. If it makes it to my second target that will be 2R booked with 1/8th of the position left on.

 

[mb325]

Timsk has very kindly just moved this journal from a private forum for me. What started as an experiment to see if I could stick to the plan for 10 trades has, due to the value i'm getting out of maintaining the journal, evolved into a full blown journal that I am hoping to keep going.

My colour key for any lines on my charts will always be the same from now on.

Red zones = major resistance
Green zones = major support
Greyed zones = intraday levels

Red line = stoploss
Blue line = entry
Pink line = point at which I move my stoploss to breakeven
Green line = targets

All comments and questions welcome, I trade from work mostly so may be busy throughout the day.

 

[mb325]

Well a monster NFP pushed EUR/USD a lot lower. I was very busy in work so sadly did not think to move my bid lower/pull it over the number. This was a very costly mistake and won't happen again. Anyway, another eigth of the position off for 1.15R bringing the booked profit to 2.15R and unrealised profit of 2R outstanding. I think we are due another leg lower and so am giving this room now with a wide stop at the seoncd red line attached.

I should be happy with this trade I guess but I'm currently +200 pips up on the last 1/8th and I'm only guaranteed circa 2.65R. Definitely need to work on taking more than 1R off on the first half, or maybe taking just 1/3rd off at 1R. This is just a small account so no doubt I would not have been able to hold on for this long if there was more money on the table.

The other issue is that whilst i've been managing this trade I have not really been looking for other opportunities, and I may have missed a trade on cable or EUR/USD which would've made me more money, so a few things to think about.

 

[mb325]

The remaining position in this trade was getting in the way of me taking any new setups and for that reason I cut it this morning for 1.75R, bringing the full gain on the trade to ~3.9R .

They say that you learn most from your losers, but this trade has taught me a lot too.

The way I pick targets and take off portions at multiple levels is not conducive to holding positions for multiple days. I've been over 200 pips up on the remaining portion of this trade and that barely equates to 2R. In the meantime I've missed other setups as I've been concentrating on this trade in the hopes of hitting a 'home run'. This is an inefficient use of my time.

It strikes me that in an attempt to conserve my capital I'm being 1) over-protective by moving my stop to breakeven very quickly and 2) not shooting for enough by taking off half the trade at ~1R (so 0.5R of initial risk). I'm leaning towards continuing with my breakeven points as more often than not they have saved me money rather than cutting a trade that otherwise would've won.

This means I either have to shoot for a lot greater than 1R on the first half, or reduce the amount I take off to something like 1/3R, the latter makes more sense to me. However, my trading will hopefully always be dictated more by S&D than some mis-guided rules tied to monetary gain. Basically, I will take what I think I can get and if that means I take half off on a particular trade that's what I'll do!


I've attached a chart to show what I'm seeing, I'd love a rally up to 1.0800 to test the top of this channel and get short up there. Of course in all likelihood we'll sell off 200 pips in the next 15 minutes . Back in a bit with some updated levels, I did this last week and it served me very well.

 

[mb325]

My very rough records now showing:

20 Trades
10 Losses a/v 0.476R
6 Break-evens
8 Winners a/v 1.57R

Must have an accounting error somewhere as the above would suggest I'm up just shy of 8R but the account is up 10R since 13th October.

 

[mb325]

Levels.

 

[mb325]

Nice channel in cable.

 

[mb325]

Too slow to get this one in but lets keep an eye on it anyway.

Blue line entry, red line stoploss, pink line point at which I move to breakeven on the stop.

 

[mb325]

Stop would be moved up to this level, cutting the risk to 0.5R.

Edit: And that would've been stopped for -.5R! Testing the lows now so hoping to get a short entry.

 

[mb325]

Got short in half size as no nice swing to go off. 1m chart and 15 chart attached. Stop now at BE following a move lower.

 

[mb325]

Half off at 2R (so 1R initial risk), had moved my target up slightly as I felt we were running out of steam a bit.

 

[mb325]

Stopped at breakeven on the remaining half, so 1R for the trade (but actually .5R as it was half size). Now testing the breakdown level from below, would definitely look for another chance to get short here.

 

[mb325]

In two minds whether to take this as it's a US bank holiday...but I'm going to (if it triggers).

Don't have a chart to hand but price took out that red line before I was stopped into a short so cancelled the trade, finished up for the day shortly after.

 

[mb325]

Nice reaction at expected resistance (red zone) in cable. I have a short bias in this pair so looking for nice continuation setups, or selling any rallies into any of the levels on my chart. However, imnportant not to get too wedded to the idea of moving lower so would take good long setups in either green zones.

 

[mb325]

Much more reticent to trade EUR/USD at the moment as it's been quite choppy. Would look for shorts in red zones, longs in green zones, and just keeping an eye on that grey zone in the middle but it's been taken out a few times which makes me wary. Again, short bias in this pair but mindful not to let that get in the way of any good long setup.

Also noting a pretty clean inverse head and shoulders over the past 5 days, but worth mentioning the heavy resistance waiting just above.

 

[mb325]

Did not trade this long setup as not a massive fan of the level but watching it now.

 

[mb325]

Stop would now be moved up to the higher red line (this is a 1m chart to show the price action). Pretty agressive with this one as its a long following some good downward momentum and an overall downtrend.

 

[mb325]

And stop would now be to breakeven, will stop updating this now as I did not think about targets etc. as I didn't take the trade.

Edit: Would've been a breakeven trade.