lurkerlurker
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Another year? Lets try three months first!
I've yet to have a trade which made as much as 300 pips. However, I placed my first day trade on the FTSE under a year ago. Around 51 weeks actually. I've just looked at my equity curve since I started trading the "pin" bars on the FX. I think I've found something which works, and I'm sticking to it. Other methods and markets can wait. I can be more disciplined in the FX markets than I can be in the Dow it would appear. I'll investigate, hypothesise, and backtest, but I'm not risking a cent on other markets or other methods any more.
Rathcoole suggested I reflect on my last year of trading. I'm going to do that this week. I'm going to dig out some old account statements, and try and recall some of my more memorable trades. I'm also going to look at some lessons I have learned along the way.
Looking to the future, I think it is about time I learned some discipline. The following is my new plan.
For the next three months, I am going to only trade the "pin" bar setups, on timeframes of H1 and upwards. I will not risk more than 10% of my account balance on any given trade (some would say this is too much, but on backtesting the win % is > 80 and I'm trading a small account). None of these trades will be placed in the Dow. For these setups, I will use only the FX markets.
Each weekend (I have other things in my life besides trading, so this won't always be posted here at the same day and time), I will post my review of the weeks trades in my journal. This will include weekly P&L stats, my pre trade plan, trade management, and my exit. More importantly it will include an analysis of how I managed the trade, the risk, and myself. Deviations and rule breaking will also be dealt with should it occur.
At the end of the three months, I'll review my trading for consistency, discipline, and profitability. If the results are deficient in one of these three areas, I'll seriously consider packing it in. If the results are reasonable, I'll consider increasing my account size using some of last years profits, and reducing the % risk per trade appropriately (although the £ risk will be more).
This is three months with one market, one setup, and timeframes > 1 hour. There is no rule against me taking a setup on a daily or weekly timeframe and holding it for a week, but I will only be taking > H1 setups.
I'm putting my trading career on the line here.
I've found a system, timeframe, and market (well, group of markets) which has made me fairly consistent profits with less stress and less commission / spread. If I continue to have a jack rabbit mind, and am unable to stick to the simple plan outlined above, I don't have what it takes to make it as a trader. I have received a lot of good advice and valuable assistance from some truly great folk here, who have given freely of their time and knowledge to help me. I feel I owe you all something for your patience. I would like to give you a little consistency. I might not make money. I might bottle a trade and exit too soon sometimes. I can't promise to always stick to my prewritten plan when in a trade. However, what I should be able to do is to stick to the market and method for three months. No fiddling, no deciding to trade 5m dow, 1m S&P, or 15m Bunds. No new systems or methods. Something which I have traded profitably before.
It is getting late now, so I'll post a cleaner and more concise plan on my journal tomorrow. I make no promises here, and I may let some of you down, but I will endeavour to stick to the above. If I cannot, then I'll pack it in. I'll have made some pocket change and learned a lot, but I'd know then that I have no future in this. If I want to accumulate equity and become consistent, I need to pull the finger out and be professional.
(yes, I'm still interested in the Dow, and firewalkers system, but I am right to stick to the pins for now. I can mess about testing that on paper, but I'll keep that to myself for the time being - the important thing here is the forex trades)
Thanks for reading! Sorry this is a little offtopic.
I was just using those as an example of what people who don't know what to do with their money would buy! Better places than that. I was making a bad joke about being bad with trading (and correspondingly bad with money management) that if I wasn't trading I'd put the money in "premium" bonds. Even my current account pays more interest than that, even after the greedy tax man takes his bit!
I've yet to have a trade which made as much as 300 pips. However, I placed my first day trade on the FTSE under a year ago. Around 51 weeks actually. I've just looked at my equity curve since I started trading the "pin" bars on the FX. I think I've found something which works, and I'm sticking to it. Other methods and markets can wait. I can be more disciplined in the FX markets than I can be in the Dow it would appear. I'll investigate, hypothesise, and backtest, but I'm not risking a cent on other markets or other methods any more.
Rathcoole suggested I reflect on my last year of trading. I'm going to do that this week. I'm going to dig out some old account statements, and try and recall some of my more memorable trades. I'm also going to look at some lessons I have learned along the way.
Looking to the future, I think it is about time I learned some discipline. The following is my new plan.
For the next three months, I am going to only trade the "pin" bar setups, on timeframes of H1 and upwards. I will not risk more than 10% of my account balance on any given trade (some would say this is too much, but on backtesting the win % is > 80 and I'm trading a small account). None of these trades will be placed in the Dow. For these setups, I will use only the FX markets.
Each weekend (I have other things in my life besides trading, so this won't always be posted here at the same day and time), I will post my review of the weeks trades in my journal. This will include weekly P&L stats, my pre trade plan, trade management, and my exit. More importantly it will include an analysis of how I managed the trade, the risk, and myself. Deviations and rule breaking will also be dealt with should it occur.
At the end of the three months, I'll review my trading for consistency, discipline, and profitability. If the results are deficient in one of these three areas, I'll seriously consider packing it in. If the results are reasonable, I'll consider increasing my account size using some of last years profits, and reducing the % risk per trade appropriately (although the £ risk will be more).
This is three months with one market, one setup, and timeframes > 1 hour. There is no rule against me taking a setup on a daily or weekly timeframe and holding it for a week, but I will only be taking > H1 setups.
I'm putting my trading career on the line here.
I've found a system, timeframe, and market (well, group of markets) which has made me fairly consistent profits with less stress and less commission / spread. If I continue to have a jack rabbit mind, and am unable to stick to the simple plan outlined above, I don't have what it takes to make it as a trader. I have received a lot of good advice and valuable assistance from some truly great folk here, who have given freely of their time and knowledge to help me. I feel I owe you all something for your patience. I would like to give you a little consistency. I might not make money. I might bottle a trade and exit too soon sometimes. I can't promise to always stick to my prewritten plan when in a trade. However, what I should be able to do is to stick to the market and method for three months. No fiddling, no deciding to trade 5m dow, 1m S&P, or 15m Bunds. No new systems or methods. Something which I have traded profitably before.
It is getting late now, so I'll post a cleaner and more concise plan on my journal tomorrow. I make no promises here, and I may let some of you down, but I will endeavour to stick to the above. If I cannot, then I'll pack it in. I'll have made some pocket change and learned a lot, but I'd know then that I have no future in this. If I want to accumulate equity and become consistent, I need to pull the finger out and be professional.
(yes, I'm still interested in the Dow, and firewalkers system, but I am right to stick to the pins for now. I can mess about testing that on paper, but I'll keep that to myself for the time being - the important thing here is the forex trades)
Thanks for reading! Sorry this is a little offtopic.
I was just using those as an example of what people who don't know what to do with their money would buy! Better places than that. I was making a bad joke about being bad with trading (and correspondingly bad with money management) that if I wasn't trading I'd put the money in "premium" bonds. Even my current account pays more interest than that, even after the greedy tax man takes his bit!
