Trend Following Trading Journal

[vish4al]

I have decided to get serious with trading and hence decided to document everything. I don't claim to understand the markets or be some guru, just someone who has come up with a strategy that works for me and has been right more than 50% of the time over the past year. I firmly believe in keeping things as simple as possible therefore don't use anything fancy.

The below is an outline of my strategy - which I am mainly going to use for my own trading discipline.

Time Frame:
Daily and sometimes 4HR to help with analysis.

Tools:
I use fib retracements, horizontal support & resistance,trend lines, breakout from a period of consolidation, 1-2-3 formations and Japanese candlesticks.

Money Management:
No more than 2% of capital on any one trade. The amount I will use will depend on the setup. Once there has been a strong move in my direction, move stops to break-even.

Entry & Exit:
Enter the trend at areas of confluence on a counter trend wave. Once there has been a strong move in my direction, move stop to break-even. Let the position run until the trend has changed. A change in trend is signalled by a 1-2-3 formation. Another entry is a break of a consolidation range.

Those are the main concepts but not everything. Let's see how this goes. The strategy definitely produces a lot more losing & b/e trades than winners but the winners far outweigh the losers.

 

[malaguti]

I have decided to get serious with trading and hence decided to document everything. I don't claim to understand the markets or be some guru, just someone who has come up with a strategy that works for me and has been right more than 50% of the time over the past year. I firmly believe in keeping things as simple as possible therefore don't use anything fancy.

The below is an outline of my strategy - which I am mainly going to use for my own trading discipline.

Time Frame:
Daily and sometimes 4HR to help with analysis.

Tools:
I use fib retracements, horizontal support & resistance,trend lines, breakout from a period of consolidation, 1-2-3 formations and Japanese candlesticks.

Money Management:
No more than 2% of capital on any one trade. The amount I will use will depend on the setup. Once there has been a strong move in my direction, move stops to break-even.

Entry & Exit:
Enter the trend at areas of confluence on a counter trend wave. Once there has been a strong move in my direction, move stop to break-even. Let the position run until the trend has changed. A change in trend is signalled by a 1-2-3 formation. Another entry is a break of a consolidation range.

Those are the main concepts but not everything. Let's see how this goes. The strategy definitely produces a lot more losing & b/e trades than winners but the winners far outweigh the losers.

looking forward to this, what are you trading Vish4al?

 

[Forexmospherian]

Hi Vish4al

I wish you luck and I hope you do really well

As soon as you said you where keeping it as simple as you can - with nothing fancy - you worried me - but at least in your toolbox you have a few essentials and if you combine them well - you should be OK

The main question is - which trend will you be following - ie the yearly - quarterly - monthly - weekly - daily - 4 hrs or under?

Regards

F

 

[vish4al]

Cheers guys - forgot to add I am trading FX, equity indices and Gold. My biggest issue with these markets is correlation so in an attempt to mitigate will also be looking at exotic FX pairs, even though the spreads on these are a bit crazy.

As for which trend, I will be trading the daily however may trade a daily countertrend move using the 4hr charts. Weekly and monthly charts will
Be used to spot key S&R. My platform is IG Index mainly as I am just very used to their charting software.

I will spend this week analysing and will look for setups the week after. This strategy doesn't have a lot of entry points so patience is key.

 

[darktone]

With trend (the big ones).
Keeping it simple.
Being patient.

Sounds great
GL

 

[J'accuse]

Hi Vish4al

Really good luck with your setup. You've taken a lot on.
btw you been a bit quite since you started, will there be more?

Regards

Jack

 

[vish4al]

Snowboarding in france this week. Prob made more sense to start this thread after but my initial analysis will take around 1-2 weeks starting next week, then will be on the lookout for trades.

 

[neil]

Snowboarding in france this week. Prob made more sense to start this thread after but my initial analysis will take around 1-2 weeks starting next week, then will be on the lookout for trades.

Take your time and enjoy yourself. Don't let anyone rush you into posting because they are impatient to hear from you. The market will still be there when you get back from your break.

 

[vish4al]

Take your time and enjoy yourself. Don't let anyone rush you into posting because they are impatient to hear from you. The market will still be there when you get back from your break.

Managed to get back to the UK in one piece. Always an accomplishment when snowboarding!

Back to the journal - I completely agree with you, market are not going anywhere. Last year I did reasonably well and was playing with small amounts of money but not following it daily as I should have been. This year have ramped up and am consequently going to do it properly. There is a danger of being too complacent but I've got the cash just sitting there so need to start soon but at the same time want to do all the preliminary analysis up to a point I'm happy with.

Will definitely make a start this week looking for key S&R lines.