My Eur/Jpy Trade journal

Here is what my chart looks like after 8pm prepping. Please see attachment

Did not take trade at london open. German GDP came in positive and price did move above pivot but not to R1. Price moving off of Lower BB3 meant that there was not a lot of downside potential worth the risk. Took a small short trade at 8:30am after 30 minute candle closed below 20MA but price moved above and I closed trade for a small loss. This entry was not within the rules. Sometimes you need a small smack in the hand to remind yourself to stay firm in following the plan. Only a loss of 7 pips but a reminder not take a trade outside of rules again.

Price should continue to move upwards with the 'supposed' good news out of germany but I believe it still wont surpas R1 by much. I am hoping it stays near the 4hr 20 MA. In that case I should have a decent setup for London open if all things line up.

To any reading.........DONT diverge from your plan even if you think its a good call. YOu will get lucky sometimes and more oftn than not you will get burned.

Another note to remember for myself. Had I not been so technical and sold at London open I would have gained my 60 pips for the day. London open was 102.82 and at this time 9:24 est price has gone as low as 102.15. Target would have been met. However I am still ok with not taking the trade because there were indications of upwards movement plus news out of germany. In fact the reason for the steep drop in price was due to news that a meeting did not go so well with greece. I choose not to guess which way the news will take price as it could easily have gone the other way. Best to stay out of those situations and leave it to the pros. All the same I will call this a win because at london open 5/15/12 all requirements were met or close.

Stat update

Win-1
Loss-0

I am confused with what you are actually calling a win. You did not open a trade and you had your reasons for that. So, as there was no trade, there was no target, so what are you actually calling a win? If you don't take a trade that would have hit you stop loss, are you going to call that a loss?

Further note. Double Bollinger bands really show the limits to where price will go. The touch of BB3 tends to be the max either high or low in price action, if price does continue past it it does not do it by much and then it pulls away in the opposite direction. Because of this I will continue to adhere to not making trades too near the Lower and Upper BB3 bands and in fact will make these level hard take profits permanately. If price touches upper BB3 on 4hr or daily before take profit I will exit trade no matter what.

You are correct it is technically not a win.

I call this a win not as a trade but a win in the method. I see that there are some things that will be subjective as to entry and exit such as will I risk taking trade even though there is clear divergence (I will not) or pending market news that could effect direction. However, I dub it a win in its plainest sense in that it meet the basic requirements and 30 pip stoploss was not hit before 60 pip target.

To answer your other question yes I would call that a loss if a trade hit stop loss. Only in its plainest and basic sense because that would mean the method failed. In the case above the method worked I just did not take the trade. Perhaps Is hould seperate wins for the basic method vs wins and losses for my actual trades.

You not taking the trade because of the news and your emotions IS part of the method. You didn't take the trade because you felt it would be a -ev play to do so.

I reckon:
Win 0
Loss 0

Noted. And agreed. Didnt really think of it that way.

Win-0
Loss-0