My losing trades.

As a beginner who is trading on a demo account i thought it would be useful to post any losing trades that i make so that i can hopefully learn from my mistakes.

In the screen shots, the triangle shows where i entered and the circle shows where I was stopped out.

Any feedback on mistakes that I make or where I might be going wrong would be great.

Thanks alot.

So here is the first one....

I went short on USD/CAD.

Justification for trade.

15 minute chart
-The price looked like it had hit the upper trend line that i'd drawn and had started to move down.
-Slow Stochastics was in overbought territory and had just started to move down.

5 minute chart
-Stochastics had been in overbought territory and was moving down

1 minute chart
Smaller up and down price movements had hit the upper trend line and price was now moving down.
- Stochastics had been in overbought area and was moving down.

So in all three timeframes stochastics was moving down and also price was moving down after hitting an upper trendline.

Can anyone see a reason why I shouldn't have traded here? I'm thinking that I should have waited for more price confirmation of the larger trend down (on the 15 min chart)

thanks.


15 minute chart


5 minute chart


1 minute chart

Is the trend up or down.

Its up.

So much for the f'ing stochastic.

Your trading will improve if you get rid of the stochastic. Instead figure out whether the trend is up or down (1 timeframe above your entry is plenty) and then how to determine a good enough pullback. Then enter the pullback somehow. But based on price not an oscillator.


1 minute is too fine for a newbie. You could use 30min for an overview and 5min for trading. But you'd be better off going to 4 hour and 1 hour while you learn to trade. No oscillators. Preferably nothing but price ... but one or two mas if you can't let all indicators go.

ditch the indicators as nine said. The trend is clearly up, defined by the series of higher highs and higher lows.

bfd said:

As a beginner who is trading on a demo account i thought it would be useful to post any losing trades that i make so that i can hopefully learn from my mistakes.


Any feedback on mistakes that I make or where I might be going wrong would be great.

Click to expand...

This is an OK idea so long as you remember that just because a trade loses it doesn't necessarily mean that you "went wrong".

If you identify patterns that are on average losers then you need to understand why that is the case. One loser doesn't suggest an approach is wrong any more than one winner means that it is right.

Having said all that, the trend in the example you give was clearly UP.

I've been trading with stochastics for a while with no success either. they are VERY often wrong and they lag price action. I am going to try again ditching them and see how I get on. they give you a false sense of security I feel

Thanks for the replies

nine said:

Is the trend up or down.

Its up.

Click to expand...

But didn't the 15 minute chart indicate that a longer term downward trend was just getting under way at the point that I traded? In retrospect I guess i should have waited to see if the price would go down more.

bfd said:

Thanks for the replies



But didn't the 15 minute chart indicate that a longer term downward trend was just getting under way at the point that I traded? In retrospect I guess i should have waited to see if the price would go down more.

Click to expand...

I see no evidence of a downtrend starting at all. I'd want to see more of the chart but it looks like there was a pullback to the 1.2325 area before continuing the uptrend.

I would like to point out that the lines that you put on the chart completely ignore the candlestick high's and lows.

If you were to put a line through the swing highs at 13:55ish and 15:55ish you would see that the upper resistance line is moving well and truely up - and my prediction would be that eventually the chart would move up to try to bounce off this having bounced off what I assume is lower support.

The fact that the market has broken through the line you've draw should indictate that it's likely to move higher anyway.

bfd said:

Thanks for the replies



But didn't the 15 minute chart indicate that a longer term downward trend was just getting under way at the point that I traded? In retrospect I guess i should have waited to see if the price would go down more.

Click to expand...

Hi bfd,
Great idea - learn from analysis of losing trades -

I also tend to agree with nine on this one.
In terms of determining trend, maybe try this procedure; it's well recommended from most reliable sources on these boards and elsewhere.

Go right out to the daily time frame and view as much data as you can on the screen.
Draw in any trend lines and support or resistance levels. These are your main battle lines.
Now drop down to the hourly time frame and repeat the process.
Finally drop down to the time frame you're using for possible trades and repeat the process once more.

What you finish up with are lines which show you whether to consider shorting or going long.
Generally only go long / short when you see trend line support / resistance.

You may however find that a short term (15 min) up trend offers chance for a long but the longer term trend (hourly) is down. In this case you now know that if you take the trade, you should look to scale out / close before the longer term barrier is reached.

You probably know all this anyway.
It's also easy to state but requires a little effort to apply.
By the way, I'm not qualified to offer advice.

Best Regards,
Neil

price had crossed your ma's and the 5min stoch was starting to hook up ,the 1min stoch was indicating an up trend .and all ma's on all charts were pointing up and had crossed on the 5min.