Pin Trading Journal

Made an order to open. Comments on pic.


Edited from here
The pin high is 14095.5 and low 14077.5 - 18 pips

But at a whopping 8 pip spread - Sell at 14069.5 with a stop at 14109.5. The stop should be at 14103.5 but the guaranteed minimum stop distance is 40 pips. But I still go ahead as it represents 2% of my account size.

Feel slightly absurd about the spread and the guaranteed stop distance. But I feel the 10p bet offered with this account type is a greater benefit in my stage of development.
 

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I cancel the open order as the pin's high was just breached without triggering the order.

Having glanced through the charts, most pins are in the region of 150 to 200 pips large - representing 10% a trade risk to capital. Hmm.......
 

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I don't trade this way, so I am probably not the best person to suggest, but... This is a tiny, tiny bar. Is such a small bar that valid? Also it is a Sunday daily bar, is just a few trading hours enough to judge a reversal bar on the daily time frame. I also have this level marked on my chart, but more as a zone, rather than such a line set in stone with stops right up to the wrong or right pip.

Jason
 
Having just written this, I now come to realise that I may find it difficult to find a market where the average daily range is less than 100 pips.

Any views?
Hi secondary,
I appreciate your problem and the the solutions are always a bit of a compromise:
1. Find a broker - instrument(s) that you can trade for less than 10p per pip. (Take a look at Gold - you can trade that for 5p per point with ETX Capital.)
2. Switch markets - e.g. equities. Lots of UK stocks have a small (often tiny) daily range.
3. Reduce your timeframe from one day to 4 hours (very popular with FX traders) and should be 'doable' trading around other commitments.
4. Add capital to your account so that you can increase your stop without increasing the percentage at risk in any one trade.
5. Increase the risk per trade.
Option 4. may be a problem for obvious reasons and option 5. isn't a great idea, IMO. I mention it only because there is a school of thought that says you can take increased risk with a very small account to grow it - say 500% to £1k - and then scale back your risk to 5% per trade or less. If you blow the account, start over. I'm certainly not advising this and anyone who adopts this strategy must realise the extra risk they're taking and should have a very good positive expectation that it would work.
Good luck with your journal!
Tim.
PS. I very much agree with jason's comments. I've not looked at t_d's thread for a long time, but I'm sure he makes a point about the context of a pin bar. I don't trade FX, but I imagine those that do would be wary of a small bar formed on a Sunday. Context is king!
 
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If you want to do stocks - I can find a bunch of lower ATR stocks for you to trade on - perhaps those with between 40-70 cents per day move on average.
 
Good evening,

I have found a good looking pin in cable as well as my failed trade above in USD/SGD.

Considering a 3pip spread on cable now, I choose to enter this instead.

I get to risk 135 pips.. While the previous bar just about manages to contain the body of pin I am not concerned as this was a Sunday bar.

The pin has confluence with the previous swing low as well as being at the bottom of the channel.
 

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The more I thought about it, the more I became convinced that I should be entering all valid trades. There still is strong confluence with the pin and the recent swing high.

So, there it goes, I am long cable and short US per Singaproe.
 
"The pin has confluence with the previous swing low as well as being at the bottom of the channel"

The Channel is defined by the previous low!!!
 
"The pin has confluence with the previous swing low as well as being at the bottom of the channel"

The Channel is defined by the previous low!!!

I meant the big channel.

Any particular reason you don't like pins ?
 

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See PM
EDIT: Cable, for me, is in a world of chop. Avoid.
 

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P.S. "Mind Over Markets"... you don't need market profile for it to work. Just effort.
 
Are you advising me to basically look for a reversal pin when the price is away from the value area in the market profile ? volume probably represented by tick counts?

I'm not advising you to do anything, can we get that on the record? Good questions though, I will try to answer them in kind.

Mentally picturing the vertical tick count within the channel, the pin seems to be presenting a reversal towards the centre of bell curve.

You're right, thats what it looks like.

I will refer to the questions I raised in the PM:

A] "Is this trending or ranging?"

Bi] If A = Trending, is this a sensible location for the end of a pulback?
Bii] Does the action at the pullback look like it's consolidating / reversing?

Biii] If A = Ranging, is this on the extreme of the range?
Biv] Have I given it enough wiggle room for stop hunting?

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I mean, is this a good trade location?

re: MOM - 1/2 is repetition, 1/3 refers to Market Profile specifically, the rest makes it worth it.
 
Hi Secondary,
If I might add my 2p's worth to this thread. If you're having problems with your entry risk being too large for your account then might I suggest that instead of spread betting with a minimum trade size of 10p you instead open an account with OandA where you can trade cash FX with no minimum trade size (you can even trade 1 cent per pip if you really want). That way you can properly take all trades without compromising your risking x% of your account per trade. Incidentally I would recommend a lower percentage than 5%, 1 or 2 would be better IMHO. The only advantage of spread betting is the tax free profits and given that you're just starting out I would concentrate on getting the trade sizing right for now and taking every trade. Once you have consistent profits and a larger account then you can worry about making them tax free.
 
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