dwaddell's Blog

Another Week Dawns

14th November 2005

Hi all, another week, another battle with the market.

Closed my long and reversed at 12noon today at 1.1710 for a 5 point profit. Currently in the market, short EURUSD at 1.1710.

The biggest problem I've been finding, is whether to pull the trigger midway through a candle's timeframe, rather than waiting until the close of the candle. On some occasions, it gets you into a move early, on others it can really backfire.

I'm not sure whether to safeguard that with a tight stop, incase it does reverse. I'm also looking at a few tweaks to my current indicators to try to get a slightly earlier entry and exit on closed candles.

Morale - I've been pretty gung ho so far, but that is waning a little, nothing a good read of some of my 'positive thinking' books wont cure, but I'm frustrated by the fact that I'm not making the points that my paper trading produced.

Still, it's early days, and like I said at the beginning, Nov and Dec are all about fine tuning and learning in a live environment.

I'm confident my indicators will be victorious in producing some long term profits, I just need to get my head around the mental aspects a little more, and, stay positive.

Till next time, be lucky.
 
Close and Buy

15th November 2005

I've closed my short from 1.1710 at 1.1702 for an 8 pip profit and re entered a long EURUSD at 1.1702.
 
Close and Pause For A Minute

15th November 2005

OK, I've closed my long from 1.1702 at 1.1661 for a 41 pip loss.

It's very evident to me the problem here. In my paper trading, I was taking entries and exits at roughly midway through a candle, whereas now I'm live, I've been waiting until the candle closes, and in markets like EURUSD at the moment, where there's no strong trend, it's killing me.

At this point, I'm down a total of 99 pips, when, if I'd made entries and exits during candles, I'd be up 233 pips.

Trouble is, entries and exits during candles mean I have to be at the PC all the time, day and night, which just isnt practical. My whole objective is to trade the 4hour candles, meaning that I only need to check the positions at 0100, 0500, 0900, 1300, 1700 and 2100.

I need to find the right indicator combination to make this happen.

Watch this space.
 
Just passing.

I made a small début into the FX earlier in the year. Made a complete mess of it. Lost my shirt and a pair of trousers.

It looks so easy, but its not.

I intend to return and paper trade come 2006 before going 'Live' as they say.

I would say, 3-9 months PT would be a good shout before using real money.

I wish you well.

UK
 
Update

22nd November 2005

I thought I'd better update you all, lest you think I've gone running with my tail between my legs!

I've spent the past week backtesting various strategies designed to operate around 4 hour candles...I thought I had a cracker, then realized I had some settings wrong and it crashed and burned.

I'm now looking at a strategy that seems to be working in the backtesting, with all the right settings and will let me work around the 4hr candles. As soon as I'm done testing it, I'll let you know and then get trading again!

All the best.

Dave.
 
I'm Back!

2nd December 2005

I'm back folks! Feeling fresh, feeling confident and looking forward to some market action.

I've had a short break abroad and refined my Forex approach, realising that there is no easy way to do this and that price action is king.

I made great trades yesterday:

1300 GMT Sell EURUSD at 1.1752
1700 GMT Closed short at 1.1698 and reversed for a profit of 54 pips.
2100 GMT Closed long at 1.1732 for a profit of 33 pips.

A great return of 80 pips after costs for the day.

Overall, since starting my journal, I'm down 19 pips, the profit yesterday recoving most of my previous losses.

Onwards and upwards! Gearing up for more action this afternoon.

Dave
 
Stopped Out

2nd December 2005

Stopped out on my EURUSD short at 1.1737 for a 30 pip loss.

Running total: -49pips.
 
Another Trade

2nd December 2005

Enter EURUSD long, 1700GMT at 1.1696.

Closed 2100 GMT at 1.1716.

Trade profit 16pips after costs.

Running total: -33 pips.
 
Update and Back To Normal

12th December 2005

Hello again!

An update on my FOREX trading progress and back to normal service now after what has been a very hectic period for me.

My trading approach has definatley improved, as per results below and I'll start posting these in real time again, now that I'm back and firing on all cylinders.

5/12/05 1100 Buy EURUSD at 1.1710
7/12/05 2300 Close (Sell and Reverse) EURUSD at 1.1775
Profit after costs: 60 pips
Running Total: +27 pips

8/12/05 1100 Close (Buy and Reverse) EURUSD at 1.1770
Breakeven after costs.
Running Total: +27 pips

9/12/05 1900 Close (Sell and Reverse) EURUSD at 1.1810
Profit after costs: 34 pips
Running Total: +61 pips

12/12/05 0400 Close (Buy and Reverse) EURUSD at 1.1825
Loss: -20 pips
Running Total: +41 pips

12/12/05 1300 Close (Sell) EURUSD at 1.1930
Profit afer costs: +100 pips
Running Total: +141 pips.

Great trade to end this run. Now awaiting re-entry signal.

Good luck with your trading!
 
GBPUSD Action

14th December 2005

Hi all,

I've decided to now include GBPUSD in my trading as well as the EURUSD pair, I'll keep a seperate running balance for those trades.

0700 Sell GBPUSD at 1.7717.
Stopped out at 1.7775 for a loss of 58 pips.

Running GBPUSD Balance: -58 pips.
 
Exits

16th December 2005

0900 Close GBPUSD @ 1.7709 +4 pips after costs

0900 Close EURUSD @ 1.2009 -32 pips.

Running totals:
GBPUSD -54pips
EURUSD +109pips
 
Entry

19th December 2005

I'm currently in the market:

Short GBPUSD @ 1.7619
Long EURUSD @ 1.2008
 
Close and Reverse EURUSD

20th December 2005

0700 Close long EURUSD and reverse to short @ 1.1990.

This close and re-open resulted in a loss of 17 pips.

Running total for EURUSD: +92 pips.
 
Added To Short Position

20th December 2005

11am Added to my short GBPUSD position at the 1.7681 trendline bounce to average the overall position short from 1.7649.
 
EURUSD Close

20th December 2005

1550 Close EURUSD at 1.1884 for a 100 pip profit after costs.

Running total EURUSD: + 192 pips.

GBPUSD short still open from 1.7649, watch this space.
 
GBPUSD Close

20th December 2005

1600 Close GBPUSD short from 1.7649 at 1.7593 resulting in a profit after costs of 50 pips.

Running total GBPUSD: -4 pips.
 
The Story So Far

20th December 2005

Hello all, a short update on my progress so far and plans for the forthcoming New Year.

Well, its been interesting, I'll say that. I started this off on 1st November, trading small as per my plan and it's been a couple of months so far of up and down, then finally looking on the up again.

My current totals are:

EURUSD: +192 pips
GBPUSD: -4 pips

All in all, I'm pleased with that, it took me some time to get my methods sorted and working in the real world and I've made most of my gains in the past 2 weeks, so I'm very pleased with progress.

I only started GBPUSD around a week ago and have found that market to be far more volatile, with larger swings than the Euro market and needs a close eye (or bigger balls) at all times.

I'm generally settled on trading a 4H chart of both pairs, eyeing pivots and a couple of custom indicators, mainly capturing profit during trends or shorter term pivot point bounces. I think there's more to be had from the pivot point bounces and I intend to focus closer on that along with breakouts alongside my main trend capturing approach.

My morale - growing after an initial month of confusion as to why I wasnt making mega bucks, I see now that this aint as easy as it looks when you back test a strategy and think, excellent, I'm going to be rich.

Its a hard job, but I intend to stick at it. I'm easing off for now over the Christmas break, when I'll simply not get the time to be monitoring positions in between playing with the kids and doing all the normal eating and drinking, so intend to come back in the New Year, having kept an eye on whats going on, and step up a gear a little, raise the value I'm investing per pip and hopefully start to generate a reasonable, consistent, monthly pip count to start to compund and grow a bank to a level that will provide me a decent income and finally leave the dead end day job.

I wish you all the very very best for the festive period, dont drink too much (it clouds the judgement) but enjoy yourselves all the same.

Till the New Year, I'm signing off.

Dave The (Up and Coming) Trader
 
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