Chris' Trading Journal

[CHRISTO9HER]

Day 3

Hi guys,

I woke up this morning at 6, after 4.5 hours sleep, hungover, but ready for a good day's trading.

I had four trades today in GBPUSD, 3 losers and one winner. I made a pip-loss but a small £-profit, mainly because I kept the losses pretty small and the winner was pretty good.

I bought the early morning breakout @ 1.9981, only to get stopped out (I bought pretty near the top of the rally).

I then managed to get a good short trade in which gave me a profit of 28 pips.

I had two further (failed) shorts in which I got stopped out. The problem that I am having is that I am getting into my trades after price movements in the direction in which I am taking the position. However, it is often the case that after the price movement, it is due for a retracement. This can often occur just after I have entered in which case I get stopped out. I need to think of a way of getting into my trades after the retracement, not before, which is what I have been thinking about today.

Anyway, I felt like I traded badly today, made a few mistakes and yet I still managed to balance the books and break even, so I'm not disappointed.

I am now 42 pips up for the first 3 days. My account is up 1.6%.

Have a good night guys!!

 

[sinimini]

update?

 

[CHRISTO9HER]

update?

Hi guys,

Sorry I havn't posted for a few days. I went off and did the 3 peaks challenge, where you climb the highest mountains in england, wales and scotland in 24 hours. I took the day off today because I am so screwed up after it, I can hardly get up and down the stairs.

Anyway, I traded all 5 days last week. I had 3 winning days and 2 losing days. I had 15 trades, with 7 being winners and 8 losers. I ended up 47 pips up and made 1.75% on my account. I felt as though I made a lot of mistakes and did a few silly things so to come out of it with a half decent profit was kind of encouraging. I know that this is only one week and is far from being a truly great return, but it is encouraging to me that if I went live with all the funds that I have access to, 1.75% a week would be enough to live on.

I also learned a fair bit about my trading personality. I have learned that I can be extremely impatient and have very little tolerance for trades going against me. I seem to feel every tick that the market makes once I have the position on. All of this makes me think that I am suited to even shorter time frames than I am currently trading. The more that I think about it, the more I think that I will end up using a scalping technique.

I have a couple of strategies in mind, and am going to use this week to try to refine my strategy and also to adapt it to even shorter time frames. I want to change my strategy in that I want to be able to set my stop and limit when I enter a trade and then not touch it again until the trade is over, to help to fight against the emotions that I am feeling when I enter trades.

I will post each day this week and let you know how its going.

Hope you all have a good week

Chris

 

[sinimini]

Well done with the profit for the week.
What time frames are you currently using?

 

[MrGecko]

Sounds good so far mate - 3 peaks?! you're a bit keen, aren't you??

can we ask a little more about your strategy? It's cable on 5 min bars, right? Any indicators? S+R?

 

[CHRISTO9HER]

Sounds good so far mate - 3 peaks?! you're a bit keen, aren't you??

can we ask a little more about your strategy? It's cable on 5 min bars, right? Any indicators? S+R?

It was one of the hardest things I have ever done, especially since I was doing the driving in between too. Would recommend it though, good sense of achievement etc.

I had quite a good week last week, I think that at this stage breaking even is pretty good so to be 47 pips up I was pretty pleased with.

As for my strategy, I tend not to use indicators too much. I sometimes have a few on my screen but they are more just for a quick reference than anything else. So far I have been using S&R, breakouts & general trendfollowing on my 5 minute chart as well as paying some attention to candlestick formations.

I think that the problem that I have been having is that my trading personality is not really suited to holding trades for as long as my strategies suggest that I should. My best trades seem to last for around an hour, but I find myself getting impatient within this time, wanting to cut the losses as soon as they go the wrong way and taking the profits too early too.

I think that I have two options; either become more patient/disciplined and stick with the strategies that I have been using, or start using scalping strategies. As you mentioned on the other thread though MrGecko, if I want to start scalping then I may have to leave the world of Forex behind as it probably isn't as well suited to it as some other markets.

I am currently applying to a whole range of prop firms. I know that if I get into one of them they will start me off scalping futures, which is probably what appeals to me most. However, until then, I am going to continue with forex and with the 5min candles. I think that this is probably necessary to build up my discipline as a trader. The shorter time frames will always be there, but I should probably get more experience in slightly longer time frames before I move into them.

BTW, the reason that there has been no trading results updates this week is because I havn't been trading. I have been applying to prop firms and researching trading related stuff such as my non-bucket-shop options for forex trading. (After one week I am already fed up with it).

Thanks for the support guys, and happy trading.

Chris

 

[CHRISTO9HER]

Hi guys,

Due to other things that I am having to do at the moment, (like applying for jobs at prop-shops), I am modifying my trading strategy somewhat.

I am switching from 5min candles to 15 min candles. I am switching to a more of a trend-following strategy. The reasons for this are as follows:

Much less labour intensive so that I can do these applications.
Less noise on these time frames.
I want to develop my levels of discipline/patience.
Am reaslising that FX isnt really suited to very small time frames. (thanks MrGecko for help on this)

Because it takes less time to trade this way, I am going to do it on GBPUSD and EURJPY.

I am going to do this for the rest of this week and all of next week to see how it goes. If it goes well then I may stick with these time frames for a while. I think that I was attracted to the glamour of small time frames/scalping but hopefully it will be beneficial to my development as a trader to get used to slightly higher time frames first.

Thanks for reading guys,

I'll let you know how it goes, and will also do a post on the strategy I am using on the 15 min candles.

Cheers

Chris

 

[KillPhil08]

Heya chrisy. Been waiting a while for an update . How are your trades looking?

 

[Dinos]

Hi guys,

"I am switching to a more of a trend-following strategy."

Just come across your thread Christopher, wishing you success in your desrire to trade for a living, if I can help (like anybody) in giving impartial advice, then please ask.

Your quote above, if you follow tells me you should succeed: indentify the trend and trade joining the trend, its all I do, no counter trend trading. Its up to you to decide what and how your detrmine the trend, combo trading 2 time frames works well.

Will follow your thread with interest