My little journal.

[HaloTrader]

Going to use this to record the progress of a specific strategy that went live today.
Account size: £5,000
Spreadbettor: Igindex
Charts: Igindex advanced charting
Risk per trade: £100
Target: £66.66 per trade.
Setup probability: 79%
Personal targets: 2 in 3 trades to win. Enjoy it. Grow account 1%+ on average per day. With the eventual target of DMA futures.
Risk:reward ratio - 1.5:1
Expected trades per day- 2-3
Trading hours - 8am-3.45pm
Market: FTSE100

I'm developing this strategy as an additional to my current trading because i feel it can give me additional profits and cure my boredom.

Todays entries and exits (10th june 2009):
Entry: 4479
Stop loss: -15
Target: +10
Profit/Loss: + 10 pips (1.32% of account)

Entry: 4491
Stop loss: -13.5
Target: + 9
Profit/Loss: +9 pips (1.32% of account)

Entry: 4485
Stop loss: + 17
Target: - 11.5
Profit/Loss: + 11.5 (1.32% of account)

Total profit today: +30.5 pips
Total percentage gain on account today: Approximately 3.96%
Profit or loss: £198.50

Feelings on today and system - Good start. Suitable market as it was directional UP in the morning, down in the afternoon - True test is a choppy day.
Problems incurred and changes -
Experienced the internet going down during the placement of a trade, managed to get it back up in time. This brings the issue of management of these situations in my trade plan.

Annoyances - Annoyed because at the end of the day i looked back and realised i had missed a profitable signal. Grrr.... Oh well.

 

[blancspa]

Risk per trade: £100
Target: £66.66 per trade.

Risk:reward ratio - 1.5:1

huh?

 

[Hotch]

huh?

?

Risk:reward....risk first, then reward...so risk 1.5 to get 1 back, 1.5*66.6 = 100.

He's right.

 

[blancspa]

aha !
yes , sorry. usually is the other way round...

 

[goatse]

agree, bookies it's the other way around.

Mind you, this is the 4th journal he's made. Let's see if it gets past 2 pages.

 

[HaloTrader]

Todays entries (11th june 2009)
Entry: 4440
Stop loss: - 15
Target: 10
Profit/loss: 10 (1.32%)

Entry: 4444
Stop loss: - 15
Target: 10
Profit/loss: -10 (-2%)

Entry: 4440
Stop loss: -15
Target: 10
Profit/loss: + 10 (1.32%)

Entry: 4454
Stop loss: + 6
Target: - 12
Profit/loss: +12 (4%)

Total profit today: + 22pips
Total percenate gain on the account: 4.64%
Profit/loss: £232

Feelings on today and system: Managed to watch Mad Max and Gladiator today so it was a great success. Again market conditions were excellent. Methodology working well.

Problems incurred - Internet went down again today which brings this issue up, going to have to figure something out at weekend.

Looking forward to tommorow. Smallville season 7 + Cars.

 

[Hotch]

See, knew he wasn't BSing in his holy grail thread

 

[HaloTrader]

See, knew he wasn't BSing in his holy grail thread

Haven't checked your journal in a while - How is the random entries going dude?

 

[HaloTrader]

12th June Friday 2009:
1hourly chart analysis.



I'm expecting a choppy day and therefore am going to be using my range-bound setups and try scalp small ranges high and lows for 10 pips at a time. Fade the pivot levels and the closer Support and resistance levels and if ATR starts rising and we start trending i will be looking for a breakout of the overnight range and then a bounc of 4489 (a level of confluence)

I don't analysis the 5-minute chart for support and resistance because i just end up drawing too many, however i monitor it for setups once an hourly S/R has been hit.
Other levels i normally have on the chart are yesterdays high and low.
Todays open.
Last weeks high and low.
Last months high and low.
The three day high and low.

This is all to alert me whether we are in trending market conditions or choppy/ranging markets. I don't actually play these levels, however a break of the three day high/low and i have a specific setup i'm looking for. A break of the weekly high and i will be looking for a trending signal setup. etc etc I have different setups for trending/ranging and so i have a number of techniques of judging whether we are trending or not. Obviously at the moment from looking at price action we are range-bound but i like confirmation.

Rather than watch the chart. I set alerts for my mobile on an alternative chart 20 pips before any of my S/R and pivot levels are hit, this means i can monitor the momentum and price action up to the line without going mad watching all day because i find i start making up new levels if i do that.
I like to mark down the weekly and monthly pivots and look to fade any confluence between the weekly, monthly and daily.

The indicators i use, i don't use for the actual setups, like price<50 on Rsi doesn't mean bearish to me, i'm looking at its trend, for divergence and confirmation.
For example, i don't use Oversold and Overbought stochastics, but i find when price goes oversold on the EMA channels during a choppy market period (Within previous weeks high-low) when when the stochastics comes out of its oversold zone with a downward slope or three consecutive down closes, it can be a good signal for a reversal.

I use everything in conjunction and trade discretionary however i also have specific setups that i look for at any discretionary level.
One example is that if Price is below/above the current three day high-low and hasn't broken it for two days. Then when Standard deviation goes below 1/2 ATR + Rate of change is <ATR on the 15-minute, i call this a small range and draw S/R at the top and scalp it. I stop scalping when S.D closes above its previous bar.

Today i missed out on the bounce off the first support level because i had to take my little brother to school, but i managed 10 pips of the pivot fade with a 15 pip stop loss level. ^^

 

[HaloTrader]

12th June Friday 2009:
Looked for choppy/range-bound/fade-play trades yeterdays as the market is consolidating and prices are within the previous weeks range + No three day high or lows are occuring.

I missed a nice setup against a fade of a support level due to my incompetance.
Then...
Furthermore i had my first discretionary entries which was the fade of the gap which worked out and faded the pivot level when a reversal setup appeared.

So far my EMA tracking trades haven't produced a signal to my disappointment as teh teh best.

System trades:

Entry:4460
Stop loss: 15
Target: -10
Profit/loss: + 10

Entry: 4454
Stop loss: 15
Target: -10
Profit/loss: +10
On this trade, two setups appeared giving it additional strength so i increased the risk accordingly

Entry: 4452
Stop loss: 15
Target: - 10
Profit/loss: +10

Entry: 4444
Stop loss: 15
Target: -10
Profit/loss + 10

Entry: 4440
Stop loss: -15
Target: 10
Profit/loss: +10
Was worried this would lose when it appeared as it was the first long after many succesful shorts but it worked out nicely!

Final entry of the day was rushed and i accidently entered double sized
Entry:4444
Stop loss: -20
Target: 20
Profit/loss: After 10 pips gained, moved stop loss to breakeven against my rules = 0 pips
Would have got -20 pips. This then was an impulse trade.

I will update the stats later. Got to go to BBQ x

 

[Hotch]

Haven't checked your journal in a while - How is the random entries going dude?

Stopped that ages ago. Things are going well. Journal looks promising, and analysis seems good. Good luck with it.

 

[HaloTrader]

This is how i play Support and Resistance. I'm looking for the current bigger price range rather than the retracements etc that occur in this ( i use a different method for trading them)
'Bigger price range' is easy in choppy markets, in trending, any hourly retracement, the high becomes the new BIG resistance level.



In this graph you can see price reached a higher resistance level in the formation of a trendline (With a current ascending triangle forming) This is how i played this level. This was a discretionary trade.

I didn't actually trade this level but this is how i would have gone about trading it.



1. 10 pips before the level, i went long With a 15 pip stop loss... Price continued and reached the level at about 4463. I'm looking for a breakout with no risk. So i trail my stop loss to breakeven when 10 pips is achieved, here i am looking for a momentum breakout. I monitor this on a 1-minute chart.

(1-minute chart) momentum took the trade outside my trendline. I want to see some fast momentum but it broke down and i exited the position at the close below the low of the high bar on the 1-minute chart for around 9 pips profit.

2. Since momentum didn't push the breakout the upside i am looking for shorts. I go to the 5-minute chart and look for the first bar to hit the resistance, i look to short once price has broken this level... This level is broken as you can see and i am short. I go for 10 pips at this point, by stop loss 1 pip above the high. This is achieved and so far from this resistance level i have attained 19 pips

With these trades, some people just enter on the line, however i prefer to see some price action to confirm reversals etc

3. Price is an ascending triangle range, bouncing from the highs and lows. Lots of people would try get the full range for their profit. Personally i just take the 10 pips... This is mostly due to my personal trading personality, lack of patience to wait even for winning trades and an inability to concentrate and move on when i enter a position. I am developing ways which will allow me to use a trailing stop loss so that i can get more than 10 pips from these or maybe just use Support and resistance levels as my target. But i will achieve this through reviewing all my trades at the end of the month, right now 10 pips is fine. When this is achieved, i can go relax. Then i'm in a trade for hours, i can't walk out the room without running back.

Anyways Tommorow. With an expected small range, i'm going to be looking for scalping 10 pip trades, and ranging market setups such as tick fades, channel overextension, pivot fades.

If i identify that price is currently in a range, consolidating, not-trending, being choppy, not trading above weekly/monthly high low or three day high/low or getting a high on the day not above yesterdays high ... Then my faviourite setup is the following...
Take the daily (5)ATR and half it (Call this Y). On the open at 8am (On the FTSe100) take the Open + Y and draw the level. Take the open - Y and draw the level...
When price closes above one of these levels... Wait for a close below this level and short, target and stop loss is market dependant, its best to print off a bunch of examples and find this out for yourself...

You can also trade this setup on a trending market.
When price is trading above its weekly high i do this setup (On currency pairs)
Apply the same Y levels...Plus Open + (c) (c being 1/4 of (5) daily ATR) and Open - c

When price first hits c trade in that direction to Y. Stop loss half the target.

At Y exit half the position and let it run until a 5-minute close above the high bar.

You can also do this on high volalitility currency pairs on the hourly... For example trend defined as making current daily highs or lows... Or making 3-day highs or lows... Or weekly high and lows... Then you go to hourly and trade this setup every bar.

Its all about finding a setup you like, customising it to your chosen market and time-frame and just enjoying it.

They are just a few examples of the way i trade, i will share more soon. Hope someone finds some ideas and use.

I would share my weekly analysis of the FTSE100 with you, i do LOTS on the price action, indicators, high/lows, closes, opens, pivots, monthly weekly daily 60 15 minute analysis, sector analysis, stock analysis... All with the purpose of identifying current market direction/bias and staying in tune with it even if the stock analysis doesn't actually make any cash But... I'm done it on paper this week. I will do it on a word document next week as i think traders of the FTSe100 would find it very useful, its high comprehensive.

I don't use indicators in a traditional sense, i only use their trend and turning points rather than +80 oversold orwhatever... Personally for me, if stochs is oversold i'm bullish

Have a nice week of trading everyone.

P.s. If anyone is interested in live calls and discussion on my strategies then feel free to say and i can show you what i'm doing while i actually do it

 

[trendie]

is this still live?
I dont have enough data to verify if the rules posted were being followed or not!! :cheesy::cheesy:

 

[HaloTrader]

is this still live?
I dont have enough data to verify if the rules posted were being followed or not!! :cheesy::cheesy:

Yeah. Tuesday-Friday i haven't been trading due to it being exam week ^^.

 

[HaloTrader]

Omg. Just got soo lucky.
Went short on the FTSE at 4316.
Price moved so fast i hadn't a limit exit order sorted, so i exited manually, accidently typing in the wrong size so that i exited my current position and went long... By the time i managed to exit that position, the ftse had moved 30 pips in my favour!
ROFL, unbelievable, 40 pips in the space of 2 minutes... I'm finished for the day, feeling euphoria.

 

[Klasse]

Gone broke yet?

 

[RichLady]

goatse is right, page 1