Reviewing old trades

[tomorton]

I've generally never look at a trade's chart history once I've closed it. But when I do look back, 2 things scream at me -
why did I go long when price had been falling for 10 days?
why didn't I stay longer in that winning trade?

I'm ashamed I don't review more thoroughly. Maybe you have a more disciplined and professional approach? Any tips and guidance?

 

[barjon]

I've generally never look at a trade's chart history once I've closed it. But when I do look back, 2 things scream at me -
why did I go long when price had been falling for 10 days?
why didn't I stay longer in that winning trade?

I'm ashamed I don't review more thoroughly. Maybe you have a more disciplined and professional approach? Any tips and guidance?

As well as the basic details of the trades I keep a record like this below and copy the relevant chart into a separate excel page for the more interesting ones.

 

[tomorton]

Its super jon, many thanks. I do track details at entry - the type of signal, direction, rules complied with - but I think I must do an honest PM on the ended trades like this, set up a lessons learned notebook or suchlike.

 

[pro4Xtrader]

try trading view dot com, you can easily follow your old trades

 

[NVP]

I do review ...........but in truth firing off so many scalps a day I KNOW immediately when ive fired a wrong one off..........happens to everyone

this is my routine for a badly executed trade ......remember this is not for well executed trades that lost money (Sh*t happens) this is a POORLY EXECUTED TRADE (regardless of win / lose)

stop trading - immediately

count to 10 and do some breathing exercises (repeat 2-3 times)

get focused again and relaxed and settled into trading mindset / position / desk / charts

start trading again - perhaps reduce the stake to 50% for a couple to warm up again before upping to standard stake levels

I would recommend a book by Steve ward called high performance trading that has a lot on how to get and keep your sh*t together ..........really works for me and I was also lucky enough to meet him a while back and get a few hours with him as well re his coaching techniques

N

 

[MajorMagnuM]

imo the value of reviewing trades in the learning cycle cannot be overstated. leave enough mental strength in your trading day to review and adjust accordingly. otherwise it becomes a bind

 

[tomorton]

Working my way through the log of trades since started forex trend-following trades in earnest late last summer. A couple of interesting clues already -
1. the losers continue to get bigger: holding losers in the hope of a reversal almost never works and would have led to some catastrophic losses - I continue to set initial TA-based stops: have also stopped trailing them into non-TA based levels

2. nearly all the winners went on gaining after I had banked the profits - I have stopped entering limit orders to close winners

3. isolated 1 or 2 day candlestick patterns such as pin bars / shooting stars, hammers etc. don't give enough reliable signals or significant moves - had already abandoned these

4. this is the unexpected one so far - I realised I had initially been scanning my watch-list after each session to pick out all the entry signals, then getting into those pairs that were trending in line with the signals. Later I started scanning the pairs to find the best trends and then scanning for entry signals into those pairs specifically. So instead of looking for great signals on average trends I ended up taking average signals on what I only thought were great trends - ignoring what turned out to be much better opportunities. Slight change in emphasis but cost me a lot of money.

 

[tomorton]

Some simple observations on the pattern of my trades that are helping me make money, and which I find a bit contrarian.

Most of my trades do not improve by holding to 5 days or more - the winners make the bulk of their profit in day 1 or 2, occasionally 3, but through sessions 4 or 5 or beyond they have lost energy and tend to be either flat or settle back a little. As I'm trend-following, the majority do eventually extend the trend, but the delay and drawdown are too harsh for my stomach.

A very small percentage go parabolically upwards from entry but perhaps as I'm not trading break-outs and reversals the number is too small to make a significant impact on my equity curve.

Most trades that reach a good profit level by the end of day 2 do not fall back and hit my initial stop. But half of them fall back to break-even.

Most trades that are going to hit my initial stop move without much delay towards it, often in the very first session. They usually hit it within 3 days. If they have not hit it within 3 days, they still don't recover and go into profit - they either dawdle around for a couple of weeks or drift towards the stop.

Probably all the above can be rationalised as I am making entries on resumption of established trends so my signals might be at the tail-end of momentum moves. Anyway, interesting, and so much for plans to let the winners run.

 

[Pat Riley]

It would give me the jitters havin ta make so many decisions every day for every trade. I'd be a nervous wreck before the end of the 1st week. But it seems ta me that those who have a trading plan, and stick to it, don't have ta expend quite so much decision energy as it's all set in stone. That of course assumes they have designed their system so that discretionary inputs are minimised or removed completely. If you don't have logic for avoiding letting your losers run and avoiding cutting your profits short then you'll likely make precisely those mistakes.

I don't often get to look at charts, but on the odd occasion I have, and if I pretend I'm wearing a retail directional traders hat, I've always felt that the things that jump out at me are the moves I'd want ta get in on rarely look back. That is, once they're off, the price never comes back beyond the nasty end of the signal bar. The other thing that occurs to me is that when you get a bar that goes against your position, I'd be ready to chop the trade if the price breached the nasty end of that bar. But that's easy for me ta say without ever havin had to actually trade like that.

Interesting, honest and useful thread.

 

[timsk]

. . . If you don't have logic for avoiding letting your losers run and avoiding cutting your profits short then you'll likely make precisely those mistakes..

Wise words indeed - and so very true!

Interesting, honest and useful thread.

Seconded - nice one Tom!