Good (Saturday) morning all!!!
WOW!!! I'm relieved!!! When I first saw that you'd posted Randon my heart 'sank' because I thought you were goint to post what a BAD week you'd had and my credibility would have gone 'for a loop'!!! I'm really glad that you're happy with your gains!!!
Now following ON from Randon's post:
I've not had a great two weeks at all. While I'm still 'up' on the month I'm nowhere NEAR the huge %tage gains that I've been making since February this year. Why? Because it's REAL easy to get 'over confident' and start 'cutting corners'.
For the past two weeks or so I've just been using ONLY the RTS (my version with the additional levels which as I've noted before are Pivot Points / Pivot Levels). Because of the 'fantasmagorical' results I'd been having up until the beginning of June I figured that the RTS was the 'b all and end all' of the systems. Well: it MAY be BUT ONLY if you follow it correctly!!! What I started doing was instead of religiously drawing up my ADX/ADXR work sheet every night I started to 'relax' a bit and instead of basing my RTS entries on the values of ADX/ADXR I just started placing orders at any and all RTS levels (Pivot Points / Levels) when the price was nearing those levels ASSUMING that once the levels had been hit and the orders executed the price would then just retrace (as it apparantely had always done), hit the B1 or S1 target, and that would be that. Well: not so. To make matters worse every time a target was NOT hit and the price continued to go against me I'd add another lot to the position and so on and so forth. Needless to say this has the obvious benefit of increasing profits drastically BUT of course also compounds losses if the price continues to go against you!!! I've now been 'chastised' in a BIG way by my business partner who actually made the statement: 'You've not been trading for the past two weeks the same way that you've been trading up until the end of May'!!! I needed to hear it and it's true!!! I never even realised it until he made this statement!!! In essence what I've been doing is placing orders most times against the obvious trend AND on pairs that are INDEED TRENDING which is a recipe for disaster with the RTS!!! So: the obvious result is that you end up in positions (multiple positions on the same pairs mind you) and have to either wait for a trend reversal to come OR 'hope' that there is correction during the trend and that correction must be of a great enough magnitude to hit your TP!!! Not ideal by any stretch of the imagination!!! The fact that the word 'hope' has 'crept into my vocabulary' says it all!!!
NOW:
While I'm confident that I will indeed be able to close out all my positions either at BE or at a small profit my trading for the past two weeks has done nothing other than tie up margin for no good reason and of course diminsh my potential gains for the month.
The lesson to be learned is this:
It's REAL easy once you're actually making good money to become complacent and 'cut corners' THINKING (once again) that you can do no wrong!!! In all fairness: yes it IS time consuming to compile the ADX/ADXR work sheet every night ESPECIALLY at 00h00 / 01h00 in the morning and THEN still place the orders and move TP's and stuff BUT it's unfortuanate i.e. IT JUST HAS TO BE DONE!!! Yes: I'm tired of being tired all of the time BUT there is just no room for shortcuts. Whether or not it's sustainable to be able to live like this for years and years I'm not sure (and to be honest I doubt it very much). For now: I just have to go back to compiling the work sheet every night and try to find a way of speeding up the capture of the ADX/ADXR values.
One thing all of this has just served to confirm YET AGAIN: sound money management is 'key'!!! Without it: I'd be in REAL big trouble and EXTREMELY unpopular with my family and clients I assure you!!!
Remember this: I believe that this is the ONLY business where being successful can actually contribute to your eventual downfall!!! Strange statement to make??? The point is this: no matter HOW well you're doing NEVER let your guard down!!! Before you know it you'll be doing things that you don't even REALISE you are doing. If you're 'lucky' enough to 'nip it in the bud' before things get out of hand and you end up wiping out your account then good and well. However: it's not a 'chance' that should be taken.
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