Just starting --- a month in with a live account ---

Hi, folks. I’m from Ottawa, the capital of Canada. I’m trading the majors, especially CAD, AUD, EUR and even tried some CHF, NZD and Cable.

I have a varied background and have been a musician, politician, web manager, Communications strategist and producer. I would sincerely love to become good at trading. I understand it, but my major issue is being to quick to trade without really taking my time, and overtrading, which are two related issues.

tried a practice account and was just starting to make money on it when I switched. I was getting bored, but have now lost some money and feel like I need to retool. My first couple weeks were very successful, but the last few weeks have been losing efforts. I’m quite sure it’s frame of mind that’s getting me and I need to make some rules about when and what i trade. I put together a trading plan, but I haven’t been journalling my work and I think that’s something i need to start. I’m not sure what to put in the journal or what kind of format, so I’m open to suggesitons. I’ve got around $1300 tied up in this effort and would commit more if I started getting better results.

I also think I need to know when to get out of trades. I hold on after making thirty or forty dollars and then find myself losing on the trade.

I also need to know about what to do as a kind of routine when looking at setups. I probably have just enough information to be dangerous, so it’s more than how, not the what the i’m focussing on right now.

Greetings faithfultribune…welcome and thanks for sharing your background and experiences so far with trading.

For an example of how to journal, you can check out our blogs section where several of our team members do analysis, setup trade ideas and review their trades. Take what works for you and leave the rest.

Patience and consistency are key and sometimes good trading can be boring, especially lately with volatility so low and a lack of major news events to move the markets. Journaling is crucial (you can’t manage what you don’t measure), so during this volatility downtime, it’ll probably help to work on your journal, your risk management guidelines and taking time to review your trades. Hope this helps…good luck!