My Trading Log

[MattW2009]

I've had a look through the charts and not seeing any trades tonight.

Holding onto my AUD/CAD but I cant help feeling the short-term bullish sentiment on the AUD is waning and a resumption down is imminent. I guess Gold has a lot to do with this and there my knowledge of interplay between commodities and currencies is lacking.

[o990l6mh]

Originally Posted by MattW2009

I've had a look through the charts and not seeing any trades tonight.

Holding onto my AUD/CAD but I cant help feeling the short-term bullish sentiment on the AUD is waning and a resumption down is imminent. I guess Gold has a lot to do with this and there my knowledge of interplay between commodities and currencies is lacking.

Well how 'bout that!

Today treated you well!

[MattW2009]

Originally Posted by o990l6mh

Well how 'bout that!

Today treated you well!

Aye indeed! Just need to keep repeating it!
If only I'd been trading full risk rather than minimum risk. I think a few more trades and I might be ready to risk a greater percentage.

[o990l6mh]

Originally Posted by MattW2009

Aye indeed! Just need to keep repeating it!
If only I'd been trading full risk rather than minimum risk. I think a few more trades and I might be ready to risk a greater percentage.

Yes you certainly seem to be getting the hang of things. Keep focusing on the trading like you do now and increase risk by small steps. The money will come in time, there's no rush.

As you know I trade with Oanda and they have a nice little feature that I'm going to use. There's the possibility of opening sub accounts.

I will open one of those and move a portion of my funds there. Then I will take the same high quality setups on both the primary and the sub, but with 5% risk on the sub account. I then plan to move half the winnings over to the primary account and keep the rest in the sub.

On the primary account I'm starting to feel that 2.5% is above my risk preference and I may adjust that down to 1.5-2% but I haven't quite decided on that yet.

I'm thinking that this approach may be a fast way to compound your account in a still relatively safe way.

[o990l6mh]

Here's a quote from James16 in his thread at the other forum:

"If your not willing to give this at least two years of study and practice then your just playing around. Doctors and lawyers etc spend 6 to 10+ years mastering something that can make them rich. Why would anyone think that this business which can make you much wealthier than most any other profession is any different?"

I'm noticing how many new users are coming here all the time and how they disappear after a while. A few stay, but they're a small minority.

I also see how many will jump at every new thread promising the world. It doesn't cease to amaze and scare me how gullible people are in general. Critical thinking is a rarity.
When you get in and ask some uncomfortable questions these newbies will accuse you of driving away their newfound Jesus. OMG. I don't know what to say, I'm just sick of it and so I've decided to let it be. I'm sure some will be happy about that.

Instead I'll focus even harder at what really counts forex wise, which is my work with the J16 thread, this thread and my trading.

[MattW2009]

Originally Posted by o990l6mh

Here's a quote from James16 in his thread at the other forum:

"If your not willing to give this at least two years of study and practice then your just playing around. Doctors and lawyers etc spend 6 to 10+ years mastering something that can make them rich. Why would anyone think that this business which can make you much wealthier than most any other profession is any different?"

I'm noticing how many new users are coming here all the time and how they disappear after a while. A few stay, but they're a small minority.

I also see how many will jump at every new thread promising the world. It doesn't cease to amaze and scare me how gullible people are in general. Critical thinking is a rarity.
When you get in and ask some uncomfortable questions these newbies will accuse you of driving away their newfound Jesus. OMG. I don't know what to say, I'm just sick of it and so I've decided to let it be. I'm sure some will be happy about that.

Instead I'll focus even harder at what really counts forex wise, which is my work with the J16 thread, this thread and my trading.

Yes, 2 years minimum. The only way that's going to shorten is if you day trade. Just like going to University, if you do a part-time course it'll take a lot longer!

I never bothered to even read the threads saying "I've made one thousand pips this week / today / last five minutes..." as I know I'll find nothing of value there. I don't blame you for giving up on trying to oust the claims but don't worry, I'm sure Tymen will keep at it for you!

Interestingly today I reviewed my 'systems' that I use and have decided to ditch them. Firstly, all of them start as 70% systems but forward testing ALWAYS leads to a string of losses (I'm not paranoid, the market really is out to get me!) which reduces them to 60%. Not bad but I'm impatient and the last three months have been one very long string of losses so I'm leaving it there. Which leads me to secondly, which is that none of them could be actively managed - they were all set and forget. Which is fine in principle but without the ability to take an early profit, move to BE, etc. the profitability of trading is severely curtailed.

So with that in mind I'm now concentrating solely on PA, in particular J16 and their approach with a few extras thrown in when I see them. And maybe a sideline of short-term investing in stock indices for a few extra pennies - still working on that system!

[o990l6mh]

Originally Posted by MattW2009

I never bothered to even read the threads saying "I've made one thousand pips this week / today / last five minutes..." as I know I'll find nothing of value there. I don't blame you for giving up on trying to oust the claims but don't worry, I'm sure Tymen will keep at it for you!

He will, I'm sure

Originally Posted by MattW2009

I'm now concentrating solely on PA, in particular J16 and their approach with a few extras thrown in when I see them. And maybe a sideline of short-term investing in stock indices for a few extra pennies - still working on that system!

Sounds like a plan to me - a very good one!

[cas]

Originally Posted by o990l6mh

I'm noticing how many new users are coming here all the time and how they disappear after a while. A few stay, but they're a small minority.

It's too hard for most of them. As soon as trading smells like work they disappear and start looking for the next rainbow.

The few who stay...who knows.

I also see how many will jump at every new thread promising the world. It doesn't cease to amaze and scare me how gullible people are in general.

Following promises is easy. You can always lay the blame on someone else if it does not work out as expected.

Critical thinking is a rarity.

You can count the ones who do that on this board by the fingers of your two hands.

When you get in and ask some uncomfortable questions these newbies will accuse you of driving away their newfound Jesus.

Sheep need their sheep dog. If you ruffle their coat you get snapped at.

OMG. I don't know what to say, I'm just sick of it and so I've decided to let it be. I'm sure some will be happy about that.

I am sure you will. I have come to the same conclusion.

Instead I'll focus even harder at what really counts forex wise, which is my work with the J16 thread, this thread and my trading.

I reckon that's the way to go.

There are some real nuggets on this board if you dig deep enough and know what to look for and if you can recognize a nugget if you see one.

Otherwise it's a waste of time and waste of your breath.

[Valkryder]

Originally Posted by o990l6mh

Here's a quote from James16 in his thread at the other forum:

"If your not willing to give this at least two years of study and practice then your just playing around. Doctors and lawyers etc spend 6 to 10+ years mastering something that can make them rich. Why would anyone think that this business which can make you much wealthier than most any other profession is any different?"

I'm noticing how many new users are coming here all the time and how they disappear after a while. A few stay, but they're a small minority.

I also see how many will jump at every new thread promising the world. It doesn't cease to amaze and scare me how gullible people are in general. Critical thinking is a rarity.
When you get in and ask some uncomfortable questions these newbies will accuse you of driving away their newfound Jesus. OMG. I don't know what to say, I'm just sick of it and so I've decided to let it be. I'm sure some will be happy about that.

Instead I'll focus even harder at what really counts forex wise, which is my work with the J16 thread, this thread and my trading.

One only has to look at the advertising of FOREX that makes it looks like a walk in the park. So of course you will see a lot them here. Who wouldn't want to make gazzillions of $$$ with relatively little effort? Sooner or later everyone realizes that this is going to take some real work. Only 5% will actually succeed. Mostly by attrition.

[o990l6mh]

I've spent the day moving slowly forward through the J16 thread. Currently at post 1400. Just 45300 more to go

Gotta get up early to leave the car for a switch to winter tires so no weekend chart analysis today.

I'm focusing on improving my knowledge through the J16 material right now and I'll be doing that for several months probably. Trading will have to come second for a while.

This work has already paid off, I've learned several new things. I'm also starting to consider joining the private forum for a month or two when I'm done with the public thread. I want to have as full an understanding as possible before I start editing together my own little bible.

During week days I seem to have the energy to go through around 250 posts and on weekends I should be able to do at least 1500, so doing some math: 45000/(250 x 5 + 1500) = roughly 16 weeks.

Nothing ever goes as fast as planned, so with a buffer: end of March 2010 I hope to be ready to join the private forum for a while and during the summer of 2010 I plan to put together my bible.

Of course I'll trade in the mean time, just smaller position sizes and maybe not as much as I'll miss some trades. I do expect this work to pay off in the long run though. I have no doubts about that.

In conclusion that means that after a little more than a year of live trading (I went live late in March 2009) I hope to have reached the level of knowledge I wish I had had when I went live.

All right, enough with the rant.