Ake's Trading Adventure

[akeakamai]

Believe in yourself, and you can achieve anything!

[pipmart]

Ake, I’m looking forward to this thread! In fact i was thinking of starting one like it myself…
GOOD LUCK!

[StephA]

Ake, I have no doubt you have the technical skills and knowledge to do well. Stay consistent, focused and NEVER divert from your plan. I had recently missed a +4% trade due to my limit order not filled by 0.3 pips !!! I didn’t chase it … as I didn’t want to start developing possible bad habits. Stay stone cold in your trading approach and YOU WILL SUCCEED.

Will be following your thread and wish you the best.

[Clint]

…much to my dismay, I have yet to find consistency in my trading. I have come to the very painful conclusion that I am simply lacking in the patience and discipline department.

Hello, Aaron

I’m looking forward to following your thread.

I think that I’ve read everything that you’ve posted on Babypips in recent days, so I’m well aware of the struggles you’ve been facing in your trading. I’d like to make one observation:

You said in your introduction to this thread that you think your problems are due to a lack of patience, and a lack of discipline. I’m wondering whether you have mis-identified the problem. Just reading the two outlines you have posted here, I see the work of someone who is careful, thorough, and detail-oriented. Those are [I]not[/I] the characteristics of a person who lacks patience and discipline.

You have gathered, organized, and presented the basics of Michael’s methodology [I]in a way that few people on this Forum would have the patience and discipline to do.[/I] Your grammar and spelling are perfect, and your bullet-point presentation is perfectly orderly. Obviously, you took great care to create a credible and professional post. And I suspect that, before posting, you proof-read your work, probably more than once. This is [I]not[/I] the way impatient and undisciplined people operate.

So, I’m suggesting the possibility that your trading struggles are caused, not by a lack of patience and discipline, but by something else altogether. I suspect an emotional problem with [I]uncertainty[/I] and [I]risk.[/I] But, I’m no psychologist, and I’m not going to engage in armchair psycho-analysis.

I’ll leave it at this: If my suspicion sounds plausible to you, you might devote a little study time to the nature of risk, and to the mindset required to make correct decisions in a probabilistic environment.

[system]

Focus, patience… execute… control Risk… repeat.

[B]GLGT [/B]:57:

[longechoes]

Good luck with this, I look forward to seeing your progress and hopefully you will find what is causing your inconsistency.

[FXTraderCro]

Hey Ake,

I admire your accountability and posting all your results previously in the ICT threads.

GLGT, looking forward to this thread!

[popinjay]

@akeakamai

Perhaps I will break out the old Mark Douglas book, Trading in the Zone. I picked up that book my first year of trading… the same year that I had 7 months of consistent profits.

edit:
and since I’m a record-keeping feind, here’s the actual results from my first 14 months of trading

My favorite book thus far that I have read on trading. I still have his 5 Fundamental Truths and 7 Principles of Consistency written out on a piece of paper at my desk. In fact I think I will read it again.

5 Fundamental Truths

1. Anything can happen
2. You don’t need to know what is going to happen next in order to make money
3. There is a random distribution between wins and losses for any given set of variables that define an edge
4. An edge is nothing more than an indication of a higher probability of one thing happening over another
5. Every moment in the market is unique

The 7 Principles of Consistency

1. I objectively identify my edges
2. I predefine the risk of every trade
3. I completely accept the risk or I am willing to let go of the trade
4. I act on my edges without reservation or hesitation
5. I pay myself as the market makes money available to me
6. I continually monitor my susceptibility for making errors
7. I understand the absolute necessity of these principles. I never violate them.

[PIPhanger]

AK, I am going to be on this journey with you all the way…

It seems like we have a lot in common, more then we may know, that is why I copied your template and pretty much my way of keeping track of my trades even came from you. Just can’t wait to see how you do your equity curve so I can copy that too… …I like your style and if it’s not broken don’t fix it…

Hopefully this is a new start for the both of us and if I have anything I can offer you I will try to help out, I also invite you to stop by my journal and do the same.

Now if you all raise your glasses I would like to make a toast, To a better start and a long lasting Trading Career, may all our hopes, dreams, and wishes come true…

[B]CHEERS!!![/B]

[PipJoker]

Short fiber at 3259, got spooked before news, closed @ 3279. Not too happy now. Stop was sitting pretty at 3291 but I wanted to be cheap

I was stalking that 60-70 level myself. But i figured we just might find this drop tomorrow. And that rapid move before the news to 80 level scared me even to think about shorting

[PIPhanger]

Short fiber at 3259, got spooked before news, closed @ 3279. Not too happy now. Stop was sitting pretty at 3291 but I wanted to be cheap

Looks like we both entered around the same area and was looking at the same thing. I was able to pull 1 pip from this trade since I closed the trade as soon as it came back down to my entry. I pretty much got spooked also.

I noticed the sweet Hourly Type 1 Divergence during NYO, but was unable to enter a trade because I was at work…

Until Next Time…

[PipJoker]

@akeakamai

First picture trade!

In-line with 4H BIAS
and this is a Asian Range breakout, with a retest of the AR Low. OTE confluence with Inst. level 6220.
Stop @ 6243
*WAS expecting range expansion on the Cable today

edit:
First profit taken on new account :57:

5000/8700 TP @ 6195
3700/8700 OPEN

Took the exact trade my enter was at 25, but that doesnt matter. And i too, was expecting a bigger fall from cable. Well at least till 16165 level. Maybe we’ll see it… And that NEWS spike was excellent.

Edit: Exited at 70. Ake, give me a hint if am cluttering your thread After all its your trading journal.

[PureMuscle]

Pipjoker, post here whenever you want!

Here’s my first End of Week (Not trading NFP friday) Trade Tracker screenshot. It is very wide… so probably have to go to the full size to make sense of it, apologies for that!

edit:

[B]My new and improved “version 2.0” trading plan is now up on the first post. If you don’t notice any changes… well that’s alright with me! Most notable change IMO is newly defined rules for swing trades vs. scalp trades[/B]

Ake that spreadsheet is awesome! Would you be willing to share with a brother?

[ClarkFX]

[B]Welcome to my Trading Adventure![/B]

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[B]1st Day of Trading: April 30, 2012

Starting Account Balance: $2000

Current Account Balance: $1983

As of: May 3, 2012

[/B]

---

---

Phew! :44:

Alright then, now that the technical mumbo jumbo is there for your viewing pleasure, I’ll explain exactly why I have decided to start this thread:

I am 25 years old, I have been trading live Forex accounts since November 2007… and much to my dismay, I have yet to find consistency in my trading. I have come to the very painful conclusion that I am simply lacking in the patience and discipline department. Consistent profits in trading require a greater dedication than I have been giving it up until this point.

[B]But it is never too late to change! And this thread will help me gain both patience and discipline. [/B]

Here is a list of things you can expect to see in this thread:

1. Screenshots of my charts, with annotations for trade setups/trade entries/trade exits
2. Screenshots of my End of Month performance tracker on Excel, along with its partner equity curve
3. Screenshots of my “Trade Tracker” excel sheet, which gives the nitty-gritty details of all my trades
4. Text summaries of trades I have entered, and the reasons for doing so
5. general market commentary
6. general self-analysis on my psychological/emotional state
7. occasional (but hopefully not frequent) outbursts of anger on particularly frustrating trading days :54:

and much, much more!

So if you can handle it… strap in and join me on the adventure of a lifetime!

Admission is free, and there will be no refunds

[B]Enjoy![/B]

Best of luck buddy

[longechoes]

Hi Ake,

I like your view for the week, I would also like to see a retracement but we are on a short term trending move down.
Have a look at this picture and see what you think. I feel the 1.3050 level and even a possible move to the 3000 to take out stops is possible.

Fibre-Daily 5-5-2012 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

I’d like to see a move down monday, rejection Tuesday and look to buy on Wednesday.
But it’s entirely possible that this may be unfolding

Daily Fib 5-5-2012 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Hope I’m not cluttering your thread.
Good trading for the week ahead.

Edit: It’s a public holiday in UK Monday so that might affect things.

[PIPhanger]

Nice Weekly Pivots, are those all manually done?

Do you calculate them yourself or do you use a resource to get them?

[longechoes]

I’d like to know this as projecting pivots might be useful.

[PIPhanger]

I use the ICT pivot calculator, then plot them manually. It’s really easy. I just CTRL+Click on last week’s pivots, and drag the pre-formated trendline to the new week and change the value.

You had me fooled because it looks just like the daily pivots…

One thing I don’t understand, don’t you need to know sunday’s open to calculate them? Or you just calculating them to what the close on friday is and then readjust when the markets open on sunday?

Thanks,

[PIPhanger]

Wow, those election results are really weighing on the Fiber. 55 pip gap down so far. Gameplan pretty much shot down before the market even opened, haha!

What’s plan B…tell me you do have a plan B…

Sorry, when I read your post that is the first thing that came to mind…lol

[PIPhanger]

Excellent Plan B…