Binary options trader journal

Trading Discussion Trade Journals
1

Hi traders,

Im fairly new to trading, been doing binary for about 2months now, with ups and downs as a newbie, listening to brokers advice and doubling my account in a week, obvs lost it all the next week etc. Only after doing this I started doing research and found out what a dirty world it is out there. I eventually Found a binary community online and haven’t looked back since.

Overall this journal will just be my thoughts and trading plans on a week to week basis, ill track results here as well so that people can compare with me if they want too.

The attractive thing about binary options trading is the time with fixed loss/profit already determined before you take the trade. People think that because you can take a insane amount of 60sec trades per day overnight success is possible. Growing up I learned that when it sounds to good to be true it normally is so i didnt fall for that trap to easily.

To cut it all short I decided to try the following trading plan starting 5th September 2016.

Trade 5x1% 60sec trades daily (1% = £25)
Only do these trades.
No martingale.
Leave emotions at the door while trading.
Look for best possible setups from 8am-7pm.

My idea is to spot my win rate, i should have a 100 trades under the belt by end of September and will have a idea of what my win rate is ( i know it wont be 100% accurate but will give me a idea). Once I have this ill consider martingale etc and focus on a x amount of weekly profit etc. For now its just about getting the trades right.

The strategy ill be using will be technical analysis and price action, no indicators.

Cheers and goodluck!

2

A good initiative indeed however i can recommend new traders to trade on higher time frames as 60 sec expiry might merely be a suicide unless you are trading binary options on news but still its risky.

3

Hi imi,

Ye im still trying to figure out what is best for me. Emotionally i like the 60sec as I get it done and dusted. Im not trading news no, im using basic trendlines, support/resistance lines and taking the trade on the reversals. I follow the trend looking at the recent highs and lows and then taking the trade once on my line or very close to it. I get that 60sec there isnt much room for error, but as i said I enjoy it atm, will see how my results are at the end of the month and if not ill reconsider them.

What time frames do you use?

4

Welcome to the forum, Steven. Thanks for starting your Journal here - sounds interesting. (I like fast trades, myself, but 1 minute is a bit strong, even for me!)

These certainly all sound like a good idea. I’m guessing from the specified time parameters (very similar to my own) that you’re in Europe, then?

You’re going to take a fixed 5 trades per day and then stop for the day, regardless of their outcomes? If the day’s “best available trades” happen to be the 6th, 7th and 8th available trades, within your parameters, you’re willing just to walk away from them, then?

I know that some people do this, but I’m always curious about it. I come from a different perspective, on this point: once I’ve identified my edge (and proven that it’s reasonably consistent, etc. etc.) I like to exert it against the market as often as I can, within my available/defined trading hours, so that I’ll get the most out of days when the price-movements happen to suit my system well, and trade least on the days that aren’t so good for me. I’d love every day to be “equally good” but this doesn’t happen.

Another question, if I may (and I ask this as someone who also trades from TA and price action without indicators, myself): why do you feel that whatever methodology you’re using is better suited to binaries, with such a big “house edge” operating against you, than to conventional market trades"?

I hear you, but it’s always seemed to me that there are ways of achieving very similar outcomes in the spot forex market, too, without the binary house edge stacking the odds against you.

If your win-rate is pretty close to 50% (on either side of it), the outcome from the first 100 trades will probably give you an idea to within something like 8% accuracy, but if your win-rate is [I]outside[/I] the 46%-54% range (arguably I should even say 47%-53%), then it may take a [I]lot[/I] more than 100 trades to achieve statistical significance within reasonable confidence limits. (Edited to add: by “reasonable confidence limits” I mean “sure enough to judge the difference between overall profit and overall loss” … unless you’ve discovered something with a really big edge.)

Good luck - watching with interest! :cool:

5

Hi Lexys

Thanks for commenting.

Im doing the limited amount of trades because im not sure if I have a edge yet haha.
Im considering getting a forex bankroll as well, but as I said I started “trading” 2months ago and my first taste of trading was binary options because of how easy it seamed. Now after learning a little about TA I must say forex has looked more appealing.

Part of me coming to this site was to get some forex knowledge but tbh i haven’t went much deeper into it because I cant afford to invest money into it atm. My plan was to make some money from binary then withdraw some of it and get a forex bankroll going.

As for the time limits, im just doing 1candle reversals. I like the 1min as its done and dusted but i guess it gives you little margin for error in price and taking a sec or 2 longer. ill definitely consider doing longer time frames as well but for this week im gonna end on 5x60sec for first.

Im from South Africa, gmt+2 :slight_smile:

Thanks for the comments, as a noob i appreciate it and this way i might figure out what is the best way forward.

Cheers

6

Ooh, nice - the forum seems to be attracting many members, at the moment, from your part of the world. I haven’t ever been there (but my parents have, a few times).

I trade on UK time, but don’t start until just after London has “opened”, about 8.10am.

I would argue that the other way round, and try to do as many as I could, to find out more quickly!

Again, you’ll perhaps think I sound very contrary and contradictory, but to me that sounds like temporarily doing something really difficult with the odds heavily stacked against you, to get together the money to try something easier with the odds [I]less[/I] heavily stacked against you!

Yes, I see the attraction of that, but I offer you the observation that there’s a lot of what people generally call “noise” in M1 charts, and results from that may be a [B][U]lot[/U][/B] more random than - for example - those from M5 or M10 charts, which means that anything you conclude from it might also be a [B][U]lot[/U][/B] less certain and reliable! :33:

7

Haha, thanks again.

Ill reconsider the trade sizes and maybe try something longer. Dont like breaking the plan but its not the first time I hear this and the results from this week haven’t been that great either.So I guess a higher time frame is in order.

Ill use this journal to figure out what im gonna do and once ive finally decided ill start a new one haha.
Ill look into forex over the weekend and then ill decide. Anything specifically I should look at? Platforms etc? Either way i guess its all over the forum so dont bother doing to much hassle.

Thanks again

Cheers

8

Personally, I’d suggest that it might be wise to avoid the one called “MetaTrader”; that’s all.

9

thanks a lot, i’ll look into it.