Thanks mate that means a lot 
Itās not easy to pick yourself back up and then public admit blowing a live account. :o
3 new trades opened today that are viewable on MT4pips - mt4pips.com
USD/JPY daily Pinbar short down to 91.00, from 91.53. S/L at B/E
GBP/USD - BUOB engulfing the Sunday bar (I know I know!) but the recent peaks and troughs on the daily are screaming 1.4800 at me so itās a bit of a touch trade as wellā¦ Bit risky 
WS30 (Dow) daily pinbar down to 10100
Cable trade closed at profit target
DJIA not working out very wellā¦
DJIA was stopped out at a full loss. Need to learn a bit more about indeces
USD/JPY was stopped out at B/E - pivot area was 91.20 which should have been the T/P
USD/CAD is still lollygagging around 1.0350 - 1.0250 which it has been all week so far.
New trade for today:
Silver - DBLHC on the daily, 2 lows at 18.19 and 18.20. Price trending up and heading toward a strong PPZ at around 18.85. This is also in confluence with the 61.8 fib and price is between 50.0 and 61.8ā¦ Entered at 18.65 for a scalp up to 18.85 - chart attached
Silver was a bad trade which I closed manually for a small loss.
Silver and DJIA trades were both a case of overtrading I think.
Still got USD/CAD open since Monday and itās hardly moved all week. However I still believe in the trade idea as the technicals look very strong for a downward move to parity and possibly beyond. How soon this might happen I donāt know but I took the trade off of the following signals:
- The BEOB on the weekly chart - so this is a weekly chart trade which can be quite long term
- The H&S continuation pattern on the daily chart whic has broken the neckline
- The 4H chart now shows that the downward trendline is acting as resistance.
I made 3 entries at 1.0275 targets are - 1.0200, 1.0000, will trail the rest if it breaks. If the H&S formation on the daily plays out then the distance between the head and the neckline is 565 pips. I make the neckline break at about 1.0400 which makes the minimum downside objective (565 pips) 0.9835 if my maths is correct?
Itās not moving very quickly but this might take a couple of months to play outā¦
USD/CAD has started movning and broken the support at 1.0220, how much of this is down to Friday trading or not remains to be seen but the down move looks fairly solid so still in with a trade split into 3 positions. T/P at:
1.0200
1.0000
Trailing by 200 if it hits parity.
That silver trade would have been a winner if Iād stayed in but I still feel it prudent that i exited early as I need to learn more about trading silver. As it is not the biggest of markets and is subject to manipulation by some institutions who account for large chunks of silver positions - regular PASR rules do not apply.
If Iād stayed in it would have paid off but it would have been more of a gamble than a trade.
USD/CAD going well.
1/3 closed out at 1.0200 for a 75 pip profit.
S/L at breakeven for the rest
ddinov,
yes you maybe on the right path, however a couple things from my opinion. Trading is not a game. It is a business and must be traded as such.
āmoney is not importantā. Do you really believe this? why are you trading then? why do most people trade?
I dont understand why after winning or losing you would cut your positon size? I think you need more research on simple money managment.
And you are trying to beat the market??
I see your on the right path because you are trading longer timeframes (min day) which takes out the noise of the markets and also using PA (as not a lagging indicator) but untill you are honest with yourself you will continue to battle. You need to quit the airy fairy āive alreay won in the long runā and do some more research on trading phycology.
This is not meant to be offensive in any way, however there are so many traders like yourself who just need to be told how it is. I hope this is coming accross as constructive critiscm.
The best book I would reccommend to you is Mark Douglas: Trading in the Zone.
I highly advise you read this as sound like itās exactly what you need. It will give you some confidence!
Johnathon
1 Like
Hello Johnathon,
Thank you for your post, suggestions and āconstructive critiscmā. I would suggest that some of your choices of wording do not come across that way.
Anyway, I havenāt read the book you recommend although have seen some mixed reviews of it. The beliefs I have formed are also from a popular trading book (not all of them but some). The book is āMarket Wizardsā by Jack D Shwager. I wonāt violate any copyright by quoting it verbatim here but I will paraphrase some of the key points in answer to your concerns.
āmoney is not importantā. Do you really believe this? why are you trading then? why do most people trade?
Trading is not a game. It is a business and must be traded as such.
Of course trading is to be treated like a business, however what struck a chord with me when I read the psychology chapter where he interviews Dr. Van K Tharp is the part about too much concern on the money aspect. I found I was focusing too much on the money and not on the ārules of the gameā
The reason I blew out my account was because I was too focused on the $ sign to the point that all my rules went out the window. As a result I now hold rule following above anything else. In order to win the game the rules must be followed. I hope that makes sense - I wonāt go into detail about the chapter in the book but I do recommend you give it a read if you want to understand it more.
but untill you are honest with yourself you will continue to battle. You need to quit the airy fairy āive alreay won in the long runā and do some more research on trading phycology.
For now āMarket Wizardsā is enough on trading psychology for me and has is so far peroducing the results Iām happy with at this stage of my trading career. I do believe in NLP techniques and their effectiveness so the belief that Iāve already won in the long run is a simple exercise in rewiring my brain to follow trading rules no matter what. Itās working so far
And you are trying to beat the market??
2%/week or 10%/month is my current aim and would be sufficient for me to trade happily. But it is still early days.
I dont understand why after winning or losing you would cut your positon size? I think you need more research on simple money managment.
Again this is something I took from the same book that many top traders do and I can see the sens in it. If youāre on a losing streak then cut down your position sizes to minimise your losses. With the winning streak thing I tend to suffer from overconfidence after a string of good wins. More often than not when you start thinking youāre invincible the market tends to force a reality check.
These rules and beliefs are the result of a blown account and my way of learning and growing from the experience. If I am to win this game in the long run then the rules have to be followed. Reading them every morning is helping me achieve consistent profitability and get closer to my goals.
They may not work for others but they are for me. I hope that makes sense
2 Likes
Ddinnov,
very thoughtful post, and I will back of as yes every body has there style of trading, And no individuals trading style or method is any right or wrong from another.
I am not meaning to come accross offensive in any way, however it is pretty clear you do need some advancement of the physcology of trading. Fear is a killer just as much as overconfidence, but when given time and training these two things come together to work in your favour. Your gut feel and intuition play a bigger part once learned to be trusted. In saying that though it is clear you are working on things, which we must all continue to do!!
I have also been there when ive lost monet or lost what could of been a tidy profit due to being blinkered by the money signs. This is fear and overconfidence again playing there part again. This needs to be harnessed and used in your favour.
I do aggree also with having your rules and reading them evry day.
Overall I wish you luck.
Johnthon
1 Like
Hi Johnthon,
You are absolutely right about about needing some advancement in the psychology of trading. I only started in November 09 so am still very new to it all.
Looking back on my recent experience the reason I blew my account was all down to a lack of trading psychology, an inability to stick to rules and in the end pretty much outright gambling.
My experience so far tells me that you can read about rules, money management over and over again but many people (including myself) still learn this the hard way. Iāve also learnt that becoming successful at this is more of a process of trial and error. You can spend all the time you like on forums, reading books and watching videos etc but real advancement comes from just raw experience.
Just seeing how markets move and how you interpret and react to them is how you grow as a trader. As long as you track your results, identify weaknesses and make changes to address them.
Itās quite humbling blowing out an account, especially when you think youāre starting to get good at this. Iām just glad Iām not alone in doing it and that itās behind me now. As a result I now have a set of rules and beliefs that I didnāt before so it was money well spent
Itās good to talk about this stuff, itās difficult and people donāt want to know about the reality and pitfalls of trading.
My focus now is to just pass J16 minimum requirements which are:
[ul]
[li][B]3 consecutive profitable months in a row on demo[/B]
[/li]
[li][B]3 consecutive profitable months in a row live with a small amount (Ā£1k account)[/B]
[/li][/ul]
Currently Iāve got 1 week to go in month 1 of demo, Iām up about 2%, was up about 5% at one stage but I made some bad trades on markets I donāt understand enough yet (silver and DJIA).
I also had 1 day just last week (!!!) where I forgot to read my rules and beliefs and I took a stupid gamble trade where I jumped on a market move which I specifically have a rule and belief not to do that. This wiped out 1/2 my profits for the month.
[U]Belief:[/U]
[B]It is OK to miss out on a large market move[/B]
[U]Rule:[/U]
[B]Do not take ANY trades on a whim to try and catch a market move[/B]
Now Iām tempted to just not trade at all for the rest of the month just to keep my 2% and pass this month of minimum requirements. I donāt know if thatās cheating or if thatās preservation of capital forming a foundation in my trading psychology.
Iāve seen someone else do this in another thread and will do it myself - open another account for gambling, experimenting (stock indeces and quirky commodities) and jumping on market moves. That way I can still do that if I absolutely must and it doesnāt affect my main trading account.
Iām joining the J16 private forum next month so thereās some good psychology stuff in there as well.
Hahaha,
okay where getting somewhere.
First I blew 2 yes thats right two accounts (not small cash either) before learning to trade this market succesfuly and consistently.
It sound like you have a personality similar to myself, loving to have a occasional gamble. It can be a thrill. This is why my first post stated, this is a business and trust me if you want to be succesful you will have to treat it as such. It is not a game. We can all try and pretend it is, but when youre puting your hard earned cash into the market is it really a game??
I am not hugely familiar with J16 however I have read a few posts and also seen a few vids. You are definitely on the right track as what I can see He teaches PA on higher timeframes taking the noise of the market away.
One last thing, be extremely careful what you take from forums and information you take in. Take up a simple method, concentrate on this, make it perfect, and profits will be yours for the taking. Dont be one of the sheep constantly looking for the āholy grailā! learn your method and stick to it untill you get it right. Dont search google all day chopping and changing, 80% of the mistakes a trader will make are in their own mind, not in ther method!!!
And like i said above treat forums with caution.
Johnathon
Didnāt take any trades last week - learning to sit on my hands and be patient 
Took a long on spot gold today after a PIN from yesterday. Itās not A+ by any means and is in a bit if traffic. I like that itās a long signal in an uptrend though - even if there is divergence on MACDā¦
Will see how this plays out, targeting 1260, with a stop at the low of the bar. Buy stop was set at the break of the PIN bar at 1245 and has been triggered. Posted it up on the J16 (public) thread but no response yet.
Hey Ddinnov,
I took the same set up however just working it differently. Just a quick one; in this set up u are risking roughly 2000 points for a reward of 1500 points. Thats not even 1/1 RR.
Im interested how you normally manage your trades and if you normally shoot for Min 2/1 RR or not? In this trade I have taken at market and tweaked my stop for smaller stop using 240min chart. This way 1260 will be 2.5/1 RR!!
I love Gold. I traded the pin last week to 1260 for 3/1 winner.
Go over the gold chart, in the last 2 months about 7 pins have all worked out with the current uptrend!!!
The R:R is a bit of an issue with this method (J16). I tend to put a stop at the low/high of the PIN and the target profit at what I see as the first trouble area. Then manage the trade by getting the stop to breakeven at around half way to the target profit if it goes that way. However Iāve had a few too many breakeven stopouts that then went on to hit the target after doing thatā¦
Also I put my target at where I see the first sign of stalling/reversing based on previous/recent bar highs and lows. More often than not if itās a strong signal the price goes through the first trouble area (FTA) after a bit of stalling and on to the next pivot or 2 or 3ā¦
Iām sure with experience Iāll get to the stage of only closing some of the position at the FTA, moving stop to break even and staying in for a much bigger and risk free trade. I tried it a couple of weeks ago with USD/CAD and ended up with 1/3 taken at about 75 pips and the rest stopped out at B/E.
I think the way to go is at the FTA close some of the position, get the stop to B/E for the rest and stay in for a bigger move. Depends on the strength of the bar, trend, PPZ confluence etc.
Sometimes itās just easier and quicker to just take it all at the FTA ā even if itās a 3:1 R:R trade to start with. The idea is to only take A+ trades so getting stopped out for a full bar loss should be very rare 
The art of trade management and stop moving to minimise risk and stay in the trade is as discretionary as price action trading itself
Wasnāt so sure to do that with gold as itās making new highs :eek:
I love trading gold as well
Discussing this one over in the commodities section at FF (XAU/USD XAG/USD - Gold & Silver FX Traders Thread).
Looks like gold is in quite a tight range, hopefully should break out (upwards please!) soonishā¦
Sorry if linking to this other forum is against the rules but this is why the stop (initially) goes below/above the high/low of the PIN/outside barā¦
The way im working this at the moment is I have placed my stop 3/4 the way sown the pin./ Im also going to take a third profit at 1260 as recent highs , however Iām expecting price to break this level and make new highs to validate continuing uptrend. When this happens ill be targeting roughly 1275 area and using PA to manage the trade.
I dont know whether in your method you trade IBās but the EURKPY has formed one at NY close on the daily, with a string downtrend and a decent R/R. I will be taking position at the break of the mother bar.
Johnathon
Well I donāt think anyone saw that coming with gold :eek:
I was too busy to even look at charts this morning so couldnāt have a proper look at EUR/JPY. havenāt had much experience with IBs yet but will get to that chapter soon in āPring on Price patternsā.
I like the look of AUD/USD but itās NFP Friday tomorrow - which means Iāll take it on my crazy gambling (demo) account and not my main one
