Yup, I’m learning this. Took a while!
Nope I need to hear it. It is a problem.
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I’m wondering if I should do like a recap of news for myself, to remember what was going on in the market and stuff. Might help to understand what was going on in the world and the markets in general. I’ll think about it.
Last week.
26 trades
Won 20 out of 26,
77% win rate.
-2.82%
-664.4 pips
TP hits: 14
SL hits: 6
Manual Close winners: 6
Manual Close losers:
Avg Win: 13.30
Avg Loss: -155.05
Oh man, it was gearing up to be a great week. I was super excited. Hit 12 winners in a row. 15 out of 19 closed in profit.
And then I was on my phone and entered long on a pair I already had short position on that I was nursing. And bam! Down 400 pips. I scaled a bit out of that losing position earlier in the week, which is why my pip total is so bigly negative. But man, as soon as I entered the trade, I froze and then realized what I just did. FAT FAT FINGER. AGAIN!
Completely pissed. I was trying to get into a quick moving EURJPY trade. Mind wasn’t in the right place. FOMO trade for sure that bit me in the butt.
Basically gave back the previous week and then some.
What can I do but shake my head, tell myself to be more patient. ALWAYS ALWAYS check the chart. Zoom out, check positions. Maybe don’t open trades on mobile. Not sure about that one just yet. Learn from my mistake.
Definitely had longer holding times waiting for some trades to come around. It’s not for everybody. I’m locking up margin and paying interest. But it works for me.
But take out the big loser and my profit/loss does a full 180. Tough lesson.
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I agree with this one.
I think mobile trading is for when you are waiting for something very specific that can easily be seen on a phone—like a specific candle, or something.
Mobile phones’ screens are impractical for analysis, IMO.
But they’re tempting because they’re so convenient.
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That’s my fault. Trading from the couch! Stick to the computer.
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That’s too funny!
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Last week.
23 trades
Won 20 out of 23,
87% win rate.
+11.70
844.8 pips
TP hits: 10
SL hits: 2
Manual Close winners: 10
Manual Close losers: 1
Avg Win: 46.11
Avg Loss: -25.77
What a big turn around from the week before. It was a great week. I kept a closer eye on the charts more than normal, used more SLs when away from the charts and more TPs also, which didn’t always work for me. I let some trades run longer than I usual do, around resistance areas. Normally I exit early to lock in some profit.
And of course all the volatility in the markets has helped a ton!
Some long term positions in GBPUSD is throwing off the avg hold time chart. So that’s not really saying anything about the short trades.
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Congratulations! Great job!
Keep going. I’m enjoying your journal.
Why the change? Did you just wanna try giving your trades a little more breathing room?
That’s it exactly. I think maybe Theodore mentioned something one time about noobs cutting trades too early. Yea, I think I do that way too much, but it’s “locking in profit!”. You know the saying. Don’t know how many other times I thought “I’ll let this ride longer” only to have the trade completely turn around on me and end with a loss.
But it’s like, anything above like 20-30 pips in profit I get scared of a quick change in direction. So I’m really trying to watch market structure, watch my channels. trendlines, supply and demand zones/order blocks/FVGs, and boy, really work on patience. I’m getting better, but still make mistakes weekly, FOMOing into what I think is a good setup, and all I needed to do was take a step back and look at my supporting evidence (or lack of it really).
How about you, how do you set targets?
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Last week.
22 trades
Won 17 out of 22,
77% win rate.
+4.60
352.2 pips
TP hits: 14
SL hits: 3
Manual Close winners: 3
Manual Close losers: 2
Avg Win: 27.38
Avg Loss: -22.64
Man, solid week. Not like the week before but I got some older trades I was managing closed out in profit, and then some that still are in the red - EURUSD and EURJPY shorts! I really wonder if the EUR will climb some more. It might be back into it’s upward trend from before the election last year. Hopefully not and I get a chance to close out some positions.
As you can see above, trading a little bit of everything. And like the previous week, some old positions (GBPUSD) are jacking up the average holding time stats.
I had 5 out of the 22 trades last longer than 1 day. The longest was 6 days, got me 19 pips (I’ll take it!), but it was only profitable for like 5% of the entire trade life.
I’m not sure if I’m seeing any trends in the “time profitable” stat just yet. It’s all over the place for the winners. Only the loser side, none of my losers cracked over the 40% time profitable. I had losers last 12 min all the way up to 2 days.
And my biggest winner, 52 pips, was down 74 pips at one point.
So still working on figuring what stats are actually important, other than average win size/loss size, win rate% and profit/gain.
If any readers want to share what they look at, sweet!
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I used to set TPs, but not any longer. Now, I just read the candles. However, no strategy can supplement patience.
A problem I have is that my trades last days, weeks, and in rare cases, months.
Because the trades last so long, there are so many opportunities to overanalyze. Not every candle means something.
That might be hardest part of all this, the patience part.
I actually had a couple trades last over a month. I mean, with those trades I didn’t want to realize the loss. Is that a strategy or part of a winning strategy? Probably not. But I got those trades turned around. But holding those positions open took away margin. And I guess it also took away the chance to take other trades that probably had a better chance of being profitable.
Yea analysis paralysis. I got to think about that last part though.
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