hi Bittersea,
I couldn’t agree with you more on the perfecting your strategy, perhaps if you took off some profit from your trade before setting sl to break even and letting the remainder run, you could bank more of your work. Just a thought.
John
Hi John,
Have you were subscribed to ICT? 
Yeah taking a portion of the profit early is a consideration for the system. I want to be more structured with my trading and start setting up entries ahead of time. That way I can better evaluate my performance.
Once I nail it all down I will post in the journal.
Bitters
Hi Bitters,
I have worked through much of his work, which I find excellent but for me too much intra day trading, which I cannot do because of work commitments. I am going to refresh his long term analysis though.
John
Agreed, I am more of a swing to day trader myself. I’ve started looking through his vids but there’s a lot of information to absorb.
Hello Trading Journal,
Ok exams are over and I am very pleased to get back to work (trading I mean). Like most wannabe full time traders, my actual job resides within a life sucking abyss that will eventually kill me!!!
The last couple of weeks of November I wasn’t heavily trading but I did find time to lose money and got slapped in the face by my AUD/USD trade. Luckily I closed it on Friday’s low which was within a reasonable SL. - There is a lesson learned here!
[B]Last two weeks:[/B]
Weekly review - 19/11 to 30/11/2012
Total number of trades: [B]7[/B]
Net ROIC: [B]-5.8%[/B]
Including the carrying loss on the AUD/USD trades the Net ROIC becomes: [B]-8.2%[/B]
Trades with gains: [B]4[/B]
ROTC: [B]+9.0%[/B]
ROIC: [B]+4.8%[/B]
Trades with losses: [B]3[/B]
ROTC: [B]-23.1%[/B]
ROIC: [B]-10.6%[/B]
Breakdown of Trades with ROTC:
AUD/USD: Closed - <1% gain (scalp)
AUD/USD: Breakeven stop hit - 15.1% gain*
AUD/USD: Manually closed within SL - 17.8% loss
AUD/USD: Manually closed within SL - 14.9% loss
GBP/JPY: SL hit - 36.5% loss
*Trade includes more than one entry/trade. Not separated because same trade rationale used and increased position taken. In addition scalps have been combined when appropriate.
ROTC (return on trade capital) - For use in this journal only, represents the margin required to enter the trade. The idea been that the capital becomes restricted and can not be used to make another trade. Hence, return on trade capital employed to make the trade. Calc: Return on trade / individual trade capital.
ROIC (return on invested capital) - For use in this journal only, represents return divided by the total of all margins (invested/restricted cash). Calc: Return on trades / total invested capital.
[B]Here’s November’s summary:[/B]
I was profitable!
Net ROIC: [B]13.8%[/B]
Including the carry trade loss/gain: [B]13.3%[/B]
Positive
ROTC: [B]16.0%[/B]
ROIC: [B]15.4%[/B]
Negative:
ROTC: [B]-42.9%[/B]
ROIC: [B]-1.6%[/B]
After analysing November’s performance it shows I traded AUD/USD the most and although I was profitable (net) on this pair, my ROTC and ROIC were both less than 1%. Thus, trading this pair more didn’t improve my account and it was basically a break even result. My negative ROTC was -42.9% which means my SL’s were not tight enough. Really if I am sticking to my trading plan this shouldn’t exceed 30%. Without my EUR/JPY and CAD/JPY trades, my overall performance would have been around break even or a slight loss.
Given the amount of time and effort put into trading, this is a pretty poor result. I want to get to a place where more trades are profitable than not, rather than getting two goods trades that put me ahead. The analysis above was pretty quick and rough and I am certain if I looked into my performance further, it would show more negatives than positives.
Goal for this month: Aim for a good 10 trades a week. I am working on my trading strategy now and I am hoping this will yield better results.
Come on December!!
Bitters
Considering going Long on AUD/CHF at around 0.96 post RBA monetary policy meeting tomorrow. Obviously this trade depends on the RBA rate decision tomorrow. If rates remain unchanged we should get a bounce from 0.96 if the 25bp rate cut happens the pair should decline but I am expecting the bounce soon. Will be looking for some supportive candlesticks.
My gut says it’s going to go down tomorrow even further… We’ll watch the numbers after the meeting tomorrow. Currently even on the 4H, the chart shows downtrend so maybe .955 might be the way to enter? I’ll check again when London opens.
Best of luck in December! Winter break will allow us to trade some more!
We will have to wait and see, I don’t see a trade yet but with the right candlesticks driven by the rate decision…
Yeah good luck to you also mate. It’s a summer break for me so I’ll be leaving the charts alone in place of surf, beers, BBQ, and bikinis! 
I still cant trade because GFT is moving my account to the UK, they said it would take 24hrs max but now they say it could take 48hrs, so I wont be trading till this time tomorrow <head shakes>. As a result, I am putting some time into my trading education.
please send some pictures of the last item (bikinis)
As part of my ongoing Forex Education, I am enjoying Nikitafx’s thread: pure price action for dummies.
http://forums.babypips.com/newbie-island/39634-pure-price-action-dummies.html
I still cant trade, but here’s a trade setup I am watching:
EUR/USD trade:
Swing/Day trade
Long or Short: Short
Entry Point: 1.31532
Profit Point: 1.30154
Stop Loss: 1.31850
Risk Level: 3% of account
Trade Explanation: Previous support/resistance with weekly chart close to oversold stochastic, in addition also right on 38.2 Fib level. Would enter on supportive candlestick formation. 
Another
GBP/USD trade:
Swing/Day trade
Long or Short: Short
Entry Point: 1.60900 or now at market
Profit Point: 1.60045
Stop Loss: 1.61350
Risk Level: 3% of account
Trade Explanation: Nice doji yesterday with yesterday’s high peaking at previous resistance. Entry is at 61.8 Fib level. Move SL to 1.60800 once move happens for BE. Exit is at major support, if it breaks through consider trail SL near 1.59338.
Another
USD/JPY trade: Range trade
Day trade
Long or Short: Long (only)
Entry Point: 81.734
Profit Point: 82.354 (trail stop here)
Stop Loss: 81.509
Risk Level: 3% of account
Trade Explanation: I think this pair is going to trade in a tight range in the short term until it eventually breaks up to 83.549 (major resistance).
Last
NZD/USD trade:
Swing trade
Long or Short: Short
Entry Point: 0.82476 (market)
Profit Point: 0.8074
Stop Loss: 0.82770
Risk Level: 3% of account
Trade Explanation: NZD/USD has been stuck in a slight downward channel for a while now. This short is at the current top of the channel. 4 hour candlesticks showing rising star, doji, doji and hanging man. This looks ready to drop.
Hi Bitters,
I placed my short on gu last night, waited for eu to follow. Will probably go short tonight on eu also. From my posting earlier, this could go right down, taking the previous low out or reverse up just above it making a nice swing low for an elliott wave 1,2 possibly. Needs watching like a hawk though.
Nikitafx is a great thread for pur price action.
John
Agreed mate, she paints a simple picture to follow. Extremely clever lady. How is the COT data matching up?
Bitters
Cot data for last week is bullish for both eu & gu, but could just be a retracement of the higher time frame downtrend, only use it as an indicator. Need to see this week’s to either confirm bullish or retrace. Graphs posted on my thread.
John
Ok getting back to business next week! I am also considering opening up another account with a second broker.
The trades I posted above I played out in demo. I ended up spotting an earlier entry on the EURO and took it right after my post above.
If I had of traded for real I would have made 100% profit on my EUR/USD, GBP/USD trades, stopped out on my NZD/USD trade and the YEN trade was never triggered.
100% gain
100% gain
30% loss
A profitable week! Too bad it was in demo.
Bitters
I’ve made some recent posts about keeping my focus and remaining disciplined when it comes to trading. Well I think the rest of my life needs a bit of that too.
Last night I was out till 4:30 drinking and smoking, special thanks to the lovely establishments in Sydney!
Going to start training from today so that means no more binge drinking, eating chocolate, drinking coke, and definitely no more [B]social smoking[/B] :46:… its rowing, weights, carrots and wholemeal bread from now till xmas than its back to work!
Life is all about balance!:35:
Going to wake up tomorrow at 6am do some laps, hit the gym and spent two solid hours analysing the charts. Then I am going to write my rules and trading strategy down. Then I won’t do anything related to forex for the remainder of the day.
Inserting Trading Strategy here
If anyone is keen on spicing up their forex life with a bit of equity trading, there’s a pretty sweet setup on the ASX to short Westpac shares (ASX: WBC).
A nice tweezer top formation right at an area of key resistance. Westpac’s net profit was down yoy and although I don’t really follow the bank’s releases, I imagine dividends have already been declared and possibly paid. Thus, the market is probably losing interest in this boring blue chip share now.
N.B. I won’t be taking this trade. I am completely focused and consumed by FX!