First trade the week!
GBP/NZD trade:
Swing trade
Long or Short: Long
Entry Point: 1.9131 (market)
Profit Point: 1.9400
Stop Loss: 1.9080 (already moved to BE 1.9131)
Risk Level: 7% of account (Stop now BE)
Rationale:
Inverted hammer from last Friday in strong support zone. Stochastic showing oversold. I have other reasons to support this trade but my analysis is on my other computer (will update later).
So I’ve been messing around with a few different strategies on demo and one of those strategies is the ‘carry trade’. One standard lot USD/RUB has earned $135.00 over the past 9 days. The trade itself has also been positive and if closed now would return $300.00.
It does make for an interesting consideration as part of my overall trading plan. Obviously the RUB is an exotic currency and with other factors included, trading this currency pair could be dangerous to my account balance. However, it doesn’t look to be too volatile so the carry trade maybe the best way to get a piece of this pair.
In addition, I’ve also shorted USD/ZAR (South African Rand) and this has resulted in a carry trade return of $121.50 and if sold now a return of $2,510.00. Now that’s a great trade!!! too bad it was on demo.
I am just messing around with this stuff at the moment and I performed zero analysis on this two trades before taking a position so maybe this would be a bit different putting this into a real life trading scenario.
:38:
Bitters
Trade closed at 1.94305.
ROTC: 238.8% (almost 300pips on first entry)*:18:
*Trade includes more than one entry/trade. Not separated because same trade rationale used and increased position taken.
Hey Babypips folks,
So I wanted to get some more trades in this week but with balancing work and play, I just didn’t have time to really analyse the charts and I don’t want to trade tired, hungover or in a combination of the two. There were some missed opportunities earlier on in the week and I am seeing a couple trades manifest right now. However, I don’t want to hold any trades over the Christmas break so this will probably be my 2012 sign off.
I’ll provide a break down of this years performance soon.
Bitters
Hi All,
So here it is, my world of trading forex summarised into one page.
I joined the forex elite in early Jan of 2012. I had previously spent probably no more than a month trading demo and shortly after I had it all figured out. I remember having that Kevin Spacey “American Beauty” [B]dream[/B] moment of telling the corporate world to shove it and never looking back! Of course that never happened and going back over my trading results for the past year its interesting and not surprising to see why.
[B]It begins…[/B]
My first trade was on the 06/01/2012 when I sold AUD/JPY for a small profit. I remember having that rush of jumping in and out of the market, scalping and day trading. Forex was easy money and it required almost zero effort on my part. On that day I made 32 trades (I know, wow!!). When compared to the amount of analysis I perform these days, I saw forex completely differently. I don’t think I’ve done anywhere near 64 trades in the pass 2 months let alone 1 day.
Now, given my total lack of knowledge and understanding of the markets, and constant jumping in and out of trades. You would expect me to lose all my money that first day. Unfortunately for me, I grew my account in one day by 23.1%. I than proceeded to make 56 more trades until the 09/01/2012 when my account peaked. In basically 2 days of trading (over the wkd) I had now grown my account by 97.7%. [B]Doubled my account in two trading days!!! [/B]You can imagine that I was already adding the bazillions of dollars that I would have to spend in no time at all…
I previously said
Unfortunately for me, I grew my account in one day by 23.1%
. This was unfortunate because it gave me the false belief that money could easily be made in forex and losses were quickly recovered.
[B]Now begins the true lesson of forex trading…[/B]
My account peaked on the 09/01/2012 but was in the red by the 10/01/2012. Yes I lost all my winnings and by COB on the 10th of January, my account / initial deposit was now down by 13.8%. I went up and down throughout Jan but by the 17/01/2012 my losing streak had begun and it would not change this negative direction until the 02/11/2012. By this time my initial deposit had increased by 4 times and I had blown my account at least twice. As at 02/11/2012 I had lost [I]*bleep[/I] of the cash I had “invested” in trading.
[B]The beginning of this Journal[/B]
Over the past two months I have documented my trading in this journal as a way to learn from past mistakes and to sanity check my trading. I am happy to say that as of today the 22 December 2012, my account has improved and I am now at “only” a [I]*bleep[/I] loss for the year. The past two months I have been profitable and I am hoping that I can continue to trade my way back in 2013 and be successful.
The reasons for losing money over the course of the year changed as I learned more about forex and more about myself. I probably could have turned this losing streak around much earlier if I stuck to “smart trading” and had not constantly attempted to win my losses back faster after I made a couple good trades. Hence why I made this journal. In addition, the amount of risk I now take has significantly decreased and I now look for trades with larger reward ratios.
N.B. I bleeped out the losses because its not my intention to ever write in this journal when I reach break even status or when I become a full time profitable trader. When I reach that final goal, I will simply close this journal and write “Thanks for taking the time to read my story”.
Bitters
Happy New Years bud. Good luck in 2013! You had some good runs in 2012!!
Thanks bro, likewise GL for 2013. I am gearing to get back into the market either this Friday or Monday next week, how’s you’re trading going?
Bitters
Hey bud,
I actually stepped out of trading the month of December. As we were getting closer and closer to the fiscal cliff I was afraid of what the consequences were. Now that everything has been resolved and now we can begin trading again. I’m going to be doing analysis over the weekend and see what we can settle for on Monday. Maybe we can compare this weekend.
Have a wonderful one!
Lets get 2013 rolling with some pips!
In the later part of 2012, I moved into more swing trading style as opposed to other trading methods. However I’ve decided to kick off 2013 by putting on my day trading cap to see if I can improve on last year’s results.
As always I will trade using technical analyse whilst maintaining a good awareness of the fundamental drivers in the market.
My day trading technical analyse will focus on the use of the weekly chart for trend awareness, the day and 4 hr chart for price action/entry and exit areas, and the 15min chart for more efficient entries.
Entries and exits will be based around the use of support and resistance and Fibonacci retracement.
I will make use of stochastic and RSI for weekly/daily trend reversal confirmation only. - this is more relevant to my swing trading.
Entries will not be actioned without a second confirmation from a correlation currency e.g. EUR/USD & USD/CHF.
N.B. I will reduce my trade risk to a smaller percentage of my account given I will be trading more with weaker signals. My swing trading will likely continue to be in a range of 2% to 6% (+ compounding) whilst Day will be between 1% to 3% (max)
Bitters
GBP/USD trade:
Day trade
Long or Short: Long
Entry Point: 1.60551 (market)
Profit Point: 1.6160
Stop Loss: 1.60350
Risk Level: 4% of account
Rationale:
After the recent decline I am taking this trade given I believe we should get a small retrace. In addition we have a nice hammer on the daily chart from last Friday. The confirmation of this hammer is currently in dispute given GBP/USD has declined today rather than increased. I don’t believe the retrace is an unrealistic target however I am keeping my SL tight.
Haha well that trade didn’t last long! Not a great start to 2013 but a good reminder/lesson none the less.
Hey, sorry about that 
Maybe SL was too tight? I just looked at the chart I noticed the potential support on the 1H chart at 1.6013. It was the lows of Dec 10 & Jan 4.
Darn bud,
I was hoping that your SL was not so tight.
This was my trade
GBP/USD:
Entry: 1.60566
TP: 1.61699
SL: 1.60038
Currently up 40 pips. Wish me luck
Thanks guys, yeah there were a few things wrong with this trade. A tight SL been one of them. Its ok had a mental barrier to break, now its time to make some $$$$ 
Good luck to you both!
“While the other guy’s sleeping, I’am working. When he’s getting ready, I’am ready.”
EUR/USD trade:
Day trade
Long or Short: Short or long
Entry Point: 1.31203 (market)
Profit Point: 1.30485 or 1.32425
Stop Loss: 1.31392 or 1.31070
Risk Level: 2% of account
Rationale:
I would prefer to wait for the daily close before making this trade however I am waiting to see the results of the EUR retail trade report. If price busts pass 1.31450 I will go long on this pair but if it drops pass today’s low I will short the pair. The weekly chart is showing that price is currently holding on an upward trend line so trading against this is risky but I am liking the long legged doji (spinning top) on the 4 hour chart. Price is currently holding at a minor/major fib level so lets wait and see :33:
Bitters
AUD/USD
Day trade
Long or Short: Short
Entry Point: 1.05041 (market)
Profit Point: 1.04775
Stop Loss: 1.05210
Risk Level: 2% of account
EUR/USD
Day trade
Long or Short: Short
Entry Point: 1.31000 (market)
Profit Point: 1.30450
Stop Loss: 1.31405
Risk Level: 2% of account
Both moved to break even status. Unfortunately AUD/USD touched on my profit point but didnt close out and EUR/USD didnt make it that far south. I’ve decided to hold on to these trades and give them a chance to continue their fall. However PA is telling me that these will probably rebound back to my entries thus both trades are at BE.
EDIT
AUD/USD closed out this morning at BE.
EUR/USD closed for 10 pip gain
GBP/NZD - dropping back into previous support. Last month I made some good pips off this pair and I am hoping to do the same again. Looking to buy when I see some PA resistance on the daily.
Area of Interest: 1.9000 zone
AUD/JPY - We have a hanging man, followed by a shooting star, and a confirmation of a down move. Price is currently sitting at 91.33 and I am wondering if this is the beginning of a big down move or just a retrace before a continuing of the uptrend. Either way I want to jump into this market and will be looking for the break of 91.00 or price action support. Will be having a hard look at correlated pairs to determine the direction of this market.
Area of Interest: 91.00 zone
AUD/USD - Does anyone remember when the Aussie use to trend upwards for a while and then downwards for a while?? Its been stuck in the 1.06 / parity range since July 2012. Maybe its time for a breakout. Looks like we have a reverse head and shoulders setup but its not particularly strong. So this will either be a buy or short at at 1.06.
Area of Interest: 1.06 zone
CAD/CHF - Price has been in a downtrend since August and price is currently sitting at the top of the trendline. On the flip side there is plenty of support in this area given it was a previous resistance for the first half of 2012. Looking for price action confirmation for the short or long position.
Area of Interest: 0.9300 - 0.9400
EUR/USD - That upward trendline is holding fast. Waiting for the break downwards to short this pair but it would mostly be short term trading for now.
Area of Interest: 1.3000
GBP/USD - Shorting the 1.6000 break to previous 1.5800 support. Still waiting for the double top formed on the daily to give us some action.
Area of Interest: 1.6000
NZD/CAD - Can the upward trend zone take this pair to the 0.8450 level? Currently watching the price action signals on this pair and I am thinking that we might lose momentum before that happens.
Area of Interest: 0.8250
Was just doing some price action analyse on the lower time frames and I was proved correct a moment ago however lost my nerve at the last moment. Unfortunate, I would have made some good coin on that trade rather than throwing cash away. But serves me right, I shouldn’t be scalping until I am totally proficient in the larger time frames and if I am scalping it should be with lower gearing / risk so I don’t have the watch the chart like a hawk.
