Great question. Not really, actually! I think it’s largely because I’m so focused on getting wins from this “scheme” I’m following. I think I’ll only truly consider it once I’m following my own strategy.
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In hindsight I really shouldn’t have taken this trade. Just because I haven’t traded in a long time doesn’t mean I need to put in a trade for the first “decent” setup I see. If I have a tiny shred of doubt about a trade, I really shouldn’t take it.
In the end this trade cost me $32. 
My account is now back down to $381. I mean I’m still up 27% but still, that’s a decent dent.
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Tried to short at 1.35, USDCAD now at 1.36, never even moved below it lol. So it’s good that I set that SL but also I really shouldn’t have forced this trade.
Just seen your journal from this post. It’s a great one, keep going.
Cheer!
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It’s been a while since I logged my trades, I should be doing this more regulary but to be honest, I’m not as excited to log losing trades.
This one was a short AUD/CAD trade, it just didn’t go as planned. I didn’t feel like I forced this one, it was just like that. a losing trade. Oh well. Total loss for this is $0.18. Nowhere near as bad as my last trade… And I could def have lost more.
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I know that feeling. haha Keep going!!
Think of it as medicine.
A nasty-tasting one lol not even flavored 
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Ok finally logging a winning trade. It feels like it’s been forever.
This one’s a long NZD/USD trade from November 4 based on an ascending channel / SMA crossover.
Picked up $8 from this trade - literally closed it an hour later after it hit my TP.
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Now posting a huge loss, probably the most ever since I started this journal and might be ever. A $37 loss. Ouch. A short GBP/JPY trade that didn’t work out because… fundamentals… J Powell… interest rates… etc.
I feel like at this point, I’m ready to take all the blame for my trades aka not follow any trade ideas but also part of me is asking whether I’m just doing this because of recent losing trades and that if I were making money I’d probably not even be thinking of switching. So… I think I may stick to this for a few more trades and then move on. I don’t want to make decisions based on current emotions.
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Is there any particular lesson you learn from these trades? Maybe regarding TA, fear, SL placement, or greed?
Anything like that?
By the way, I never asked but was this live or demo? I imagine live…
Yup, live!
Hmm. I keep relearning lessons on greed but I think for this particular run, my problem is forcing trades just so I have a trade on. On the other hand, I also feel like it’s an accountability issue, aka if it’s a bad trade then I tell myself it’s because I forced it but did I really? Or am I just saying that instead of admitting that I took the trade and it didn’t go my way and that’s ok!
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I think this is a common problem, perhaps for different reasons, though. It may just boil down to FOMO. Why else would we force a trade, if not for the fear of missing out on some big move we think is coming?
I’ve been trading less these last few days. Just being patient and waiting for the trade to come to me. It’s not easy, but it’s quite a relief to trade less.
And when I say trading less, it doesn’t mean I’m watching the charts less, or I skip days or something. It just means that I’m trying to wait for valid signals, and if I have to wait a week, so be it.
I just look at it like this. Look at all your losing trades for the past six months. If your account is lower, then technically it would have been more profitable to wait for just ONE proper signal, than to take all those other trades.
What do you think?
I think you don’t need to complain yourself about a bad trade since it couldn’t change the fact, just take note for every trade that you take then keep review it until you can have the lesson. We can learn a lot from bad trade to make a better trade next time.
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Yup this is correct. If I see charts move a certain way I’m like, “well I could have taken THAT trade, I was thinking about that!”
Yup. For me it was that one significant loss that bugs me.
This is correct. Hard to think of it this way when you just recently experienced it. 
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What happened in that loss?
Right. Take a few minutes to decompress, then get back on the horse. Use losses as stepping stones to better trading.
A wrap up post for the Chart Art Trading Journal.
Here’s a look at the breakdown of trades. I started this journal in May of last year with about 2 months of no trading done (lots going back in August/Sept). This was about 15 trades, averaging of about 2-3 per month.
My account was at $300 when I started this (I had been trading with the same amount a year before but with no actual strategy. I got it up to about $400 and then lost $100 because of a series of losing trades. But hey I didn’t blow my account!)
So at $64 total profit, this was a 21% gain! 15 trades within 6 months. Just following trade posts from Chart Art.
I mean, looking at what happened to the markets last year, this is a HUGE win. I should have put more money into this account lol.
I think I’ve said before that I should start working on my own strategy but now looking at this more objectively, this wasn’t bad at all!
Pros of doing this is def that I don’t have to spend too much time looking for trades. I just look at what the featured pairs are for the day and decide if I want to take them. It takes literally maybe 5 minutes. The con of course is that it isn’t “my” strategy and when it doesn’t work I tend to regret following someone’s trade ideas.
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A great confirmation as to the value of Babypips and their authors!
Congratulations!
That must be nice! That’s more free time for you! I prefer 5 minutes to staring at charts all day. That’s the same thing as a job.
But no strategy is perfect, right? I think you’ll encounter this with every strategy, don’t you think?
What I think is great about this post is the comparison of $ return vs % return. If you said to someone I made $64 in 6 months, they would say you are wasting your time. If you said that you made a return of 21% in 6 months, people would be queuing up to find out what you are doing. Focus on the % not the $. The $ will take care of itself and gradually increase as your account balance increases.
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Hey all! This is great! Many congrats on such a huge gain!
I am just newly starting and because don’t know much, I am simply going through the site’s school. Is there anything else I can add to my system to learn to be a forex trader?
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