I’ve been waiting to post this thread since I’ve had a bunch of losing trades since following the blog (?) BUT I think it is time. It’s now February and if I end up blowing my account from following their trade ideas… then so be it. But hopefully not lol.
If you’re new to my trading journal, I follow Chart Art trade ideas. I don’t follow all of their trade ideas though and I make sure to check if the trend is still valid by the time I see the post as sometimes I see their posts a full 6-8 hours later. My account size is small at $350 and I take about one to two trades per week, sometimes none if I don’t see any good setups/I’m busy with work.
Last year, I made 21% from following Chart Art trade ideas. This year is proving to be a lot more difficult. I have a bunch of losing trades so far and one of them without a stop loss My bad trading habits are finally catching up to me.
I will talk about the trades below as per usual and I will try to also keep a running table of how much I’ve made or lost…
Definitely to start using stop losses consistently LOL. I used to automatically add them in but after some trades that have turned back around (big loss then breakeven or even small profit), that made me think I could get away with it. Definitely a bad habit because I’m going against the trade plan I originally had.
All right. Finally ready to share some trades. I did run into a losing streak, probably the longest I’ve had ever. It was a streak of 6 losing trades. It basically almost killed all of my profits. Thankfully I’m now back to where I started lol.
Again, this is all just following trades from Chart Art. I’ll do my best to individually log them from here on out. I just didn’t feel like logging them when I was losing so much!
Here’s a look at all of the trades I put on beginning January:
It’s unbelievable how I spent 2 months basically doing nothing to my account lol.
I’m up 65 cents right now. That’s ridiculous right??
On one hand you think oh wow all that time for 65 cents but on the other, you’re like WELL at least you didn’t blow your account. Half glass full etc etc.
Some things to note from this spreadsheet:
My beautiful record breaking losing streak.
My silly revenge trade on EUR/AUD. You can see that I lost a minimal amount from the first trade but because I was so worried about my losing streak, I decided to gamble and go back in. That of course backfired and lost me EVEN MORE money. Lovely. I really should just leave trades alone once they’re done and have not gone my way.
My giant loss there is because once again, I didn’t set a stop loss. The hard part with having bad habits is that it’s so hard to get rid of them. I’ve gotten away many times with not using stop losses and trades just going back to where I initially hopped in but when it continues to go against you, man are you screwed.
I don’t have a trade open this week. Hopefully I’ll see some good setups from the blog in the coming days!
Does it make any difference to you if you show wins/losses in $0.00 vs %?
In my opinion, % is more understandable/relatable. Regardless of account size, 1% loss is 1% loss, 23% profit is 23% profit. Would you feel more comfortable talking about losses in %?
Maybe I’m just weird. haha
I saw the CAD/CHF loss on 1/17. That’s almost 6%. Ouch! I know that feeling. It has happened to me too. About two years ago, I was trading EUR/USD, and I was SO sure it was gonna go up. I was trading live at the time.
I was literally throwing money at it. I just kept adding and adding. Guess what? I was buying at the TOP! No bueno.
You’re not the only one to make mistakes. But, I’m not offering you solidarity in making mistakes. That would be reinforcing the mistake. Instead, I’d rather offer you solidarity in making improvements.
Keep analysing your mistakes and teach yourself to do better.
Are you using SLs consistently now?
I’m curious what strategy you’re using. Chart Art shows set ups. But based on what strategy? What’s the entry/exit signal?
Maybe you explained it already and I missed it. It looks like a combination of MAs and S/R trendlines Is that right?
You talked before about following your own strategy vs Chart Art. What are your thoughts on that now?
If you don’t want to share your strategy, that’s fine. But at least think about it on your own.
Ok. Just think about it. The simplest strategies are best, right? Doesn’t it sound a little confusing/over-complicated using three types of indicators?
Are YOU ok using their strategy? Are you doing your own analysis? Are you learning about identifying entry and exit signals?
Following their setups is a stepping stone to understand their strategy. But is that strategy best for YOU? Does it suit your personality?
If you follow their strategy, eventually you’re gonna morph it into your own thing. Just like the telephone game.
You put 20 people in a circle, and each person whispers a phrase into the next person’s ear. By the time the phrase reaches the first person, the phrase has changed completely. Same thing with following their strategy.
You have your own psychology to overcome. You can conquer your psychology and try to master their strategy, or you can go your own path and make it your own.
It’s up to you.
The bottom line is: are you learning and getting closer to consistent profitability?
Haven’t had time to individually log my trades again but I do have some updates. First though is a snapshot of the spreadsheet (still no account percentages, hopefully the next one will have it):
I’m glad I’m able to consistently place trades despite some days being very busy.
No losing streak this week.
There’s a significant loss there in EUR/JPY and that’s because yes, I didn’t set a stop loss. As you can tell by the next losses, they’re much better.
With stop losses also come the issue of just how tight it is. I had a losing trade in here because of a very tight SL I think it might have been USD/CAD. I was clearly acting out of fear and set it too tight. It got hit and went exactly the direction I was aiming lol.
I’ve never set TP limits but I’m thinking of starting since it seems they do get hit and by the time I see it, it’s already on its way down. Will experiment with this in the next trades.
It sucks that I still didn’t set a stop loss for one trade but I’m glad it’s just one trade instead of all trades. Ha. Half glass full etc etc.
Account is up about $1.64 right now lol. It’s bonkers that I’ve been trading since January and my account is up by not even $2. The painful lesson of not setting SLs.
I dont know how you calculate your position size but if you were aiming for a $2 risk and just had this one mistake of not setting a SL, then your spreadsheet looks great!
I am spending much time in front of my own spreadsheet, analysing. When i see yours this comes in my mind:
You had 3 wins, 3 losses and 2 trades around breakeven. Your hitting % is 50%. If you dont count this $0,73 as a win, your average win is $5,5. If you would have limited your risk around $2 your average winner would have been 2,75 times higher as your risk. you would have made $10,96 and if those $2 risk would be 1% of your account this would have been 5,48% in only seven trading days.
If this wasn´t an exeptionally good week this would mean 15,65% profit in a 20 day trading month.
I i were you i would be very confident and eager to use SLs in the future.
Definitely! I have changed! FOR NOW lol. Hopefully, I get to stick to this new habit for way longer!
Thanks for taking a closer look at my numbers! I have new trades to report. Not much though, it’s been a busy time both personal/work so haven’t had much spare time.
The EUR/USD trades have been wonderful. Sucks though because I did want to enter a short trade after I saw the trend reversing but unfortunately, I didn’t spot that trade idea on Chart Art so I didn’t take it. Gotta stick to the plan!
ALSO: how weird is it that after 3 big-ish wins, I’m now actually afraid to take more trades? I felt this way when I had that losing streak but I pushed past it but this time it’s like “well you made money, will you just lose it again?” Weird.
The whole banking fiasco did scare me though from opening new trades which is why I mostly just sat and watched. Hopefully, this week I can return to taking at least 2 trades per week.
Account update: it’s now at $407!
A reminder that my account started at $300 in 2022 and by the end of that year, I was at about $370. All of it from just following Chart Art here on babypips.
So for this year I’m up about 9%. Considering that I thought I was going to have deep deep losses from my seemingly unending losing streak, this is not bad at all!
I know this feeling. I tend to skip trading sessions or end trading months early because i am satisfied with my profits and scared to give them back. It really is a luxury problem. But it is one of my current flaws i want to work at.
Is this really bad though? It’s strange right, like either way it feels like it’s fueled by greed. Whether we’re satisfied and keep going it’s because we want to keep what we made and if we want to keep trading, it’s because we want more. I could mask it as wanting to keep “practicing” lol but I really just want to make more money haha. And maybe I should be fine accepting that instead of feeling bad about it!
Thank you! I have! But not sure by how much. Maybe a total account size of $500-$700? $1,000 sounds great but might be too drastic for me that I’ll start behaving differently.
You are right. We dont have to feel bad about it. As i said, it is a luxury problem.
But like you i want more money . And if we have an edge, more trades should equal more money. This is why i try to work my way around this fear of giving money back, because i want to be able to keep trading past my profit goal. But i really dont feel bad about it, i feel great to have such a problem.
Your scaling steps are up to you and your financial situation. Just dont scale up to quickly. You could also think about becoming a funded trader if your capital is not enough to scale up to a significant size.
Your goal could be to earn just enough money through a prop trading firm to start your own account.
My bad trading habits are finally catching up to me.
. And if we have an edge, more trades should equal more money. This is why i try to work my way around this fear of giving money back, because i want to be able to keep trading past my profit goal. But i really dont feel bad about it, i feel great to have such a problem.