Hello everyone at Babypips.com!
First I’d like to express my gratitude to everyone who has contributed to the forums, providing great advice for the newer traders. I myself have certainly learned a lot by being a part of the forum and going through the BabyPips School. After spending a few years learning on and off, I have finally come to a place of solid commitment towards learning how to trade within the foreign currency exchange markets. I have been re-learning that which I had been learning and have added to my currency trading understanding since this summer, demo trading until consistently profitable.
I can honestly say that I have been profitable demo trading and have now begun my life as a retail currency trader. Being a grad student I find this to be extremely rewarding as I get to optimize study time, while earning the income of any part time job I could have.
The goal of this journal is to give myself a place to log my trades, dialogue about the psychology of my trades, discuss the progress of my trading career, and ultimately become a more active member of the BabyPips community. I welcome anyone who sees my trading journal to leave a comment, or discuss my trades with me! I always appreciate feed back.
Thanks,
David
I have been live trading since October 9, 2012. Here is a history of my trades thus far.
Oct. 7-12:
Long AUD/JPY @ 79.915 - closed @ 80.619. +70.3 pips
Long EUR/USD @ 1.2860 - closed @ 1.2941. +81 pips
Long EUR/USD @ 1.29302 - closed @ 1.29303. +0.1 pips (even the small wins are victories)
Oct. 14-19:
Short GBP/JPY @ 127.40 - closed @ 126.953. +44.7 pips
Short AUD/USD @ 1.0380 - closed @ 1.03242. +55.8 pips
Short EUR/JPY @ 103.682 - closed @ 103.264. +41.8 pips
Pips-to-Date: 293.7 pips
Win%-to-Date: 100%
As I continue taking trades I’ll begin to post charts and explain why I am entering the trade. I use a combination of price-action and areas of confluence to give me high probability entry signals.
Two beautiful set-ups have occurred on the USD/CAD and the AUD/CAD. Both of the formed Pin-Bar price action at levels of resistance, 150EMA level, and FIB retracement. This is quite the triple-threat of confluence + Price Action. I’m looking forward to seeing how these trades pan out.
Entries:
Short USD/CAD @ 0.99196
Short AUD/CAD @ 1.02584
Currently they are retracing more than I had anticipated (which happens more than not for me). Nothing to worry about though as this is to be expected to one degree or another.
USD/CAD Setup:
AUD/CAD Setup:
I’m expecting both trades to give me a moderit profit and if not, I have a tight stop loss of 30 pips that will ensure I don’t stay in a losing trade for too long.
I’ll keep you posted,
David
What an interesting night in the markets for my trades. I saw some initial profits, then series retracement and due to some favorable economic news for the CAD, I found one of my trades hit my take profit. However, before my USD/CAD trade went to what would have been profitable regions, it hit my stop loss and I was closed out of the trade.
Preliminary summary week of Oct. 21-26:
Short USD/CAD @ 0.99196 - Closed @ 0.99650. (-) 45.6 pips.
Short AUD/CAD @ 1.02431 - Closed @ 1.01800. (+) 63.1 pips.
The greatest lesson I learned through this is to stick to your original analysis. It’s harder to stay objective once you’re in a trade. It is certainly possible to stay objective once in a trade, and have found times that adjusting my initial stop loss, or take profit was necessary and proved profitable. However, as a general rule of thumb I have found the old adage of trust your original answer will be better than changing it two or three more times. Well, it at least worked in high school.
Week’s Net Pips: 17.5 pips
Pips-to-Date: 311.2 pips
Win%-to-Date: 87.5%
Thanks,
David
