Cowabunga System - jas0992's Journal

[jas0992]

In this thread, I will try to post my trades done using Cowabunga System. I am a very new trader and I want to give this system a try to see if it works for me. I think I am very undisciplined and I’m hoping this journal will also help me stay disciplined.

Cowabunga System is NOT my system and all credit goes to original creator who goes by the name of Pip Surfer. Read about the Cowabunga System HERE and read its FAQs HERE.

The purpose of this thread is so I can post my trades and try to stay disciplined. And anyone else who is interested in this system can gain some insight. All constructive criticism will be appreciated.

I follow all the rules of the system except TP and SL. For TP, I set the recent swing high and recent swing low for SL and I try to keep the RvR 1:1 or better (sometimes I can’t keep it 1:1 because my broker won’t allow it - they don’t let me put SL “too close” to entry price). I try to control emotions but I have seen that I sometimes intervene and exit the trade manually before SL is hit when I see it going against me.

I have done numerous trades over the past couple of weeks with this system but the journal starts from April 1st, 2018 and I will try to keep it updated.

P.S. For now, I am trading in a Zero Spread environment only and each trade has a 50,000 quantity of the instrument I am trading. Creator of the system uses it for GBPUSD only but I will be using it for GBPUSD, USDJPY, USDCHF, USDCAD and EURUSD.

[jas0992]

April 02, 2018

Trade # 1
USDJPY Zero Spread
Result: Lose

Direction: Long
Time in trade: 14 minutes
Exit execution: Manual
Pip result: -3.9
Entry @ 106.355 @ 11:47. 02 Apr
Exit @ 106.316 @ 12:01. 02 Apr

4H

The vertical line shows the entry candle. 5 EMA had just crossed above 10 EMA. Stochastic was trending up. RSI was 50+. Valid to look for long trades only.

15M

The vertical line shows where I entered the trade. On the 15M chart, all indicators provided valid entry signal at that moment. 5 EMA just crossed above 10 EMA. Negative MACD was increasing in value and moving toward going positive. Stochastic was trending up. RSI was above 50.

I entered and the trade started to go against me. I had to leave my desk and SL was too far away and I feared I would lose a lot if the trade kept going against me so I exited manually and made a loss of 3.9 pips. I didn’t do well following the rules in this trade.

Today’s final pip result = -3.9

[jas0992]

April 03, 2018

Trade # 1
USDJPY Zero Spread
Result: Win

Direction: Short
Time in trade: 2:31 hours
Exit execution: TP
Pip result: +14.6
Entry @ 105.863 @ 03:01. 03 Apr
Exit @ 105.717 @ 05:30. 03 Apr

4H

The 5 EMA was below 10 EMA. Stochastics was trending down. RSI was below 50. Valid conditions for short entry opportunities.

15M

The vertical line shows entry candle. 5 EMA had crossed below 10 EMA a couple of candles back. Positive MACD was losing value. Stochastic was trending down. RSI was below 50. All indicators provided valid entry signal.

The red horizontal line was SL and green horizontal line was TP. TP was set just above recent swing low (to keep it a bit safer) and SL was set for the equal amount which was almost the recent swing high. I think luck played a good part in winning this trade because as it can be seen, the wick of the candle at 05:30 barely touched the green line, hence, triggering TP. If TP hadn’t triggered there, the price went up to above the red line.

Today’s final pip result = +14.6

[jas0992]

April 04, 2018

Trade # 1
USDCHF Zero Spread
Result: Breakeven

Direction: Long
Time in trade: 28 minutes
Exit execution: TP (breakeven)
Pip result: +0
Entry @ 0.95818 @ 10:27. 04 Apr
Exit @ 0.95818 @ 10:55. 04 Apr

4H

4H chart was providing valid entry for long. But the last few candles were red, and I feared that the trend might be reversing. But I didn’t pay too much attention to it when I entered because all indicators were providing valid entry for long.

15M

Uploading…

All indicators provided valid entry signal. EMA crossover just took place, MACD just turned positive, RSI was above 50 and stochastics was trending up. I entered. But the trade didn’t seem to go in the favor and because I had already feared that the 4H trend might be reversing, I exited the trade at breakeven.

Trade # 2
GBPUSD Zero Spread
Result: Loss

Direction: Long
Time in trade: 1:02 hours
Exit execution: TP (breakeven)
Pip result: -18
Entry @ 1.40823 @ 13:19. 04 Apr
Exit @ 1.40643 @ 14:22. 04 Apr

4H

The black dot above the second last candle shows my entry candle. The 5 EMA was above the 10 EMA. RSI was above 50 and stochastics was trending up. All indicators indicated uptrend.

15M

On the 15M chart, the crossover had just taken place one candle back. MACD was about to turn positive, stochastics was clearly trending up and RSI was above. The trade rapidly turned against me and eventually hit SL at -18. This was a big loss. The mistake here was that RvR wasn’t equal, because the platform wasn’t letting me put SL anything lesser than -18. In that case, I should have monitored the trade and manually closed it when it hit the same amount of pips that were my TP and in that way I would have lost half the amount that I did in this trade.

Trade # 3
USDCHF Zero Spread
Result: Win

Direction: Long
Time in trade: 3:37 hours
Exit execution: TP
Pip result: +6.8
Entry @ 0.95858 @ 14:59. 04 Apr
Exit @ 0.95926 @ 18:38. 04 Apr

4H

The 5 EMA was above 10 EMA, stochastics was trending up and RSI was above 50. All indicators provided valid signal for long entries.

15M

The crossover had just taken place for long entry. Stochastics was trending up and RSI was above 50. After some up and down, TP was hit.

Today’s final pip result = -11.2

[jas0992]

April 05, 2018

Trade # 1
EURUSD Zero Spread
Result: Win
Direction: Short
Time in trade: 1:13 hours
Exit execution: Manual
Pip result: +4.1
Entry @ 1.22795 @ 09:26. 05 Apr
Exit @ 1.22754 @ 10:39. 05 Apr

I took two EURUSD short trades today. The three candles between the two vertical lines show the candles of my trades. The 4H chart was showing a downtrend, stochastics was trending down and RSI was below 50.

15M

So after 4H was validating short entry opportunities, I looked at 15M chart. At 09:26, I entered a short position as the crossover had just taken place, MACD had just turned negative, stochastics was trending down and RSI was below 50 and also facing down. Although RSI facing down does not seem to be a requirement in Cowabunga creator’s rules but I’ve noticed that it’s a bonus in terms of trade safety.

At 10:39, I felt the trade was starting to go against me so I manually exited with slight profit. But as you can see in the chart, if I had been patient, I could have scored some huge gains as right after I exited the trade, the price had a free fall.

Trade # 2
USDJPY Zero Spread
Result: Breakeven
Direction: Long
Time in trade: 1:37 hours
Exit execution: Manual
Pip result: +0.6
Entry @ 107.060 @ 11:40. 05 Apr
Exit @ 107.066 @ 13:17. 05 Apr

I took two USDJPY long trades. The first vertical line shows the first trade’s candle and the second line shows the second candle. All indicators showed valid long position opportunity on both entries.

15M

The EMA crossover just took place, MACD just turned positive, stochastic was trending up and RSI was above 50. All indicators confirmed valid entry. I entered and again exited prematurely fearing a loss. The two candles before my exit candle shows that price fell below my entry and I felt that it may not go up and I had to leave the desk so I exited just as soon as the price hit breakeven.

Trade # 3
EURUSD Zero Spread
Result: Win
Direction: Short
Time in trade: 1:29 hours
Exit execution: TP
Pip result: +21.5
Entry @ 1.22727 @ 15:16. 05 Apr
Exit @ 1.22512 @ 16:45. 05 Apr

The 4H chart has been post above, but for the sake of this trade, I’ll paste it here again.

4H

15M

I’m not sure if I can call it a Cowabunga trade because I didn’t follow its rules. Although I know I SHOULD HAVE. I have not studied psychological aspects of trading but sometimes I think I really fail in them when I know I have to follow rules but I fail to. Anyways, I saw the price falling and it seemed to me that the crossover is soon going to take place, stochastics was trending down and RSI was at 55 and not yet below 50. I entered the trade anyway when I shouldn’t have and should have waited for all indicators to line up. The TP and SL were last swing low and high, respectively. Fortunately for me, I was right and the price did continue to fall and TP was hit. BUT, AGAIN, I NEED TO REMIND MYSELF THAT I NEED TO FOLLOW THE TRADING SYSTEM’S RULES.

Trade # 4
USDJPY Zero Spread
Result: Win
Direction: Long
Time in trade: 1:05 hours
Exit execution: TP
Pip result: +2.8
Entry @ 107.420 @ 23:37. 05 Apr
Exit @ 107.448 @ 00:42. 06 Apr

The 4H chart has been post above, but for the sake of this trade, I’ll paste it here again.

15M

Made an entry when all indicators lined up. Price seemed to be going sideways. So exited trade with tiny profit.

Today’s final pip result = 29

[jas0992]

I have come to the realization that posting charts is a very tedious process. So I have decided to not take screenshots of charts and instead just post my trade details.

April 06, 2018

Trade # 1
USDCAD Zero Spread
Result: Breakeven
Direction: Short
Time in trade: 1:53 hours
Exit execution: TP
Pip result: +0
Entry @ 1.27773 @ 13:43. 06 Apr
Exit @ 1.277773 @ 15:35. 06 Apr

Note: Made valid entry. The trade doesn’t seem to be going in my favor, so I moved TP to breakeven. And it got hit.

Trade # 2
USDJPY Zero Spread
Result: Breakeven
Direction: Long
Time in trade: 1:59 hours
Exit execution: TP
Pip result: +0
Entry @ 107.380 @ 15:30. 06 Apr
Exit @ 107.380 @ 17:29. 06 Apr

Note: Made valid entry. The trade doesn’t seem to be going in my favor. I moved TP to breakeven. Luckily, it got hit and then the price moved against me due to NFP release. Would’ve been in a big loss if this wasn’t hit.

Trade # 3
USDCHF Zero Spread
Result: Win.
Direction: Long
Time in trade: 1:59 hours
Exit execution: TP
Pip result: +7.3
Entry @ 0.96312 @ 15:31. 06 Apr
Exit @ 0.96385 @ 16:28. 06 Apr

Trade # 4
EURUSD Zero Spread
Result: Loss
Direction: Short
Time in trade: 1:05 hours
Exit execution: TP
Pip result: -4.7
Entry @ 1.22383 @ 16:25. 06 Apr
Exit @ 1.22430 @ 17:30. 06 Apr

Note: The trade was going in the favor. I was moving down SL as the price was going in the favor. Then NFP released and SL got hit instantly.

Lesson learned from today is not to have any open positions when NFP releases.

Today’s final pip result = +2.6

[giovannicali]

Hello. Have you made any changes to the original system?

[jas0992]

Not really. I am just using all FX major pairs (not just GBPUSD) and not using the same TP as the system suggests.