Garu's journal

[garuhhh]

thank you for constantly replying to my thread Nisar. You know I’m just a beginner, and I appreciate every recommendation given to me. Here are reply to the pointers you gave:
[ol]
[li]Are you referring to the grids? I looked at my broker app, and there’s no way to remove the grids
[/li]
but if you’re referring to the stochastic and the MACD, I purposely put them there to remind me of why I did the trade.
[li]I usually look at the weekly, and daily time frame before making a trade. But when I do enter, I usually do it when I have looked at the 4H and 1H time frame. I usually enter using the 4H time frame, after consulting with the 1D, and 1W time frame to be sure of the trend.
[/li][li]I always try to go for quality of trades rather than quantity. There are days when I wouldn’t do a trade because I could not find one good entry point. But there are cases when I see multiple trades that allows me to go in. But yeah, I need to be doubly sure that it’s a good trade: that’s what I’m currently working on now; to make my trades more reliable.
[/li][/ol]

I would not go for “big” trades unless my risk ratio is not greater than 1:1. But for trades with TP/SL of 20/20, I have started going for them (even for TP/SL of 15/20) lately just to try one strategy. Though I keep on loosing in this strategy, or maybe I’m not doing it right. So I’ll have to look at it again.

I will look for pin bars on youtube, as you have recommended, and I’ll try to incorporate it on my trades.

thanks Nisar!

[garuhhh]

This is my trade 32 for the month, sell on EURAUD.

It’s the third time that resistance has been hit, so I’m thinking prices will go down. I have been watching this pair and waiting for additional signs that prices will really go down. There was a spike this afternoon that resulted in the sudden downtrend, I’m just hoping that will be the sign that prices will really go down. Please correct me if I’m wrong.

EDIT:
here is how the chart looks llike on the 4H time frame:

EDIT:
update, Jan 2, 12am: this trade is down by -22pips, but looks like its going my direction, so I’m a bit hopefull about this trade.

EDIT:

update, 02 Jan 2013, 11:45pm: since this trade is up to +75pips (previously +85pips), I decided to move the stop loss to entry +5 pips. (I think Oanda is giving me interests for trades, so to at least compensate for those interests, I put in a +5pips, in case prices moved against me).

Can anybody give light to this interests Oanda is giving? Although I plan to email them to ask about these interests.

I also adjusted the Take Profit to +260 pips, since the prices seems to be moving steadily downwards.

My TP/SL was previously set to 155/143, now it is set to 260/-5.

EDIT:
update, 03 Jan 2013, 4pm: This trade is now up to +178 pips. I have just put a 80 pips trailing stop to secure the pips I have earned.
Hopefully it still reaches the take profit level.

EDIT:
update, 07 January 2013, 5pm: This trade is now up to +260 pips. I made a mistake from my previous comment in this trade. I said I moved the take profit from 155 to 260, I didn’t, I moved it to 336 pips! Now this trade is up to 260 pips!
Oh, I really hope I meet this Take Profit!

[nisar]

I hope u would have collected some profit from todays trade. the market was crazy.
I publishing a chart here to show how to trade the pin bar.

[garuhhh]

thanks nisar for the tip on pin bars. I’ve watched a few videos yesterday about it, and I think I’ll be using it

Unfortunately, I haven’t got any pips these past few days

[mytrader1961]

Hi, Garuhh

I wish to congratulate you for starting this thread and posting your trades. I will agree with Nisar that you need to move to demo until you have a trade plan in place and it has back tested with good profit returns. Save your money for now and do not see it as a step backward. You are experiencing a steep learning curve as we all do in trading.

Trade plan ( needs to be written down) will consist of:

1. Reasons for entering the trade (e.g trend, reversal of support/resistance etc ) I use a check list and if I can’t tick all the boxes, I don’t take that trade
2. Stop placement - need to look at each market
   3.Profit target - you need to know that your trade will be likely to reach 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 etc , what checks have you got in place?
3. Money management - what percentage of your account are you using on each trade

These are the very basic questions you need to address. Please carry on posting and we will help you as much as we can.

Mytrader

Garuhhh, look at ur chart trend.if u hope that prices will turn to north, then u can move ur SL, if not then u can’t do anything because market will do what it has to do.
u must have a trading plan and stick to it. and u must be mentaly strong. if u are having a lot of losses best thing is stop real account trading and move to demo untill u get more experienced or u have developed a profitable strategy. I would suggest don’t do random entries.
decision is yours anyway.

[garuhhh]

Hi, Garuhh

I wish to congratulate you for starting this thread and posting your trades. I will agree with Nisar that you need to move to demo until you have a trade plan in place and it has back tested with good profit returns. Save your money for now and do not see it as a step backward. You are experiencing a steep learning curve as we all do in trading.

Trade plan ( needs to be written down) will consist of:

1. Reasons for entering the trade (e.g trend, reversal of support/resistance etc ) I use a check list and if I can’t tick all the boxes, I don’t take that trade
2. Stop placement - need to look at each market
   3.Profit target - you need to know that your trade will be likely to reach 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 etc , what checks have you got in place?
3. Money management - what percentage of your account are you using on each trade

These are the very basic questions you need to address. Please carry on posting and we will help you as much as we can.

Mytrader

Thank you very much for the concern myTrader1961! I really appreciate your replies. Please don’t ever think I don’t listen to you guys. I take every comment seriously and try to put into consideration always.

I was previously using a demo account, and I noticed I was not minding much my money compared to when using a live account. So I decided to open a live account with only 100sgd (around 83 usd). With it, every trade comes with the fear of losing real money, so I’ll need to be cautious with every trade I make. Oh yeah, one more thing, I decided to go with 100sgd because it’s very easy for me to mentally compute the percentages I earn or loose (I’m bad with math)

What kept me down recently are the “small” trades I made; I was trying new strategies, and these kept loosing. My account is down to -9% mainly because of these. I already managed to move out from my previous losses (+100%) because of the strategy I learned from Mr. Bijoy, but losses happened again this month (again, mainly due to these “small” trades – although MANY!).

Thinking again of my account, I might go again in demo once I have reached -20%, with that I will need to re-think my strategy, and maybe try other strategies as well. But as of now, I’ll be continuing with my 100sgd account, to keep me fearful and always cautious with my trades.

[garuhhh]

trade 31 GBPAUD met a stop loss.

My account now is down to -9.97%, but I still have two trades alive. one is up by [B]+35pips[/B] = NZDUSD, trade 22.

though one more trade, trade 32 EURAUD, is down by[B] -22pips[/B]. Although I’m a bit hopefull at this one; looking at the daily trend, it seems a downtrend.

[garuhhh]

my trade 22 NZDUSD hit its target profit, got +112 pips from this one. Now my balance is up to [B]-8.21%[/B].

[garuhhh]

I have updated my trade 32 EURAUD, and moved Stop Loss to entry, and adjusted Take Profit to 260 pips, previously set to 155pips.

Now this trade is at no risk, even if prices moved against me, I have nothing to loose.

Although as of the moment I’m tempted to close the trade to take home +70pips, but I have learned to be more patient to take home more pips. I think this is what experience has taught me. If I were the same person as I was when I was starting to trade, I could have closed this trade to take +70pips, but I know better now

Previously, I have set the take profit at the nearest resistance level, now I have set it based on the most recent major resistance. I’m just hoping prices will moved with me.

EDIT:
Oh, Happy New Year everyone!

…and Merry Christmas still!

[garuhhh]

This is my first trade (trade 1) for 2012 january, sell on EURNZD.

I am planning on catching the prevailing trend.

the MACD suggests that trend is continuing downwards, I have set my TP behind the nearest support, and my SL behind the nearest resistance.

go 2013!

EDIT:
03 January 2013: This trade took the Take Profit of +140 pips! Whoohoo! Nice way to start the year!
The trend continued its downward movement, and I’m now on a lookout for a possible reversal, but it seems it will take a bit of time before it reverses.

This trade added an approximate 1.1% to my funds.

[garuhhh]

My trade 1 EURNZD, for January 2013, reached its take profit of [B]+140 pips[/B].

My funds is now up to [B]-7.10%[/B], from a previous -8.29%.

[garuhhh]

Here is my 2nd trade, hoping to repeat what happened to my first trade of the month.
sell on EURUSD. Hoping the downtrend will continue. the decision is based on the seemingly strong downtrend as suggested by the candles, and the trend suggested by the MACD.

Below is the screenshot on a daily time frame.

EDIT:
update, 04 January 2013, 9:45am: I have moved the stop loss to 13pips, slightly above the nearest resistance to reduce the risks of loosing more.

This trade is now up to +77 pips (a while ago it was 80 pips). I’m hoping the target profit will be met.

EDIT:
update, 04 January 2013, 11pm: this trade is still on. it retraced then moved back up. Now its at +61pips.

EDIT:
update, 07 January 2013, 5pm: this trade is still on. it’s now back to 70 pips, before the weekend it went down to as low as 40 pips. Now its back up again.

I’m contemplating on closing this trade, since I’m seeing a possible reversal at its current position.

EDIT:
07 January 2013, 5pm: I closed the trade and got +70 pips, acquiring 0.70% of money.

The chart looked like this:

If ever it decided to go down again, then I’ll go again with this trade with my previous take profit. But for now, I’ll be taking the 70 pips with me

[nisar]

@garuhhh

Here is my 2nd trade, hoping to repeat what happened to my first trade of the month.
sell on EURUSD. Hoping the downtrend will continue. the decision is based on the seemingly strong downtrend as suggested by the candles, and the trend suggested by the MACD.

Below is the screenshot on a daily time frame.

well trend is not down, we still in up trend but the ray of hope is that price broke below the two weeks consolidation and closed below. next minor support is 1.3166, if it closed below then next stop could be 1.2900. we have a very strong bearish engulfing candles which closed below the last two weeks of action. to me that could be the only reason for to enter short.hope it should be fine, if close below 1.3166 level. good luck with ur trade.

[garuhhh]

well trend is not down, we still in up trend but the ray of hope is that price broke below the two weeks consolidation and closed below. next minor support is 1.3166, if it closed below then next stop could be 1.2900. we have a very strong bearish engulfing candles which closed below the last two weeks of action. to me that could be the only reason for to enter short.hope it should be fine, if close below 1.3166 level. good luck with ur trade.

Thanks for the well wishes Nisar!
My EURUSD trade is now up at +83 pips!
I will be moving the stop loss at entry, to keep me from loosing from this trade.

EDIT: on second thought, I moved the stop loss slightly above the resistance level nearest the entry, SL is now just 13 pips.

[garuhhh]

This is my trade 4, a sell on GBPCHF.
The candles seems to be showing a downtrend, the weekly trend is downwards, the stochastics says it’s an overbought (on daily time frame), so I’m going for it. in 4H time frame, it’s also showing the same signs.

EDIT:
11 January 2013, 12:45pm: I have moved the SL behind a resistance to get 16 pips in case prices moved against me. and moved the TP to 186 pips, from a previous 134 pips.

EDIT:

11 January 2013, 11pm: This trade hit its Take Profit at 186pips! whoohoo!!
It gave me 1.8% of funds. Now I only have left -0.96% of loss left.

Since I have planned on going for this strategy, I have started to pick up my funds. Last month I started with -9.97%, now I’m only left with 0.96% of loss! A few more pips and I’m free from losses! Wahoo!!

[garuhhh]

Here is my trade 5 EURGBP for January 2013.
daily trend is upwards, and this trade is a buy on EURGBP. stochastics is saying oversold. Although I’m not sure what signal to get from the MACD. Hopefully this trade goes with me.

I hope I’m not confusing anyone with the colors. the green line is always the take profit from my trading platform, the red is always the stop loss. The yellow line, I always use it for the weekly trend, and the blue line, I use for daily trend.

EDIT:
10 January 2013, 9:40pm: This trade hit its Take Profit! There was a sudden spike in prices, and my take profit was hit! whoohoo!

This trade gave 1% to my funds

[garuhhh]

I’m looking at a possible buy on GBPUSD. I might wait until Monday before I go for the trade, I’m not comfortable making a trade on weekends (is this ok?). I might wait for further movements showing an uptrend before I make the trend.

Here is a 4H time frame:

Here is the 1d time frame:

[nisar]

@garuhhh

I’m looking at a possible buy on GBPUSD. I might wait until Monday before I go for the trade, I’m not comfortable making a trade on weekends (is this ok?). I might wait for further movements showing an uptrend before I make the trend.

Here is a 4H time frame:

Here is the 1d time frame:

In my opinion trade is ripe. this is the pin bar, I was talking to u few days ago. success is no guarantee in any trade but we trade on high probability. I’m long since Friday.

[garuhhh]

I updated this trade. I initially thought I moved the take profit to 260 pips, I moved it to [B]336 pips[/B]!

Now this trade is up to [B]260 pips[/B]! with a trailing stop of [B]80 pips[/B]. i really hope the take profit will be hit.

[garuhhh]

I closed thetrade 2 EURUSD getting [B]+70 pips[/B] from it. I earned [B]0.70%[/B] of my money from this trade.

Now my money is up to [B]-5.95%[/B]! from a previous low of -9.97%

I still have 3 more trades open, and I’m still hopeful I’ll be getting something from them.