Today’s random thought…Why do I feel more comfortable when I have a trade in the negative, but my strat is still agreeing…than I do when the trade is in the slight positive and the strat is ambiguous…hmmm
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System has me in weird spot. In 3 years, I have never received 4 signals in a direction and have the market move against it. When i have gotten 2 or 3…I just add to the position with a full then a half…now a quarter maybe. Think I will and see how it rides.
I count each added position as a new trade, and the original Hard SL does not move…this way each new position is discounted.
The reason I call it a weird spot is a rule I have about max 3 open trades. In this case, it is technically a 4th trade, but 2 of the trades are discounted when comparing to the Hard SL. Added together, they don’t reach 3 full trades. I will have to revisit the results of this trade(s) and maybe adjust my rule base or at the very least add additional definition.
Ok…went with something slightly different, but the results still kept it in-line with my 3 trade rule. After realizing that I did NOT reduce the 3rd trade, i broke out the calculator. Utilizing my little position tool (see spreadsheet), and NOT moving my Hard SL, I could keep my “exposure” the same as 3 full trades. This was not the letter of the law, but rather the spirit of the rule when I made it. So I ended up with 4 positions in the same currency pair.
The rollercoaster of this was real. At one point it looked like it was going to margin out (another reason for the 3 trade rule), but it didnt. Then I woke up to this.
Im not trading today due to other engagements, so Ill post weekly results and do a summary at some point this weekend
The weekend came and went without a week in review. Life has a way of getting in the way. My little side hustle doing player services at the local Golf Course in exchange for free golf…became an overtime nightmare when the Colorado weather turned Awesome. Starting to think maybe free golf might be more expensive than I thought.
Edit…solid 9 hours of Coma-like sleep. There was a reason I retired from physical labor.
Looks like the overnight markets did what I thought, but I had closed my trade due to pure exhaustion. It was according to my strat, but I did not want to take the chance that I had made a mistake.
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My method for adjusting mindset when increasing my position sizes.
For me position size is dynamic depending on my Fund Balance. (See Summary Spreadsheet for Position Size Tool). So, this means sticker shock is not as big of a deal for me when adjusting size. However, I still use Pips and not $$$ when watching a trade.
By watching Pips gain/loss…I avoid the psychological trap of thinking about the actual money loss or gain, and I can focus on the Strat. I KNOW it is the same thing, pips v $, but I used to find myself watching the dollars.
For me and my strat, it’s the pips gained and lost. If my position size is 0.25 or 2.5…it doesn’t matter. I’m after a specific amount of pips.
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I’m just out of sync with trading this week. Just 2 trades so far. Lots of real life keeping me from the computer, and when I do get to check in…not even close to entry points. Hopefully, it returns to the groove soon. No trading just to trade.
Ran into my first “Internet Failure” situation. Not being able to access my platform for over 30 min was Nerve Wracking to say the least. Now, I always set a Hard Stop, but I don’t always set a TP, unless it’s an overnight or I’ll be away from screen for more than an hour.
It finally came back on…and all is just fine. Well, the trade that was negative is still negative, but you know what I mean.
Risk management is my main focus…so knowing the Hard SL was in place made the experience tolerable.
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Fun past 2 days…well mostly today when it felt like ALL the pairs came into range. Completely update trade spreadsheet. Made up for the ass-kicking I took on Eur/Chf.
Time to start research for Wednesday
I’ve discovered, for my strat anyway, that when a Pair gets “in the range” for trading, it tends to stay there for several trades. Going back through my trades during this 5k experiment, it is not unusual for me to place 3-10 trades in the same pair over the same range.
I need a “Trump is talking” alert. It does not matter if you like him or not, it moves the markets…or at least it has the last couple times.
This has been a tougher than normal week for me…not because of the markets, but Real Life is interjecting itself into my ME time…lol. Still getting some decent trades but missing my prime times.
Not a bad morning session, and the first Thursday I didn’t struggle. Was starting to think Thursdays were cursed for me.
What do you mean by this?
Fridays are your day!
It’s my version of scaling in…if a trade is moving against me but my strat rules say Im still good.
Example if my original trade is 1 full unit and stop loss is 50 pips
2nd trade (10 pips down)- 1 full unit and SL does not move
3rd trade (20 pips down) - 0.5 units and SL does not move
4th trade (30 pips down) -0.25 units and SL does not move
Now, this is not the method I went with. Instead…I used the Total of 3 full trades worth of risk. As long as I can keep the total risk under that dollar amount, my revised rule allows me to trade.
Week 3 of 8 Review
All trades closed and done for the week.
Overall, not a bad week at all. Although I had to spend more time at the Golf Course than I was anticipating, I still found plenty of time to get my trade on.
I found myself scaling into trades more often than before, and with the exception of the final trade of the week, they were successful. (It may have ended up successful too, but I don’t hold trades over the weekend. This could be a result of entering a trade just a little early.
My win/loss ratio is getting a little skewed with the scaled trades, but this is just a statistical irregularity…and does not affect results.
So far 3 of 3 profitable weeks.
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Everyone who adds to losers has “their version” or “their way of putting it” or “their way of using words,” but it doesn’t change the reality that they’re adding to losers.
“Scaling in” is actually a way adding to winners, without ever increasing the risk beyond what it was on the opening of the original position. 
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