Improve your routine

@dushimes

This is a classic case of overestimating your emotional control - a large drawdown likely didn’t seem an issue originally because it was a long term trade - but when it happens you struggle with it.

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Good point. But now that I see it, I realise that it’s not the most profitable.

However, I held back from closing it. I figured I should think it thru before I close.

Do you still see in the chart what in the chart made you get in in the first place?

If yes, its worth considering why the big banks, with all their clever young people and their mega-computers and their data, don’t see what you see.

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After the trade, everything makes sense, of course.

As far as the usd/dkk long term trade, yes. I still see it. Bullish for the rest of the year. I was just thinking it’s more profitable to close and open a new position.

Assuming you’re long, looks like price is sitting at a support area on the daily chart that it couldn’t break through in March. I don’t want to see you lose any more money, but I would wait and see what it decides to do from here.

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I agree. Actually, that support line is a bit old. It’s been holding that support for a while. On the M1 you can see the s/r zones. I’ll try to remember to post a screenshot later.

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I’d say the journaling EVERY trade depends on the frequency or the size of your trades AND what you are actually putting in the journal reference them.

If it’s just basic info then myfxbook can do the whole thing for you, infact it’s worth using ASWELL as your journal as you can pull extra data you wouldn’t thing to write down.

If you were doing scalping and closing out tens or hundreds of trades a week it would be pointless taking every little trade, but rather journaling the agregate.

I believe you are not trading many trades per week, so I think you should make a point of writing them down, and unless you have only one set of criteria to get in, you need to write the reasons, the emotions and the expected outcome. Also you need to give yourself a firm positive and negative exit that you will stick to.

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We should have routine in our trade but also can be flexible according to the circumstances of the market.

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there is nothing 100% in Forex trading, so of course we the traders first of all have to make sure real trading routine.

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This morning, I woke up late and didn’t have as much time as I would have liked.

But, I still accomplished my goal. The first thing I did was check up on my notes. I seperate my notes onto three seperate spreadsheet pages:
Open trades
Watchlist
All pairs (what’s going on with them, anything worth trading)

As far as the morning routine, my first task is to check on my open positions page. I check if I need to adjust any SLs, and I take notes on how the trades are doing. I completed this task.

Second is to follow up on my watchlist. I only had time to check on one trade: EUR/AUD.

I was just about to open a market order, but I checked my checklist. One of the criteria pointed out something that I didn’t initially see.

So, instead I set a straddle order, and time was running short. However, I created a journal entry—screenshot of the chart and order are included. I didn’t have time to fill out every section: price, SL, lot size, etc. But the most important parts were filled out, and I can fill in the rest with the info from my screenshots.

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Love this. Great point

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This morning, I’ve checked up on my open trades, and took a look at the pairs on my watchlist.
They weren’t looking so hot—no set-ups yet.

I logged my EUR/AUD trade from yesterday—-stop was too tight. I opened another straddle order (wider SL) and properly started a journal.

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Brilliant, keep pushing on.

1% compound doesn’t only create exponential change in an account balance, it makes a difference to us.

Try to improve your routine, yourself, something that needs done in your life, every day, make 1% improvement.

If it’s starting a journal, starting a habit of making the bed when you get out of it, opening the mail as it arrives etc.

Whatever the improvement, they compound up. 1% a day improvement compounded means you 100% improve your quality of life in 70 days :wink:

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It’s funny. @Johnscott31 said something similar, and it’s been bouncing around inside my coconut for a while.

Basically, trading is a reflection of yourself, and you can’t trade at peace and not fix those same character flaws outside of trading.

Flaws in your personal life leak into your trading.

Making your bed every morning is a discipline. It involves denying the impulse to just get up and go watch tv. If you submit to impulses in your personal life, you’ll probably submit to impulses in your trading.

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Today, I didn’t do well. I can hardly remember how my morning went. It seems to have gone by quickly. Basically, my routine went out the window. I had some wins, and I probably got hungry for more trades. I wasn’t sure how it would affect me, but I’m sure it did subconsciously.

I ended up journaling some trades. I wanted to journal a few before opening new ones.

Of course, that went out the window. I saw some set-ups while taking screen shots for my journal. I opened three trades, and lost two of them already. And one of them didn’t have an OCO, which is a requirement for my strategy.

For the other trades, I have OCOs, but for the one that I lost…of course not. The pair that goes against me, I didn’t place it. I did it again.

Improving my routine is harder than I anticipated.

Only now, did I realise that I didn’t follow up on my watchlist. So, I did that, just now. I also updated my list of open trades.

I think part of my reason for not journaling some trades is because I’m trying to open the position ASAP. The movement has already started and I want to jump in before I miss out any further.

When I do this, however, I’m thinking it through a bit less I think. I don’t know. I do know however, that I rush and don’t use my journal nor the checklist within it. The journal and its checklist are my best protection tools. I rush, and I leave my capital vulnerable. I open myself up to unnecessary losses. Tomorrow is a new day and a new opportunity to improve my routine.

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Life always offers a second chance, and it’s called tomorrow.

quote by, some guy on facebook

image

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This morning went better. First I checked on my open positions; second, my watchlist; third, I started scanning for trades.

I didn’t have enough time to any new positions, but I’m ok with that. I told myself that if I don’t have the time to open a trade properly, then I shouldn’t do it.

The upside is that I’m resisting FOMO.

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In addition to my routine this morning, at 05:00 I closed my laptop and started getting ready for work.

I was even out the door at 05:45. I don’t think I’ve ever done that in the last few years.

It feels pretty good.

Perhaps what I have a problem with in controling impulses.

I choose the more pleasant of my options, by procrastinating. I keep doing what I want to do until I’m forced to accept the unpleasant thing.

By that time, I’m rushing or the situation is far worse.

I do this over and over. Paying bills, calling the bank, doing my taxes…and journaling trades.

The root problem for me is impulse control.

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