Malawi FX Trading Journal - (An outlook from Africa)

[Was_jussab]

Hello traders, welcome to my trading journal. I have recently gotten into trading again after being away for around 5 years (and blowing multiple small accounts).

I have recently found myself with a lot of time on my hand as I am no more working full time. I run a marketing agency that mainly deals with passive streams of income and therefore have some spare time on my hands.

In my free time I learnt the basics of FX trading online using a free course (FX Academy), and I will run through another free course over the next two/ three weeks (Baby Pips).

I have been watching A LOT of youtube videos and started backtested a trend continuation strategy that I saw on youtube. So far I tested the strategy on one pair and it has a good win rate of just above 60%.

Alongside my learning, I have decided to open a micro live account which will help me trade live and experience the real emotions again. I started this a few days ago and will post the weekly results here.

This will allow us to discuss my ideas as well as keep me accountable.

We can also use this as a place to share ideas and experiences. This will help us grow together.

[Was_jussab]

So I started my live account this week Monday and I have already taken 6 trades. The trades have played out as follows;

6 trades
2 Wins - +4.62%
4 Losses - (-10.19%)

You can see that I am almost down 5% in just 3 days.

I am journaling my trades in an excel sheet and will try and figure out how to post a summary here so you guys can have a look but but if I cannot. I will try and post my trades whenever I exit them!

In the meantime, take this with you, the first two trades on my account were entered on impulse with no real reason!

If those two were avoided my account would have actually been up by just above 1% rather than being in drawdown!

[Was_jussab]

Has anyone else faced this?

I woke up to have Suhoor (breakfast before I start my fast as I am a muslim) and I was looking through the pairs I had on my watchlist. And I dont know what overcame me I told myself “sellers are looking strong here lets go short” with no real analysis or anything.

The second impulsive trade I entered was due to a signal i received on telegram! Again, with no input of my own I went against everything I said I would not go against and entered another short position because someone somewhere sent it to me on a telegram group!

I know its only been 2 days since then, but since then I have stayed calm and avoided the “noise & distractions” and when I have received a notification I have just ignored it.

Anyone else had to deal with impulse in the first few days of trading?

[darthdimsky]

Ramadan Kareem!

@Was_jussab

Anyone else had to deal with impulse in the first few days of trading?

I did. Got over it quickly after I realized it was doing me no good. Developed a system and pre-trade routine/checklist that I adhere to. Don’t know what others do, but this method suits my personality and the way I work.

Excited by the nature of the journal entries so far. Looking forward to how it develops!

kind regards, Dims

[Was_jussab]

Thanks you for your post Dims!

I sort of have a checklist/ rules that I must follow before entering a trade however the excitement of getting into the market overcame me.

I will definitely fine tune and create a proper checklist that I need to tick off before entering a trade and will work on mindset to ensure I stick to it every time.

Thank you for your kind comments. I hope to make an entry everyday that I enter a trade at least.

Wishing you all the best with your trading!

[Was_jussab]

Good Evening Traders,

So just got done with evening prayers after quite a long day fasting and not having the below trade play out for me.

So just wanted to put it out there and sort of see what you guys think of my simple strategy.

Above is a picture of the set up on the 1H before I moved down to the 15 m to find confluence before I take the entry.

So as I mentioned in the thread I have recently got back into trading and am yet to fine tune this strategy but here goes nothing;

1. find the overall trend of the market on the 1H chart
2. mark out a zone using the wicks and bodies of the last swing high/low and wait for price to do its thing.
3. wait for price to break market structure and previous swing high/low (depending on the direction of the trend) in this case the previous swing low.
4. When price has broken through the previous swing low, we then move down to the 15 m TF to find entries.
5. We look for price to come back into our zone and show rejection, this will be our first top and then we wait for price to come and test our zone again which will create our double top.
6. We then take entry after the close of the next bearish (red) candle.
7. We place SL above the wicks of the wicks of the rejection candles or higher if we have a stronger S/R level when we look left and TP would usually be 1.5 or 2 RR.

Below is an image of the trade playing out and hitting SL before turning around and then wicking my TP level.

Looking back I feel that the NY open was the reason behind the sudden spike in price.

I am not sure how you would treat this? Would you look for a better entry or would you trail the SL and lock in some profits before the NY open?

I feel most of my trades will be entered during the first two hours of the London session as I live in Malawi and that time suits me best.

Any ideas or advise?

[Was_jussab]

Good evening traders. Hope you guys have had a good trading day.

I, for one, did not take any trades today. I was watching a AUDUSD closely and was waiting for price to play out to create the set up I wanted and unfortunately, I did not set any alerts and took my eyes off the charts to sort some other stuff out.

Price entered my zone and created a beautiful double top that I would have traded. Easy 25 - 30 pips missed out on which is around 4% for the account I am currently trading on.

Would’ve cleared the current drawdown on my account which sucks.

But I guess you live and you learn. Will definitely be setting alerts when I am away from the charts going forward.

Also, that signal that I took on Monday, the same lady posted another signal today shorting EU. And obviously I did not get in, but guess what? It was over a 100 pip move!!!

Happy I did not get in though as its against my rules and would bring no value other than 20% to my account and when the account is so small 20% does not really mean much!

[Was_jussab]

Good evening traders. It seems as if no one is really interested in my journey and I am pretty much talking to myself here. LOL

Anyway I am going to stick to the promise I made myself and journal here so if someone happens to read and critique I can take something away from it. And also if I carry on, maybe in 6 months time I can look back and have a laugh at how much i have developed (inshaAllah (if God Wills).

Anyway I know I said I did not take any trade yesterday, however, after I finished the entry I looked at the charts for potential set ups for the following day (today). This was before I started my backtesting. I don’t know why I did it this way as usually I backtest first and then look at current charts for potential set ups for the next day. Anyway, I found a set up that fit my plan perfectly and ended up getting in.

Below is a picture of the set up;

We entered after the formation of the double top shown.
Entry - 1.08266
SL - 1.08373
TP - 1.08126
Exit Price - 1.08165

So i put the trade on and went on to backtest for around 90 mins before looking at the trade again. This helped me so much as I was not really thinking about the trade so my emotions were left aside.

When I looked at the trade I saw we were up almost 2% and thought I should get out before I went to bed. I shouldnt have though as the trade played out nicely and if I didn’t I would have achieved the full 1.5R as shown below.

I did some backtesting tonight on the same strategy but different pair. I am caught in between two minds. Whether I should be managing the trade whilst I am in it. Or whether I should set and forget.

If anyone is reading, I know I should really develop my own trade management system, but does anyone have like a foundation I could start with and then tinker to my personality?

Hope you all have a great Easters weekend!

[Was_jussab]

So after long thinking quite a bit I will be posting my trading results for the week. This will include my account balances which may make people chuckle a bit.

So I initially put 20 bucks into my account thinking I will follow the 20 pip challenge and make 50 easily. Reality smacked me in the face and I decided to do this properly. I added another 20 bucks to my account because I couldnt enter a trade due to the margin.

Anyway here goes nothing;

The silly mistakes I made at the start of the week cost me 6%. This will not be happening again. If I did not make these mistakes I would have been up 2% for the week.

Below is a chart that shows my account balance. Hopefully I can trade my way back to BE or better by the end of next week.

Also if you guys are interested, take note that because its such a small account and I cannot trade smaller lot sizes, all my trade have a lot size of 0.01 and therefore I am risking more than 1%.

After doing this for at least 4 weeks I will increase my account size to at least 100 or 200 bucks. This will at least allow me to get into the good habit of managing my risk and lot sizes properly.

[darthdimsky]

@Was_jussab

I am not sure how you would treat this? Would you look for a better entry or would you trail the SL and lock in some profits before the NY open?

I don’t think you should change your strategy based on one trade. How are you certain that it’s a recurring trait for that TF and currency pair? I would backtest it in demo and then apply a forward test.

@Was_jussab

It seems as if no one is really interested in my journey and I am pretty much talking to myself here.

Not true. Atleast I read every entry carefully, like I do with other journals I follow.

@Was_jussab

Anyway I am going to stick to the promise I made myself and journal here so if someone happens to read and critique I can take something away from it.

I’m sure someone will. But I don’t think you should rely or expect it. Even if no one reads it the journal can end up being a very powerful tool for self development. Just coalescing your ideas and writing it is a huge learning tool. Atleast that’s how I use mine. I can understand if your objective/opinion differs.

@Was_jussab

I did some backtesting tonight on the same strategy but different pair. I am caught in between two minds. Whether I should be managing the trade whilst I am in it. Or whether I should set and forget.

Why’d you want to change your current plan/course of action based on one trade? If backtesting similar situations warrant a trailing stop loss then it makes sense to change it. But that’d only make sense if you’re absolutely certain that the change is supported by sizeable sample size. Not only would your data support but it’d also build a lot of confidence in said strategy.

@Was_jussab

…This will include my account balances which may make people chuckle a bit.

Honestly speaking: Don’t care about what anyone has to say (myself included). Even if ppl label you a losing/struggling trader it’s doesn’t matter. It’s your journey and those opinions will fade away in the long run.

There are folks who journal on demo accounts even and that’s perfectly fine. What matters is the process. Can this journaling help you become the kind of trader you envision or expect of yourself? That’s all that really matters.

[darthdimsky]

Just looked at this sample data and had an idea

• Highlight or categorize the trades that you think require improving, like the possible TSL on the NY session.

You could include a column that would split your trades to categories that are:

1. Impulsive and against trading plan (already highlighted)
2. Require improvement (suggested category)
3. Good trades

It’s a scalable solution. You’ll be able to enter another category in the future if needed.

This is a powerful, especially as your journal sample size increases. You can apply a filter or run pivot tables to quickly gain quick insights.

[Was_jussab]

@darthdimsky

I don’t think you should change your strategy based on one trade. How are you certain that it’s a recurring trait for that TF and currency pair? I would backtest it in demo and then apply a forward test.

This is true. I’ll continue backtesting and when I reach 100 trades per pair I will sit down and analyse the results. This will tell me what needs tweaking. I will then backtest again implementing the tweaks. Going through this process a few times and implementing tweaks will give me the answers to my questions I guess.

@darthdimsky

Not true. Atleast I read every entry carefully, like I do with other journals I follow.

Thank you for the support mate! Appreciate it!

@darthdimsky

Even if no one reads it the journal can end up being a very powerful tool for self development. Just coalescing your ideas and writing it is a huge learning tool. Atleast that’s how I use mine. I can understand if your objective/opinion differs.

Nah man, I definitely agree. like I said in my post earlier, if nothing else it will allow me to look back and reflect upon in 6 or 12 months. Hopefully I’ll have made serious progression by then.

@darthdimsky

Not only would your data support but it’d also build a lot of confidence in said strategy.

I like how you’ve put this. So yeah will continue with the hard SL and TP. And as mentioned after 100 setups I will reflect and see what needs to be changed.

@darthdimsky

You could include a column that would split your trades to categories that are:

1. Impulsive and against trading plan (already highlighted)
2. Require improvement (suggested category)
3. Good trades

I will make the adjustments now and will post alongside next weeks data. This is brilliant, it’ll show me not only the mistakes I made but also the improvements that I need to make.

Thank you so much for taking your time to read through my entries and giving your feedback. Really appreciate it!

Have a good weekend!

[Was_jussab]

Good evening traders!

I hope you have all had a great easters weekend. I for one, just relaxed and took it easy. Did some backtesting with the current strategy that I am using on other pairs and it went quite well.

I also have been looking around and learning more about reversals and how to get in on them and the origin rather than a few waves down.

Whilst I was at my desk today I took I did my chart work and set a few alerts. All alerts were triggered but only one gave me a clean entry which I took.

I took a short position on AUDCAD earlier this afternoon.

My set up looked as shown below;

and the result looked as shown below;

Price points were as follows;
Entry - 0.93012
TP - 092801
SL - 0.93153
RR - 1.5

Was a perfect trade for me, the only thing I would change is my execution. I was in the midst of doing something when the alert was triggered which was really close to the close of the candle and therefore I panicked and placed a limit order rather than a market order so I missed out on maybe a pip or so.

The other note to myself here is that I need to stay patient and stop looking at the charts so much. This brings in some discretionary trading which shouldn’t happen as it doesn’t happen when I test my strategy. Thankfully I was able to hold on and let the trade hit TP rather than getting out. Next time I will not be watching the charts so closely.

All in all a good trade and good start to the week. I know I don’t have proper risk management because my account size is too small. But the good thing is that we are almost back to BE now. And if we did not take those first three lousy trades we would have been 5% up by now.

My goal to be above break even for the week remains - less than 1% to gain and Ill be back at BE. Anything beyond that will be a massive bonus. Obviously I do anticipate a loss or two but if I stick to my plan and RR ratio then I should still be able to get to BE quite easily.

I know quite a few of you did not look at the charts/ trade today, but if you did I hope it was green for you!

Also before I sign off with this entry, I have been absorbing a lot of youtube information. If you’re reading this and have an opinion/thought on Smart money concepts please do share your thoughts. It’s amazing how these guys show how they have 10R + trades regularly.

Peace!

[dushimes]

@Was_jussab

So just got done with evening prayers

Ramadan? I’m not sure if it’s appropriate, but can I say ¨have a good Ramadan´? Enjoy the evening festivities.

If you’re not celebrating Ramadan, then forget what I wrote. haha

@Was_jussab

I sort of have a checklist/ rules that I must follow before entering a trade however the excitement of getting into the market overcame me.

I will definitely fine tune and create a proper checklist that I need to tick off before entering a trade and will work on mindset to ensure I stick to it every time.

I’ve done all those mistakes. Impulsive trading is terrible. And there are plenty more bad habits you’ll find. You’ll find out that those bad habits are just expressions of fear/greed/insecurities. I suggest you read The Disciplined Trader. It talks about the psychology of trading.

It’s not a cure for all your trading problems, but it will help you open your eyes to a lot of emotions/beliefs that you have.

I’ve done the checklist, too. It sounds like you’re in the right direction though. Keep up the good work!!

[Was_jussab]

@dushimes

Ramadan? I’m not sure if it’s appropriate, but can I say ¨have a good Ramadan´? Enjoy the evening festivities.

If you’re not celebrating Ramadan, then forget what I wrote. haha

Yes man Ramadhan. I do celebrate and part take in the fasting too. Its a beautiful month for us where we literally are brought back down to earth. It’s pretty much a battery recharge for us in terms of religion and our spiritual journeys.

@dushimes

Impulsive trading is terrible.

Almost caught myself in the same situation today when I lost a trade. My emotions almost got the better of me but I managed to control myself. Good sign I guess, right? Shows I am moving in the right direction.

@dushimes

I suggest you read The Disciplined Trader.

I definitely will give it a read!

@dushimes

It sounds like you’re in the right direction though. Keep up the good work!!

Glad to hear this. Hoping to keep pushing through and adding to my account as the weeks go by.

[Was_jussab]

Good evening traders. I hope you have all had a great day trading today!

So I took two positions today. One is still running and the other I got stopped out within 15 minutes.

Here are the details of the trade;

Set up

Price points were as follows;
Entry - 0.94804
TP - 0.95129
SL - 0.94642
RR - 2

The set up looked perfect and everything aligned with my checklist and rules that I have been backtesting.

However, we got stopped out as shown below;

As you can see we got stopped out pretty quickly. What looked like the perfect set up did not end up being so perfect.

My Thoughts
I have been seeing this on the internet and thought it would help me review and reflect on the way I have been feeling in and around trades.

So when the set up happened, I felt quite calm and executed the trade swiftly. I looked at price once or twice before getting stopped out.

When I did get stopped out, I carried on looking at the chart and almost re entered with an impulse trade as I was pretty confident that the price would go up. I refrained from doing so and even though the price is going up now, I am happy that I did not re enter as it would have breached my rules.

Going forward I will take at least 30 mins to an hour away from the charts when a looser occurs.

Another interesting thing that I stumbled across today which really resonates with my looser today. I read a quote on the internet

"sometimes, even the “perfect trade” is a looser!"

and yes I know as I analyse my backtesting data and tweak my strategy and become more rules based, I will find most probably find something in the trade that I did wrong. But for now, the trade in my eyes was a good one as I stuck to my rules and executed the way I have been doing in my backtesting.

The only thing I would say is that I placed the trade on a pair that I have not yet backtested with this strategy. Even then, through my backtesting I know I only win around 5/10 times and therefore no matter how much I look into it, that probability will stand (or maybe get a bit better with time) and so I cannot do anything but accept the loss and move on!

I am happy that I am thinking this way!

Anyway, a few hours after the loss I entered a long position on AUDJPY. I am still in it as the volatility was low and price did not move much. Price was ranging within a 10-15 pip range and therefore I kept on going up and down. As i type this I have been keeping an eye on that trade as I know the Asian session will bring volatility. And oh boy did it! There was significant gapping and I found myself being 19 pips in green to 6 pips in red in the matter of 30 seconds.
It was the first time I have experience gapping in real time.
The trade is starting to move into my direction again and I’ll post another entry when Ive exited.

Peace!

[Was_jussab]

Good day traders. I hope you’re all well!

So yesterday I entered two positions and we were still in one overnight.

The set up was as follows;

Price Points were as follows;
Entry - 95.082
TP - 95.751
SL - 94.632
RR - 1.5R
Exit Price - 95.348

We eventually got stopped out as we trailed our SL to just below the last swing low as shown below;

My thoughts

Initially I thought my headspace would be a bit foggy after the loss we took yesterday. However, I still felt calm and relaxed. I found entry, entered the trade and headed to the gym. Whilst I was at the gym I checked what price was doing once or twice but It really did not bother me. Price was hovering just in profits and then running in small losses back and forth.
When I got home from gym it was a bit more of the same and I would check here and there. I felt calm about it and had told myself to let the edge play out.

I backtested till 4 am last night so I would occasionally check the price. When I finished backtesting and got up to eat the trade was really going in my direction and not only had I reached BE for the week I had also gained 1.5 % which got me really emotionally invested into the trade. Throughout my meal my eyes were constantly on the price seeing what its doing etc. When price reached around 1R we moved SL to BE and then just before I slept I trailed it into profits just below the last swing high. Could have been more aggressive and close out the trade but I am glad I did not. It was a practice of discipline in my opinion.

Anyway it is what it is and we’re only 0.1% away from break even from my initial deposit which is good i guess. Hoping to get it in the green before the end of the week. Got a few potential set ups that I am looking at now so hopefully they can play out and I can enter one today. I know volatility and movement in the market is a bit slower on Fridays so would like to get in today if the opportunity presents itself. If not then we wait!

Before I sign off, a note to myself; we need to be doing a weekly ASR. This will help you develop your strategy so it suits you. Working towards developing a trade plan than has rules based trade management covered will help keep your emotions at bay. Especially when you’re trading with larger sums of money.

[Was_jussab]

Good evening traders. I hope you’re all well!

So I took a step backwards today and broke a rule. I widened my stop loss. A complete no go. Feels almost as bad as an impulsive trade.

Anyway, I was sat at my desk this afternoon doing some of my marketing work whilst checking the charts here and there for an entry. I had 2 pairs on my watchlist where the set up was almost complete. I had set an alert which went off around 30 mins before I went to the gym. We formed the double top that we look for and I waited for a bearish candle. We saw a huge bearish candle form the double top, and the very next candle was a bullish engulfing. We waited to see what price would do next and we formed an engulfing bearish so I took entry at the close of that.

I am not so pissed off that the entry was a bit rushed and I could have stayed out! When I backtest I do take these trades into account because I know sometimes candles will not be perfect most of the time. And in backtesting, I have seen that we have an edge and a win rate close to 60% even though we take these and 5/10 times these trades will play out.

I am not pissed off that we had a looser so close to BE on my account either. I am so pissed off at my self for widening the loss and giving an extra 1% away for nothing. Basically I was at the gym and I checked my phone once and that one time I saw price was going in the opposite direction. I looked left and said let me widen my SL to the penultimate Swing high that will give it enough room to play out. I do not do this in backtesting why would I do it now?

Anyway rant over. Below is the set up and how the trade played out;

Set Up

Price Points;
Entry - 1.24806
SL - 1.25020
TP - 1.24376
RR - 2
Exit Price - 1.25102

We widened the SL and got stopped out anyway. What a silly mistake.

My thoughts

I was pretty calm and confident when we got into the trade. It moved into green straight away so I thought I got it right yet again. I don’t know what overcame me in the gym and caused me to move the SL. It was a stupid mistake and will not happen again.

I was fuming when I got the notification that the trade got stopped out because I knew I went against the rules and gave 1% away for nothing.

Anyway I will learn from this and ensure If I have any trades on whilst at the gym again (or when I am busy doing something else) I will NOT look at my phone again.

In other news I will not be reaching BE this week. I guess it is part of the game and you learn from it. I am glad I started this online journal, I know I dont have many followers of it yet but I still feel like I can vent and get stuff off my chest which will allow me to have a clear mind and recharged tomorrow.

Onwards and Upwards!

Peace!

[Was_jussab]

Good Day Traders, I hope you’re all well. Just thought I’d journal my thoughts and results for the week.

I don’t know if anyone had GBPUSD on their watchlist today. I had an alert set for a short set up and I missed it. I missed out on above 150 pips. Price broke 2 year old support and impulsed to the down side so hard. Was actually sleeping when I got the alert.

Because its Ramadhan my routine is a bit all over the place and I spend all night backtesting until Suhoor! I therefore only get to bed at 5am and wake up at around 10-11 am.
There is only 12 days left to the end of Ramadhan. Thereafter my routine will be better as I will be going to the gym at 5.30 am every morning.

This will allow me to come back home and be on my desk in time for the London session.

Anyway, I have made some changes to the table I had last week. Additions rather. Suggested by @darthdimsky.

So week 1 was as follows;

Week 2 was as below;

And finally my equity curve on the account is as follows;

Took 2 losses and 2 wins this week and if I had proper risk management that I would have been at least 1% up.

I had the whole widening the SL issue which resulted in a bigger loss than it should have been. Nonetheless, we’re still better that the position we were in last week.

Hoping to more winning trades than loosing ones this coming week. Need to crawl my way back up to BE!

Have a good weekend folks!

[dushimes]

@Was_jussab

I don’t know what overcame me in the gym and caused me to move the SL. It was a stupid mistake and will not happen again.

Been there, done that!! Haha

I’ve moved stops. But now I try to leave them alone.

Just keep going. I think your analysis is valid and you’re learning from your mistakes. Keep it up!