Thanks for reading my journal.
I hope itāll be useful for someā¦
I wish I started my journal earlier. I donāt want to write down every single detail of my trades. I rather take notes of what I did wrong, how I felt about certain tradesā¦ and learn from the mistakes. And of course update at least once a week, how my balance looks like, what I did wrong etcā¦
I think Iām a real beginner. I finished reading babypips in December 2017 then I skipped demo trading and opened a live account in January. The reason I skipped demo trading is because I knew live trading very different due to the fact that I play with my own money and have to overcome the psychological challenges. So I jumped straight into real trading with small lots and slowly got used to it. The next challenge was overcoming fear and becoming more confident. For now, Iāve already achieved that and I couldnāt be happier.
Iāve been serious about trading since the beginning, when I started reading babypips last December. I was so excited. The lessons were wonderful. And I didnāt even know there is anything like thisā¦ like Forex. I heard of the stock market but I thought itās a lot more complicated. And I have never been interested in finance and economics. Till now. I wish I could go back in time and study this major. Well, I guess for now I can go thru some free courses to educate myself (about economics). Iām 26 now, canāt go back to universityā¦
I certainly think Iām still a beginner. Weāre beginners till we become profitable and understand the market. Iāve learnt a lot since January (when I opened my first live account) and have never felt bored of it. I donāt like weekends anymore. I want to trade and look at the markets, candlesticks, news and so on. Weekends are boring because I know I canāt trade. Iām not obsessed with it or anything, but I just REALLY (I mean really) enjoy trading, looking at the charts and reading stuff. And I started feeling this last December when I started my journey. Since then, every second Monday to Friday is exciting. And I canāt wait for Monday on the weekends.
I donāt make serious money but I know I have learnt a lot, especially from my mistakes. Itās a great experience so far and I love every aspect of it.
I closed my trades. Balance is $539, up from $500 since last week.
I try not to be greedy. I think I could have let it run for a few more days, but I donāt want it to turn around. I wish I knew the solution for thisā¦
I think:
If you can rationally explain why you think so, you got your solution. If not, then that question should not arise since you would be certain that this was your A-Game move. Everything else is just a matter to the mental game I suppose.
Either you had good reasons to close the position or not. Doing so and feeling bad afterwards about it is either because A: No satisfactory plan / exit strategy concerning the reasoning or B: A mental leak. You cannot feel bad about missing out on profits if you followed the plan. That stuff might cost you your career.
Concerning the mental game, this might be proving very helpful:
Iām happy with the profits. I just wish I could let it run longer. How does one (especially position traders) know that the market is going to go to the right direction for many many weeks? <<< Iām searching for an answer haha.
Also been wondering how to evaluate directions further into the future. I believe the more you look ahead, the less reliable it will be. So we probably shold not bother too much. I am right now trying to trail my SLs as TP areas and looking for chart patterns / candle stick patterns that signal a change.
Also I like to think of what I would do if I wasnāt in a position, where would I enter in which direction? If I would enter there in the same direction, I should probably think of adding to the position, if I would take the opposite direction, I should probably be thinking about closing my current trade there as well (at latest).
Now Iām trading 0.01 lots because Iām trying out other pairs as well. Have to be cautious and patientā¦ And I stick to higher timeframes of course.
I open and close positions according to support and resistance areas. But sometimes I close the position earlier if Iām in good profit.
Yeah itās difficult to determine where I should close the trade, especially when youāre in profit. I try not to be greedy but at the same time I think itāll go furtherā¦ so itās a big challenge. I rather keep the profits and open another position later. For now, this can teach me not to be greedy.
This is an interesting take also. Most people say to try demo for 6 months first while some say to just dive right in. Iām in the latter camp especially if itās just a small amount of money youāre working with.
Iām very interested in how you got interested in all this. How did you end up wanting to learn fx trading? For me crypto was my gateway drug. I started with (not even bitcoin!) ethereum and then when the crash happened, started looking into forex and equities also.
@Weirdough Looks like youāre also coming from the crypto realm?
If you can control yourself then you should jump right into the markets with a few hundred bucks and trade small lots. So later you wonāt have to deal with emotional challenges and pressure. But unfortunately some people risk too much and lose everything quickly right at the beginningā¦
Yeah, this is going to sound stupid but I actually saw a Forex advertisement, one of the brokerās ad. I havenāt had any idea what it wasā¦ So I clicked on it, because I was bored. Then it reminded me of the stock market and I started to research. After a few days I came across the Forex subreddit and found useful materials about where to start. Babypips was the very first one so I thought this is going to be the best start for someone like me. And since then Iāve became obsessed with it haha.
Last week I was experimenting with multiple pairs. With this, I broke the rule of only trading the NZDUSD. However, I donāt feel bad about this because this and the previous week was profitable.
At least I stick to higher timeframes and donāt risk my money. Iām very happy about this.
Iām really keen to trade multiple pairs. I see almost everyone does this and feels like Iām missing out on so many opportunities. From now on, Iāll be looking at other major and minor pairs as well. No gold or oil 'tho. Only FX.
Accordingly to weekly and daily timeframes, Iāll enter multiple positions with 0.01 lots if I find an opportunity. SL and TP will be set before I open a trade. This is also crucial. You must (approximately) determine when you want to close the trade before you open it.
Itās been a lot of talk on BP about opening a number of small lot size positions. A few of them without stop loss. What is your stop loss and take profit strategy parameters?
After your initial trade is on how do you decide on your other trade placements?
I determine the stop loss according to the daily/weekly charts and also where the candle closes (below or above support/resistance level).
About taking profitā¦ I try not to be greedy so I usually close it around $10-$20ā¦ I know this is not the best way but many times it turned around and felt bad about not closing it. However, it happened numerous times that I let it go till $30-40 profit. I think the TP should be the next support or resistance area. I try to balance it. Try not to be greedy but donāt close it too early. This is a challenge at the moment.
Oh wow. Was it on a website or from a TV commercial? Haha oh man the ad men will be so happy to see this story. Would you say though that youāve always been into āmoney makingā schemes? Iāve always wondered how people get into these things without any sort of financial exposure/background.
