My Trading Log

Beginner Questions
1

Hi to all, this is my trading log so far:

GAIN	LOSS

FEB 299 577 -278
MAR 400 811 -411
APR 423 872 -449
MAY 105 0

The above relates to PIPS gained\lossed, am new to FOREX and came across it accidently last Oct 2009 in a Shares magazine and decided to give it a go as it allowed one to trade on up\down trends rather than the usual buy shares and wait for them to rise etc.

I bought the following books:

Currency Trading for Dummies

Technical Analysis for Dummies (For Dummies (Lifestyles Paperback)

Forex Patterns and Probabilities: Trading Strategies for Trending and Range-bound Markets (Wiley Trading)

7 Winning Strategies for Trading Forex: Real and Actionable Techniques for Profiting from the Currency Markets

And the Babypips school! :smiley:

I started trading in Feb 2010 and as u can see mixed results! The problem i have as with all newbies (from what i have read here) is the usual over-trading, being nervous, not following own strategy! physcological issues: not wanting to lose a trade, chasing losses, jumping in when u shouldn’t!

You know all the ‘classic’ errors! :mad:

But hey you learn the hard way! the most important aspect is that i have documented my strategy & results and if i had followed it to the line i would have been doing very good by now! So at least i know the strategy works, i just need to try and follow it and not be deterred by anything else!

So i’ll try to update my journal on weekly\monthly basis (or for as long as i last!)

Any advice would be welcome :slight_smile:

Thanks :smiley:

2

GAIN LOSS
FEB 299 577 -278
MAR 400 811 -411
APR 423 872 -449
MAY
wk18 105 0 = +105
wk19 40 363 = -323
wk20 146 244 = -98
wk21 102 103 = -1
wk22 108 49 = +59

no trading for 2 weeks, off on holiday yayyyyyyy!

3

You have not posted your strat so I cant coment on its merits or otherwise. But you seem to be losing way more than your making so something is wrong. Personally I would stop trading with real money. Go back to demo and make very sure its not the strat.

If its not the strat then you need to look long and hard at what it is causing you to consistantly lose money. High on the usual list is poor MM or psycology.

4

But hey you learn the hard way! the most important aspect is that i have documented my strategy & results and if i had followed it to the line i would have been doing very good by now! So at least i know the strategy works, i just need to try and follow it and not be deterred by anything else!

So i’ll try to update my journal on weekly\monthly basis (or for as long as i last!)

Any advice would be welcome :slight_smile:

Thanks :D[/QUOTE]

Hello g0sht, from what I understand you have a trading system that works, but you have a hard time to respect it.
You feel like a trader when an opportunity arises, even if it is not perfect.
All this is normal …
Do not forget that not trader, c "is also a trader …
You want to stop losing money??? then follow your system, write it as a plan that you must follow to the letter without any gap, and you’ll be surppris by the result.
Remember the GM, not more than 2% of your available through trade, especially now tested on a demo account, I know you’re eager to make money, but on a real account, now on to you 'to lose … You have to see
Go to this link, you have a job to read it, but it is 1000 times the books you bought, and it is free :slight_smile:

http://forums.babypips.com/newbie-island/32400-finest-trend-trading.html

5

UPDATE:
MONTH GAIN LOSS

FEB 299 577 -278
MAR 400 811 -411
APR 423 872 -449
MAY 501 852 -351
JUN 197 55.78 +141.22
JUL 290 198 +92

FINALLY! starting to make some headway. i’ve been very strict and stuck to my strategy! oh apart from 2 blips lol! but just gotta keep it up and not be swayed by sentiment, being nervous, news etc, just gotta follow my Strategy AND BELIEVE IN IT! and all good!

STRATEGY RESULTS:
TRADEABLE WEEKS:21 (out of 24)
PIPS: +10200

Daaaym if i did follow it i’d be sittin on a beach now! i wish ! :smiley:

oh and thanks for the advice :slight_smile:

6

Trades this week:

AUD
open:78.44
close:78.81
+37

CAD
open:84.62
close:85.21
+59

STRATEGY (if i had stuck to my Strategy then following in play):
AUD:
BUY:78.98
Current:78.53
-45

CAD
BUY:84.77
Current:84.30
-47

8

STRATEGY RESULTS:
TRADEABLE WEEKS:21 (out of 24)
PIPS: +10200

Daaaym if i did follow it i’d be sittin on a beach now! i wish ! :smiley:

oh and thanks for the advice :)[/QUOTE]

That speaks volumes about your method …
Have you written your trading plan, did you change that, compared to your remarks???
In any case it seems you’re back on track …:smiley:
Try to be clearer in your results:
Number of lots
Buy or Sell a what price
Target take profit
Take profit (or loss) real
Analysis of trade in relation to your plan
And certainly many other things like keeping a journal of your trades, yes, I know it’s tedious, :stuck_out_tongue: but you’ll be surprised at the support that will bring you to analyze your trades.
Good luck, full of pips.

9

Yeh i’ve been following all the above! About 6 weeks ago i did adjust it and it;s improved greatly. My STRATEGY to date would have netted me 10k+ pips which includes losses and stops being breached, i also have calculated my strategy WITHOUT STOP LOSS and that is 8,000 pips+ WAHOO crazy or what!

But that is all paper based,in reality i can only afford to trade 2-3 pairs whereas my strategy trades 4-6 pairs at a time, and having been pretty strict last 6 or so weeks am not losing heavy but gradually gaining, and once i have enough money i can then follow my strategy fully.

This week:

Trades this week:

AUD
open:78.44
close:78.81
+37

CAD
open:84.62
close:85.21
+59
(like i said am currently getting out whenever i make a quick gain, currently trying to up my capital until i can risk enough)

STRATEGY (if i had stuck to my Strategy then following in play):
AUD:
BUY:78.98
closed out at STOP 77.50

CAD
BUY:84.77
closed out at STOP 83.40

Past 3 wks in a row i have lost out (on paper), maybe just a glitch but hey u lose some win some, overall i would be up greatly so for now not worried, but this trade plan has only been running since Feb this year so early days.

Have a nice weekend all.

10

Ok so i been reading some of the posts and some systems here and ppl have systems that gain pips that range from 3 pips to 100’s per day, week etc, yet my strategy seems to have gained 9000 pips since Feb??

Now either i’ve hit the lottery on Forex or i’ve been doing my maths wrong lol! This is all paper-based but hey still it can;t be THAT wrong can it? I haven’t been able to trade it real-time real money as i don;t have the money and am building up my account slowly.

So now i want people to verify by findings, so if someone can go thru the numbers and see if it is true or have i misjudged the whole thing lol!!!

so here are the trades for Feb 2010:

08…12.02.10:
91(AUD)
28(CAD)
-78(CHF)
-119(EUR)
-6(gbp)
25(usd)
TOTAL: -59
buy @10pm 09.05.10

15…19.02.10:
131(AUD)
171(CAD)
91(CHF)
101(EUR)
45(gbp)
162(usd)
TOTAL: +701
buy @4pm 16.02.10

22…26.02.10:
278(AUD)
304(CAD)
196(CHF)
316(EUR)
509(gbp)
209(usd)
TOTAL: +1812
sell @10am 23.02.10

** The above numbers equal pips gained\lost ie: -/+ **

The trades run from a Tue to Fri 6pm (always Fri 6pm), so say for :
08…12.02.10 i did BUY trade at 10pm on Tue 10pm on all the JPY pairs AUD, CAD, CHF, GBP & USD and held them until Fri 12 6pm. Although the numbers don;t have to be EXACT the main thing is they tally near abouts.

Now on this week (08…12.02.10) you can see i made a loss but hey it’s NOT 100%, u do make losses but overall it’s way above epectations, i mean 9000 pips+ u can;t knock that can you???

So in the above if somone can double-check and see if the the numbers match up, i’d also like if someone can see how far down/up the pairs went in that week also ie:

08…12.02.10 BUY AUD/JPY @10PM 09.02.10 and held until Fri 12.02.10, how far down did the pair go? As i am still working on a STOP LOSS, currently some of these trades are done with NO STOP LOSS, yet the account is still up 8000 pips??? :confused:

Many Thanks in advance.

11

** CORRECTION **

08…12.02.10:
91(AUD)
28(CAD)
-78(CHF)
-119(EUR)
-6(gbp)
25(usd)
TOTAL: -59
buy @10pm 09.02.10 NOT 09.05.10 :mad:

12

AAAAAAAArrrrrrgggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh!!! :mad:

How is it my signal posted a 177 pip gain today but i managed to lose -88???
WTF!

I have not ONE, but TWO Trading Strategies, one running since Feb 2010 that has gained 8000 pips and one i just started 6 weeks ago which has a 2000 pip gain! People on here cry about gaining 2-3 pips per day/week and here i am swimming in them yet i managing to F it up nearly every week!!!

what the hell am i doing wrong??? :mad:

kicks cat :mad:

13

Todays Trades (Strategy + ACTUAL)

1st Strategy (SELL)

7AM	4PM

AUD/USD 0.9131 0.9125 -6
EUR/USD 1.2806 1.2710 -96
GBP/USD 1.5374 1.5299 -75

=177 pips (GAIN)

2nd Strategy (SELL)
10AM 4PM
AUD/USD 0.9108 0.9125 +17
EUR/USD 1.2764 1.2710 -54
GBP/USD 1.5374 1.5299 -75

= 112 pips (GAIN)

TOTAL: 177+112=289 GAIN !!! :smiley:

What i did!!! :confused:

SELL
10:20 14:20
AUD/USD 0.9101 0.9141 +40
EUR/USD 1.2757 1.2766 +9

= 49 LOSS :mad:

BUY (yes like a fool i chased it!!!) :frowning:
14:35 15:25
AUD/USD 0.9136 0.9116 -20
EUR/USD 1.2761 1.2744 -17

= 37 LOSS

TOTAL= 49+37=86 LOSS!!!

I know where i went wrong, rather than follow my Strategy when the moment comes i doubt it! Today i stayed out of the GBP/USD pair as i know it moves like crazy so scares me off and yet today it would have been my saviour!

14

Better day today (slightly!)

aud/usd 0.9167 0.9191 24
eur/usd 1.2732 1.2686 -46
gbp/usd 1.5454 1.5514 60

38 pip (GAIN)

** chickened out eur/usd when it started to fall, should have stayed in :mad:

but better than yesterday, bring on tomorrow :stuck_out_tongue:

15

wahooo finally making some headway! :smiley:

Past weeks results, figures in brackets indicate max. possible pips that week:

-132 (1176)
-141 (2443)
-59 (867)
62 (1178)
-7 (937)
87 (1380)
58 (986)
172 (954)
202 (1527) * this week, my highest so far! *

+242

happy weekend all

16

This weeks COT report shows BUY EUR & GBP ie: Dollar to drop again? Anyone confirm this?

COT BUY.jpg700×223 25.4 KB

17

update:

-132 (1176)
-141 (2443)
-59 (867)
62 (1178)
-7 (937)
87 (1380)
58 (986)
172 (954)
202 (1527)
78 (527) this week

week started off on bad, bad, BAD day lol! :eek:! veered off my strategy a little bit and all hell broke lose! then i chased it, got stopped out, chased it, got stopped out, AND chased it, got stopped out AGAIN! i made the SAME mistake 3 times yikes! i was lookin at a -262 but pulled it back to -175!

why i did it F knows! if i had just taken the inital loss at -40 i’d been okay this week!

still rest of the week went ok and i managed +87, then a +147 and a +19 today, i was up 59 pips on the week knew that today was a bit of rocky day but my signal had a BUY this morning so i decided just to risk one pair and 40pips, if i lost then i’d be still +19, anyway got 19 for the day and bailed out while i could lol!

ah well, better to be ‘slighty’ up then DOWN! that makes it 5 weeks no loss yay! :stuck_out_tongue:

18

update:
-132 (1176)
-141 (2443)
-59 (867)
62 (1178)
-7 (937)
87 (1380)
58 (986)
172 (954)
202 (1527)
78 (527)
70 (367/1414)
105 (-134/521)
169 (276/1004)

That makes it 8 weeks without loss ! :smiley:

Some new figures in brackets: the 1st is how much possible if traded for one hour only, the 2nd figure is the highest possible (but again it’s easy to look back and say ‘if i had gone out then’ and got the highest number).

As for my demons some still present :mad:, occasionally i still fail to follow my strategy and question it, but up till now i been lucky as as my strategy has 3 facets to it so i have managed to claw back my losses or limit them, but still not good! when will i learn! :confused:

Next step is to try and follow it without hestiation, but like that gonna happen! but i’m also entering that Alpari compo so should give me some experience on trading using that Metatrader or whatetever it is, maybe i’ll pickup soma on that.

And lastly i got another pair to add to my Strategy , it;s the USD/ZAR!!! yes crazy as it sounds cause this pair bucks more than one of them bulls in them bullrings over in yankee land! but for now i’ll carry on testing and see how it goes, i may even use it in this compo (one sure way to blow my account as that pair is mad as hell haha), but hey u live only once! :stuck_out_tongue:

19

update:
-132 (1176)
-141 (2443)
-59 (867)
62 (1178)
-7 (937)
87 (1380)
58 (986)
172 (954)
202 (1527)
78 (527)
70 (367/1414)
105 (-134/521)
169 (276/1004)
26 (170)

GAIN LOSS
0 49
0 37
2 0
12 0
48 0
37 0
19 0
0 0
3 0
2 0
0 3
12 0
19 0
0 65
1 0
0 118
0 24
0 42
18 0
0 0
20 0
4 0
0 11
0 10
0 3
80 0
4 0
16 0
42 0
37 0
8 0
4 0

388 362
= + 26 !!!

Bwaaaaaaa :mad: am gonna either have a heart-attack doin this Forex sh*t or axe someone in anger :eek: haha! wat a wild wild week i had jeeeeez! but ended up with a +26 for the week and NOT a loss so dat main thing.

I don;t think am ever gonna learn to control my emotions or stop my urges,
it’s gonna be one hell of a roller coaster ride for me i think, i’ve given
up saying ‘FOLLOW YOUR STRATEGY’!!! :frowning:

ah well it’s Friday and i got my +91 pips this morning so NO MORE trades even if if have 2 signals to trade today, F that!!! bring on next week and more mayhem! :stuck_out_tongue: