My weekly/monthly trading, LIVE!

By Akeakamai’s request. On a side note my questions are directed at those following the Wilder system as per Dale, I’ll try to remember to cut those out when I cut and paste from 301 Moved Permanently. Not that I think your opinions are no good. Just that they know the ins and outs of this type of system and comparing apples and oranges is a waste of time. I’ll update on a weekly or monthly basis depending on how crazy my life gets. My weekly trading journal:

AAARRRGGGG!!!

What a WEEK! OH, what a week! You know that when I was demo trading I used to tell my wife: “The cool thing about this business is that you can make money anywhere, so while we’re on vacation I can still be making money, just bring my laptop and trade in the hotel or on the beach” EF THAT! When I go on vacation I’m going to relax!

Anyways for those that don’t know this is was my first week trading live. And the story goes…So sunday night comes and I am EXITED! Finally after all the long months of learning and trading fake money the time had arrived. Computer, check, account funded, check, exited, OH YEAH, check. Systems a go. I set my trades, yippy time to become a gazillionaire! My first trade was placed and boy was it a great one, not . I set up the rest of my trades and monitored them every few hours through the night. My first trade decided to take a dive early on down to -5%. I immediately grabbed my book “trading in the zone” for moral support and stuck it out.And it reversed to a measely 1% profit. After all how the hell am I gonna become a gazzillionaire with only 1% profit! Later I realized that I’d entered short at the bottom of the wave. It hit HBOP and swung between there and S1 the whole week. So I kept it all week each time thinking as it got to zero that it would go on to big fat profits. Stupid me I had a few times that I could have closed out at 1% profit on it but I held on for more(greed).

Monday I was introduced to my other b*tch of a position, damn thing would go into huge negative then to zero, I held this one too throughout the week. Most of my positions were in the red about -7% total. Tuesday, about damn time I see some nice green, closed out 2%. Wednesday, I close out 4%,(still have those two loosing trades , man I wish I’d taken the1% on each). Thursday (midday) I was up 5%. Duh duh dah(erie music in background), here is where things started to go down hill and in nerd dialect I get wtfpwned!

I looked at each trade and said to myself heck if I just add a few more positions and each one goes to XX level I’d make another 15%(greed), pretty smart idea right, WRONG! Half of those positions were USD/XXX or XXX/USD, and for those of you that weren’t trading thurs-fri the USD had a HUGE rally, well huge cause I had doubled a few of my USD positions. EUR/USD sunk like a rock and as it did my heart started beating harder, the palms of my hands started to sweat, my face got red, AND I PANICKED(FEAR)! I was tripled up on EUR/USD boy did that hurt! So 5 minutes later and MINUS 10% realized loss, mostly EUR/USD, PLUS -8% unrealized loss, I was broken, bah, it wasn’t that bad, I’m just exagerating, kinda. Oh, and by the way my two pet money sucking trades in NZD from monday and tuesday decided to flare up as the USD soared to new gut wrenching heights and go from -2% to -6%.

So I got up, walked away in disgust, and layed in bed for awhile staring at the ceiling thinking about what I’d done wrong, by this time I think it was around 4 am. I started going over the week and what had worked and what had not. During the week I’ve not had a single trade no matter how bad that didn’t eventually come back for a 1% or more profit. I’d had some nice rational trades triggered during the rally that I’d closed in panic, EUR/USD was now at a very very low support level, and I needed to do damage control, not revenge. So I got up went back to the computer and re-setup my trades(all within MM rules and according to my system). All with reasonable targets. I then closed out my deltastock platform and went to sleep for 4 hours. I didn’t sleep much this week. I got up this morning and 80% of my trade targets had been hit I made my money back minus my gains for the week and my NZD trades were back to there regular -2% and I closed them out.

After all was said and done I ended up with a 2 % gain for the week. I made alot of mistakes but they could have been much much worse if I’d let them get to that point. I LOVE the RT system. It’s so reliable. Out of my 20 someodd trades, every single RTS trade showed profit of 1%+ at one point or another. As I was lying there thinking after all the mess. I thought to myself how different the week would have ended if I’d not bent MM rules thurs-fri and set my profit target at 1% if my S1/B1 were not hit during the night, or at break even if the trade went against me, shoot, even those trades that went against me, only 2, both showed 1% gains at times. I feel like I had a great week. I learned a ton and I’m sure its only gonna get better. I know there will be times when the SHTF but it’s how you handle it that matters and sticking to your trading plan.

-Just thought I’d clarify. My actual P/L was positive most of the week after closing out quite a few trades. In no time during the week except at the end when I double and trippled up on a few USD positions had I hit my mental stops. My big losses were completely due to greed and fear. Money management is a must and not following it is what got me.

Update-My trades(USD pairs) that I panicked on and exited at losses reversed for nice profits.

takes a deep breath

Another week over and done. And boy has this trading week been crazy. So here’s the good the bad and the ugly.

Sunday,
I started out good then through it away due to impatience and eagerness to enter the market. Closed out my USD positions for mediocre profits, all went on to nice profits after I closed them, isn’t that the way of it though. Made some stupid trades trying to enter SIS trades early and lost my gains I closed out on USD pairs.
Monday,
Not much to say. None of my RTS entries hit.
Tuesday/Wednesday,
Finally got the SIS signals and did some scalping on them. Set small profit targets and reentered once it had retraced. No RTS trades again! Since the market was so quiet I figured that I’d narrow my RTS entries. Also I was up for the huge GBP rally and got in short a little early, still entered at the S1/B1 or S2/B2.

Thursday/friday,
Here’s where it got intresting. Alot of my RTS trades got hit and unlike I expected GBP had continued the rally. I got up at 4am to check my trades. I was sitting at a 15% drawdown from the 105% so a net -10%, I had 10 trades open at 1.5-2% margin each, a little more than expected. Unlike last week though I hadn’t violated my MM rules and didn’t panic. I continued to monitor closely my trades throughout the day and finally during the asian session things started to reverse. I stayed up till 5am and closed out a 13% gain, slept, and woke up to close out another 2%.

A pretty stressful week but very rewarding. I did alot better following the system and mm rules.

I’ll probably get tired of doing this but here’s my trades for the week:
USD/JPY +12 pips
EUR/JPY -87 pips impulse, entered SIS early
CHF/JPY -45 pips impulse, entered SIS early
NZD/CAD +20 pips
GBP/JPY +28 pips
EUR/JPY +28 pips
USD/JPY -7 pips mistake, so exited quick
EUR/JPY +21 pips
GBP/JPY +25 pips
GBP/NZD +8 pips went against me for a few days so took profit quick on the reverse.
EUR/AUD +16 pips
EUR/CHF +10 pips
GBP/JPY +76 pips
GBP/BGN -60 pips
GBP/AUD +50 pips
CAD/JPY +20 pips
CAD/CHF +22 pips
GBP/CHF +110 pips
EUR/USD +87 pips
USD/CHF +65 pips
EUR/CAD +107 pips

Net pip gain +513(this week) didn’t keep track of last weeks pips
15% gain on the week
17% gain since I started last week
Real money too

As you can see as the week progressed and we got some volatility I started letting my trades run. Hope everyone else had a great week.

Just wanted to add one more thing. I don’t think I’ve had a more stressfull two weeks in my life. I never understood just how much psychology played a roll in trading. It has taken LOADS of self restraint, constant vigilance, and major self scrutany to follow the systems and mm rules to a T. I would be nowhere without self correction whenever I’ve started to vary from my trading strategy. On a more positive note though It’s getting easier. This week wasn’t nearly as stressful as last.

I am impressed by your sheer number of trades
trading almost everything. I too started out
this way but now I only do EUR/USD and EUR/CHF.
And currently I earn 95% return per trading month.
Of course, it took me 5 years to get to this point
in my trading but if you keep this pace up, I think
that you’ll do real well with trading. If you want
to keep your stress level down, trade less
currency pairs.

I earn 95% return per trading month

Wow!! if you start with $1,000.00 dollars in 12 months of compounded returns, you’ll have $1,550,174.00

After 2 years, you’ll have in the area of $4.6billion:eek:

Yeah, good luck with that

Randon,

Thank you for sharing your experience. Like many new to forex, I have read thousands of posts. Many stress that we must prepare for the emotion of trading. However, your story really did the best job of getting through to me.

The raw emotion and stress you went through came through loud and clear! The fact that you analyzed week one and stuck to your systems and money management during week two (even though it was tough) is impressive. I look forward to reading more as your trading develops.

Once again, thanks for sharing. I am better off from having read your story.

First off I’d like to say I’m sorry to dissappoint those of you following my progress. But maybe this will help you to recognize when you make the same mistakes or in the rare case even not make these mistakes. I’m going to keep it short but sweet, kinda.

Im pretty annoyed with myself atm. I haven’t done so well lately. I was short CAD/JPY and AUD/JPY(close to the top of last weeks high) and closed them before they had their 150+pip moves. I didn’t want these trades to also go against me. Then I tried to call the bottom, not following a system, and entered and lost 10% on them, and now I’m sitting on another -10% of no system used to enter trades. I did this cause my USD positions were going against me and I needed to make some cash to offset my drawdown, brilliant plan right? All in all I’d be sitting at breakeven even with the dollar the way it is if I’d stuck to the system. Revenge trading and taking profits before my system tells me to is killin me. I’d be sitting on really really nice profits right about now.

You could call it bad luck but maybe it’ll be a HUGE factor in helping me in the future. EVERYSINGLE time I violate my money management rules or don’t follow my trading system I get absolutely hammered! I can’t point to a single instance where it has been otherwise.

I’m really starting to think more and more that THE reason most are not successful in this business and all others is lack of responsability. As soon as a trade goes bad the first tendancy is to blame the market, Joe Shmoe, government, Mom and Dad, the system(this is the worst one to blame)etc. The truth is YOU are the reason. If your trading sucks its cause YOU suck. I’m not going to be some washed up, broke, looser that blames everything in his life but himself when my time comes to leave this earth. If I’ve failed when that time comes I’ll at least know I gave it my all and I kept nothing back. I’ll be at peace cause I didn’t cower in the corner fearing failure. I’m not going to be angry or full of regret knowing I never took a shot at greatness.

Win or lose a trade, we who are newer to forex can benefit from you sharing your experience.

More importantly, you benefit from exposing your results to the light of day. It forces you to analyze your actions. Also, there are those with more experience and wisdom who, no doubt have made suggestions.

I wish you good trading and look forward to reading more in your quest for the pips.

T_duckprime

Thanks T_duckprime. I think I know what to do. The problem is doing it, or forcing myself to do it. I’ve had excellent results when I do follow the system. On a possitive note I think I’ve learned a LOT from my mistakes.

quick question randont, you’re not the first person that has recommended that trading system. Im really interested in reading my question to u is did u actually buy the book and read it or did u understand everything from that thread u put a link on. Can u please give us a brief summary of what your trading system is about?

Currently I’m trading live but I only go in very safe trades and I havent experienced a loss yet, my problem is Im not making a great deal of money, you have earned more than I have in a week. I’d appreciate ur help man. Thanks.

kia4ever-

I bought the book. Kind of a steep learning curve, for me anyways, might be easier for you. Took me about 2 months of study and practice to learn the systems. I really took to the reaction trend system and I mainly use that. You’d need the book to be able to understand the thread. Once I got the book and read it then I went through the thread.

Randont,

I would suggest that you dont beat yourself up so badly. We all make mistakes. As long as you learn from them and dont make the same ones twice, I would say that they were not losses but gains in knowledge and experience.

Something that has helped me a great deal and may benefit you as well is the study of the subconsious mind. It is much more powerfull than you may thing. Your own subconsious mind has the power to heal any disease or ailment you may have. It can help your trading too.

In my opinion - you must beleive that you are a sucessfull trader before you can actually be one.

“If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.” MARK 9:23

There are plenty of books and information on the web on how you too can communicate with your own subconsious.

Never entertain negative ideas

If you are constantly thinking or saying things like, “I am a screw up”, “I will never get this right”, “I just cant do this”, “I am a terrible trader,” Your subconsious doesn’t know the difference between you being serious or not, it will take your word for it and ensure that these things happen.

I am not saying that trading is 100% mental, but I will go out on a limb and say that it is 90% mental.

Think im crazy? Try it yourself and you will see the true power that has been gifted to each and every one of us to control our own destiny.

Happy pipping

GBLilleyUSMC-
Thanks for the words of encouragement! I’m definately open to what you’ve said and see alot of merit in it. I’m currently reading “Trading In The Zone” , deals with the psychology of trading, and will continue to read books on trading. Especially those that pertain to the mental aspect of trading.

Great place to start IMO. My biggest regret is that I didn’t read that book BEFORE trading my money.

Its important to be clear about this. The above is a gross overstatement. However our psychological makeup is important and this is not necessarily routed in the unconscious which is itself an area of controversy. The real life experimental work by Kahneman and Taversky show very clearly the unacknowledged biases in our decision making and it isnt difficult to demonstrate its detrimental effect on our trading. Trading in the Zone is certainly a reasonable and readable place to start. If you develop more interest in these areas then judgement under uncertainty by the above authors and the emotional brain by Le Doux are all worthwhile

Not knocking GBLilley, but generally:

A lot of nebulous and nonsensical populist metaphysical psychobabble creeps into discussions of trading psychology. Don’t get me wrong: a lot of the positive self-actualization/ideation stuff is legitimate, self-evident and can exact significant improvement from you. If you don’t believe you are capable of a thing, you won’t achieve it except by happenstance; whereas intentional belief and positive reinforcement lay the foundation for success, if the goal is attainable in the first place. There are valuable lessons for traders to learn in this area.

But then there’s the pseudo-spiritual gobbledigook that reads like an adapted transcript of [I]The Secret[/I] or some Scientological tripe that is subscribed to either out of pure expediency or because of some ad hoc, unreflective and hopelessly subjectivized notion of a worldview that dictates it. It’s genuinely astounding to read some of this material (found in a modest quantity expressed in this forum), which all seems to derive, somehow, from a state of desperation. Fortunately the most popular books on trading psychology (Douglas and Steenbarger come to mind) do not venture off in this direction.

This seems to be getting into some choppy waters but I thought I’d throw my two cents in anyway.

It all boils down to faith.

Anybody doing this business has to have a certain level of faith or they would never enter a trade. The question is, what is your faith in? Yourself, your system, your God? Whatever it is, if it’s working for you, then fine.

Personally, I believe in Jesus as the Son of God. I see bible quotes in posts, which is great. If you believe in one verse, you will accept all of them. The whole Book or none of it. There is no picking and choosing.
He tells us to come to Him as a child would. How do children take things? Literally. They don’t understand sarcasm or “just kidding” type jokes. To them, everything that an adult tells them is truth, whether it is or not.

That’s the way we are to be with Him, because He can be trusted. So when He says “you are snared by the words of your tongue”, and Matthew 9:29 “According to your faith will it be done to you”, I take it literally.

Where do you think all these success books get their stuff? It’s nothing new.

Anyway, not trying to get religious. Just real.

I’ve always wanted to ask a christian this:

If you were born and raised in a die-hard muslim family in a muslim country, do you think you would be muslim or christian? Why is it that you believe what you are surrounded with? Doesn’t that just take the glory out of it completely, knowing that you only believe because of your surroundings?

Wow, isn’t that a special question! :eek: Speaking of taking the glory out of it, if you haven’t yet, watch that “Zeitgeist” movie…google it. What I got out of it is basically it says most religion is just astrology put into a story form…Jesus the son of God…literally meaning the Sun not son. There are so many similar stories since the Egyptian days that it’s all a bit plagiarized. They all have a mother beginning with the letter M, three wise men, crucifixion, resurrection etc. and again it just all re-explains the movements of the stars & the sun.

I do believe in a higher power…God if you will… but not the rest of any of it. Like VulcanClassic said, “children take things literally” and that’s what I think happened with ANY religion starting way back when civilization was in it’s infancy and now it’s all SO subject to interpretation that I don’t think questioning the status quo is wrong. However, every race has one but they all fight, kill, belittle those who don’t believe theirs…I don’t believe that’s what God intended to happen, under whatever name or form he’s known as.

What we do need in this world though is a bit more respect for the differences as they exist because they’re not going to go away. The department I work in at my workplace has over 20 people and at least half are from all over the world. We each have our beliefs, but we all get along great by respecting those beliefs and just treating each other as a decent fellow human being who have feelings. We do not “challenge” each others religious beliefs, but instead we learn about them when they come up.

I would never pose a question such as the above because that kind of question could easily be thrown back in my face, and it does come across as being a bit ignorant and arrogant from a position of some kind of enlightenment which it is NOT!

So do you believe we’re the only life form in the universe? :smiley:

Lets keep the subject on forex please!

Fair enough. Probably a good idea.