Surfer? Shooting the curl?!
The difference is huge! Maybe this is just me but when I was demo trading, I really didn’t feel any sort of “real emotions” with it. I knew I should tweak trades or learn x and y but emotionally speaking, I didn’t feel any of the wins/losses I made. Sure I felt bad or felt happy but it wasn’t anywhere near how I feel now trading with my hard earned $$ lol.
Oh nice!!! When are you planning on doing it? Will you also put up a trade journal? Can’t wait to have a trading buddy here!
#10WTC Week 5 Journal Entry: Closed Trade Recap from Week 3 (EUR/JPY)
February 20, 2019
This is one of two trades that prompted me to create a topic on setting timeframes when creating a trade plan.
Lately, I’ve been finding it difficult to adjust open trades or just adapt to the situation on the fly. I’ve been creating trade plans for A or B but not for C, when it’s in purgatory. Because of trades like this one, I’ve been pretty reluctant to open new ones.
Trade #10: Short EUR/JPY aka How Long Do I Really Have to Keep Watching This Trade
I can’t decide whether I’m more of a “long-term” trader just yet but so far, this has been my longest held trade at 8 days. You might think that’s short but boy was I getting antsy.
(Added info that is a bit unnecessary: I opened this trade on Week 3 and closed it on Week 4)
Here’s how the setup looked:
I went short after spotting a short term downtrend and also clear S&R areas. Plus it was below its 50 and 200 SMAs. The yellow arrow is the day I entered and the orange line is the price I got in (124.974, market order).
The solid green line was my original TP and as you can see I created 2 more dotted lines in attempts to make that TP even lower and lower because this pair was just straight choppy.
The yellow plus sign is where I got out. I made a whopping $0.14 out of this trade or 16 pips. Are you jealous of my trading prowess yet lol.
I could have waited one more day sure but how would I have known? I would have hit my SL had I held on to it longer.
Then again, I guess I could have gotten out sooner too.
Shoulda woulda coulda.
Overall, I suppose I’m happy I got out of this ridiculous trade unscathed. I’m not really sure what else I could have done.
If you spot any errors I made for this trade, feel free to point it out. Or maybe something I could have done instead? Either way, if you have tips for this type of situation, I’ll be happy to read it!
#10WTC Week 5 Journal Entry: Closed Trade Recap from Week 4: AUD/USD
February 20, 2019
While this one didn’t really take as long as the previous trade, it still bled into the weekend and caused a bit of discomfort. I say only a bit because at least I wasn’t in the red as it was chopping around. It still gave me that annoying problem I seem to constantly be having though: Should I take profit now or let it run???
Trade 11: Long AUD/USD
I went long after seeing this pair bounce off its bottom channel resistance. I thought it was going up to its mid-channel area at least. Hopped in at market (orange line and yellow arrow line for my entry day) and set my TP at the mid-channel and SL at the bottom channel.
This was one of the trades I thought of when @BaconSandwich wrote:
At the time, I was thinking of drawing another lower TP line so I can just close the trade and be done with it. But I thought about it some more and realized the pair was still trading according to the direction I went in so why get out?
I kept it and a day later, I got stopped out and took profit.
I took home $6.61 or about 66 pips.
Ok so while that’s a good thing, I’m still a bit annoyed because I feel like I shouldn’t have added a limit order.
But clearly I’m only thinking about that now becauuuuuuseee……
Trade 12: Short AUD/USD aka Let’s Make a Quick Gamble on This Sucker
First mistake: Looking at the 4H chart. I looked and saw that it was having trouble breaking through that mid-channel resistance.
My thought: OOH it’s probably topped out. Let me make a quick bet.
I put out a veeeery tight SL (6 pips), just a tiny bet to find out if I’m wrong.
As you can see in the chart (Trade #11 still), I got stopped out lol and it continued to chop. I’d probably be in the green now if I made my stop wider but let’s be honest I wouldn’t have placed my stop there to account for that spike up!
I lost 6 pips or $0.06.
I don’t really regret this trade, I think it was a small price to pay to be wrong and would have been beautiful had I been right.
At this point my account balance is now at $343.72. I’m up about 14.5%. I am not complaining!
I have 5 more weeks to not mess up. Let’s get that bread!
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A familiar story to most of us. In reponse to your question; you determined your plan when you identified the trade, you set your SL and TP and you shouldn’t change these unless circumstances change eg the trade seems to be faltering.
Psychology is an issue here. We set TP and SL with an acceptable ratio, say 2:1, but if the trade moves towards TP we close early to preserve the profit however if it is moving towards SL then we let it run because it may turnaround. We have now totally undermined our reward to risk ratio.
The solution is to have a method of managing losses which gives us the confidence to let a trade run to its predetermined targets.
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Hey, great journal amigo
Keep it up - it’s a terrific way to learn because you can review all your trades - winners or losers
No matter how good a trading strategy may be, the markets can do anything at any time and don’t care about our strategies.
So all we can do is control how much we risk on a position and look at our performance based on multiple trades because the outcome of any single trade is random.
Took me years to figure that out!
So before entering any trade, ask ‘Can I afford to take the risk to see if this idea will work?’
'Is the potential reward worth that risk? Am I happy to accept the risk?'
Answer ‘YES’ to those questions, then take the trade!
Good luck
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This is an excellent thread, terrific to post the trades and great comments!
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Great thread!!! You are doing really well 
Happy trading and may the force be with you, good luck!
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Hi tradeviper im trying to follow you on telegram and Twitter I can’t find you
Thats the ONLY way to jump OFF the RETAIL Mindset TITANIC. Journals helps with identifying stuff u would miss and stuff that can reserve the Pips for productive use.
Good 
Trading:wink:
שלום
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Yes this is what I have to keep in mind and what I also struggle with. I have to remember to treat each trade not as a single event but as a string of many trades. Very challenging to think of when you’re watching charts right at that moment but I’m working on it!
Thank you! Happy to have you drop by and leave a comment!
Yes this is an easy one for me, the hard part is when I’m already IN the trade! I need to stop second guessing myself.
Thank you! Hopefully I end up in the green after 10 weeks lol.
For now! I have 5 more weeks - hopefully when you check back in, I’m still in the green lol.
Yeah I didn’t realize how helpful it could be! Thanks stopping by!
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What an interesting thread.
Keep up the good work! And thank you for posting some charts.
Best to you, Purtle!
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Trade 13: Short NZD/CHF (First Open Trade Update)
Went short after spotting how this pair has been on a longterm downtrend, the resistance area since Dec also held strong and I also spotted a potential double top forming.
This was last week. After I entered, it went into purgatory mode where it’s basically just consolidating. This is one of those trades where I get antsy because I start wondering what the opportunity costs are.
Here’s my setup for your reference:
I’m up almost $9 as of this writing. It still has a bit more to go before it hits my TP but now I have two options: keep my TP or remove it in anticipation for more bleeding from this pair?
In the meantime, I will move my stop loss to the open price of yesterday’s candle so at least it’s a risk-free trade (well, more like a +9 pip trade, so tiny I know but better than getting chopped up I suppose).
Would love to read what your thoughts are on my plan/setup.
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I suggest take half at your TP, move the SL to breakeven and let the second half run with a trailing stop.
good luck
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I think that is great advice from Diabolo, I trade shorter time frames mostly, I believe in an uncertain market which your in, I would take my profits or use the trailing stop. there is always another trade. Great your making a profit and posting your trades. I wish i could gain just 1 dollar of every crook I have given my money to, nothing to do with trading. Also wish some of these so called book selling gurus would do like you and post there so called mega profits for all to see, makes me wonder? At least your honest!
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Good stuff Purtle!
Keep up the good work!
…Yeaaaahhhh. I read this earlier and by the time I read it, the pair has recovered.
Another shoulda woulda coulda moment brought to you by yours truly. I’ve seen far more riches ahead of me (like $9 lol) to close this trade now so it’s either I get stopped out for a breakeven trade or I go back higher. Go big or go home!!!
Happy Friday guys. I think I’ll keep my open trades throughout the weekend.
Thanks man! Hope my account will be around by week 10!
I agree with @Diabolo888 take half TP and move to break even, at the beginning I used to not do this, I would take half and then later my SL would get hit in some trades and take losses, now I have no problem taking half and moving to breakeven and now it’s basically just watching the show, mostly I get stopped out at breakeven, but when the trend keeps going that half I left open makes a killing, and so I then slowly take half whenever I fell like it and sometimes move SL away from breakeven so if price drops I am still in profit, honestly this has changed everything for me as I make way more gainz and its a lot less stress lol, I started in crypto also and this most definitely helps where ever you trade in my opinion awesome thread will keep watching and learning, good luck happy trading
Hi purtle.
To bring in a little bit of another view in behalf of taking profits… I didn’t check the big picture, but i see in your chart a sideways-movement (a-b-c retracement) after an up-movement. So if it was my trade, i would close the whole position at your TP area because of a relatively strong support area in a possible uptrend.
good luck and many many thanks for sharing your tading experiences
: )
ps … and i think it is always a good idea to trail the stop a little bit - but not too close
I checked the charts again midday and saw that all of my trades were in the green again which should make me feel good but why do I feel FEAR? I feel like it’s going to turn against me and all the unrealized gains I’ve made will vanish into thin air and will instead be replaced by losses.