I use a calculator to work out lot sizes, I am using 1% of my bank currently, which works out at a risk level of $50 or thereabouts on my 5%ers challenge account ($5k)
1 Like
On the spreadsheet I use to track all the stuff I like to track; I have a position sizing tool I created. It looks like this…
2 Likes
Could you let me have a copy of that, looks very nice!
Of Course, once I figure out how to share part of a spreadsheet…lol
If it helps …
1 Like
Is it VBA or formulaes?
Sent you a google doc link…
Its simple formulas…white sections are the variables, boxed areas are the results.
1 Like
Thanks very much! 
Profitable day today (0.5% ish) with 3 successful trades from 4, but it should have been a 100% winning day but I made a dumb mistake.
Here’s the trades, dumb mistake first;
USDJPY did it’s usual thing and dropped early, I entered after the retest was rejected but didn’t set the SL anywhere near big enough. After yesterday I intended to set it at the top of the opening 5 minute range but as you can see it was nowhere near that level.
I had looked at all the opening ranges at 8:06 and worked out they were all around 6 pips in size, of course USDJPY is always more pips and I simply forgot to double check, so there’s a new learning for today.
In the event it stopped me out pretty quickly and had I used the SL I had intended then this one would have hit the relevant TP around half an hour later.
Anyway, here’s the winning trades;
AUDUSD did it’s usual thing too, I did think long and hard about taking this as the price action/volatility was very low that formed the opening 5 minute range, only about 2.5 pips but I felt fairly confident based on recent history of this pair and it hit TP after around 15 minutes. It’s still going up as I type this albeit very slowly.
Loving USDCAD at the moment and a nice easy win here despite me not setting the SL quite high enough but it didn’t matter. I’ve not been trading this pair for long so that’s my excuse this time.
Everything happened at the same time today so I was kind of rushing, need to take a bit more time over things.
Final trade was GBPUSD, this one just worked out nicely with no dramas.
Learning point for today is just double check SL before entry and confirm the price as well as the size of the SL as a double check.
I may start trading at 0.6 instead of 0.5 for the risk to reward so it covers the charges and spread that 5%ers are using.
Currently watching the DAX as I might take a trade on that but looks to be consolidating at the moment.
Edit - just noticed the last candle in each of the 5 minute ranges is larger than the other in that range and in all cases points in the direction of the successful trade, will keep an eye on that for future reference.
1 Like
I’m going to record all my trades using the below spreadsheet so I can finally, once and for all work out my optimum risk to reward ratio. I will record 100 trades and then do some analysis.
1 Like
You ever look at myfxbook? There’s good stats there and its automatic. Unless you like the record keeping.
1 Like
After I place a trade and set the SL, the next few minutes is spent running through my SL checklist. Stuff like Big psychological numbers, near the end of trading day or anything else that could affect my standard 50 pip, then I adjust. I use 50 as a starting point but its not a one size fits all for sure. Example…I use a larger SL on GBP/JPY than I do on USD/NZD, just from volatility alone.
1 Like
Not sure myfxbook would work for what he’s trying to achieve, but it does have some useful analysis tools.
Apparently my R:R last month was -0.6, I don’t even know what that means when I made a profit…
2 Likes
Isn’t the loss limit of that account $500? If you lose $500+, the account is blown, isn’t it, David? That means it’s a $500 account, so 1% risk would be $5 per trade, not $50 per trade.
It would take for ever to qualify, that way, and I’m not suggesting you should do that.
I’m simply suggesting (as strongly as I can without, I hope, sounding rude!) that you shouldn’t tell yourself that your position-sizing is 1%, because it isn’t. It’s actually 10%. I’m not telling you not to do that. I’m telling you not to fool yourself about what you’re doing! 
Most people who fail prop firm evaluations fail them through having a position size that’s disproportionately big for the account size, because the prop firm describes it - horribly misleadingly - as “a $5,000 account” (or whatever size) so they think of it, themselves, as a $5,000 account when it isn’t…
That’s more or less how prop firms make a living.
It’s a great shame, because many people who actually have a genuine edge and otherwise know what they’re doing are failing unnecessarily.
Sorry if it’s an unwelcome interference. I’m wishing you well, and suggesting that as there’s no hurry with this thing, and you’ve already paid for it, and there’s no monthly subscription, you might want to think about slowing down by reducing your position size? It will significantly improve your chances.
5 Likes
No I totally appreciate your input and you are right, they are misleading! I had been doing 0.1% trades but it seems like it’s going to take forever to hit the target, maybe I will try 0.5%
I have reduced my RRR to 1:0.5 so I am feeling more confident but possibly too much!
3 Likes
So went with a 0.5% risk level today, which is in effect 5% based on the 5ers rules about drawdown.
4 wins from 4, so a profit today of around 1%, here’s the details;
Nice quick win, simple one here for EURUSD. Today was a bit odd as all the ranges were much bigger than normal, with hindsight the SL for this one wasn’t quite big enough but a win is a win.
Another nice quick win on USDCAD, again SL possibly could have been a bit bigger.
USDJPY took a bit more time, there was a bit of a pullback but no great dramas.
Finally AUDUSD, now I’m quite pleased with myself here as I nearly closed this early as it looked to be reversing, but eventually it hit TP for a 100% day.
I’m now over three-quarters of the way to completing the first stage of the 5ers qualification criteria, possibly could hit that later this week.
I’m currently watching the DAX40 may trade that later as well.
Edit, decided not to trade DAX40 today as it looks to be consolidating.
4 Likes
Three wins from five trades today, so not the best but I followed the system and didn’t make any errors and didn’t do any emotional trading, just one of those things. Here’s the trades;
Nice quick win on USDJPY, I have increased my risk to reward ratio to 0.6 now as every trade I’ve won so far would have won at that and the extra .1 covers spread and commission that 5%ers apply.
EURUSD is the first loss, nothing wrong really the price action was fairly clear, a break and retest and it then started heading down again before a big reversal out of nowhere.
EURGDP, again it reversed suddenly, this one is a bit more annoying as it hit my SL by the tiniest of margins, probably the spread caused this and a marginally bigger SL turns this into a win as it reversed again almost straight away. I set the SL where I planned to, at the other side of the range so just bad luck on this one.
AUDUSD was a fairly straightforward trade, probably entered a bit too early but nothing major.
GBPUSD was another easy win, note the SL isn’t the other side of the range but the price had already move up before the pullback so I decided to set the SL just inside the range and all worked out nicely.
I was expecting at least one loss today as I have had 8 winners on the bounce and I’ve never managed more than that, overall a loss of around $20 or less than 0.5% so it’s not a big deal, we go again tomorrow!
I might trade DAX40 later depending on the action, yesterday would have been a win despite the ranging market.
1 Like
Nice work! Congrats on the wins.
Regarding the strategy, is there some trading logic with the way London traders approach what happened in the Asia, like why they stay in or out of the Asia session range? Or does that not matter, it’s just about figuring out which direction the London session is moving?
Not to bring up ICT, but I thought he taught something about how London and MY session react Asia, and how then Asia on the next day reacts to London and US.
Is it something related to that?
To be honest I am not exactly sure of how or why this strategy works, or appears to work. I expect it’s due to the market hunting liquidity early on, but I trade this as it is a nice simple strategy that is fairly easy to follow and I can be finished by about 8:30am so the rest of the day is my own. There’s nothing clever about what I am doing, you just need to be disciplined and avoid emotional trading.
Anyway, today was a very emotional rollercoaster, at one stage it looked like all of my trades were going to lose, in the end I got 3 winners from 4 so happy with another small profit and a 75% win rate - I have increased the risk to reward ratio a gain to 1:0.7 as looking back over my old trades if the ratio hits 0.5 it pretty much always hits 0.7, I will probably leave it at that but might push it to1:0.75 at some stage.
So here’s the trades for today:
USDJPY did its usual thing despite scaring me a bit early on as it looked to be reversing, it then teased me by coming within a whisker of hitting TP before it eventually did so. I wasn’t too concerned really as I could see it was struggling to break through the 50SMA but I was fairly confident once it did that it would hit TP soon afterwards.
USDCAD was a mistake, I should have waited for the candle to close, you can see the wick which is when I entered, that then pulled back and if I’d waited a few seconds I wouldn’t have entered this trade. It then flirted with my SL for ages before giving me false hope it was going to reverse and go in my direction before hitting the SL.
Nice quick win for AUDUSD after I had to wait a while for the entry signal, it had been flirting with the top of the range for quite a while before breaking out suddenly. No dramas here for a change!
Finally EURUSD, another fairly straightforward trade although it did look like it might reverse early on.
Just noticed that the 10 and 21 SMA crossed over just before all of today’s trades and they showed the short term trend correctly, in other words they crossed on USDCAD showing bearish momentum - need to pay a bit more attention to these in future.
1 Like