Hi!
I’ve been trading on and off for about 2 years, and I’ve learnt a lot from watching the progression of other traders and following more experienced traders, so I’d like to share my journey.
I’m very much a band wagon trader. I’ve found that momentum trading suits me the best and the idea of finding the market sentiment and just going along for the ride just makes sense to me and seems less risky than trying to forecast movements or trying to pick out something the market might have missed. My trading strategy is largely based on ichimoku (and a few other indicators). I’ve burned through my capital a few times in developing a strategy that makes sense to me, but a few months ago I’ve started to ‘get it’ and things have been falling into place for me, so I’ve started getting far more consistent results lately. As such, I’ve started a new account that will allow me to more accurately track the results I can get if I follow my strategy in a disciplined way.
I want to be able to post my trades with an accompanying chart and post-exit movement, so I can judge the timing of my exits as well, since as a momentum trader it’s important for me to be able to get comfortable sitting in a move despite shorter term noise.
I trade with real money, and I’ll post all my trades, whether successful or not. Any profits or losses I make are real.
[B][U]Update[/U][/B]
[I]Return to date: +32.3%[/I]
USD/JPY - Short (+28 pips) | Overall return: +8.0%
Entry
I entered a bit early. The candle looked like it was about to close below the cloud so I entered, but it actually retreated and closed in the cloud.
All signals looked good for a cloud break entry, but I should have waited for confirmation.The price initially went against me and I had to wait a few hours for it to be back in the black.
Exit
Again, exits are an issue for me - I exited just before the move really took off. My system showed no real reason for me to exit.
Positives are that my system’s signals are being validated by good trades.
USD/CHF - Short (+35.6 Pips) | Overall return: +13.8%
Entry
I entered on a cloud break. All signs (except future cloud) looked good, but I generally like to look for signals where the ADX is a bit weaker (but heading towards strength).
At the time of the trade the future cloud was bullish, but not rising - sometimes a sign of a retracement but not an actual bullish trend.
Exit
I exited on what I thought was a strong resistance line (and the bullish cloud seemed confirmation).
Movement following my exit confirmed the strength of the resistance, but subsequent movement showed that I missed out on the majority of this move.
Key area for me to work on is exits - my system has helped me pick decent trades on a regular basis so far and I need to be a bit more critical in choosing my exit points.
USD/CAD - Short (+2.2 pips) | Overall return: +14.1%
Entry
Definitely not happy with this trade. Some of my secondary indicators looked like they were indicating a short opportunity so I jumped in.
Need to remember that my system is primarily an Ichimoku system. I’ve started using Ichimoku because I’ve had a good success rate with it. I can’t expect to be successful 100% of the time, but I need to stick to Ichimoku primarily in entering trades and remember that the other indicators I use are just secondary confirmations.
Exit
Luckily, I was able to exit basically at break even. Post-exit movement shows I was right to exit. There was never any sign in Ichimoku of a short opportunity, and I shouldn’t have been in this trade.
I think it’s great that you decided to start a journal here. Your posts are very clean and well organized and your charts look great. Keep this journal going and it will help your trading out immensely. I’ll be following along to track your progress (although I know almost nothing about ichimoku clouds)
Good Luck and Good Trading
Thanks!
Hopefully it’s a long and productive journey. I feel like my trading has become more consistent and my risk management has become better, but you never know.
EURUSD Short (-19.7 pips) | Overall return: +7.7%
Entry
Bit too eager on this entry. Cloud was horizontal with a flat bottom - that’s usually a bit of a warning sign and I’ve seen plenty of reversals based on that set-up.
Also, the price was above the H4 and D1 kijun, so the longer term trend was still bullish.
I was a bit iffy when entering into this trade, so I really shouldn’t have jumped in.
Exit
Got stopped out. I had a bit more weight on this trade than I would have liked, but by pip count it wasn’t too bad.
Notes
This loss really shows the importance of letting trades run their course. I lost the profits I earned over the last two trades, but only because I cut my winning trades early.
It’s so easy to want to cut your winning trades early and lock in some profits at the same time you’re letting losing trades run in the hope they bounce back. As long as your average winning trade is greater than your losing trade and you’re not getting into predominantly losing trades you will be fine.
AUDUSD Short (+59.6 pips) | Overall +29.2%
Entry
Managed to keep a clear mind after my last loss and waited a few hours on the sideline to get into this one. The cloud above this trade was bullish with a flat bottom, but the price had already moved into definite bearish territory.
Exit
Stayed in over the weekend and closed out on Monday after getting a few extra pips. Looks like I closed out just in time. I was tempted to close out early a few times, but I let the trade run and ended up with a good result. There was no real indicator telling me to exit, but at this point my profits were significantly greater than my expected average loss on a losing trade, so comfortable to close this out and book the profits.
AUDCAD (-24.1 pips) | Overall +21.3%
Entry
Silly entry. Another bullish cloud with a flat bottom, and price was above H4 kijun, but looking like it was about to touch it. Price briefly broke through the cloud bottom, but jumped right back up. I entered into this trade feeling a bit iffy about it. Should have stayed out.
Exit
Stopped out, and not much to say about this one. I thought about closing down this trade earlier, but decided to let it drift up to my stop loss. I was never very confident in this trade, so should have just closed out earlier.
Notes
I need to sit back more and wait for the right trade that fits my system. There’s no hurry and if I do it right compounding will grow my profits faster than I ever could by trying to force things. I don’t need to make a profit every day so I shouldn’t be trying to jump into half chances.
On the bright side - still largely positive over this day due to letting my winning trade run. That’s what this is all about in the end.
GBPUSD Short (+50.7 pips) | Overall +32.3%
Entry
Weak bearish signal on my primary indicator and strong bearish signal on my secondary indicator. The short term charts all lined up as well, and risk-reward on this trade wasn’t prohibitive so I got into it.
Exit
By the end of the night my stop loss was below my entry, so there was no chance of losing capital on this trade and I left it to run overnight. I got out in the morning and closed out a nice profit.
Notes
Having a system of multiple indicators helped to get into this trade. The move wasn’t a strong move, and ichimoku reflects that - the price bounces off the bottom of the cloud. This isn’t the sort of trade that I’m looking to enter into regularly, but there are some opportunities out there where everything lines up anyway.
[B][U]Various | Overall +27.7%[/U][/B]
No charts today. Poor discipline meant I entered 3 higher risk trades, but the loss on each trade was kept to an acceptable level, so overall loss wasn’t too bad.
It’s been a few days since I’ve seen a decent entry signal and now 3 losing trades in a row is making me feel uneasy and impatient. Time to take a break and make sure I don’t get impulsive.
Full writeup later when I have a bit more time.
Basically, waited for a decent trade and found this one. It was a good trade that largely offset my losses over my last few days, and put me back up within 0.9% of my high water mark. Most importantly, I didn’t over commit on this trade, so my risk remained consistent with my usual trades. It’s important not to try and chase profits by increasing risk.
+23.0 pips for +33.5% return overall.
