Simple Trading Journal

Trading Discussion Trade Journals
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Hi all, I’m trading for many years but yet to be consistently profitable. What keeps happening when I am profitable is I’ll have a bad day or two or three and blow my account, again. So I’m going to keep a journal of sorts here where I’ll jot down ideas and thoughts about my trading day, hopefully it will help me become profitable. Part of my problem is I’m trading very small accounts, mainly because I don’t want to fund a large account until I’m consistently profitable and because the account is small I have the added anxiety of a couple of losses will blow the account, dunno maybe a larger account would be easier. But my problem with that is if I have one of my meltdown days where I lose all self control I’ll blow every last penny in the account no matter how big it is.

My goal is around 50 pips/week give or take, I know if I’m only taking A trades this is possible, my problem is I take too many C trades which to me are trading against the trend, buying into resistance or selling into support and revenge trading. I only trade Dax, Nas and Dow.

So I was trading a demo account for a few weeks which was going ok, then I went on holidays and enjoyed forgetting about everything, stresses of life, work, family, trading etc. I came back from holidays feeling refreshed and funded my small account, 3 days later I’ve blown the account again.

First day trading markets were a bit crap so didn’t mind too much when I ended the day down 60 pips, yesterday I over traded and took about 6 C trades which cost me around 160 pips, if I didn’t take these I would’ve been up about 40 pips instead. Today I was up around 60 pips by 3pm and was thinking I should quit while I’m ahead but took one trade on the Dow which I closed manually for a loss of 20 pips only to see it then go in my direction for 100 pips. Really got annoyed with this so ended up taking 4 C trades which cost me about 140 pips, if I didn’t take the C trades I would’ve been up 40-50 pips today instead of having a blown account again.

One thing I noticed before holidays was I’m very stressed, as in tight chest, sometimes feeling a bit light headed stressed. This is work, life, family and trading causing this but think I’m getting too stressed while trading, really noticed it today. I always use stops when trading so know how much I’ll lose but think it’s always in my mind how small my account is and how easy it is to blow it. So I’m going back to demo for a week or so and going to try and manage my stress with meditation before I blow myself up with stress instead of my trading accounts.

Plan is to just jot down my thoughts on my trades here to see if it will help my trading. At this stage I’m very conscious of how much time and effort I’ve put into this that failure is not an option, I simply have to get profitable and know if I rigidly stuck to my signals, trading plan and rules I’ll be profitable but I am my own worse enemy…

Dobby

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You can’t buy health. If you feel tightness in your chest, please seek medical advice immediately.

Also, I’m curious, where is Dobby from? UK?

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That should not be so.

If that is so, it’s not even good practice or education for you.

The number of losing trades required to blow the account should be no different on a small account.

The position-sizes should be proportionally smaller so that the percentage risk is the same as on a bigger account, otherwise it isn’t helping you.

So I would say you need to put that right before you go any further.

It will also be a big move in the right direction for you to stop thinking in terms of numbers of pips and start thinking in terms of percentages of your account size.

Both of the suggestions above may also help with the stress, and I hope so!

Chest pain is a reason to go to the doctor, really, not a reason to continue trading?

Wishing you well.

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I spent the weekend relaxing, meditating a lot which has helped a lot. No more chest pains but I’ve made an appointment with my doctor just in case, think it was all stress related, home life is very busy, hectic, stressful too so it’s not just trading that is causing me issues.

I didn’t really trade much last Friday, only on a demo account and ended down 100 pips but wasn’t even really trying to trade properly. But started thinking over the weekend about what I can and can’t control in my trading. I can’t control if the market goes against me or stops me out, it will do whatever it wants to do with or without me which then leads to what I can control. Better entries, waiting for the A trades, if none come along then don’t trade, least I’ve preserved my capital. I can control my stops which limits the amount I can lose. I was looking back over my trades on Sunday and realised some mistakes I was making, like if I miss my entry I’d still enter even if it was 20 pips away from my entry, also having stops too tight was an issue, that’s me trying to reduce my losses but I end up being stopped out of what would turn out to be profitable trades too if they were allowed to breathe.

Thanks for the reply Pipsteroid, the issue is my smallest trading size is 0.5 or 50cents/pip, so if I’m only putting in €100 I can easily blow the account in a day or so. Think I need to be more realistic about how much I’m putting in the account or find a broker where I can trade 10cent/pip.

This is actually something I should have thought of, really makes more sense to think I grew the account x % this month rather than I lost 50pips that week then made 20pips this week etc, can see how thinking in terms of percentage growth would help a lot.

Dobby is just over the water from the UK , in Ireland.

Thanks for all the replies, really appreciate it, have a feeling this journal might be more of a self discovery than anything but if it helps me get profitable I’m all for it!

I’ve taken one trade this morning on the Dax which netted 30pips or 0.5% gain on my demo account :slight_smile:

Dobby

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those are also beneficial - and not only to yourself! welcome and good wishes :sunglasses:

Pipsteroid is totally right about that, otherwise you’re losing a lot of the benefit of “practice”

absolutely - excellent advice, here :slight_smile:

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I don’t think trading small accounts is part of your problem, if you can’t manage a smaller account, then you’d blow a bigger account faster than you fund it.

[You already mentioned your problems, which are majorly fear, greed, and revenge trading.

I believe if you can work on these, you’ll be solving most of your problems on trading.

If you have the capacity to fund a bigger account, and you still blow up small accounts, but do OK on demo, then I’ll recommend you get a mentorship program, I believe that will help.

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I’m purposely doing a diary entry early today, just after 3pm in Ireland, idea being if I fill this in with todays trading and then keep trading today I’ll have to update it again and the update might not be good news! I’ve only taken 3 trades today, still on demo, 2 longs on Dax this morning and a quick long on Dow just after the open all of which yielded 80 pips or grew the account by 2% which sounds a lot better, thank you Pipsteriod!

Trading was nice and relaxed today, second Dax trade went a bit against me but I just left my stops in place, moved them when I could and left it running in the background while I did other stuff, rather than what I usually do which is watching the thing pip by pip.

That’s really all today, I’m definitely more conscious of how I’m trading now, more relaxed, more wait and see what’s happening before I place a trade. But I’m also fully aware it’s all a lot more stress free on a demo account, think I’ll trade for another week or so on demo, make sure I can iron out my trading mistakes before I go funding my live account again. Lastly I’m constantly thinking the more I trade the more mistakes I could make, hence only 3 trades today and yesterday I had 5 trades. On days I was blowing accounts I could be doing 20+ trades…

Dobby

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Thanks for that MatthaelFx, you’re right about solving these problems, I’ve been aware of them for months now but still manage to let them take over sometimes hence I blow accounts. I keep telling myself I am actually profitable, actually my trading diary tells me this too, it’s just revenge, fear and greed trading that trips me up every time.

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You being aware of this means, you’re not far from your solutions.

Goodluck @DobbyIsFree

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Another day another dollar bit of a bad day yesterday 3 losing trades and 2 winners, 2 of the losing trades were C trades so shouldn’t have taken them, ended the day down 28 pips, would’ve been up 20 ish pips without the C trades, still onwards and upwards.

Only 4 trades today which were all closed in profit which yielded 50 pips, looking at the charts and tempted to keep trading but markets are very rangebound which usually results in me losing so best to pack up for the day I think.

Account is up just under 2% so far this week which I’m very happy with, if I could do this on a live account by next year I’ll be a millionaire :grinning:

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Haven’t updated this journal in a few days, life does kinda get a bit too busy.

Last week I ended down on the week -76 pips or about 1% of the account which I didn’t mind at all, had way worse weeks than that in the past and even with the losses it was oh right these things happen type of attitude, whereas previously I would’ve been in a bad mood and annoyed with myself, mind you it is a demo account… But looking back over trades I had 6 C trades out of a total 28 trades for the week, these C trades cost about 200 pips so if I could/can remove them I would’ve had a profitable week. One big thing I took away was I’m trading A LOT less, previously some bad days I might have 30-40 trades, good days would still be 10-15 whereas last week the most I traded one day was 7 trades.

So started this week with the above in mind and was determined so wait for A trades only. For the first time in years one morning I didn’t trade the Dax because there were no setups for me, was REALLY happy about this decision, that afternoon I traded the Nas once and made 60 pips and stopped for the day. I only placed 13 trades over the last 3 days, haven’t or won’t be trading today because of Thanks Giving, out of the 13 trades I had one C trade which cos 33 pips. Everyday was profitable, currently up 180 pips or about 2% on the account. Strongly thinking of taking tomorrow off too and leave the week positive and stress free.

Really noticed a difference in trading this week, waiting for the right setups and then when I’m in the trade I just leave it, let it do it’s thing, win/lose or draw I don’t mind once it’s an A setup I’ve done all I can and the market will do whatever it wants anyway. Another thing I wasn’t revenge trading, if I lost a trade I’d stop wait, take a break come back and look at the charts again whereas before I’d just jump into revenge trades and feel even worse after the losers.

Starting to think about funding my real account at this stage, but then I’m thinking maybe one more week of demo trading just to be sure, if it’s profitable I’ll fund the account, if not I need to go back to the drawing board.

So dunno what’s changed, maybe all that meditating, maybe the feedback here, maybe cos I’m on demo account I dunno but whatever it is I like it :slight_smile:

Dobby

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Why not stay in demo until you’re profitable? What happened that things were going well in demo? What did you do differently in demo?

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Why not stay in demo until you’re profitable? What happened that things were going well in demo? What did you do differently in demo?

I agree. Very good point. Large or small account, position sizing shouldn’t vary. No more than 2% per trade, but perhaps 1% or even less.

At this point of your journey, the main objective is learning how to trade–not making money.

Try thinking in percentage. Regardless of account size, 10% profit is 10% profit. It doesn’t matter if it’s $12 or $12,000–the trading method is the same.

You said it before I did!

Good job, bro.

You’ve mentioned A, B, and C trades. What does that mean? I’m assuming it refers to favorability.

Do you think your strategy needs adjustment?

Or just trade demo for free?

Good job!

What TF are you trading? H1? H4?

Smart decision.

This sounds like a positive attitude!

I suggest you chill out, bro. Relax. I’m guessing you’re really excitied about making money in the market. I’m the same way, but unfortunately, I think it’s best for you to keep trading demo until you have a firmer grip on your strategy and trader psychology.

I’m dying to make money in the market, but I’m so desperate that I’m willing to NOT be desperate, and take my time with the process. Go step by step, break it down, practice, study your mistakes, make small adjustments, trade again and again and again. Do that until you can have at least TWO profitable months.

I finally had two profitable months, but I still can’t leave demo because I know I’m not trading properly. You’re not alone, bro. There are other elves in similar situations.

Work hard, but be patient.

Baoding balls.
imagen
Perhaps, while contemplating if you should take a trade or not, you can take a minute, pass these around for a couple minutes to relax your mind a little? They just might distract your mind enough to think less anxiously.

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