This is my second attempt to journal my trades here in Babypips. I made my first journal a month ago but was unable to keep up with details of previous positions held. I feel more motivated to manage this one so let’s see how it goes.
Brief Intro About Me
I’m 22 years old living in NYC. College dropout and recently resigned from my dead-end job. So yep, I can say that I’ve hit rock bottom. Although, I remain optimistic that my situation is temporary. I’ve lost almost $10000 of my savings since starting to trade Forex last year. My last account is gravitating around $3500 as of the moment. Definitely depressing numbers but I guess its the price you pay for learning and getting experience.
Trading Methodology
I’d like to think that I trade using price action but I must face the fact that I mostly gamble. The positions I take are poor setups. Overtrading, revenge trading, too big position sizes, getting greedy with winning positions, breaking my own trading rules and making new ones…you name it! I’ve committed all the trading sins imaginable. This pretty much reflects my account right now.
Anyways, I’d like to start using genuine price action and candlestick patterns. I ignore most news events except high-tier ones like interest rate decisions and statements from Central Bank bigshots. I like to keep a 2:1 reward/risk ratio but will pull out a position or increase TP if situation calls for it.
Trading psychology is another aspect I am highly interested in learning and mastering. I think many traders overlook it and instead focus on indicators. Am not much of a math wizard as well so prefer to stay away from algorithm trading styles. Right now, I’m learning mindfulness techniques that help make me keep calm and focused.
So What’s the Plan?
I will start journaling trades next week, Sunday 5pm EST. I prefer not to trade on the first day but if there’s a tradable setup like a gap i may take it. Thanks folks and have a profitable career!
P.S. I realize that my sentences are a bit blunt so you’ll have to excuse me. I prefer an informal writing style as long as what I am sharing is complete and to the point.
-What makes you more confident this time around that you won’t gamble and trade with emotions? There’s a difference between “paying for experience” and just straight giving your money away ya know.
-You quit your job to trade full time w/ $3,500? (Regardless if you did or didn’t, read this: Daily FX Capital Study)
-When do you consider a gap tradeable?
-What is your definition of price action?
Thanks for the feedback Jake! Since emotions tend to change in the heat of the moment, I can’t be 100% sure that I’ll be able to keep my rules for every trade. But one of the things that I’ve changed is my proactive involvement in psychological exercises that will help me focus better as a trader and as a person ultimately. I’ve started to actually create a spreadsheet for my trades, a physical journal and this virtual one. Maybe its just me acting out of desperation as I see my account depleting by the day, but for me its better that you aim to do something with the problem than just stand there and let it consume me.
I actually resigned from my job because I didn’t like the environment. The $3500 was the money I ended up having afterwards. I just worked for about 5mos and had to pay some bills. Anyway, thank you for the link. The study looks interesting and definitely something to think about.
I trade weekend gaps depending on how large the gaps are, previous trend, and the candlestick formed after the gap. As for price action, I sum it up to s/r levels, risk sentiment, candlestick patterns, and r:r ratios.
Likewise.
They’re good, and about to get a whole lot better (no pun intended) with the introduction of their new pricing model.
It’s going to be great for scalpers- they’re looking to introduce a raw EURUSD spread of .2 w/ $0.80 round-trip commission on 10k. This is huge.
I’m a big fan of tradingstation- only really had 2 issues of it freezing up on me (cell phone / tablet backup though). And, their customer support team is always there to help.
It’s oddly coincidental, that just a few weeks ago I started shifting from med/long term trading to solely scalping. I was considering leaving FXCM (didn’t really want to), and then I saw this release…it’s a sign!! lol.
It all depends on how you want to trade, what you want to trade, and the capital/time you have to trade.
Have you tried other brokers? Some traders I chatted with tell me that FXCM rates were a bit steep. It doesn’t really bother me though since I don’t scalp and take longer-term positions.
Mhmm i agree with the TS platform. It’s way better than the MT4 they offer. I think the latter is more suited for programmers and algo traders? TS does freeze a lot especially during busy times.
For me, it really depends on market conditions, and my own personal time to devote to the charts. I’ve freed up an immense amount of time, so, I decided to get back into scalping.
One strategy may be more profitable than the other, but, I feel it’s going to be dependent on the individual trader. Some folks like to make $100 w/ a few trades, over the course of a few days- others, like to make $100 in < 10 minutes.
Like I said, the FXCM pricing model just got a major upgrade- costs are dramatically reduced.
MT4 is clunky to me- it’s only good for super-technical algo/EA traders I feel (just like you said).
Yea, TS does have that issue during volatile periods. Just be sure to ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS have the mobile app on your phone and tablet…it’s your fault if your comp freezes, and you take a major loss. Try to boost your CPU if you’re having issues.
Not really “switching” to scalping. I’m just trading what I see. I recently gained back an immense amount of time to devote to trading, so I’m going back to my true passion, which is scalping.
Personally, I enjoy trading during the NY/London overlap- most liquid time in the world.
You really don’t need to trade outside of these few hours, because the market moves and moves well (when you’re scalping).
I prefer getting in and out quick, and not sitting on positions. Primarily, I scalp only the EURUSD and my strategy is pretty straightforward. Price action, tick volume, stochastics, 20 EMA, and a seperate chart showing the DXY with the same indicators/analysis-type. Trading really only occurs 800AM EST - 1100AM EST- sometimes I’ll go into the lunch session or afternoon NY depending on event risk. Most high profile releases hit the wire early NY session though providing decent trading opportunities.
Have you tried reducing the number of symbols (currency pairs) that you’re subscribed to during news events? To do this, click on the Symbols button on your Trading Station and uncheck the boxes for currency pairs you’re not trading at that time.
Prices update more frequently during major announcements which means more data have to be sent to your computer. If you subscribe to fewer symbols, this will reduce the amount of data that have to be sent.
Also consider how many charts and indicators you have open during the news. You may want to close some out, since each indicator represents another calculation that has to be made on your platform with each price update you receive.
Are you a fan of sports cars? The analogy I think of is a Bugatti Veyron. It can go over 250 mph, but in order to achieve that speed, it has to streamline it’s profile. It even lowers to the ground. Below is a great video of it!
Thanks for that tip. I’ll be sure to limit the pairs I have open on my account during major events. I mostly trade Gbp/Jpy and leave the rest alone so removing other non-related pairs is definitely no problem for me.
As for indicators, I don’t really use any. Just an EMA.
Not much of a car fanatic, but I can understand how you relate it to the Veyron. Cool machine by the way.
Good old range trading. It is the fourth time that price has bounced from this support level. It also helps that it is within the 38.2 percent retracement of the Fibonacci indicator. Risk to reward ratio is also good. I am targeting the major resistance area, which is around 178.15 to 178.40 IMO of course. I will manually close the position for a loss if it closes below 177.25
As for psychology, I did pretty good considering that I was about to enter at the candle before the last one, which was around 177.60. I was really itching to take a position even though there were no sound signals as to why I should take it. Woke up a bit late though so my mindset still needs a lot of work.
Please do reply with your thoughts, be it negative or positive. Thanks and have a great trading week!
For what it’s worth one of my own SSI-based automated strategies is currently long GBP/JPY as well, though it’s short EUR/JPY, USD/JPY and AUD/JPY.
The latest readings from the Speculative Sentiment Index (SSI) reveal that the ratio of long to short positions in GBP/JPY stands at -1.13 as 47% of traders are long.
SSI is a contrarian indicator to price action, and the fact that the majority of traders are short gives signal that the GBP/JPY may continue higher.
Good to know Jason! The SSI indicator is definitely a useful tool especially for range type market environments being the contrarian that it is, correct?
Overall, closed out position for a +46 pip profit…While the trade went smooth, I really have to work on my entries and exits, particularly how I exit my positions. I’m not really good with dividing my positions as I enter or exit a setup. I feel this affects my bottomline and my ability to maximize profits.
Anyway, that’s all guys. Enough trading for me today. Wish you guys all the luck!
PS. Cant seem to delete the bottom picture from the post.
While SSI is primarily used for trending trading strategies (this is how I use it), it can also be used for range trading. The Range2 trading strategy on Mirror Trader shows how SSI can be used to trade ranges.
Another short term range trade. GBP/JPY still hovering around the 177.50 to 178.00 area. No major news that I know of that could create spikes. My reward to risk ratio is 2:1. Using 10:1 leverage.
Psych-wise, I’ve been calm throughout the trading week so far but I’d like to see how I react when losses incur. In the past, my mood has swayed with my P/L. I’d like to avoid this kind of mindset.
Update 10/01/2014
I closed my second trade after holding it for 23 hrs. One of my rules was to not hold any position overnight, but I thought since I got in on a price that I would have just re-entered the next day if it was still hovering within that area, I figured I would just save money from commission. Plus I did leave it with a stop loss.
I closed the position for a +41 pip profit. I originally aimed for +58 pips at 177.35, but price seems to be reacting around the 177.50 area. Though I can wait for it the whole day to go lower, I figured being a daytrader, 40 pips was a good day.
Constructive criticism is much welcomed. Thanks and have a profitable day ahead!
For what it’s worth, my personal strategies remain long GBP/JPY and have recently bought EUR/JPY as well. Though as I mentioned previously, I’m more of a trend trader. However, I am curious, of all the pairs to range trade, what made you choose GBP/JPY?
I didn’t really choose GBP/JPY to range trade, it’s kind of my default pair to trade on FX. I’ve been focusing on this single pair for around 3 months now. I guess it’s just simpler to focus on a single currency pair rather than multiple charts at a time.
So you bought the dip on GBP/JPY earlier? Around 176.20 area?
