Trading journal

PhillR · October 1, 2021, 11:23am

Hi Dushimes

I can see you’re using IG which I also use, so I may have something that will assist in completing your journal.

If you go to your IG dashboard then select Live Accounts (or Demo Accounts) at the top -> history -> P&L Breakdowns -> select the date range -> changed to show position closed. This will then give you an Excel report you can download. I simply copy the lines from the Excel report into my own Excel journal file which will complete most of the data entry for you. I then just complete some extra lines I’ve added to my journal and write any comments that might be necessary.

Like Mondeoman, I also complete my journal before my next trading session, as I won’t allow myself to place any new trades before my previous journalling is complete. And like Mondeoman pointed out, your previous trades (and any mistakes) will then be fresh in your mind moving forward into your next session.

Also with regards to having too many pairs to monitor, you could always take the 28 major pairs and eliminate any containing CHF, CAD and NZD so you are just left with the ‘parent’ currencies (EUR, USD and AUD). It’s not something I do myself but I’ve seen it mentioned by others.

I hope some of that above may help.

dushimes · October 1, 2021, 12:40pm

Whoa! Ok. I gotta check that out! Thanks!

MattyMoney · October 1, 2021, 2:09pm

I did some analysis a while back and chose 4 pairs that I thought were furthest apart in terms of correlation:

EURUSD
USDCAD
AUDNZD
CADJPY

I explain why here:What would you do different if you start now to learn forex?

I also trade some commodities like Gold, Silver, Oil, Soybeans, Wheat & Corn (the last 3 only one at a time due to strong correlation).

To be completely honest, I start with these 4 pairs because they’re at the top of my list, but I do not stick to them exclusively these days. If CADJPY isn’t giving any signals but EURJPY is, then I’ll trade EURJPY. However, I am always careful not to open multiple pairs in the same currency.

dushimes · October 1, 2021, 2:25pm

I didn’t want to do that. But, if I keep doing things the way I’m doing them now, I’ll get the same results.

So, time to try something different. However, I still like the ifea of trading the whole market.

Perhaps with more skill, I can trade that way again in the future. But not now.

For now, I just need to take it slow and narrow my focus.

Thanks for your suggestion.

dushimes · October 2, 2021, 12:09am

I don’t know why I didn’t think of this sooner, but another option is to ONLY trade momentum on D1/W1.

Whenever a trade is losing momentum and starting to consolidate, I start jumping in.

The only problem is that when it comes, you gotta pay attention and you’ll be busy. Because that’s like your busy season.

But in between, you got nothing to do. Possibly for two to three weeks. Just waiting and watching for exits, adding to positions…

I think I never chose this option because my brain just wanted to be busy and trade bounces, which can be harder to trade than momentum.

darthdimsky · October 2, 2021, 4:15am

You’ve accounted for the possible spreads and liquidity for exotic pairs? @MattyMoney had another excellent post showing his broker spreads here.

My own broker advertised spreads show a higher than avg spread for those specific exotics.
FM spread

Not suggesting you should avoid trading with them. Just that you keep these factors in consideration when deciding currency pairs.

dushimes · October 2, 2021, 5:04pm

Take a look at this M1 for USD/DKK. Sure, the spread is higher, but the moves are nice. I just like how it trends.

A nice breakout is brewing!!

dushimes · October 3, 2021, 7:10pm

Great idea!!

I downloaded my trades, and with a little editing, I was able to bring them onto my journal.

I gotta take some time to review my winning trades. I had a string of wins, but wasn’t sure what I was doing different.

So, I took screenshots of the trades from late July to the end of August.

dushimes · October 3, 2021, 8:05pm

dushimes · October 3, 2021, 8:18pm

In the trades above you can see where I could have exercised better SL management to let the trade run longer.

You can see where I got scared and closed, and also where I stayed in too long.

dushimes · October 4, 2021, 6:12am

Of the trades:
4- I don’t remember what the strategy was

2- S/R break through

1- passing a recent low

6- momentum trades

14- S/R bounces

Of those 14 bounces, 12 were AFTER the actual bounces was confirmed.

I never thought I could learn anything from my wins—all this time I’ve been focusing on my losses.

This goes to show me that waiting for the bounce is a good idea. I thought that placing an early order BEFORE the bounce was a good idea. Maybe not. You don’t know for sure where it will bounce.

That’s the funny part about trend lines. They often expand, but you never know when or until when. That makes it hard to place an order in advance. Therefore, waiting for bounce confirmation makes sense.

In my mind, waiting for bounce confirmation will require a much wider SL and lower pip value. But sometimes price will retest or come close to retesting, hence triggering your entry order. And those are the really good ones because you can get in at the price your want.

Also, trading momentum…with these trades, paying attention to the candles is important: long candle wicks, dojis, engulfing candles, etc. At peaks and valleys, those are all clues. Also, shorter candles, lower highs, or higher lows. These are all clues.

dushimes · October 4, 2021, 6:16am

So, based on these results I should focus on entering trades AFTER the S/R bounce. I have to undo the habit in my brain.

I can feel the cognitive dissonance in my brain. My brain still wants to anticipate bounces, but these results show that’s not the best way for me.

The momentum trades, I understand.

But the S/R bounce trades will take some getting used to.

Mondeoman · October 4, 2021, 10:55am

Brilliant progress. Backtesting may show that the S/R bounce trades may not be profitable in the long run, unless combined with other indicators. If you are trading S/R bounce, and a million other retail traders are doing the same, the banks will just love taking out the stops. If you are in the minority, working areas that are not popular, you will stand a far better chance than those simply looking for bounce confirmation.

dushimes · October 4, 2021, 10:19pm

I noticed that everyday I would review all the charts and make a list.

I would take the trades I wanted, then forget the rest. Repeat the next day.

What I should do is keep the list and work that list for the rest of the week or longer.

This would save me some work and time.

I wanted to limit myself to just 5 currencies. There’s only one that has a set up for me. After that, I have to wait a while for the next set-up. Boring…

So, just as a test, I reviewed all the charts and made a list of upcoming setups.

I would like to focus on this list. There’s 20+ pairs on that list. I won’t be necessarily trading all of them, but I’ll be watching them.

I could get set ups anywhere between now and the next month.

Some are short term, some are long term.

This should help me focus. Let’s see.

dushimes · October 4, 2021, 10:51pm

This is something I’ll have to think about. Trading bounces are tricky. I don’t want to be shark food!

To be honest, I like the idea of momentum and swing trading much better. Less work, for one reason.

Another reason is avoiding the slice and dice that goes on once price is trending.

Breakouts are choppy. But entering before the breakout would be nice. Then you can just sit back and watch the bloodbath from a distance.

But getting in early is difficult. I’ll be keeping a closer eye out.

dushimes · October 5, 2021, 9:59pm

I had just posted about trading S/R bounces. I had said that it’s best to trade AFTER the bounce confirmation.

And today, I was doing the exact opposite of what I just said!

I heard a voice in my head: “But this time will be different. It’s definitely going to bounce clean off those lines.”

I was trading some JPY exotics and one of them had hit the SL. I saw how JPY wasn’t gonna bounce, but keep going.

I seriously didn’t want to delete my other orders. But, I realised how hipocritical I was being. I went back and deleted those orders.

It was really tough to do. Reversing those synapsis in your brain is no joke.

The first step to reversing a habit is the hardest, I guess.

There is a part of me that wants to focus on trading momentum, and reduce my attention given to bounces.

I’m getting to the point where I could spend all day staring at the charts. And it’s not necessary at all.
It may not even be healthy.

Looking for trades on the D1 should be a 2 hour task on a good day. 4 at the most, if the market is about to start cooking.

But 5 or 6…that’s just another job. The idea should be more money, less time. Not the other way around.

dushimes · October 5, 2021, 10:12pm

I just read this thread and I have to admit that I have occasionally experienced some burnout. I have to keep in mind that this endeavor is not a sprint, but a marathon. Taking a day off from the charts won’t kill me.

SovoS · October 6, 2021, 8:32am

The idea of trading off daily charts is, in principle, to base your trade set-ups on the closing level of each day. From that level you deduce your orders or market entries for the next day’s trading. This shouldn’t take very long.

If you are watching the daily charts for 4 hours or more then are you not effectively trading short term, intraday, off a daily candle? Which, in a way, is pre-empting the close for the current day? This is a symptom of over -enthusiasm, which is entirely natural but needs either inhibiting or, maybe even better, utilising it more productively!

One way of dealing with this is what is I call day-trading off daily charts. After each daily close you assess what you think is the likely move for the following day based on your daily strategy. Then use a different intraday strategy to look for signals when the market begins doing what you have anticipated and then enter your trade with your short term parameters. If you are wrong on the daily direction then you either get no trade (and no loss!) or a limited loss as determined by your intraday strategy. But when you are right you gain the full amount of your short-term strategy target (which could be, for example, a trailing stop with an open profit upside to gain the full benefit of a strong daily move, and even a carry- through to the next day if the daily charts at the EOD seem to still favour the direction).

Just some thoughts…

dushimes · October 6, 2021, 2:47pm

You may be on to something here…

Perhaps more productive. I look thru a lot of charts. I should count them to illustrate a better picture. All the EUR, GBP, USD, CHF, JPY, and AUD
pairs. I never counted. But it could be as much as 35 pairs.

I could do that and pull the potential charts for the next week or two.

Then, I would have a lot fewer charts to spend time with.

I’m still figuring out my routine, but I’m definitely in the process of reducing the time in front of the charts.

Also keep in mind that I don’t trade for 4 hour straight. That time includes taking breaks.

I was just listening to David Paul and he was talking about taking 3-4 trades per MONTH. That may not be a bad idea.

I made a list of about 20+ pairs. Of those pairs, about 10 or so had some potential. I ended up taking about 3 trades. We’ll see how that goes. But I could feel the struggle of exercising such discretion.

The key is trading less. But taking less bad trades. Being patient and willing not to trade is the difference.

That would be hard for me to adjust to. Having no trades running.

It would seriously make me feel weird. The market is open, and I should be making money. This is my current attitide. And it’s wrong. It really is.

It’s being busy for the sake of being busy.

If I’m going after this sniper style, I have to be willing to watch the market for 3 weeks and take not a single trade.

That’s nuts. It’s hard to imagine. But you know what’s worse? Your account dropping 20% in one month.

Not trading is better than losing money, any day of the week.

I’ve taken numerous trades that I thought, “it could go up, and I don’t wanna miss out in case it does.”

It’s the wrong way to trade for me. Technically, you could say that about any move. But does that set up fit your strategy? That’s the point. Otherwise, it’s random. Same as rolling dice.

It’s easy to say all this now, because the alleged set up is not in front of me. Saying no in the moment is totally different.

Mondeoman · October 6, 2021, 8:07pm

Hello my friend,
Welcome to the University of project management life. Two years ago on an assignment, a close colleague of mine and I had an opportunity to work together and to formalize the concept of “the factory model” - his terminology. We adopted his terminology in favour of my own “cookie cutter model” which I admittedly first used in anger working on a global project that was managed from the USA (hence the name cookie cutter).

What you have identified here is the absolute mayhem and frustration that anyone in unfamiliar territory goes through when first being let loose on the Forex market with a trading account and some spare time on their hands.

You are well on the way to improvement. There is a saying that goes “you can’t improve what you can’t measure”, so the conclusion from this obvious statement is that you must start measuring.

I can tell you from personal experience of two years ago that my colleague and I managed a 20X improvement of effort to complete a complex transition project. What took sixteen weeks for the first country ended up taking 12 weeks for 16 countries in parallel three months later. That was because as we moved through the discovery exercise of the transition for the first country, we measured every step, minimized or eliminated unnecessary steps then “rewrote the book” and did four countries at once four times per week. It was thought not possible by our leadership, but we achieved all goals three weeks earlier than planned and with a 95% satisfaction rating from end use customers. The faster you hit them, the less time they have to think about moaning.

I have fashioned my own trading plan on that basis - the factory model, and this answers many questions about “how can you check all those pairs every period”? The answer is - you don’t. You don’t check a pair that is a thousand miles from your zone of interest - not every day anyway. Perhaps every week or two. And with Cryptos it’s less than once per month.

Keep that measurement and analysis going. It will pay huge dividends by improving the quality of your setups, entries, management and exits.