Today was a step forward. The first thing I did was start labeling my chart. But I realized that I didn’t start with my diagram. So, I went to the diagram.
I took my time, and followed each step. Today was much easier because there was a huge bullish wick–a very clear entry signal. So, there wasn’t much to think about. Regardless, I followed my steps and did what I was supposed to do.
I could have easily just skipped referring to my diagram because the entry signal was so clear. But I still followed my steps.
A challenge I would like to face next is use the diagram to figure out when to stay out, and also against less clear entry signals.
I saw multiple signals happening at the same time.
It was very very confusing…
I want to take the right trade, but I’m not sure what that is and my diagram seems unconclusive.
………….
Ok. While writing that last sentence above, I remembered that I’m supposed to be blindly following my diagram. So, I just jumped out of bed and changed from buy to sell.
I could have done that a few hours ago, but I was thinking too much. Now, my entry is late, hence less profitable.
This is a step forward though. Just do what my strategy says. The thinking is already in there.
However, I should reflect on whether or not there are gaps for situations like this.
I’ll have to think about that.
I’m glad that I got out of bed. Even if I’m wrong, I followed my strategy.
I switched directions twice because I was doubting my strategy. I wad thinking my strategy didn’t apply because I was looking into too much detail and overcomplicating the trade.
I followed my strategy blindly. It’s a small step forward, but forward nonetheless.
I just checked and I was wrong. So, I’ll have to think about this. I just added this to my diagram.
Boy, this is frustrating…
Just added a little more detail to the diagram. I notice a pattern of confusion at the moment of buy or sell. I have to learn to follow the signal suggested by my strategy. But what if more than one scenario from my strategy applies? Then I have to have something that helps in those exceptions.
Hopefully, I just added that. This is a work in progress. I have to allow myself to make mistakes and not beat myself up over it. Just try to simplify the process, and keep improving.
I’ll keep at it for sure.
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I’m back to trading maximum pairs. However, I see how it’s overwhelming.
If I’m following a pair, my strategy says I could be wrong 3 times before I catch the trade.
But with so many pairs, it can be distracting.
Besides, right now, I don’t have enough margin to watch so many; also, it’s very time consuming.
I’m trading for 5 hours. That includes breaks.
But it’s longer than I’d like. So, I’m going to reduce it down to 20.
I didn’t even count how many I’m watching. But I’m definitely cutting back.
And my criteria for cutting pairs is based on how much margin is required for each pair.
I like the idea of having a favorite pair to trade, but if it’s not the most beneficial pair then it’s time to say goodbye.
USD/NOK, CZK, and DKK. I was watching all three of them. But, there’s no point in trading 3 pairs that have similar price action.
I picked the one that uses the smallest margin, USD/CZK. I had to say goodbye to my beloved USD/DKK.
I’ve learned a lot from its swings, but trading CZK will help free up margin to take on other trades.
I’m just starting my work for the day. I have a new routine.
The first thing I’m doing is checking out which trades got stopped out, and I’ll jump back in if necessary. After that, I follow up on open trades and close them if needed. Doing this will help me follow the same pairs and jump back on set-ups that I’m following–rather that taking losses in vain all over the place.
It’ll also let me know how much margin is available for new set-ups. What happened earlier this week was that I was disorganized and used a lot of margin on new set-ups, and had little margin left for set-ups I had already taken a loss on.
I feel better that I’m being more organized. Yesterday was pretty annoying. I didn’t really know what I was doing, and I didn’t like it. I have a small dry-erase board, and I wrote all my losses on there: 7 in total.
Each trade about 1%, so, I saw all my losses in my trading history, and I felt mentally overwhelmed. Each trade has two .5% positions at different levels. So, I saw a lot of losses. But once I wrote it all on my board, I saw it was only 7 trades lost. And I actually started to feel relieved, which is a nice feeling.
I started watching 50+ pairs this week. I had my first green week in months. I realized that for my 1% lot sizes, I don’t have enough money to take all the trades I want.
So, there’s really no point in watching so many pairs. There are other ways to handle it, besides permanently deleting some pairs.
I could also rotate. However, in most situations, as one pair’s trade is ending, the next is usually setting up at the same time. So, I could continue to trade the same pair or jump over to another pair.
I’d rather not do that because it’s too much jumping around for me at the moment. Perhaps in the future I’ll change. But for now, I’d rather just focus on following the same 15 pairs.
I had some nice profits, and gave most of it back to the market. I’m in the green, but I could have done a lot better. One trade was really just about getting scared to lose what little profit I had. And instead of keeping the perfect entry that I’ve been dreaming about, I got out early after one day.
When things like this happen, I add a small detail to my diagram. But I can’t add too much because it becomes chaotic and contradictory.
Oh and another thing I started doing when starting fresh with a chart. I put an arrow showing where the latest perfect entry was. This will help me identify where I would have gotten in, and what the current price action is doing. Is that trade near an end? Is it retracing?
Otherwise, I might misread the latest candle.
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This morning was kinda weird. First of all, I finished my work sooner than expected and felt kinda lost and didn’t know what to do with myself.
I found some stuff to study, made a quick phone call. But I knew my work wasn’t gonna take long so I took my time.
However, I reached some trades that were quite confusing, yet again. I looked to my diagram and I had trouble finding a solution…a clue as what might happen next.
I found nothing that gave me confidence.
So, I did what I felt made the most sense.
When I was bed I had a thought that maybe in situations like those, I should just sit it out. It’s not the end of the world.
But I was wondering why I felt so compelled to trade. I think I saw a set-up and I felt like I HAD to trade it.
I have to keep in mind that it’s ok to sit trades out if the set-up is not ideal.
I was FORCING myself to trade. No bueno!
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Knowing when NOT to trade is just as important as knowing how to trade.
You can find one perfect set up, then dig yourself in a hole taking inappropriate set ups, and only break even in the end.
I feel paranoid that I’ll miss out if I’m not taking a chance in being in the market.
The problem is that when we take inappropriate trades, our strategy doesn’t fit. That’s when there’s probably no way to win strategically.
And just because you profit off a bad set up, it doesn’t mean you made a good choice. It means you randomly profited.
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Today was kinda easy. Not much to do. Most of my trades are still in trending phase, and I just have to leave them alone for now.
There were several SLs I wanted to move to BE, but felt it was a little too soon. So, I just left them alone.
I have one position that I got in at a great price. It’s ranging at the moment. I wanted to close for some decent profit, but my goal is to hold until it starts trending again.
I told myself not to sacrifice a good entry for small profits. I’m trying to stick to my guns here. I reeeeeally want to close and get those profits because price is gonna come back to my entry, possibly.
But I don’t know if I’ll get the same entry. That’s why it’s worth holding for now, even though I may have to watch my profit dwindle for now.
The goal is to hold it longer because once it breaks out of the consolidation, I’ll wish I kept my original position.
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I’m seeing a couple trades that I should have taken but seemed to have missed yesterday.
Time to come clean. I was on the phone with a friend. It was a friend I hadn’t spoken to in a while. I don’t keep many friends. The friends that I have, I’ve known them for 10+ years. On a regular basis, I only speak with about 3 people. I have no interest in a wide social circle.
So, when they call, I feel bad for not taking the call. There have been times that I’ve needed to cut the call short because I was studying charts or in the middle of trading.
But not much seemed to be going on in the markets, so I was on the phone for a while yesterday. Well, it proved to be more distraction than I can handle.
I’m not saying that I would have caught those trades if I wasn’t on the phone, but I can’t say that the call had nothing to do with it, either.
Perhaps it best to have a no-phone policy during trading time. Texting is ok, because it’s not so mentally demanding. But calls, no. Unless it’s really important.
This morning was annoying. Long story short: I opened some trades that were ok, then price was inching towards my SL, so I closed and switched from sell to buy.
Then, later I checked on my trades, only to find out that price was bouncing near my SL, then reversed in my favor!
The bad news is that I totally ruined the trades. The good news is that I was right! My thinking was right! That’s great news.
I just have to work on trusting my strategy more, and stop switching between buy/sell.
I just had a thought. I have to have so much confidence in my strategy that I have to blindly follow it with the ASSUMPTION that profits will just fall in my hands. Even if I’m wrong 2x (maybe even 4x according to my strategy), I have to keep going because the strategy says it will pay off.
Every single trade that I place. I can’t place a trade and think I’m wrong. I have to place the trade and leave it until it gets stopped out. That’s the scary part.
To be frank, if the strategy successfully backtested, and the profits aren’t stacking up, the problem is me. I have to follow the strategy.
It’ll sound weird to word it this way, but I almost have to have an arrogance to compensate for my doubt. Not an arrogance meaning that I should throw money at any one trade.
I mean arrogance that the strategy will work. If I see a signal, just take it. Have faith/arrogance/confidence that the strategy will do the work.
I’m taking a look at my JPY trades. I see that I missed a couple signals that would explain the bullish candles. However, the candles are not closed and there are a few hours left before market close.
I did feel the impulse to close and jump in on those open bull candles.
But just a couple days ago I was writing here that I wouldn’t do that anymore. No more switching buy/sell/buy. Each trade should be strategic. It should be based on a signal of what’s coming; not what I’m missing out on.
It hurts, but I have to allow those trades to get stopped out. I feel pretty frustrated that I missed that signal. Just something I overlooked because JPY pairs recently had a long bullish wick which threw me off.
As usual, it’s ok. There’ll be more trades coming soon. Just be patient.
I was reviewing my emotional aspect of trading.
Recently, I took a picture of a consolidation zone, noted all the trades I should have taken, and how I would have ruined it.
I also noted how I would have felt at each trade.
The funny thing is that the same emotions keep coming up again and again. It’s the same self-sabotage over and over.
There are times the strategy seems to not make sense. So, I go against it.
If there’s a big bearish candle, why would I go long???
Well, the strategy says to. That’s the scary part.
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Doing my work here, and I came across a consolidation area that has some confusing signals.
I’m wondering which way would price go, and which way would make sense. I had to stop myself right there. I had to remind myself, ¨I’m not in control. I’m just a passenger along for the ride.¨
My strategy says to just follow the latest signal, as opposed to only setting up straddle orders. I feel a little scared to miss out on the break out, but I have to be patient. My strategy says there are always signals. I just have to be patient, like a surfer. Just wait for the next wave.
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I had a short entry signal, and I took it. Then, later in the day, I checked and the candle was bullish. I was wrong.
I really wanted to open a long position. But I told myself that I wasn’t doing that anymore. I’m not switching like that. ESPECIALLY when the candle is open in the middle of the day.
Well, I just checked now, and the same candle turned bearish again. I feel good that I followed a lesson I learned and it actually saved me from a loss. Sometimes, it doesn’t work out that way, but this time it did.
I’ve had a few good trades, but lots of bad ones. While some trades get rolling, I’m taking even more losses.
I have a guideline for trades I should take, which I should adhere to more strictly; but perhaps I should have some samples of trades I should avoid.
So, I’m adding that to my list of charts to study.
I just finished my work. My last few trades I had to check on my phone. The platform was acting weird on my laptop. Prices were frozen and I couldn’t adjust any SLs.
I was only moving my SLs to BE, so no big deal. I hadn’t used the app in a while. I had almost forgotten that I had to ween myself off from constantly checking it.
Anyway, I spent most of my trading time focusing on studying. If I’m going to get some of these studies done, I’m gonna have to cut back on my actual trading time.
I studied a consolidation zone, which is nice, but I really wanna start analyzing which signals I should AVOID. I’m not sure how to go about that. Do I add details to my diagram, or create a new section?
Perhaps adding steps to my diagram is better. It’s more comprehensive this way. We’ll see.
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I had a strange thought when I came across a set-up that I found rather confusing. It made me think of a couple things:
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I should put more chart samples in my diagram
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if I’m not sure, I can just straddle orders, or just sit that trade out.
It seemed almost strange to think that sitting out was an option.
When you see a doji, a very nice trade is about to happen. But the direction may not be so clear.
There’s no need to feel like I MUST trade it. I can set straddle orders, or I can just wait for another trade that’s more obvious.