Trading journal

Trading Discussion Trade Journals
847

There were a couple trades that I actually followed my strategy and it worked. I went long on GBP/USD and I thought I was wrong, but my strategy said to go long, and it worked. I went long on EUR/USD also, but price pulled back and hit my SL, but that’s acceptable. Not all my trades are losses. There are some wins in there, and those are the trades I have to focus on.

One of the hardest parts is just waiting for the right set ups. I get antsy and think I should be busier, so I see some pivotal price action and I just wanna jump in. That’s not strategic.

I have to be more patient and pay more attention to details. I saw a beautiful set up. It was confusing at first, but then the second suggestive signal came, and I was too confused to piece the clues together.

Gotta keep going!!!

848

I was thinking about my trades this week. I realized that a few of my assumptions about price action were valid, but I didn’t have the patience to wait. I was too eager.

Patience is a virtue whose importance I should reconsider. But I was thinking that it’s not just patience, but patience for the right signal.

I’ve been patient, then got too eager and jumped in. Patience could be a week or more.

The cost of not being patient could be 10% of your account. Who knows? You could be wrong again and again, then completely miss the trade and lose any chance of recuperating those losses.

There was one trade that I doubted the direction, and was right, in the end. So, I have to keep in mind that there are confusing signals, but I just have to be patient.

And yes, I guess I do get antsy. I get so scared of missing out on big movements that I take trades I shouldn’t.

I’m thinking about that confusing feeling that I get. That feeling when no matter what I do, I doubt my position. Go long or short, I feel uneasy. That’s a bad way to trade.

Backtesting is different, but I NEVER saw such a situation in backtests. There were always clues.

I’m looking forward to next week. I can’t wait!

849

I just took a look at my EUR/USD losses for this week. I see the same style of mistakes that I always take.

However, I’m not sure if I’m being too hard on myself or not. Yes, there are clues, but they can be very difficult to read.

A resistance bounce trade for example. Price bounces resistance, and I open a position. I can either hold until it hits support, or I can give in to fear halfway thru and close my position. This is a problem I have faced several times. That middle zone is where the chaos happens.

It’s the problem of closing winning trades too early. The swing trade is running, and there’s some tricky retracing/consolidation developing. In fear that price could reverse and delete your profits, you close. Then, a couple days later you see that price kept going, and all you had to do was just wait.

Jumping in on such a trade is like jumping onto a moving train.

All the confusion happens here, and this is where I get chewed up. I have to try to have faith in my strategy even though the signals can be confusing.

850

I started my D1 backtest practice charts. It’s pretty helpful. I was doing that, then took a break.

The sun was out and not a cloud in sight, so I went for a short walk outside. I was just walking around and talking to myself. I’m wondering what my problem is.

I came back inside and started reviewing my errors for the past week or two.

What makes things easier is that I mark the chart whenever I get a trade wrong. I also mark where I should have entered.

Now, if I want to review losses, I don’t have to bother going into my trading history and all that stuff. All the trades are already marked.

Here’s the tally for reasons why I either didn’t enter, or got stopped out:
scared: 18
didn’t understand the signal: 5
failed to follow strategy: 8

I get scared of losing money, so I don’t enter. I often end up entering late, which cuts my profits by 2/3 or more. A late entry also compromises the trade because my SL could be more susceptible to pullbacks.

When I don’t understand the signals, it’s just because I’m trying to understand where price is trying to go. I get confused, and don’t interpret the signals properly. It’s important for me to remember that I don’t have to worry about where price is going. I just need to follow the signs. The chart always tells on itself.

When I fail to follow the strategy, I just realized it’s more a symptom than a cause. The cause is either fear of losing money, or failed to notice the sign altogether.

So, my main two problems are fear, and not noticing signals.

The fear of loss will take time to unlearn, and I’m not sure the best way to unlearn it. I guess just slowly and steadily. When I see the sign, just take it and think about trading and not about money.

Noticing the signals will require…hmmmm.

I think drawing S/R lines more frequently. When price bounces, consolidates, retraces, etc. The key here is to do it regularly. Sometimes, I forget or fail to notice. I’m doing more often than before though, so that’s good. But I have to mark these zones, then watch for clues, then be brave enough to act.

851

Oh boy. I’m doing my practice chart, and I had an opportunity to get a great entry, but instead I gave in to the fear of loss and missed out.

Instead of a great entry and nice profit over just a few days, I ended up taking a loss.

Price was retesting a resistance zone, and I thought it still looked bullish. Wrong. It bounced and turned bearish.

I’m still giving in to fear. Even in practice.

852

I’m long in SGD/JPY right now. Yesterday there was a doji, and I wasn’t sure if I should close or not.

In the past, I’ve closed such positions, then regretted it after. I would tell myself that I should have moved my SL and wait to get stopped out. Often, price just keeps going.

And that’s what happened yesterday. I didn’t add to the position because I didn’t want to risk losing any profits in case price reversed.

I find this encouraging that I did what I was supposed to do, and it went in my favor.

853

I’m rather surprised to see USD almost even with CHF.

CHF has been stronger than USD, the whole time I’ve been trading. And now, they’re almost equal.

I’m not even sure what that means. If USD isn’t on the gold standard, then the only thing propping it up is the world’s interpreted value of USD.

I’m not sure USD has the same fundamental strength as CHF. CHF has been a haven currency, right? More so than USD. And USD’s sudden increase isn’t sustainable, right?

What’s the increase value even based on? It’s just inflation. But inflation that fast and sudden has no fundamental value. Rapid inflation is a terrible thing. Slow inflation is healthy.

USD is pulling back for the moment. But what’ll happen to JPY? That’s a whole other story. Jeez. What happened??? Their inflation jumped! It lost, what, 20%? That’s nuts?

However, they still have a very strong and stable economy.

Anyway, I have no idea what will happen next. GBP is still the strongest currency, in my opinion. Just compare it to USD or any other currency. That currency is rock solid.

No country has a clean history, but everything that Britain did certainly wasn’t in vain. GBP is a beast of a currency. The were the strongest economy in the EU. Perhaps, close second to Germany. I don’t know. Germany is quite industrious, and they’ve done quite well. But they don’t have the same economic might as Britain.

If I had to switch all my money into a currency, I’d go with GBP. No doubt about it.

854

I’m doing my practice chart. It’s a consolidation period. Is it tricky? Sure, it’s very tricky. Every time I think think signal can’t be right, it’s too soon. Then, bam! Price moves, and I lose.

16 losses of about 20 trades. There were some wins, but very small.

I’m looking at the chart and the past trades, and it looks so so simple. All I have to do is just follow the signals.

Then, I did the next trade, and I thought, ¨ok, this time, the signal is not right. The market is trying to fool me here.¨ Nope! Lost again.

This is ridiculous.

855

I took a break and went out for a little while. The whole time I was thinking about how I should have traded this practice chart better.

I should have take a ¨suicide trader¨ approach: take all the signals and not worry about anything. Just don’t care about anything.

As I think about it, it’s kind of a wreckless emotion. It’s actually just desperation. Not too far from revenge trading. An eruption of frustration. That’s not how I want to trade.

I really want to trade according to my strategy.

Speaking of which, when I look back at the many trades during this consolidation phase, my strategy would have take a few losses, but mostly wins.

It’s strange to forward test on an old chart. I traded five months’ worth of trades in just a few days. I got to see my mistakes in fast forward.

I’m quite disappointed. I ruined all those trades.

I traded five months of trades and didn’t improve one at all. I can’t believe I traded that poorly.

This is something for me to think about. I have a serious problem following my strategy. I think I want to try it again, and I want to look at why I was doing what I was doing.

There’s something going on in my subconscious that’s affecting my trading.

I think I get so scared of getting faked out that I fake myself out. I’m so scared of losing all my funds, that losing my funds is exactly what I do.

856

It’s time to start my trading, but I actually prefer to focus on my studying and backtesting for the moment.

Trading is great, but I’m doing my doing some analysis that I feel is more important than trading at the moment.

I’m going to check up on my open positions and that’s it, I think.

857

I didn’t have time to study. I was mostly trading. I had to switch some positions. USD was slightly bearish, and now I think it’s resuming a bullish trend for the rest of the week. We’ll see.

I saw some signals, and I was scared to take them. I was scared of closing too early and ruining the gains that I had. I tried to rely on my strategy, but jumping in on a trend is very very confusing. And I think that’s the point. I imagine it like a big bank vs a smaller bank. After price bounces resistance, halfway to support the big banks will make price move in crazy directions trying to shake out the smaller bank.

I’m not saying that’s how it works, I guess it does…but, that’s what it’s like in my mind.

I feel like someone is trying to confuse me.

Also, unfortunately, I’ve lost all my gains from last month. Yesterday, my margin was at its lowest.

858

Trading journals will really help the traders like me to perform better in trades. It is necessary to have a record of all the trades initiated by us and recall them later to avoid mistakes.

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859

Right. Trade history will provide all the trades, but the analysis of those wins and losses is where the improvement lays. You’re right.

860

I’ve been thinking about trying to trade more retracements. If I have a running position, I can add to it at the next retracement.

There was recently a thread about pyramiding. I couldn’t find it again…

But the OP was talking about letting your trade run and add to it when price retraces. The only problem is that you run the risk of getting stopped out.

I’ve said before that there are great entries in retracements. But I’ve been scared to do it because I’m scared of sacrificing my open position.

And I think this is a faulty way of thinking.

I act as though my trade is gonna run forever. If a more profitable entry presents itself, it’s worth the risk. I can always jump back in later, or just trade elsewhere.

861

I had a few moments of frustration right now as I was reviewing today’s charts looking for trades.

I felt a lot of confusion while looking at charts. I looked and had no confidence in which way to take most of the trades I saw. I ended up trading EUR/USD and CAD/CHF. For me, the signal was pretty clear.

All the other pairs I looked at, not so much. Perhaps it’s not fair to judge myself for not having instant answers.

Backtests work pretty much perfectly. Sure, some losses, but very profitable. So, if that’s the case, what’s the problem? Why do I feel so much confusion?

I think it’s perhaps I’m being too eager to trade. Being eager to trade forces me to look at a chart and try to find a way to jump in. But that’s not the right way for me. The right way is that the set-up is there and I take it. It’s not something that is hidden. I have to pay close attention to see entries in retracements, but the signs are there.

Today, I didn’t really see anything and I really don’t want to force myself to take a signal that’s not even there.

So, I decide to stay on the sidelines, but I know that price is going to do SOMETHING, and I want to profit from it. But jumping in on something uncertain is not going to end well.

There were several trades that I told myself that I just have to stay out for now. I just want to understand how things seems to work out better in backtests, then I mess it up in live trading.

Of course, the answers are in my analysis.

862

I’m getting beyond frustrated with trading. I’m getting tired. I’m actually tired of being tired. I keep seeing signs that I miss.

I’m taking losses and I can’t really seem to nail down why I’m placing bad trades and overlooking important signs.

When I backtest, my strategy works again and again for the same reasons, so why do I have so much trouble applying it in real time?

Perhaps when I look at so many different pairs, there are too many things for me to consider. SEK/JPY behaves differently than GBP/SGD, hence the signals are the same, but perhaps the conditions are different, altering what to look for and when…

I don’t know.

I just know that I’m taking losses. I have to do something different. There’s no good reason for me to not be profitable right now. I’ve looked at so many backcharts, I feel like I’m not learning anything anymore.

I think I need to take a break from trading and focus on studying for a while. Maybe for a week or so. It’s just so frustrating and disappointing when you see price action and big candles, and you didn’t profit from any of it–you lost money instead.

My strategy works. I’ve applied it again and again. But I’m missing something. I need to find out what it is. Am I just too anxious? Am I jumping the gun every time? Or is my strategy not what I think it is?

Perhaps, I need a mechanical approach to analyze my errors and see what it’s doing. I think I need to really just practice with some charts and go step by step. As annoying that might be, it may be necessary.

I may even need to go back to trading just two or three pairs, so I can concentrate better.

863

I’m taking time today to study my losses. I’m taking notes in a spreadsheet, then I’ll try to take a tally.

I’d like to take a tally and see if following my strategy exactly will yield profits. I’m gonna just focus on this small analysis project first.

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864

@dushimes

I’ve only just stumbled on your journal. It’s amazing - I will give it a thorough read one day, it’s like a book ‘The confessions of a forex addict’ by Dushimes.

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865

The first problem I’ve encountered is that I don’t seem to have a system in place to determine whether or not to close a trade short-term or hold long-term.

Actually, that’s not true. I have a diagram for that. The problem is that I don’t really use it. You know what, I should take another look and evaluate it. Perhaps my diagram has so much information that navigating it quickly becomes overwhelming and impractical.

I bet that this is all stuff I’ve already encountered and just simply forgot about it.

I just finished my trading for the day. I only checked a few trades that I’ve been watching. I didn’t check everything. I re-opened two trades that I’ve been shorting because price has been pushing resistance, but could finally be turning bearish.

The funny thing about those particular trades is that they’re very obvious and there’s no way to misinterpret them. Easy pickings.

866

When I look at complete trades, everything seems so simple. Following the plan seems so easy. All the signals seem so clear.

Yet, I have so much trouble trusting them in live trading.

I’m noticing that I sometimes look at price action and try to understand what the candle of the day means. Sometimes, it doesn’t mean anything. In fact, most of the time they don’t mean anything. They only mean something at certain zones.

I’ve noticed that I FORCE meaning onto insignificant candles. I shift my focus from the conditions to the current candle, get anxious, and lose understanding of the big picture. Then, I just kinda panic, misuse my diagram, then miss out on the proper signals instead of waiting.