Trading journal

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1067

I did one particular thing according to my strategy yesterday. I had a USD pair going one way, and another USD going in the opposite direction. I was concerned I was seeing it wrong.

But I saw a clue and a confirmation, and I took the trade. So far, the trade is going in my favor. I could be wrong later, but for at least that setup I did what my strategy said to do.

Often I do the opposite, but not yesterday.

In the past I have reversed my position as many as three times in a row. Buy…nope. Sell, buy, sell. Still get stopped out.

I realized that I should take a trade, and wait to see what happens. If I’m wrong, ok, I’ll just be wrong once. But the uncertainty of reversing positions is really annoying and a waste of money. Each time, I’m just throwing money at my broker.

1068

Thanks, I think it’s going ok for now. I still have to keep watch, though. Today, I reversed some positions, but based on signals though, not fear or confusion.

If I finish my trading early, I go back to practicing trading, or preparing practice charts.

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1070

I finished my trading. Not much to do, but I just wanted to check on everything. I finished another practice chart.

Normally, my practice charts are around 80 screenshots or less. I extracted a chart that was way too long, and it ended up being over 160 screenshots altogether. I finished and it was mentally exhausting. My brain actually feels a bit fried. I think I’m gonna go to be early.

I don’t like to sleep, but unfortunately it’s necessary. I’m starting to get a headache. I took a break for 20 minutes, but it wasn’t enough.

1071

I’ve been using a vertical mouse for a while, and I really enjoy it. But now, I have a new problem. My index finger is starting to twitch.

So, now I have to find some way to correct that. I don’t know if I need an alternative mouse, or exercise my hand more…the problem will keep occurring I think…

1072

I’m enjoying this while working

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1073

My practice trading has been going better. And today, it was horrible. I practiced a GBP/SGD chart and it was horrific.

I lost, made a small profit, lost again. I got frustrated and lost 6 different trades in a row. I missed every single trend, and then I got so upset, I gave up. I didn’t even make it to the end of the chart.

I thought I was past this kind of emotional trading, but I’m not. I took a break for a little while.

It was so embarrassing. But, I’m gonna try again.

1074

May I inquire why gbpsgd? Thanks.

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1075

I like how it moves, and doesn’t require too much of my margin to trade. That’s about it. CAD/NOK often requires too much money. Same for EUR/HUF. I like how they move, but I can get more bang for my buck by trading a cheaper pair.

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1076

I big problem I have is feeling lost about direction. Price will reverse, as I expected.

But then, it pulls back. Then it continues in the original direction, then pulls back and looks like a reversal, and then I just start getting lost about waiting for bullish or bearish signals.

Often the answer is to just wait for a a CLEAR signal. But I really do get lost. I don’t know if I should keep waiting, or if I already missed something.

So, that’s something I should focus on. I made a note to either prepare some practice charts for determining direction, or just collect a sample of such charts and just take notes.

Maybe I’ll do both. But this is definitely an area I need work.

I’m about done with my trading for the day. I had a trade that I let run for too long. A short trade ran and had some nice profits, but reversed and I doubted the sign.

It kept going bullish and I lost 50% of my profit. I could hold and see when it’ll turn bearish again, but hope is not a strategy. So, I just closed it bitterly. Some profit is better than no profit.

1077

I keep thinking about what was bouncing around in my coconut when this trade reversed but I didn’t close it.

I think I was too focused on the trade still going, that I didn’t respect any contradictory signs. The sign said it was about to reverse, but I doubted it because I’ve been wrong so many times, how do I know I was right that time?

Well, my strategy was valid. The sign was there. What’s the problem?

I want to believe that I wasn’t in denial of the sign, and that it’s just a trade that is an acceptable loss based on my strategy.

But, it’s not true. There was a clue and a confirmation. I just didn’t care because I wanted price to continue in my favor so bad. I wanted to ride it forever. I remember looking at it, and thinking ¨no way, it can’t be a reversal sign, right? no no. it’s not clear enough of a sign.¨ Well, it was. I didn’t even try to examine and draw some lines to see if it actually could be a sign worth taking. In the end, I suppose I was I was scared to take it.

The good thing is that I caught the trade and rode it to the end. I ended up holding on too long, but I held that trade longer than any other trade in the past. I even stayed strong thru the retracement and didn’t get shaken out too early.

That’s progress!!

1078

I’m still thinking about my trade from earlier in which I closed too late and lost 50% of the profit.

I had a good entry, I saw the exit signal and didn’t take it. But I saw it!

That means I almost had a perfect trade!! I’ve never been this close to having a perfect trade. That means I entered according to my strategy, and exited according to my strategy.

It’s not discouraging, it’s motivating me to keep going!!

1079

Trading in tranquility! haha

1080

It’s funny. There was a time I thought having multiple screens on your workstation for trading was cool.

But I saw a thread about a course called TWP or something, and there’s a video link of a trader’s video. I just look at the picture and I see a clean desk with 4 monitors.

People can do what they want. But for me, it’s stupid. Some people like clean work stations. I never see pics of dirty desks. My desk is a mess. I have dirty bowls, a loose thumbdrive and a cup I was eating grapes out of yesterday.

I just have my laptop, and it’s a very inexpensive $300 laptop. Nothing fancy. No maxed out RAM either. Just basic.

But people respect clean, nice-looking things. It’s the same thing when people judge you by your vehicle. It’s just how people are.

1081

I finished my trading for the day, and I closed a couple trades. I was pretty scared to close those trades, but I saw a signal and decided to close.

I’m trying to not give in to the fear of opening/closing. If I see a signal, take it. If I don’t see a signal, do nothing. Simple enough.

Again, I have to keep in mind that it doesn’t mean I’ll profit every time. It only means that there is a likelihood.

And I can’t do what I used to do. I can’t switch buy to sell to buy to sell and back to buy. No. Choose one, then be wrong once and wait.

1082

Not so tranquil today

1083

I’m speed trading some shorter practice charts I made. These charts focus on the part of the trend that starts doing its random walk in the park.

Perhaps the random walk is not so random. I don’t like trading these because they’re confusing and stressful. But I’m also glad because I’m focusing on the area that’s giving me the most trouble.

1084

I just finished my trading. Not much going on. Some trades I wanted to jump in, but I don’t really see any clear signals, so I’m staying out. I moved a couple SLs to BE.

I took a couple bad trades over the past few trading days. But, I’m doing less of that these days.

I’m taking some time to analyse some charts, and possibly reassess my strategy. Not so much my strategy, but my approach to my strategy, I guess.

I think my approach might be becoming too fluid. But maybe not. The random walk in the park really confuses me. So, I need to take some time to study those zones.

I guess I’m in need of recalibrating my thought process and realigning it with my strategy.

I seldom check my strategy. I want to it to imprint my way of thinking. The problem is that I often jump the gun and take signals that I shouldn’t.

So, I’m just taking some totally new chart samples. I’m not using old chart samples.

I looked a couple old chart samples, and they’re too big. There are actually multiple trends in there, and it makes it hard to analyse just one trend. It’s confusing for me.

These new samples have one long swing, or if it’s choppy then I’ll just screenshot from one entry signal to one exit signal.

It’s a bit daunting because I’m not 100% sure what I’m looking for yet. Just doing a tally of what clues/signals I see? Only looking at entry/exit signals? Looking at retracements?

Maybe I can do all of it. But I need to collect the samples first, then I can decide how I want to approach this. I don’t need 40 or 50 charts. Perhaps 20.

lf I collect 10 bull trend and 10 bear trend samples, I think that’s enough for me. Perhaps 15/15.

I want to understand the anatomy of the trend. When to jump in, jump out, add, etc. The retracements offer some beautiful entries, but they can be tricky (not impossible) to spot. Sometimes, they’re not worth it.

1085

I just recorded my monthly account balance, and it’s my first green month on a long time. I had a green month September 2022, but that was just from one or two good trades.

Before that, I don’t have any green months recorded. It’s encouraging, but not really. I’ve had so many red months that it’s not even funny.

I’m trying to be more patient and knowing what to be patient for. Right now, I’m focusing on collecting more chart samples.

I’m learning that I really jump the gun too often. As far as opening and closing signals, I’m not being patient. To be more profitable, I just have to do less.

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1086

I’m fighting the urge to open some horrible trades.

Often, I’ll see some candles and I WONDER if there’s a set up in there. I see the new candle start forming, and I think it’s a clue to where price will go.

That’s when I start getting the urge to randomly jump in.

Another time I get the urge is when I see a nice solid candle and I think price will continue in that direction, so I’ll force the trade with a late/bad entry.

Almost any random candle can fit into either of those two categories.

I’ve allowed myself to get tricked into such bad trades so many times.

Well, today, I’m staying out of such trades.

However, I see a couple trades that I’m thinking I should reverse. But I’m not sure what I should do, so I’m gonna come back to those after I’m done checking my other pairs.

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1087

I built my account up to a nice round number, and I really didn’t want to break that again.

But, I realized one of my trades was based on a random entry.

I just closed it. I shouldn’t be scared of a loss just because I’m scared of my account dropping below a certain number. It is what it is. I realized I was hoping for that trade to turn around, even though there was no signal to base that hope on.

So, forget it. I just closed it and moved on.

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