Trading journal

Trading Discussion Trade Journals
121

This is a weird thing to talk about here, but my hand is starting to hurt from using the mouse so much. Especially, the finger I use to click the mouse.
So, I ordered a vertical mouse. For those who’ve never heard of it, it’s like this.
image

Aside from that…I’m getting kind of antsy. I have four major positions open:
USD/CHF
USD/GBP
EUR/USD
AUD/USD

And one minor:
USD/DKK (long-term)

I have a smaller account in which I’m also trading:
USD/JPY
NZD/USD

I’m a little anxious to trade and make money, but there’s a lot of consolidation right now. So, at the moment it’s a waiting game. I expect to put in a lot of time trading each morning-- looking for set ups, and there’s not really much to do. No orders to place, etc. I have found several set-ups, but I’m not taking them…

I still have some liquidity, but I don’t want to open any other positions. I want to save my remaining liquidity to add to my winning trades. I don’t know which are winners yet, of course.

Once it’s safe to move my SL up, I wanna add to my positions. My positions have 1% risk. I plan to add an addition 1% once I can clear the SL. I don’t wanna over expose myself and have 2% risk in all my trades. I prefer to start with 1%, then add on later. I think this will help me survive to trade another day. Actually, I prematurely added 1% risk to my GBP/USD position after adjusting my SL, but that was a few days ago when I was separating my MA and TL strategies. Now, I incorporate them.

There’s a video with Dr. David Paul

He talks about risk management to survive the inevitable losing streaks. I first saw this because another trader posted it on the forum. I’m so glad he posted this. It helped me understand the need for 2% risk, even 1%.

This is why I’m limiting my risk to 1% at a time. So, even though my risk is 1%, I have to think about what would happen if all my trades go against me? What if each trade is 2%? That’s a lot of money gone. Trust me, I’m dying to win big! But I can’t trade like that anymore.

No. Correction. I CAN trade that way, but I can’t AFFORD to trade that way. I must choose differently. Different actions = different results. My account would take a big hit if each of my trades went against me with 2% of my account in each one. At least with reduced risk, I’ll lose less.

On another note, I had been listening to the same playlist for months while I trade. I dumped my entire playlist and got a whole new batch of music. It makes a difference for me.

Here’s a sample:

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122

I’m watching EUR/USD. And there’s a nice little triangle forming. It’ll break out nice, soon. It’ll probably fake first, though, then breakout.

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Just noticed that price bounced a support line from November 2015. I can’t believe I didn’t trade that!! I have so many lines all over and I didn’t pay attention. I just moved my labels to the current day, so I can see them.

Here’s the M1. There’s a lot of drawings on this chart, just look at the arrow.

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I feel so foolish for missing that!! I just noticed that blue line in the first pic. Haha. I didn’t see it in my own picture!

123

I missed a very nice GBP/AUD trade.

I have my morning routine of checking up on my list of upcoming set-ups.

It’s in my spreadsheet and it’s hi-lighted!!

I missed it. I see that I’m falling into old habits. Time for an adjustment…

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124

Better to miss a trade, than to force a trade!

Finally got a chance to catch up with your journal, I’ve only been jumping on here lately, smashing mine up and going. Haven’t had the chance to read how everyone else is getting on.

Glad to see you are taking the risk management seriously too, it really helps with the overall psychology and emotion knowing you will live to fight another day if the worst happens.

Keep up the good work!!!

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125

Your journal makes me feel like a caveman with a calculator! haha
Thanks for reading and commenting. I appreciate it!

Your EA stuff totally goes over my head. But my takeaway is that you’re taking steps to work on your strategy, putting in the work, and I should be doing the same thing.

It’s cool that @Mondeoman and you are sharing stories. It lets people know that they’re not the only ones with struggles. “No one has a monopoly on pain.”

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126

Today, I broke my rules and didn’t follow my trading plan. I was placing trades, not filling out the journal properly among other simple errors that caused me unnecessary losses.

Into the cold shower I went.

Time to just slow things down a bit, take my time, and follow my steps. Take the time to journal properly = less vulnerability.

127

The week has come to an end. And I have much less discipline than I thought. I have made improvements, but perhaps they were just improvements that were in my comfort zone. That would mean I have to step out of my comfort zone and add discipline to areas that I didn’t want to.

This is a bit scary for me, because I kind of worry about losing my small joys. I like my moments of relaxing, sending messages, watching videos, etc–my moments I allow myself to be lazy.

Perhaps I don’t have to lose them, but just structure them, and include those moments in my planning. This could help me keep a decent work pace.

Another idea that’s bouncing around in my coconut is regarding my journal. I’m not sure if the problem is my journal or me. Perhaps both.

I think I wanna scrap the journal and come up with a new one. A faster, and easier one. Instead of a long page, maybe just a spreadsheet.

Or maybe instead of a long page for each trade, maybe just a few boxes of info and that’s it. We’ll see.

The most important data I need is why the trade went wrong, and a screen shot.

The time it takes to journal is slowing me down a lot.

I’m gonna play around with some new templates and see what I come up with.

As far as structuring my time, I use a weekly planner. Perhaps, I need a daily planner. I’ll know what time to go to bed, wake up, trade, read, do other tasks and activities, etc.

The problem with that is overscheduling. If it’s too rigid, I’ll feel like a robot and lose interest quick. I could try it, though, just as a test run. I’ll buy a daily planner for $10 and see how it feels; how I like it; what aspects are worth keeping; and what aspects are worth tossing.

I ordered the books “7 habits of effective people” and “think and grow rich”. I don’t know exactly when I’ll start reading both of them. I’m still reading “the disciplined trader”. I’ve been hi-lighting as I read. There’s a lot of info in that book, and to be honest, I’m not sure HOW exactly I’ll be different after reading this book. I realized that there’s no point reading it, if I’m not even sure how I’ll apply it.

So, I’m gonna take some time to review my notes, and decide how I’ll make use of this book. It could just be an increased awareness, but it has to lead to a change in my actions.

After that, I wanted to read a book on trading tactics, but I think time management and discipline is more important.

128

Trading is turning into psychotherapy!

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129

ha ha ha

I’d never heard of “mindfulness” until i learned trading!

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130

Did you ever think you would be doing personal development as part of your financial endeavor? Haha

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131

This morning, I opened one trade: USD/DKK.

I’ve been watching it for the last week.
Especially since my long-term trade got stopped out. But I moved my SL up so I don’t take a loss.

I could have taken a 60% but it turned bearish and I held on. I think what is wise is to do is hold it for long term and hedge it along the way.

Simple strategy. But difficult to do. I lost sight of that when I hedged but ratcheted my SL in channel trade and cut my profits in half.

Then I also ruined my short trade when my SL was too tight.

I think it’s still a valid plan. However, I’m not so sure if I just prefer to take profits every week or so.

132

I’m feeling like I need to not only plan but create a schedule for sleeping.

I get about 4-5 hours of sleep. I can do that for about 4 days, then I need 8 hours. Two nights ago I should have slept for 8 hours, but I didn’t and I was so sleepy I couldn’t process any information. I managed to work on my new journal for a bit.

I tried to read for 10 minutes and I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I eventually took a nap.

But sleeping 4 hours, then one hour later is not the same as 8 hours.

This morning, I slept in and wasn’t able to trade much. Just one.

If I had slept 8 hours yesterday, I could have been up early this morning.

It would be best for me to develop a schedule that includes 8 hours of sleep.

133

It does sound like you are burning yourself out, too much buzzing around in your head to want to sleep most of the time.

I know how it is, I’m like that alot.

try if you can to create that routine.

When I’m at home I trade the NY close. I religiously do it, that have an hour to myself then I’m in bed by 11, sleep by midnight and up at 7/8.

On the rig, I’m not so good. My sleep depends what I’m backtesting, if I stay up for the UK stock market to open, then friends or my girlfriend are online for a chat etc.
I can be midday getting to sleep, then up for work 5pm.

It’s not healthy and catches up fast.

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134

I’m trying to trade the D1. So, as soon as the candle closes I have an idea of how I can place a trade. If it bounces a trend line perfectly, or bounces the MA20.

The earlier I can wake up, the better. An ideal schedule is asleep by 18:00 (NY time) then wake up at 23:00 (NY time).

The D1 candles closes at 00:00 (NY time, right??) and that’s when I want to start looking at charts.

What do you think?

135

But get a full night’s rest after maybe 2 or 3 days.

136

Daily Candle close with my broker is 17:00 NY, or 22:00 UK.

I trade in the last hour, means 21:00 to 22:00 for me.

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137

I like to trade before 03:00 NY time. Before London opens and volatility starts. But I was confused when the D1 candle actually closes.

138

So, it took me a while, but I updated my spreadsheets: open positions, watchlist, all pairs.

I’m not going thru ALL pairs. Not now, at least. I’m focusing on 5 majors and one minor. If nothing’s going on with those, then I’ll start looking at the other minors and crosses.

I updated my spreadsheets, and I opened one more position: AUD/USD. I’m shorting the range. We’ll see how that goes. I limited that trade to 1%.

I looked at other pairs and thought about different ways to try to enter. I realised, I can’t chase the trade–I have to wait for the trade to come to me.

I just had a string of losses last week, right after some nice wins. I’m slowly trying to learn which trades to NOT take. It feels a bit weird to trade only two pairs, but it feels better than losing 4 trades and regretting taking them. “Why did I take those?”

It’s ok to not trade.

Technically, because I’ve been in the red since I started (wins vs losses), if I win some trades at the beginning of the month and stopped for the rest of the month, it would be my best month.

I’m gonna stop trading for the day and do some other work. I did my spreadsheets, opened what my strategy says is good, and I’m not gonna spend the rest of the day staring at charts.

That’s it for the day, as far as trading.

139

This week is coming to a close, and I see how USD/CAD is running bearish and EUR/USD is running bullish.

USD/CAD…I was in that trade and my SL was too tight.

I was also in EUR/USD but I ratched my SL too tight.

I was on the right side of the trade in both cases. I got cut out over simple mistakes.

After all that, I’m noticing that I am really cutting my swing trades too short. My view is too narrow, and my patience is too short.

I’m looking at swing trades and at the first pull back I’m shaking in my boots. Meahwhile, had I been more patient, I would see that pullbacks are PART of the swing.

I’ve been studying my swing entries.
@tommor has said that using MA entries alone don’t work. Until recently, I didn’t want to believe it. In my mind, it worked.

And it did work, until it didn’t. I back tested thoroughly with all the signals, and it failed. Lost almost 10 trades before winning. Terrible.

I realized it MUST be used with something else.

I understand that now.

So, I’m waiting now for the next swing in GBP/USD, AUD/USD, and AUD/SGD.

My precious USD/DKK has been running me thru the wringer. So, I’m waiting to see what happens over the next week or two.

I’ve been doing my spreadsheet routine: updating my open trade spreadlist, and updating my watchlist spreadsheet. Although it’s difficult to keep the routine because I succumb to distractions.

However, I’m giving in to distractions less. I’m making small improvements.

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140

I’m still thinking thru what to use for entries and exits.

I have to keep in mind the purpose of my accounts. One account for swings and one account for shorter trades of the same pair.

No mixing accounts and strategies.

Also, a problem I have is cutting winners short. I know it’s a cliche saying, but it’s still a real problem.

Retracements are part of the swing. I must keep this in mind. And if price brings me to BE, fine. That’s what the short-term/quick-profit account is for.
Lock in some profits when it retraces.

I’ll take some time this weekend to review my trading.
However, I’ll be getting a full-night’s rest. 8-9 hours.