Trading journal

[ayodimej1]

@dushimes

But it starts off as FOMO, and after two losses, I stop taking signals. Then the third sign was the right signal, but I skipped it. This scenario happened a lot.

FOMO, and that’s Greed - wanting to grab something as quick as possible with the fear of being left out.
You can improve by just being contempt and accept whatever comes, rain or sunshine.
If the door doesn’t open, maybe it’s not your door or you holding the wrong key; never force open it.

@dushimes

Sometimes I just misread the direction. I see it as bullish, but the major trend is bearish.

But, I’m working on it all.

Good to see you’re working on it. And that’s the best part; the truth is this job requires consistent working & checking on one’s self.

Now, concerning misreading the direction. In trading, there’s neither right or wrong!
There’s this saying, “when they say we’re in a period of bearish market, ask what timeframe is it”

As to that, not that you misread the direction, but never paid attention to the uncertainty thereafter. So many uncertainties in the market; and acceptance is a step forward towards liberation.

Uncertainties doesn’t mean you’re wrong or right; they just happen for some reasons we don’t know and that’s its beauty.

Warm Regards.

[Torchwave]

Dushimes, do you have a specific method to determine the dominant trend, or do you trade your setup regardless of the trend?

[MatthaelFx]

@dushimes

I can take screen shots and practice re-trading the same chart, but that’s nothing I haven’t done before. I’ve put different inspirational phrases on my wall. And after a while, I just get used to them and I don’t even really acknowledge them anymore.

I even have my strategy written in front of me; it’s written in the simplest language. I see it, and yet not much seems to change.

I understand perfectly well this feeling.

Before I recently turned to trading, I learnt Internet marketing, website design, and graphic design.

I also learnt how important it is to set a “SMART” goal for the year, come up with a strategy and a good plan to achieve your goal(s).

And the very important thing to do, PEN IT ALL DOWN in paper.

For 2 years now, I’ve always had this financial goal of making a certain amount by the end of each year. With a fine strategy to achieve this and the perfect plan.

I had my goal written boldly and always staring at me and alway reading my strategy and plans.

Guess what?

The year ends and my goal…

You guessed right.

This year is also about to end and the same goal I couldn’t achieve last year, I still can’t achieve this year.

But something else happens instead, I get better and my knowledge about money increases. Kind of like, preparing me for when that goal is eventually achieved.

So, for next year, it’s still going to be the same financial goal, who knows, maybe it’s forex that will help me finally achieve it.

The bottom line is, NEVER STOP! Your strategies may seem worthless and useless, don’t let familiarity with what you do make you jump from strategy to strategy.

I believe you learnt your strategy from someone, and it works, so keep running with it. What seem like failure is probably building you for when you start getting it right.

Cheers to success🍻

[dushimes]

I think the reason I don’t feel much anxiety when practicing vs trading the market is that when I am practicing trading and I decide to take a trade, to find out if I traded correctly I only have to slide the chart over or click the next picture. I can find out instantly the result of my decision.

In live market trading, I don’t know what my result will be until the next day. Trading live (even though it’s demo) makes me anxious because I have to wait.

When I practice or study charts there’s no waiting. I have to LEARN to accept this kind of patience.

When I trade live, I have so much time to think about my trade. Was I right? What else is the chart telling me? What did I miss? What does that weird candle mean? Were those two candles in the middle significant?

This is what it’s like inside a woman’s mind before going to sleep! haha So many thoughts bouncing around!

I had one trade this morning that the buy view didn’t give a signal, but the sell view gave a signal. I waited an hour before finally taking the trade.

In the sell view, I got my clue + confirmation. Yet, I was in disbelief, and it cost me because in that hour, price already started moving quickly and compromised my SL placement. There’s really no need for me to take so long to take a trade.

The decision should be less than a minute. Seriously. Whenever I look at past charts, the signs are unbelievably clear. So clear that you’d have to make an effort to miss them.

In the end, the good part is that I took it. The bad part is that I doubted it so much that I only traded 0.01 lots instead of a larger position. I almost stayed out, but took the chance to follow my strategy.

[dushimes]

I’ve really underestimated the patience D1 requires. I look at a chart and a consolidation period that lasts 3 weeks, and there’s no signals.

I look at it and think, ¨oh that’s interesting¨ blah blah blah.

But what I don’t see in that chart is the emotional part. Waiting weeks for a signal will make me wonder if I’ve missed something.

Actually, after waiting a week, I’ll start wondering what I missed. And I never know when the sign + confirmation will happen. I just have to wait.

It’s like waiting for a bus in the middle of the night. There’s no schedule, and you have no idea when it’s coming.

I start to wonder if it’ll EVER come. Of course it will, but the waiting can be a bit frustrating.

[dushimes]

I see a candle that I really wanna trade, BUT it’s not favorable. I’m not confident in what’s about to happen. I have an idea, but there’s no clue+confirmation.

I also told myself that I’d refrain from such trades. For now, I’d like to focus on trades that have a sign + confirmation. That means I have to let some trades go. It doesn’t feel good at all. The greed in me is really aching to take that trade.

But I’m gonna sit this one out. I did mark it, however, just so I remember to see what would have happened if I had taken that trade.

[dushimes]

One of my strategies is based on retracements that don’t have any signs. They’re very risky, yet very profitable. I told myself that I would stay away from them in order to focus on my other strategy.

I resisted a few times, but a few times I didn’t. However, one of them was a good trade. I wanted to go short, but the conditions weren’t right. I went long, and price turned bullish.

There was another trade earlier this week that I missed. I just didn’t see it. Totally caught me off guard. But I’ll study it and look for weaknesses in my observation.

[ProfesorPips]

do you use limit order in this strategy?

[dushimes]

Yes! One of my favorite tools!

Sometimes price triggers them, sometimes not. Sometimes, price blasts through your order and SL. But it’s worth the risk because when it works out well, it’s a trade at a price you wouldn’t have caught otherwise.

[ProfesorPips]

so, I wouldn’t call it as “very” risky, you just change risk:reward ratio and winning rate.

[dushimes]

Good point. Sometimes, a little adjustment makes a big difference.

[dushimes]

I entered a long trade a few days ago, and today I saw a bearish candle at a possible resistance level. I was going back and forth about what to do.

The candle was bearish and the new candle had already started running bearish. Of course, I’ve learned that you can never trust an open candle. Psychologically, my brain tries to use that as a clue, and I fight with myself to not put ANY faith in a candle that isn’t even half way done.

But, the conditions for a reversal didn’t seem right. I checked some chart samples, and nothing helped. I told myself that the signs should be obvious. And if it’s not clearly bearish, then it’s still bullish.

Well, I peeked at the charts for some practice and the open candle turned from bearish to bullish. I’ll see what happens tomorrow when this candle closes.

[dushimes]

I have my charts switched to a dark background. For some reason, sometimes I open my account and my charts revert back to the light background.

It’s like I’m staring into the sun.

[dushimes]

I just recorded my monthly account balance for October. For the first time EVER, I have had two green months in a row. Not by much, though.

This is good news, however, it’s not as good news as I wish it was. The only reason I’m in the green is from a couple good trades. But I held onto them for too long, and missed the following swings.

I told myself that when I had two green months I would return to live trading. Unfortunately, I’m gonna have to stay in demo because I’m still not trading the way I should. I haven’t reached the level of proficiency that I want.

I’m getting closer, but I’m not there yet.

Patience young padawan.

[Ozball]

Congrats on two consecutive months of green! Even if it’s not as much as you’d like, it’s still a nice achievement!

I feel staying in Demo is fine if you’re not happy with how you’re trading yet. I’ve got a bunch of conditions on my own start of Live trading, and hitting them all is going to be rough (I think 3 months of green is one of them but I’d need to double check). As is regularly said, this is not a race, but a marathon. You’ll get there, and the extra month of practice will make you a better trader for when you do return to live.

EDIT: Also thanks for the reminder, I haven’t done my own October review yet

[dushimes]

@Ozball

and the extra month of practice

or longer…

I don’t know yet. We shall see.

[dushimes]

Sometimes when practicing trades, I get surprised.

For example, a recent bull trend, it hit some resistance, and I expected it to reverse bearish. But after two weeks, it turned bullish. I didn’t understand why. At times like this, it makes me doubt my strategy.

I decided to zoom out more, and I saw that there was a higher resistance zone, and that price would continue bullish. I didn’t see it at first, but only after zooming out. That bearish trend was only a retracement–NOT a reversal.

Looking at the larger picture, as well, can be quite helpful.

[dushimes]

I still make ridiculous mistakes. My trades usually have just ONE entry. Meaning that there’s just one candle for the ideal entry. After that, it’s very difficult to get in; I could be waiting a while for another favorable entry.

I get so nervous about missing that entry, that I wonder which candle will be the entry. Being patient makes a huge difference, of course. Most of the time, the sign is very very obvious. But when price is choppy and there are several possible S/R levels, it’s hard to know which one will make price reverse.

Of course, there’s also the possibility of getting faked out, and losing your prior position over nothing.

Let’s not forget the possibility of sitting it out when you should have traded, and watching price go to the moon while you sit on your hands thinking about how much money you could have made.

[dushimes]

I’m starting to think I should approach some trades as booby traps.

Some get triggered and some don’t. Setting orders are a great way as well.

I’m just thinking about the trades I missed this week. I wanted to focus on my clue + confirmation trades. And some of them looked like setups, but the candles looked a little weird, so I didn’t take them. Turns out that one of them would have been a super profitable trade. I didn’t take it, though.

It’s frustrating. I sometimes go back and forth about when to be more aggressive and when to sit out more. I’m still learning to distinguish the two. It drives me bananas.

It’s not just about being more aggressive. It’s about knowing WHEN to be more aggressive. Same for sitting out.

Sure, sitting out can be really smart. But not when you should be jumping in.

Being aggressive and sitting out at the wrong time is the right mentality but poorly executed. You’ll just get the opposite of what you want. Which is profits; you just lose, lose, lose.

I’ll try sitting out, thinking I did the right thing. Then price starts trending.

Maybe you can’t always do what you want. You have to play the cards the market gives you. Sure, you can sit out all you want. But how are you gonna make money like that?

[dushimes]

This might sound weird. But, I often doubt trades; I’m not certain. I was thinking about perhaps I should start trading those setups that have pretty good conditions, but the sign is a little bit doubtful. Trading doubt, so to speak.

Perhaps this shift in my perspective may help me take a little more of a leap on trades I should take, but miss out on.