Trading journal

[dushimes]

Part of me wants to pull my hair out! haha

Not really…more like go to bed.

I see a trade that I should have taken, but didn’t, and it’s going to the moon.

I didn’t take it because I expected it to break support. It gave some quirky signs, but signs, nonetheless, and I was like ¨nah¨.

This is why I have to embrace the doubtful element of some of these signals. I’m waiting for the chart to look like what I think it should look like, instead of what it is. I get suspicious of the signs, and I let them go. And now I see that my suspicion was correct.

I have to embrace this suspicion and be willing to play the game.

[dushimes]

I give most of my attention to my losses; for good reason, too. But I do have some good moments.

I was practicing a trade on USD/SEK, I followed my strategy, and I traded it well. I don’t wanna be too much of a negative Nelly, so I thought I’d share a positive moment.

I wasn’t sure to go short or wait, but I had a clue + confirmation, so I went short, and price turned bearish.

I wanna trade like that more often.

Patience, young padawan

[dushimes]

I’m looking at more charts. I think my remaining lessons reside in live charts–not practice charts.

But I’ll keep studying charts just because.

[dushimes]

Perhaps what happens to me is that I get s signal that looks a little tricky. So, I’m already having doubt. Then fear of getting stopped out mixes with it.

So, my confidence was never 100% to begin with. No signal is a guarantee, right? But then, the signal itself is questionable (albeit acceptable), so my confidence in the setup drops even lower.

Then the fear kicks in, and my confidence keeps dropping. After that, my logic starts to spiral out of control, and I either do nothing or trade the wrong direction.

I think understanding what goes on in our coconut during trading may help find a solution.

In my case, I really think that looking at each setup as questionable yet acceptable, will be a good change in perspective.

[SmallPaul]

@dushimes

I was practicing a trade on USD/SEK, I followed my strategy, and I traded it well. I don’t wanna be too much of a negative Nelly, so I thought I’d share a positive moment.

I wasn’t sure to go short or wait, but I had a clue + confirmation, so I went short, and price turned bearish.

usd/sek was a good play for you, I’m testing multiple systems at the moment

[dushimes]

@SmallPaul

usd/sek was a good play for you, I’m testing multiple systems at the moment

yeah, I really like trading several kroners. But, I’m only looking at USD/SEK at the moment. My favorite was always DKK.

What kind of systems are you working on? Technical? Fundamental? All on H1?

[SmallPaul]

@dushimes

What kind of systems are you working on? Technical? Fundamental? All on H1?

Working on a Technical Fib Trading system, The foundation starts on 1hr chart but the confirmations is on 1min chart

[dushimes]

My laptop is weird. For some reason, it doesn’t store restoration points. My laptop crashed about a year ago, and after I got it back up and running, I set up a restoration point. I remember seeing the box saying that the restoration point was successfully created.

I checked yesterday, and there was nothing. How about that?

My C drive is almost full, and I don’t even know why. It’'s a 60gb drive and had about 500 mg available. I did a disk clean up, and now I have about 7gb. All my stuff is on an SD card, though. So, whatever is happening, my files are stored externally.

I learned my lesson from last time.

[dushimes]

I had a bout with impatience yesterday, but didn’t realize it until today.

A pair was pulling back yesterday, so I tried to jump in. I looked today, and I got stopped out. I saw a second signal, and I was scared to take it. I wasn’t confident which direction price was trying to go.

I decided to stay out. I’m looking at the chart again, in my practice account, and I see why I was so confused about the direction.

It was because there’s no real entry signal for me. This is why jumping in mid trend can be dangerous for me. My sign + confirmation entries are much safer. If I miss it, then trying to get on the trend can be quite tricky for me.

I realized that I just have to be patient. Perhaps I should have taken that trade today, but if I’m not really understanding what I’m doing then I should stay out, rather than feeling like I’m guessing.

I felt a bit like I was guessing, so instead I’m drawing my resistance line, and I’m gonna wait for a sign, which I expect to come some time next week.

In the meantime, I’m not gonna chase price and lose money getting stopped out repeatedly.

[dushimes]

I just finished my trading, and there were no new signs for entries or exits. Sure, there are candles I’d like to trade, but I’m trying to trade more strategically and more relaxed.

I finished in about 45 minutes. I feel quite comfortable with the quantity of pairs I’m watching now. I used to watch 40 or so. That’s ridiculous haha. There’s much less activity in my trading, and I feel good that I didn’t place any trades. It’s boring, and it also means that I didn’t waste any money on setups that aren’t actually setups. It reminds me of ProfessorPips’ post

@ProfesorPips

no trades last week

This post reminds me that it’s ok to not trade, and just be patient.

[dushimes]

Just took a look at a EUR/SGD chart from 2022. There was a major down trend, but that doesn’t mean a major bullish pullback can’t happen.

In the midst of a strong down trend, it pulled back for 4 weeks. After that, there were a strong bearish signal, then a few confusing signals.

I’m still getting a grip on being confident in the overall trend. That will help determine, among all the confusion, which signals to follow and which to ignore.

[playwiththegods]

@dushimes

I finished in about 45 minutes.

Nice one!

@dushimes

I feel quite comfortable with the quantity of pairs I’m watching now. I used to watch 40 or so.

Am I getting this right, the more pairs you watch, the more time you spend trading, or are there other things that take up your time in trading?

[dushimes]

Yeah, because it takes time to understand what’s going on in each chart. Correlated pairs may not give signals at the exact same time.

Reviewing each chart takes time. Less pairs, less time.

[dushimes]

I practiced a CHF/NOK chart from 2018. I had a tricky reversal situation. I got greedy and traded as if price was gonna continue; not reverse.

I made a very simple mistake. Then after the fact, I remembered my strategy.

As I look up from my computer right now, I have the rule written on the wall…directly in my eye line.

I make these bad mistakes, but at least practice helps remind me of what I should be doing in the market.

[alphahavoc]

@dushimes

I make these bad mistakes, but at least practice helps remind me of what I should be doing in the market

Constant reflection on past mistakes is important in trading. We need to understand where we went wrong and make necessary corrections. That’s why I’m DOCUMENTING my trading process on BabyPips, primarily for personal review of the trades I have made. When I go overboard, sometimes constructive criticism from BabyPips peers can help to knock some sense into me and clear the dark clouds. This way, we can gain clarity, as often those involved are too close to see clearly, while bystanders have a clearer perspective.

[dushimes]

I’m gonna take some time to focus on one kind of trade. To help me, I’m gonna prepare some practice charts, and practice them a few times.

Maybe this can help me switch my way of thinking and create some new neurological pathways.

[dushimes]

I just started searching my files for charts that I’ve already prepared that may be helpful, and the first chart I opened is not the kind of trade I’m looking for.

It’s got me rethinking my approach, but I can’t get scatter-brained. I gotta choose ONE strategy at a time. I can make a different category later for other setups. For now, I’m gonna work on just one setup.

Yes, there are many types of scenarios, but I need to approach my problem systematically, not randomly.

This may lead me to preparing a ton of new charts, though. I’d better get cracking.

[dushimes]

My balance has dropped below last month’s. I have some trades that are still running and would bring my balance higher than last month, but I’m not closing them prematurely. There’s still another week left for this month. We’ll see.

I check my wall and I have my weird little reminder calendar. I cross of the day and I say out loud the rule, and I focus on just that.

There was a trade that I got a clue, and I wanted to set an order but I got scared. I thought it was premature. Turns out it wasn’t.

But it wasn’t a typical clue + confirmation trade. It was one of those retracement trades that has a clue but no confirmation. So, I decided not to take it.

Right now, I’m focusing on clue + confirmation. That means some trades will pass me by. It sucks, but I’m trying to train my mind to trade these clue/confirmation trades when I see them, and not get scared.

Also, I’m still preparing practice charts for this one type of setup. It’s taking time, but this is a necessary step. I can go as fast as I want, but I can’t skip it. I can go fast, but it can’t be rushed.

Patience, young padawan.

[dushimes]

I just finished my trading. There’s nothing going on, so I was just checking up on my trades. They’re in between S/R levels, so there’s nothing to do.

There is just one trade that hit support a couple days ago. I’m still waiting to see what happens. It’s still dancing around support, but hasn’t hit my stop. So…

I finished reviewing my charts in 13 minutes. I wasn’t rushing, but that’s how long it took. I’m glad to see my trading to reduced to such time. I’m learning to simplify the process, and it’s not exciting at all.

There was no eagerness to trade; no rush to close/open a position. Such days are quite nice. No excitement–just observation.

Now, back to preparing practice charts.

[dushimes]

There were some retracement/pyramid opportunities that I had noticed. I wanted to take them. But, when I take such trades, there’s risk that I could lose my original position.

I didn’t want those kinds of thoughts bouncing around in my coconut. So, I made the decision to let those trades go. Now, I see that I wouldn’t have gotten stopped out, and I wish I had taken those positions.

But right now, it’s not about making money–it’s about trading correctly. I’m focusing on trading one particular strategy at the moment–and it’s not this retracement/pyramid strategy. Another day, yes, but not right now.

I told myself that in order to keep focused on one strategy will require letting other trades go. That means watching trades slip through my fingers. For the sake of the long run, so be it.

Patience, young padawan.