It seems over trading is the main killer. one day I was down around 50% of my account, Same mistake, thought trend will be back and added more lots. After that I promised never trade more than 2 lots. Now I m back with my account, it took me 2 weeks and looking to be in positive.
So many people have so many rules, My only rule is trade with the TREND.
This last week was much better. Not one down day (some down trades). I followed my rules and traded emotionless. I don’t expect every week to be this good, but I will take as many as I can get.
Hey all,
This is my first posting and I would like to start on a positive. This is truely a great website and hats off to the developers and all contributors in helping the wider world with Forex trading!
I found this thread quite interesting and will be taking notes. I am new to Forex trading in general so I am currently attending Pre-School.
Mytwopips and co. - great thread - your progress will be interesting to follow. In terms of monetary value what sums of money are you trading now and any good tips on risk management.
Keep up the good work!
JP
Hi Junior and welcome,
My account size at this moment is small. My goal as a newb is not money but percentages. If I can on a consitent bases for a long period of time succeed with this balance, I can do it with a larger account without much change to the mind set. My only advice to risk management is stick to it. You may choose a conservative, medium, or aggressive approach. Which ever one you choose, stick to it. You don’t want to be on a loser with an aggressive approach and on a winner with a conservative one. That is not only poor risk management but poor money management.
Hey mytwo
Hope your week has started with some good pip’in; I very “Jazz’ed”; had a 296 pip (5-lots) day last week than gave back 150pips in an instant; I entied to quickly and did not have my s/l set right (5pips); It seems when my entry candle closes I rush to place the trade??? I guess I still need to get comfortable with the trading platform; I mess’in with the indicators to but feeling a lot more comfortable with them;
Jazz
Hi Jazz,
Don’t worry about what you gave back, any business has overhead. Be glad your revenue was larger than the overhead it took to generate it. That’s called profit! Congratulations.
Today and yesterday I have not traded. I have business and personal issues getting in the way of forex right now:mad: Sunday I made a trade and come out real nice. I normally don’t trade on Sunday but saw some ranges and thought, “why not?”.
Crap! Now everyone is going to know I am a hick from Texas!
“seen” not “saw”
Hee Haw 
Well actually that association would have escaped me being that most of us are grammatically challenged to begin with. We Canadians are notoriously (I think) associated with saying “eh” all the time at the end of our sentences…but nobody’s too concerned here that I havn’t typed it… it’s funny the things we take for granted…like everybody knowing the little idiosyncracies of our cultures.
However, I don’t know why more members don’t fill out their location in their profile…like what’s the big secret? 
Yeah I want to finish filling out my profile. I don’t have anything to hide. Just waiting for me to think of a sweet little avatar I can drum up in photoshop.
Hi Jazz,
Again, glad to hear that you had a great day! But, why did you let a loser go 150 pips in the hole. Go back to my first post for inspiration on why not to do that. I use 20 pip stops on my trending method. That might be to tight for you. After some study, I am thinking of giving myself a few more pips on my stops for the trending method. Maybe, maybe not, I will do some more research before making up my mind.
Hey mytwo-
I was rushing my entry and PRESSED “buy” instead of “Sell” on 5-lots with 20-pip s/l;(see Attaached) So if you notice the time stamp I entered at 13:30 and I was immediately stopped-out for -105pip loss!! 
Glad it was a demo account!! -this is the place to make those mistakes. I have actually been having some good days; I try a ‘scalp’ on todays 8:30 Jobs report an hit 176-pips— damn, it was only on the demo; I actually open another demo profile on Monday, with the intent to “trade my plan” since I feel comfortable with MT4 platform now—and I’ve increased it by 418-pips after todays ‘scalp’… I’m look’in to go Live… soon…maybe…
Hey Jazz,
Hmmm… I don’t get something. I figure a 20 pip loss on however many lots is a 20 pip loss. Then I see that your chart shows -105.00 and thought “oh $105.00 loss not 105 pip loss”. That doesn’t make sense either because it is on 5 full demo lots. So it would be around $1000.00.
Ohhh… wait. Now I get it. Those are mini lots. So you lost $105.00, not pips. Am I right?
Ok. You did good then. You didn’t let a loser go 105 pips in the hole. You were stopped out at 20 pips. To bad it was a simple hit the wrong button mistake. I have done that in demo. Now I pay more attention. One click trading has many positives, but does have that one drawback.
Are you trying to game news reports now? Are you entering in advance or at the exact moment a report is given? I would like to see how that plays out in the long run for you. I would demo that strategy for a while.
The other day my father was trying to get me to game a report. He speculated right and it would have played out. The next report came around and I asked him what he thought. He speculated the obvious and price went the other way. I have no idea how to game news reports.
Sometimes bad news makes the market rally and good news makes it decline?
I just look at news for fundamental factors that might turn the longer term behavior of the market.
From a book I’m reading “Trade Your Way to Financial Freedom”, the author VAN K. THARP says that news & fundamental analysis are not the same thing. Fundamentals is predicting and news is following…sorta like leading and lagging indicators
What he also says about it is:
[I]“You will also observe that pending news will move a market
longer and farther than actual reported news. The anticipation of
bullish news can support a market for weeks or even months.
When the bullish news is eventually reported, the market may well
move in the opposite direction. That�s why the old adage of �Buy
the rumor, sell the fact� seems to work so well. (Of course, the same
logic applies to bearish news as well.”[/I]
For those of us more fundamentally challenged this is a good rule of pip to keep in mind 
Hi Sweet Pip,
Makes perfect sense to me. I am always wondering myself if future hype is already priced in. When it is, the market can throw curve balls at the actual report.:eek:
For now I will stick to, as news spike traders call it, “trading that darn noise between reports”
For those that are interested. Here is my performance after learning not to freak out going live and trade exactly how you did in demo. These percentages may be a little high for your average account. That is ok for me because I am comfortable with my risk situation. I also know that these percentages come with a little luck of the call and that they can’t continue forever. I don’t trade everyday because I run two other businesses. Lately they take up most of my time. Maybe in a few years, trading will be my only business. What a dream, no customers, no support, no w-2’s, no this, no that… oh… time to wake up.
Thur. 20 Mar. 9.8%
Mon. 25 Mar. 3.7%
Tue. 26 Mar. 2.6%
Thur. 28 Mar. 8.4%
Sun. 30 Mar. 3.2%
Mon. 07 Apr. 0.2%
Thur. 10 Apr. 1.4%
I will keep these performance posts going. I feel as long as I have to report to someone, I will be forced to trade smart due to risk of public embarrassment.
Rules to Trade By
I like what you have developed for yourself. Here are some thoughts on the matter I hope it helps
Hey we all have to admit we have done that a time or two� or three! I too have learned the hard way. Writing down the rules is a great way to stay focused. I found that writing everything down in a check list format like a pilot uses before every flight brings dividends of wealth to my accounts. A pilot will still go through the preflight check list before every flight. Even though he has flown hundreds of times before, to make sure he is on track and that the flight will run smooth. This does a couple of things. One, you remove error from your trades. Or at least minimize�human error is always a factor. Two, it helps to reduce the emotional strain that comes with the territory. I have put great detail into my pre trade instructions. Example: If the MAO closes after a fresh cross and the hot lines have a fresh cross wait for the candle to close to confirm the entry. Only place the trade once you see the open of the fresh candle agree with confirmation signal. Patience!
I try to live and die by my rules I always say RULES TO LIVE OR DIE BY! RULES TO LIVE AND FLY BY!
Daedalus,
I agree with your comments 100% Those off days are out there I took one head on it seemed that no matter what I did right the one rule I broke made every move wrong. I like that you can actually show what went wrong. A lot of traders out there do not for whatever reason fail to track their behavior patterns and journal what went well and what went not so well. This is a great way to evaluate and see if you need to make any adjustments to the rules. Great example! Good stuff.
Thanks for the comments Pipwrangler. It seems you have the psychological aspects of trading down. To me, that is the most important part of trading. If you get that down path, you can own any reasonable system.
I am unable to post. This is just a test.
It worked. So now something useful.
11 Apr. Fri 0.2%
