What I've learned so far (and continue to learn) before going live

Trading Discussion Trade Journals
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Reflecting on my short time here at BP I have to thank the community for what I have learned. It truly is a forum with value beyond compare. The search tool is a key to a veritable gold mine of great intell that is years old and doesn’t come up in recent posts but is still so pertinent and useful

Thank you to all the members who have replied to me directly, indirectly and all those who conitinually share their experiences and knowledge with those of us just starting out.

This is what I’ve learned over the past number of months. It’s nothing new or fancy Pretty much plain jane. I have read it all before recently and years ago. BUT… I can now say that I own it. Use it. Employ it. This has been the challenge for me. It’s one thing to have the knowledge. It’s a completely different story to be able to apply the knowledge. Finally feel I can do some application now! :grin:

Here are some of the things that I have learned…

It is very difficult but possible to leave emotions outside of the trading room. For me I have learned that this is directly related to the size of trades I put on - .01!!

Risk management is crucial! Trading stock option years ago more than doubled a live account in 3 months and lost it all in the following 3 mos - almost all, still have $7 -. . This was due to large orders, up to 90% of balance invested at a time, revenge trading and not understanding how the market really works.

Switching to forex a while back, doubled a demo and lost 80% overnight Too many open trades and too big with no SL.

I love the grid approach!! Seemed very straight forward! Set up my grids and ground it down to double digits. Too many, too close, going against the market trying to catch turning points. . .

Indicators are simply different pictures of the same scene. That scene is the price chart. I have stopped looking for the holy grail - I use a few indicators that help me make a quick assessment of the chart I don’t use them as trade triggers.

I have to take the time to look at the chart/candles and read each story/candle as to buyers/sellers and what that tells me about pending orders and key price levels.I know that this may sound silly but it’s the way my mind works. When I don’t do this I make poor entries.

Identifying supply and demand zones has been very helpful!!

Studying how tick volume levels react during cosolidation and on breakout - and ask myself what does the number of price changes mean in relation to pending orders and S/D levels. BTW - even though I ask myself these questions doesn’t mean I have a correct answer or an answer at all!

I have found the hardest part for me is getting into a trade. Once I’m in, I’m vested and will start placing pending orders based upon S/D and PA. Once I have a trade on the board it seems so much easier to set profitable pending orders.

Learned to wait for the price come to me! This was a game changer for me!! Love Pending orders!!!

Very seldom use a TP - though this may change. Don’t use a stop loss - though this my change.

I will use a TP on a counter trend trade. Love the automation of set it and the trade takes care of itself. Usually do this for short pips 10-15. It’s like “found” money for me! Come home or wake up and it’s all happened without me! It’s like magic!

Learned that I am a very patient trader. Very patient. I am a 9-5’r and use the 4H, D, W charts. Will accept draw down and wait and watch for the turn. Mapped out ahead of time, I will start scaling in as it goes in my favor. Will sit on trades for days or weeks. When I started my most recent account, I did a poor job on the first number of trades. I am still holding these from beginning of December, 2018.

This is why I prefer Forex over stock options. No time decay. That is so key for me on a leveraged investment/trade/transaction - whatever the nomenclature. I’ll wait.

I measure trades in dollars, not pips or percent. I have found this the best path for me.

Here’s the let down… All my learning has been on demo accounts set up as the live account will be. I asked @purtle if there was a big difference going live - OH YEAH!!

Hope to be going live shortly,

KC

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you dropped a lot of gems lol everything you stated is completely accurate

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except for the part where you state you focus on the dollars over the pips. I’m the other way around lol

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@justshell , I always found myself toggling the profit column to see where I was in terms of my deposit currency! :laughing: so I just kept it in dollars.

I figured if the candles are big that’s a lot of pips! LOL!

KC

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Frandlost. Good points that you made.

Just one thing always use a stop-loss otherwise it will really bite you one day

When you are on a live account as I am you will also find that apart from protecting your capital a stop loss also helps you mentally when things go wrong.

If you get a great fundamental against you a 120 pips be lost in as little as 15 minutes.

The cad lost more than a 100 pips in 30 minutes after a news release today

Just my 2 cents

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@nankwe , you have a good point. Especially since I’m a 9-5r.

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This was another game changer. I used to love sitting in front of the screen and staring at charts, emotionally tied to every tick! This type of trading created tension and stress - some great excitement at times, but not too often. After a big blowout I stepped away for a while and couldn’t see myself trading the same way. I realized I had to change a lot of things.

As my chart reading skills continue to impove I don’t have the desire of sitting in front of the screen hoping to decipher the hieroglyphs. I realized the dailies allow me to map out my trades in a calm and calculated manner instead of rushing my analysis, going long when I meant to go short, placing a 1.0 instead of a .01 and any other shooting from the hip mistakes I tend to make when rushing myself…

Now I am more turtlesque! I tend to check the charts shortly after 5 EST… Take stock - ! :laughing: - of my positions leave as is, open or close trades as needed, check in the morning and repeat. This has been the best approach for me. It also helps keep the emotion at bay. The dailies allow me to see the strength/weakness developing/building and I don’t have to make a split second decision if I’m in or out.

Again, this is all happening on demo, It could all go out the window once I go live.

Frandlost,
KC

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I don’t use a SL but place a hedge. That way if the trade goes against me I contain the loss but have bought time to consider how to trade out of the positions. Using hedging also removes the fear of taking a loss and will be a big help when you go live.

I am enjoying your journal, keep it up and best of luck.

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got some different lines , by the way liked your trading approach.

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Emotions are the hardest thing that most new traders experience, its hard to not get emotional when you see a trade going the wrong way, especially at the start.

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yes , newcomers fail to control emotions when trading practically, so it is more appropriate not to trade with large amount , i always prefer for them demo or cent account.

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That makes cents!

It’s the direction I am heading.

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there is no way to avoid emotions even though after passing a long time in here , but only a real trading discipline can reduce the percentage of emotions.

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This is a brilliant post! Well done and good luck for when you go live!

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I am still carrying mistakes from my first USD/MXN trade and some EUR/USD. Both of these were at the very beginning where I was in with too many positions too close together.

One modification I will be implementing is putting on a single position (I believe rrram2 calls it a “scout”, to see how things go initially) then go from there.

As I the trade goes in my favor I add to my positions with without closing the initial entries. Initial orders will be closed based on PA/SD.

I know one method is to set the grid with TP coinciding with Stop/limit orders locking in profits as the trade continues up/down the ladder of profitability. Perhaps this is something to consider.

frandlost,
KC

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Believe in my system, and follow it…is the toughest part!:grin:

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Just reduced position size in EUR/USD and USD/MXN longs and GBP/CHF Shorts.

My chart reading continues to improve (identifying S&D zones) My recent pending order placement has resulted in faster in profit and greater gain more quickly than a few month ago.

I am looking at the charts and thinking if the price is going down how far until it hits the next load of pending buy orders to push it up and where would the ceiling (pending sell orders) be once that happens.

frandlost,
KC

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Great little write up, these words really encourage people like.

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EUR/USD is digging deep into a supply zone. Might turn in the area of 1.12148. This
has seen recent supply but also a big move up from this level in May '17 (not sure how much weight to put in that?). Setting pending buy orders.

USD/MXN seems to be absorbing supply. If it could get beyond 19.47842 area, it might have some room to run up.

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Holding positions for days/weeks I usually don’t have a TP. This morning GBP/CHF shorts were moving in my favor. Knowing I wouldn’t be able to monitor this afternoon I put a TP in place below the next supply zone.

To my surprise it hit at 12:51PM Turnkey Forex time - I should know what the EST equivalent should be - :confused:.

Placing TP’s a little further than expected (sometimes a lot further) is going to become SOP to capture the unexpected spikes/moves.

frandlost,
KC