This is a good trading journal, and a fitting end to this year. It reminds me of my own results back in 2010/2011 just before I packed in Forex trading for about 3 or 4 years. My business plan said that if I could not document evidence of a positive edge within nine months, I would stop, rethink, and pursue other interests. I was down about 13% when the plan said I should have been up about 15%. It took me a long time to regain an interest in Forex, but it helped me a lot in terms of my approach to business risk. Between 2011 and 2015 I was more concerned about derisking our entire portfolio, and once you start you realize how long an undertaking that becomes.
I look forward to reading your journal next year. Have a good break.
Thatās interesting! I have had the exact same thing, although the timeframe is a bit shorter, I also put FX down for a couple of years. Itās part of the process, sometimes it is necessary to reflect and come back again.
Thank you very much, I will definitely keep this thread alive!
As you can see, I had a fantastic month. Right now, Iām only down 3,69% from what I started with in February last year. I switched brokers so if I am really honest I am not yet close to break-even because I was down around 6% when I switched, but it gives a boost to see how much I have recovered. I also feel I am getting more and more grip emotionally and technically.
My focus right now is to stay as neutral as possible, just like the markets. Donāt become overconfident or scared of giving back the profits Iāve made, I have managed my emotions very well the past two months and I plan to continually do so.
How is it going everyone. Last month was one of the first times since Iāve started this thread that I did not upload my monthly results. In January I booked great results, somewhat expecting to continue the momentum of January. However, February was really tough. I was trading well and I executed my plan, but the market just was not clicking for me.
A lot of BE or stoploss taps before going straight to my TP seemed the norm. In the last 1.5 weeks of February I became a bit frustrated and I went from following my plan but being in a drawdown, to not following my plan and go in even a bigger drawdown.
In February I booked a total loss of -8.49% and I did not win for 23 consecutive trades. This was really rough, especially because I was trading pretty well in the first 2.5 weeks of the month.
It was not easy facing the fact that I completely messed up the last 1.5 weeks of February. However, I used some time to reflect and made a 25+ page analysis of my drawdown period, carefully reflecting on trades I took in January, where I won a lot and comparing those to the trades of February, where I did not win a single one.
Iāve also been working on a similar but slightly different setup that I trade on US30. After taking a lot of reviewing time, I decided to purchase a 25k account on FTMO to trade the setup Iāve been working on since I can trade 1 contract minimum so my 2k account is too small to have proper position sizing.
The goal of this challenge was to get a good feel on how I would trade the ānewā setup live, I just wanted to break-even so I could get another retry to actually try and pass the challenge.
I definitely made some early mistakes but managed to end up in profit.
I will wait for the expiry of my challenge, which is next week Tuesday, and then I will go for the retry.
Hey man, are you still using the ASFX system? I also trade with that system. I only use the A1 2 candle and 3 candle formations. I was finding I was having more losses with the shift candle formation. I trade on the 15m chart but I look at the 1H to see if the L50 is in the same zone and check 5m and 1m to see if its over bought or sold. I only trade A and B setups. Iāve found that as long as the Asian Range is broken, thereās space on ADR, the candle isnāt over extended and the L50 isnāt swapping zones. If one of those 4 things isnāt ticked then I donāt enter the trade. Iād be happy to share my mark ups with you
Hi Wilfie! Yes sir, Iāve bought the course pretty much right after that post youāve also responded to I see. So I have been with ASFX for a pretty long time now. I trade some variations of the ASFX strategy. ASFX allowed me to build a great foundation for my trading, really happy with that!
Hi everyone, a little update. I have taken three challenges with FTMO, I lost one and the other 2 I ended up in profit. Iām pretty happy with the results, but Iām simply not ready to take on a challenge yet. So from now on I will focus on my own capital & share the monthly edgewonk account analysis stats again, feels like coming home haha.
Alright, had a pretty good month in June. First two weeks were solid, waiting patiently and taking high quality setups. Because of the nice first two weeks Iāve pushed the pedal a bit too hard and took some trades that required a bit more patience for it to work out. What I did well was that I recognized in week 3 I was doing this, so I took things really slow in the last week, coming back to that patient state of trading. Only took 1 trade, which was a clean setup for a very small loss.
I am currently on a holiday in Thailand, so I only traded 2.5 weeks in July.
Had a pretty good month. Psychologically it was challenging because I had some really clean setups that missed my tp by 1 pip before tapping me out at break even. Itās part of the edge but always still hurts.
However, I still stayed on top and made a small profit.
In August I am not able to trade a lot because of my trip in Thailand. A nice break to get my mind off the charts & reflect a bit.
Only 1 trade last month, August was mostly holiday for me. Spotted 1 good setup, unfortunately it was a loss. Part of the edge. This month Iām fully back!
I find the markets have been pretty rough, with all the recession fears, market just shake up with every tiny bit of news. However, I did have a pretty good month, managed my trades and emotions really well. Been focusing very intensely on reviewing everything I do & that really helps. Excited for next month!
Solid month where I followed my plan really well. Been really busy with optimizing my strategy, so far thatās been working out well.
Starting to see some real improvement in my trading over the past few months, the summer time was a bit difficult & volatile, I did not lose my temper and kept trading relatively clean. This month the markets lined up pretty wel for me so I booked a 5% profit.
I used to put a lot of focus on my current plan, just sit behind my desk and try to execute the strategy. The improvement came to optimize the strategy I currently use. A lot of the improvement comes from analyzing & testing little variables that influence my probability. Not focus that much on the charts but test little things that popped up while journaling.
To be honest, I donāt even remember writing this answer. This was on a friday night & the Netherlands just won from U.S.A in the world cup football. I was a bit intxicated here I think .
I would say a better answer to your question is that I improved a lot by not focusing on the charts itself, but directing my focus to extensively review the trades I have been taking. I have a lot of different elements in my trade review process that allow me to peel off as much layers as I can to get to the bottom on why I took this trade and what I could have done better in the future.
Trading is very nuanced and this let me to be a lot more aware of trades that are setting up, small mistakes, tiny variables that I noticed in my trading reviews & am therefore better able to enter better trades or pass on slightly worse trades.
