Psychology is at least 80% of the trading game. I don’t know if you have already read some books about trading, but I am currently reading ‘trading in the zone’, among some other books I have already finished. These books have really helped my trading psychology.
End of the year! Made a small profit in December, started off with a great trade that made me around 3,40%, but unfortunately gave some profits back. Happy new year everybody!
The people who have read the whole thread, know that I switched to a different strategy in June, at that time I decided to only share the results from the new strategy. From now on, I will share the results of my full 1000 euro account, including the results from my old strategy.
2 Likes
Last month trading results, started off with great trades, I was up over 4%. Unfortunately gave the profits back by making some mistakes in my trading.
Hi Xirtam001,
I thought I would post again for encouragement. Your post reminds me a lot of my own journey back in 2015 (and more recently last year journaling a specific strategy that failed). I re-read Trading in the Zone in Q4 last year, and spent some time reading over the exercise on page 189 of my copy (Learning to trade an edge like a casino). I analysed over 200 trades and found that I had not been able to demonstrate consistency.
The metadata you have presented is very detailed. Some questions you may consider helpful. Let me know if you need further clarification on my questions.
1 Currencies popularity for January. It looks like you made about 24 trades in the month. Is that correct? Is it too many trades?
2 Average holding time for January. It looks like you are day trading (even scalping, or just limiting losses for the EURAUD, EURJPY and GBPCAD trades. Are you giving your trades enough time to develop?
3 Does the data correlate with your trading strategy and plan? Can you identify any trades that went exactly according to plan, and those which did not? How many indicators did you use to establish the zone of interest, and what criteria did you use to decide on entry? Was confirmation sufficient to justify trade entry?
What would have happened to the results if you had doubled your stop loss (funds at risk) and tripled your take profit? Were these “set and forget” with preset S/L and T/P levels, or were they real time where you monitored price action throughout?
I hope my comments are useful
1 Like
Great feedback, I really appreciate this. The metadata is not accurate, for some reason myfxbook still counts a partially closed position as an individual trade, therefore, both the amount of trades and the holding time per trade is incorrect. In January I took 13 trades and 5 of them were winners. Winners usually take 2/3 hours before I have fully exited the position, a losing trade can be over in a matter of minutes. I work with stop losses of around 10 pips. I am taking an excel course that allows me to build my own complex journal and backtesting spreadsheets, so the next update will probably be in my own spreadsheet because I want correct data. The third point is a great one, I do journal every trade I make, supported with screenshots and a detailed explanation of how the trade went (see below). I have solid rules and I know exactly what I am looking for, however, I do still make errors and sometimes break a rule because I get married to the trade idea. When I encounter something interesting I try to forward test this and see if that observation is useful according to my statistics. I am currently also testing multiple risk management strategies. Right now I take 50 percent of the remaining position off at each R multiple, starting from 1.5.
So:
1.5R 50% off > Stop loss to break even
2.5R 50% off (25 of full position)
3.5R another 50% (12,5 of full position)
Right now I am testing the following exit strategies:
- 2R set and let go
- 3R set and let go
- 2R but at 1R SL to BE
- 3R but at 1R SL to be
I found that on my trades that go 3R+, I only bank a little over 2% (I risk 1% per trade). So I am testing if just putting my TP at 2R does the same job as taking off partials until 3.5R for the same result.
I almost always keep a good eye on my open trade, I don’t set take profits because I manually scale out of the trade. But when I just entered I always try to do something different just to take my mind off the charts.
Anyway, I think I am improving every month, I definitely feel more and more confident in the setups I trade. Most of my losses come from my own trading errors, which I am working on. I really appreciate the detailed feedback you gave me. I will keep updating this thread and hopefully show off my excel skills next month.
Have a nice day!
Glad the feedback has been useful. You are doing all the right things, and no doubt will settle on finding an edge soon enough. Best of luck with it and please continue to report periodically. I look forward to seeing your Excel output. I am a great fan of Excel and have used it since forever (1980s?)
2 Likes
Late update. Been very busy with my thesis, work and trading. Switched to IC markets because of the raw spreads option. Feels like a clean start. Been working on building excel spreadsheets and collected some nice backtesting data already. This month I’ll have more time to dedicate to my trading and will update you guys again.
1 Like
Hey everyone,
I’ve been very busy writing my thesis, working and trading. Writing my thesis on top of trading and working was pretty tough, I wasn’t sharp in my trading and made some bad trades. Decided to step back from live trading and just continue backtesting, which was a great decision because the next live trade I took was a winner. March resulted in a 4,26% drawdown.
Like I said, I have continued to backtest several things, one project that I’ve finished was different exit management strategies:
I keep tweaking my system and I feel I get closer every day. The main thing are my emotions, keeping them in check. 95% of the time I am very sharp, but the 5% is costing me a lot of money and drawdown. I journal every trade I make and reflect every month I trade, I keep improving after every stupid mistake. Recently I also added a new section where I journal trade I didn’t decide to take or that I’ve missed when I was away from the desk.
I have started a new backtesting project, incorporating the results of my previous risk management spreadsheet. I am now testing my improved system with the improved exit strategy, setting my TP at 3R and just let it play out.
Anyway, see you next month!
1 Like
Writing everything in your journal will help you get better with time.
1 Like
So first of all, it’s pretty much the one year anniversary of this thread. I remember very well that I was sitting in my garden and decided that I was going to pursue what felt like freedom for me, I had an interest in the markets for several years, but never gave it a 100%. So around one year ago I promised that I will document everything on this thread, I know it’s been pretty messy and there is nearly no structure to find in my journal on baby pips. When I read my old posts I realise how much I’ve grown and the amount of knowledge I have gained in only one year is absolutely insane. I feel I’m getting closer and closer to actually becoming consistently profitable. Self-sabotage has been one of the biggest issue for me, the psychology, revenge trading, over trading, etc. In the past two months I have made some important changes to my system based on my backtested data, which significantly increased my trading performance.
Anyway, it is pretty iconic that one year after starting this thread, I’ve actually made my ‘first’ decent profit of 7,39%.
Monthly performance
Overall performance:
Equity Graph
Because of not only the results of this month, but my overall progress, I have decided to add 1000 euro’s to my account. Let’s see if we can have another profitable month!
2 Likes
This journal is a great read. Congratulations on the one year anniversary. It is really satisfying to see members keep on improving. I am currently subscribing to the NNFX Forex method, and am finding it very easy to follow, but my Terms of Reference document which uses its content and will become the basis (thesis?) for my annual trading plan is already 40 pages long and I am about 1/4 the way through the content of NNFX. I have already bought 3 books on the back of recommendations from this method, and look forward to deeper learning. The real take away for me for April 2021 was this:
What three attributes does a Forex trader need to have?
INITIATIVE
DISCIPLINE
PATIENCE
I know, relative to my previous 3 attempts to master Forex (being 1988, 2005, 2011), that I have smashed the Patience requirement. I also think I have initiative, having as many as four concurrent income streams (three of which have unfortunately evaporated with external global events), and I have just bought the book “Discipline Equals Freedom” that I can’t wait till it arrives. I have also had some deep and long thoughts after watching the Ray Dalio short animated video about his Principles book, also ordered. In that book, I have seen self-reflection from the age of 16 to 65, and have no intention of easing up.
Best of luck for the next twelve months, and please maintain your journal. Of all the content on Babypips, the journals are the most rewarding reads, for me.
It’s great that you have tested your strategy on your demo account before you use it on your live account. But I still feel that 1,000 euros is a big amount to risk when you can trade with as low as 1 euro. Look for a broker that has low initial deposit requirements so that you don’t have to risk big unnecessarily.
Wow you definitely smashed the patience requirement. I’ve read Jocko’s book, it’s great! I will definitely maintain my journal, thanks for the support!
Thanks for the concern, but risk appetite is subjective right. As long as I am comfortable with the risk I am exposing myself to, I have nothing to worry about.
Late update. In the beginning of May I messed around with some indicator settings, I found out at the end of May that I screwed up my RSI settings. Not all trades were losses because of that, but a lot were when I went over them. So May was not the best month for me but I definitely learned to double check my indicator settings after messing around with them haha. Anyway, I was really busy writing my thesis, that’s why I’m not very active. Today I picked up trading again. I’ll post an update on June in eight days!
Hi everyone,
I made a slight recovery after last month. It’s nice to see that after I corrected the RSI settings of my TDI, my trading performance increased a lot. Last week I heard I graduated so now I am working a 30-hour part-time job to bring some food on the table while trying to spend all my energy on trading. See you in 3.5 weeks
Well done. Keep on posting. It is a great start. You have not lost money since trade #9. Congratulations
Thank you! I will keep this thread alive until I am consistently profitable. I promise 