Well, the fat lady did sing and unfortunately not to my tune... lol

I got stopped out of both parts. What I am enjoying here is that I am seeing good levels in the market and I am either (1) Just a little bit too accurate with the level, such as the AUDUSD short at 1.0111 that missed my entry by 3 pips. (2) Impatient. When I am looking at the levels I can see the major level and my secondary level, but always seem to get the feeling that if I don't take the secondary level then I won't get filled. Time and time again I have seen my trades play out well, but my entries are at the secondary level not the first.

I have written before in this journal that it seems that my entries should be where my stops are. EURUSD attached chart shows my EURUSD long that took me out. Interestingly, on friday night I saved this file as EURUSD-GetOut, but I decided to stay in the trade. I notice that I have this type of feeling a number of times and more often or not, my gut instinct that the trade is playing as expected is correct. But 9 times out of 10 I hang in there until I am stopped out.

When the chart is moving live, as I said above, I feel I will miss the move. This doesnt mean that I jump into trades, just that I am putting limit/stop orders at a secondary quality level.

For last week, my results were not so encouraging with a loss of $173.00, on a 5k account that would be a drawdown on -3.5%. So not very good at all, but than this is demo and the trades I am taking are not haphazard or carefree. Remember I am trying to devise a consistent rule bases discretionary system, and this is part of the learning curve.

Its tuesday morning, 7:40 am here in australia, kids ready for school and 20 mins before I need to go. Better go and get ready. I am behind in this journal slightly, as I did have a limit sell order on EURUSD over night (US Session), so far stopped out for 30 pips on 1st half and +10-14 pips on the other as that had a wider stop.
This trade again is the same story, where I should have entered where my stop loss was. I guess you just have to keep repeating the same mistake until you can train yourself to take the highest quality trades only.

cya

Nice work, just keep at it. You are doing good.



Mike

Great journal. One of my favorites already. I like how frank and honest you are with yourself in your posts. I plan on sticking to sim trading until successful as well so you aren't alone in that aspect. Good luck and I'll be tuned in.

Well here I am back again for another update. Probably tell by the title that I am not too happy with my trading.

Anyway, so as I mentioned I had gone short on EURUSD yesterday at 1.3496.
So 2nd leg of trade I held throughout the day. I didnt watch the market too much, as my stops were in place even though I didnt like the area I was short in. At one point through the day I was up +20 pips, only to go and play squash in the evening and see me perfectly stopped out at 1.3560, still the top now in the EURUSD

Ok, so still like the short side, after the US GDP data, this time short at 1.3522. Much happier with this level as knew it was a level market has paused at quite a few times this week and last. Had an ATM strategy running on it so I could sleep safely in bed

ATM is 2 Mini-Lots (SL30-60TP60-145-AUTOBE)
SL1 30 pips TG1 45 pips with Auto Breakeven if in profit by 30 pips
SL2 60 pips TG2 145 pips with Auto Breakeven if in profit by 40 pips

Woke up in the morning to have been stopped out of SL1 but only for $0.60 as Auto Breakeven had been triggered when I was in profit of 30 pips. 60c was obviously slippage.

Other half was in profit by 7 pips. Was working from home today so was able to watch the charts. The trade was largely respecting the BM Collective center line, so I got worried I would take another loss. I actually monitored it for 1 hour or so after asia open until I took profit at 7 pips!! Shortly after EURUSD tanked, without me.

Last Trade just after UK open went long in EURUSD at 1.3452 with 2 mls. Was expecting a short bounce up, which it did indeed do. But soon as I saw the bouce thought I would change the trade idea and hang in longer. Moved stops on both parts manually to BE and got stopped out 4 mins later. Ok, well decided to leave the market alone for a while.

So here I am. Looking back at the trades its hard to believe how I have such an uncanny knack of missing the moves. Yet again managing to pick the intraday tops and getting stopped out before the move goes my way.

To be honest I feel quite bewildered by my failure to make any profit in the market so far this week.

Is it the EURUSD just killing me, well yes and no, as keeps happening my entries end up being in the middle of the range, although at the time I am looking at the trade they do look reasonable.

I am stuggling to find my style in the markets, and this has been common for a while. I MUST keep to my chart setups as that has been my normal escape when I feel I am not being successful. This is why this public journal is here, if someone sees me changing chart setups for taking trades, please tell me to stop as this is not the answer.

A big thanks to Big Mike and Bermudan Option who at least give me some confidence someone is reading my ramblings. I hope some will be able to chop in and give me some advice as my journey progresses.

OK, in two minds whether to look at trades now or not. Still want to get some trades in that work, but this type of desire doesn't turn out too well as you all know.

Ok, today I had a decent trade with the EURUSD.

Put a limit order in at 1.3401 in asia session, usual 2 mini lots.

Also using ATM strategy again :-

ATM is 2 Mini-Lots (SL30-60TP60-145-AUTOBE)
SL1 30 pips TG1 45 pips with Auto Breakeven if in profit by 30 pips
SL2 60 pips TG2 145 pips with Auto Breakeven if in profit by 40 pips

So UK session pushed it up and it spent quite a bit of time off the 1.3400 level, no big rejection at that level, so I moved my limit order up a little bit 1.3410.

Was a good decision as got it back at resistance from US Session last night.

30 pips profit in and ATM SL1 moved to BE.
45 pips profit and TG1 was closed taking 45 pips off the table.

At 40 pips the second SL2 moved to BE. This is where the trade stands now. I am tempted to take the other half for around 25-30 pips and just be happy with that given my woeful trading so far this week. But this wouldnt even cover my losses. The range chart (8 bar) is finding support, which is also the Weekly 23.6 level, so it does look like it wants to go higher in US.

Even with the SL2 at BE, it maybe safer to move that back up to 1.3425 or more, to allow US to test that area again ?

This is one of my issues with trades, the second half is a runner, but I could have closed the whole position at +90 pips and stopped trading for today.

Need to make a decision, but if I just leave it for a while, lets see where it goes. Should be happy as it is nor often that I get to think what to do with the unrealized profits in a trade (not the last 2 weeks anyway).

Back later.

So, still in the EURUSD trade, missed stopping me out on 2nd lot by fraction of a pip see attached chart.

Looks like market is going to rest on the center line BMA to await full US open. Slight turning down of futures.io (formerly BMT)Envelope, but gut feeling is it will break through the 1.3410 level before it heads lower again.

This is where I struggle with the trade, I really want to TP on a retest of the 1.3320ish level, but will I get that or out at BE. I am feeling stressed now as I want to make the right decision. !.3380 is where BMA is and where support is holding at the moment. A break through that level should take us at least back to 1.3365.

How do you write this sort of trading decision up in a trading plan ? If I had a set of rules I would know what to do and that is the problem. Keeping at BE maybe is the right thing to do for now.

Well, I held on to the trade after the retrace and then felt it was finding support at 1.3360 again.
Moved stop to 1.1394 above swing high in 8 range.

Then was ready to go and play xbox live with my mate and therefore decided to take profit at +39 pips. So total profit was +84.50. So quite happy with that. Normally I would have panicked on the retraces and got out for 15-25 pips profit on the other half.

Of course, reading last post my plan was for a retest of 1.3320 which is currently where it is finding support again. So could have bagged +90 instead of +38 on the 2nd leg.

With hindsight I should have left the trade to play out, but panicked and didnt want the worry to watch the market while playing xbox with my mate If you look at where I got out, it made sense as it did look like it was bouncing for a retest, but the market always knows best.

Well, its demo but I still seem to employ the same level of emotions as if it was real. I need to get over this, not the demo thing, but attaching so much importance to a single trade. The trade entry was almost perfect, but the exits could have been much better. Another thing to be wary of is how happy I am when a trade goes well, as conversely I am very angry/upset if it goes wrong. Neither emotions serve any purpose in trading except to cloud your judgement.

OK, thats me done, I will leave the market to do its thang. EURUSD really looking like it wants to have a poke at 1.3300 before the end of the session, but I am not looking to trade it.

Good night.

Ok, 3 mins to nfp.

Watching hourly charts, straddle trade short at 1.3599 or long at 1.426.

Lets see which way it goes.

Ok,

Well happy with my limit orders at the moment, market is probably done for this week. Stuck around the 1.3500 level.

Long to 1.3560 looks like a good play, but i'm gonna leave the screens and play Call of Duty Black Ops. Dont expect to be in any position, but will close order before market close, given the 100 pip gap we had last monday!

laters