Good job @Phoenixrising8 for starting the journal. I'm glad I've motivated you to do this, and now I hope that during March I see a post from you each day, and that you learn a great deal from it.

Mike

Phoenixrising8 

The simplest way to trade for good results is P.A. and a trend line. You don't even need two trend lines. One will do. And in it's simplest form. Long above and short below. .

Phoenixrising8 

Well, after watching these for a few hours, a couple of points have stood out. 1st one being, all those charts were just to much to focus on.

Like my momma always said," Son, Texas is full of purdy gurls ... you can't dance with all of 'em... best you pick one that suits you and dance to the fiddler.

Here's a great example of trying to trade on a low volume/volatility day.

This is of the Usd/Jpy. Trading range had been fairly tight all day. But at the 22/23 hr candle the market was pushed up, taking out all of todays shorts and all of Fridays shorts. Market paused at a fraction of Fridays high, then retraced to where the spike started from as if nothing had happened.
Todays high was also a sup/res level of also Friday, Thursday, Wednesday, Tuesday and Monday.

On a quiet day like today, the only real option open to you is to scalp, with the intention of taking a handful of pips where you can.
Markets are quite often pushed one way or another on quiet days and returned to near where it started at some point to finish the day fairly flat.

So now what?

Well, we look to the Asian session to see if it can give any pointers for Tuesday.

I'll be back around 6 am gmt time again to see if anything is setting up.

Just turned on. Saw what the overnights had been up to and entered a long on Cable. It's a morning ritual for me and to be honest slightly early time wise by about an hour or two. So may not get the desired effect straight away. This set up has about a 90% success rate.

GBP public sector net borrowing at 9.30 my gmt time.Has the possibility to move the market.
Depends how they 'jig' the figures.

All depends which way they want to 'cook' the books.

CAD core retail a few hours later on could be a mover as well.

Well, that turned out to be one of the worst planned, executed and inane trades ever to be placed in the history of trading.
I did well to escape with a loss of just 150 notes/
A couple of times I could have closed with a tiny profit, or scared out into a big loss!

Reason for taking the trade in the first place?
Overnight Asian session. It's a trade that works 90% of the time
The trade was early by one or two hours as I mentioned at the time and I was willing to accept a further fall from entry position.

Mid trade:
As the price was falling the other charts and meters were saying it was not going to be a great fall. And how my meters were displaying showed no strength in down move. Although price did come near my mental stop to within a few quid. I was prepared to lose one fifth of the account. And before I get replies on r and r and risk ratios. I know all about them.
The Euro was the saviour. It had been down all morning. Even under the Gbp with the Usd easily more dominant as shown by the meters. It was how the meters react that show if a currency is 'holding'.
Then the euro blasted up dragging the Gbp with it and pushing Usd down. But NOT under Gbp strength and it remained above the Gbp in terms of strength.

Exit:
Price gave a little profit on two occasions (one of them I was away from computer). My original profit target had altered and in my view was now unattainable. Gbp was still showing, and 'feeling' weak against the Usd and the euro had finished it's rally. (I still can't find any reason for euro move. Certainly no news around that I saw to push it).
Outlook. Further fall in cable. Exit trade.
Of course 2 seconds after exit price moved up and would have given a tiny profit.
But the next bar put price back down in the lows of the day, and looks set to stay there.

I'm not sure what you are using for screen shots, but I suggest Jing. It's free and will eliminate the whitespace on your shots making it easier to see the charts. If you are using something like Paint, instead of print screen just use alt-printscreen to capture the current window.

Mike

Thanks Big Mike.

It is paint. And the print sys R button is what I have been using.
Haven't had trouble pasting before. And I have been looking for a way to 'expand' chart so no white space but, I think I am missing something.

If you click on the attachment, then once it's loaded, click again the magnifier replaces the cursor. One more click and it's full screen. Just have to remember to use back button to get back to thread.

I'll give that other one a go though. Thanks.

Phoenix.