I finally managed to open my own trading journal in this forum and I am glad to start it with a nice +23 Pip/+2.3% short trade on DAX after a -5 Pip/0.5% rent.
Because I am a beginner in forex trading and the AIMS strategy and according to Immy's and Grant's advice, I currently only trade S1 and S2 setups on DAX M1/M5.
The Chatzy and Skype chat rooms and live conferences are extremely helpful and I will thank everybody very much who gives me the chance to improve my trading. My main challange is to stay disciplined and patient and to follow consistantly my trading- and money management-plan as well as to bring up my journal and paper work up to date regularly.
As the most of you (propably ;-) ) my goal is to be able to make my living as a trader. I want to manage this in 3-5 years. Until then I'm working as a self-employed real estate agent in Vienna/Austria, which gives me the possibility of flexible time managemant. I plan to trade daily at London (sometimes Frankfurt) and New York open 1.5 or 2 hours each time.
Please, any constructive criticism is highly appreciated
Happy trading, friends!!!
Michael (zlabis)
***** edited at 08. Sept. 2015 *****
Now it's about a year since I've re-joined AIMS and it was a great and eventful journey so far.
I started with the usual Setup 1/Setup 2 (S1/S2) strategy with M1/M5 dual chart setup with EUR/USD and occasionally some other instruments. I remember that Immy showed me two things right at the beginning:
1. that I was a bloody beginner and that I have to throw over board nearly everything what I considered to be important according to trading
2. that I had to stick to one instrument only when trading M1 and that I had to get rid of all the additional guides- just plain template
At begin of October 2014 I shifted to DAX and Fruit strategy encouraged by Immy's and Moty's conversations in Skype live chats because I had the feeling that I was not able to take full advantage of moves if "restricted" to pure S1/S2 strategy. What can I say: Fruit was a huge success and big fun for me. I was lucky to start trading fruits at a time where nearly daily, DAX took off after LO breakout and I made about +1800 Pips in first 3 months with demo account.
7. January 2015 was a big day for me because I started trading live with very small account size(see financial plan below). As position size was very small it was hardly different to demo trading and Fruit trading continued running very well until end of May begin of June 2015. Then DAX stopped moving that nicely after LO breakout and trading Fruits got more and more mentally demanding to me although I managed to make furthermore very good results but it was not that big fun anymore. End of July I've got appealed by simplicity of Grant's rules Seeds and Cherries and Grant's rules S1/S2 in Skype group which require less descretional decissions than fruits, IMHO, and I've devoted my further trading to this new rule set. Now, in hindsight of 1.5 months of Seed/Cherry/S1/S2/AA trading I have to admit, that I've missed some basics according to structure and principles of market because with Fruits it's only important if there is volatility and angulation no matter of M5, purple, wave count,...
I feel that I start getting a better understanding of the structure now, so it's possible that I add Fruits to my tool box again in the future.
I followed and am still following a very strict finacial plan:
Jan. 0.1% fix per avg. 15p/trade
Feb. 0.2%
...
Jun. 0.6%
Jul. 0.7% fix with Fruits / 1% variable with Seed/Cherry/S1/S2
Aug. 1% variable with Seed/Cherry/S1/S2 only
Sept. 1% variable with Seed/Cherry/S1/S2 only
My wife and I decided to invest not more than € 10.000,- if trading turns out to be profitable after one year of intensive learning and developing.
So I've started with € 1.000,- and added € 1.000,- from time to time. With trading profit and additional funding I want my trading account to be fully loading with start capital of € 10.000,- by end of 2015.
I will keep this first post of my journal thread up to date and will write down all changes here.
***** edited at 07. Oct. 2015 *****
after massively profitable August (+19%) and September 2015 (+60%) - http://www.itradeaims.net/forum/viewtop ... 440#p21770 - , I resume here my DAX M1 trading approach, which has condenses during last 2 month of trading. It might seem that I'm using many different entry strategies but in reallity it's basicly only one strategy using 8 different entry pattern signals:
1.) waiting for market to move and to show structure. I think it's relatively easy to spot if market is moving or not. Spotting structure is probably a bit more difficult. To me, there's structure if price is breaking out of a range with rather clear direction without too many deep pullbacks and paints smooth AO.
2.) I'm waiting for having purple and open M5-gator on the correct side.
3.) ONLY if conditions of 1.) and 2.) are present, I'm waiting for pullback and for signals (Seeds/Cherries/DC/S1&S2/PC/Breakout) or combination of it and check with Grant's flow charts for Seeds and S1&S2.
4.) If there's a signal with all conditions of 1.) - 3.) are present, I check if potential Take Profit level is far enough away - AT LEAST 1 : 2 of Risk:Reward ratio.
5.) If conditions 1.) and 2.) are present and there's a clear (but not too strong) wave 3, I take Adam's Apples and S1/S2. Proceedure of AA- and S1/S2-trades are very well subsumed in Kyle's AA flow chart and Grant's S1/S2 flow chart.
Trade Management:
- 1% risk per trade
- move SL to BE when 1 : 1 Risk:Reward (1R) revel is hit
- discretionally place hard TP (at least 2R) at micro or macro TZ1, HTFs AIMS levels, strong support/resistance levels
- if TP not present or not yet hit, looking out for exits if 2R is hit (trailing candles, counter fruits, 5 consecutive colored candles, green gator, AIMS levels)
I've started to realize that, to me, that it's all about conditions explained in 1.) and 2.), since I started trading Grant Rules Seeds and Cherries. The rest came from itself.
So the key to all these signals, although they seem different on the first sight, is always the same:
IS THERE MOVEMENT AND IS THERE STRUCTURE? If not then I (at least most often ;-) ) don't trade. But if yes, then I'm trying to get into the move with all methods I am able to apply properly.
***** edited at 12. December 2015 *****
Seed/Cherry/AA system is evolving. Immy, Grant and Steve have published a new, modified Seed/Cherry strategy called "The Hunt". Friday, 11th of Dec. 2015, http://www.itradeaims.net/forum/viewtop ... 652#p22698, was first day, I applied new system and it worked well but there was still missing the so-called "AIMS channel" which is the visual representation of one of built-in filters for Seed- and Cherry signals but it has been submitted later in the evening.
Now we are having a great, simple and tidy system with only 2 signals (Seed and Cherry) and 2 indicators (1. Awesome Oscillator or its derivates like AIMS Waves, eWave and 2. AIMS Channel) for validation and filtering.
***** edited at 01. March 2016 *****
The Hunt system is in progress and I'm close to entering stage 2 of it but currently there are only some minor changes:
1. Change of template: Channel discarded, Gator and AIMS box added again. It's the classic S1 template without Dot-alert but with Seed and Cherry on it.
2. Usage of S1/Classic breakout as addition entry method mainly into w5
3. Trade management remains untouched for the moment (SL=1R, TP=2R, SL to BE if 1R level hit)
***** IMPORTANT NOTE *****
***** last time edited at 26. April 2016 *****
I finished the big "The Hunt" challange by 31st of March 2016. My results point- and €/$- wise were rather mixed in comparison to potential possibilities. Discipline wise I achieved the goals to a large degree. And that was the overall goal of the challange: to learn or to prove to be disciplined by strictly following the simple, methodic and and rather rigid rules of "The Hunt".
I learned a big lesson about myself during that time, that I'm the kind of trader that tends to lose focus and attention to the processes on the charts if I have to wait too long without my brain/mind being demanded by analysis or decisions. That's the reason why I missed many, many valid and winning signals by simply falling half asleep by letting the system-inidcators and the trade manager (Steve's ATM) do most of the "work". To be as honest as I can: this is up to my lack of focus when things become uneventful and has nothing to do with the system itself.
The system ALWAYS, ALWAYS has an average rate of 1/3 winners, 1/3 BEs and 1/3 losers during 2 hrs of LO- and NYO/NEO-sessions. This is and was proven by some pure Hunt-traders like Grant, by foreward/backward-testing and simulation by Steve, Immy and others and I found this rates to be true as well by extensively back-testing and simulating it with Forex Tester 2 (where I can quickly jump from minute bar to minute bar by pushing a single button) but I was not able to apply it that successfully due to my individual character, temperament and way of thinking. There is the huge potential of making avg. +15% a month rather easily without much effort if one has the appropriate mindset and is able to focus 2 hours without anything happening and then being alerted and pulling the trigger when the signal finally appears.
But nevertheless I proved to be disciplined with a discipline score (DS) of 96%.
That brought me to the decision (with Immy's guidence) to do the "Amalgation" by 1st of April 2016. I know now that I need a system or strategy which keeps my mind busy to stay focused and attentive during my relatively short daily traing time of around 2 hours. I've decided to go back, with only some minor modifications, to my pre-"The Hunt" approach which I explained rather detailed further above in my edit from 7th Oct. 2015.
These few modifications are:
- New "The Hunt" Seed and Cherry instead of "old" basic Seed and Cherry Indies
- no DC (Dot-Candle) entries anymore as long as I haven't tested and proven them yet
- no MIB (Momentum Inside Bar) entries anymore as long as I haven't tested and proven them yet
But the most important part remains the same:
IS THERE MOVEMENT AND IS THERE STRUCTURE? If not then I (at least most often ;-) ) don't trade. But if yes, then I'm trying to get into the move with all methods I am able to apply properly.
Finally I can't put enough emphasis on value of joining Skype group for learning and trading together with Immy, Grant and senior AIMSters.
