Mickey's Journal

[immy]

Well I traded a dozen times so far including the three 3/3 NFP trades so far. oh yes, bring in another essay!

[kiravon]

March 19th
The worst thing about trading like an idiot is that it makes
journal entries hard work but it wasn't all bad. Another
Great Win on Swissy News -

AIMS News Strategy Sequence 1 Campaign 6 +23

Dax Fruit 5m Sequence 2 Campaign 16 +36 +11 = +47
Dax Fruit 5m Sequence 2 Campaign 17 SAR -10
Dax Fruit 5m Sequence 2 Campaign 18 SAR -22

Ok so far so good, now for the embarrassing stuff -

AIMS S1S2 Strategy Sequence 1 Campaign 6 +48 -42 add on = +6

Since when do you have a 42 pip SL on an S2 on 5m chart! - Answer -
I was confusing S2 system with Fruit Add on PLUS I 'knew' that Euro
would be going down all day so I wanted to give it plenty of room to
breath 'in full expectation' that such a 'Pro' attitude ie let winners run
would really pay off.

A few flaws in that paragraph:-
How could I possibly know EURUSD would be going down all day?
I had expectations about the result of a trade?
Lets winners run? Yes, thats one of the Three Core principles but
a nice 48 pip move to the downside does not mean the EURUSD will
be plummeting all day - in fact its been steadily climbing ever since.

Yes I might have taken a second break of AIMS level but only if a
small box with small SL.

Over confidence again!

I watched a video last night about the 'Trading Gap', the difference
between what traders want and what they actually do, and it was
spot on

Traders trade to make money but in reality amateurs trade to either avoid losses,
ie close too early or they settle for gratification of small gains rather then
let the trade mature and reap the full reward.

So I think I was trying to be a real Pro and let the trade run. Well, the idea
was good and its good I'm trying to apply what I learn, but I still have to
stick to the rules! Just having a good attitude in itself doesn't make massive
wins.

and saving the best till last;-

Dax Fruit 5m Sequence 2 Campaign 19 -58
Dax Fruit 5m Sequence 2 Campaign 20 +40

Here endeth Sequence 2 Total -28

but lets take a closer look at campaigns 19 and 20 because I was clueless,
I had very little idea what I was doing!

I saw that Dax had broken through YD close and immediately Immy in Skype
said 'Down it is' and so I went short. Later I saw Immy was long and wondered
what happened to 'Down it is'. As far as I can tell by his later post he got
out very promptly with a small -10 rent whereas I, after watching last night's
video probably thought I would let my winner run all day but unfortunately
'Down it wasn't'

On a slightly more positive note Immy and Michael both signaled they were
going Long and although I could see no Fruit signals I did note that Dax
had dipped right under YD's close and had now broken through that level
to the upside indicating 'Up it is'

Well I made a nice +40 pips on that move but not really certain I have
any idea why it was a good trade. I did ask if YD's close was significant but
in a fast moving market there isn't always time for QAs.

My gut instinct is that DAX YD close at FO is extremely significant - but I'll
watch for it over the next week and that should become clearer

Up +26 points on the day, but if I didn't have this notion in my head of
letting my trades run all day I would have closed the short DAX when Immy
did saving myself 48 pips and I definitely wouldnt have given back that
ludicrous -42 pip S2 addon on a 5m TF!

Again, if I hadn't applied that video lesson in such a cavalier way I probably
would be +116

Not in interested in the pips, but again we see how mind and attitudes have
found a way to mess up.

Lesson Once again - Beware of overconfidence!

[immy]

I have two things to say to this lovely write up once again.
1. You are trading too many things at the same time
2. As a consequence of above you are further complicating things within the simplicity of the things.

When we get addicted to complexity and finally find out that simple things work. What we start doing is that we put plenty of "simple things" together and make a freakin complex shit out of it. Thats' what you're doing.

Stick to one thing. Master it then move to next.

ps: The YD close or Today's open (same thing) trust me i've done thousands of pound worth of analysis and in the end, i found that if you simply trade the setups the results are 5 times better. so what are you gonna do? spend a few thousands on statistical analysis like i did?

[kiravon]

Thanks. Yes I know you can't focus on more than one thing at a time,
that btw is why I am quite relieved that CS is totally irrelevant because I found
it very stressful having to monitor two screens displaying two separate currency
pairs, one in case news was good, the other in case news was bad. Now I
can focus on just one screen - much better.

Similarly I can't keep switching between S1S2 and Fruit, and usually I don't.
This morning it was a 'mix and match' system day ie Started on one system then
added on using the rules of another system which was an absolute recipe for disaster.

I have by now probably done hundreds of S1S2 trades so I have no problem monitoring
S1S2 Strategy providing it is not simultaneous with Fruit or any other system

But yes the expression 'Jack of all trades Master of none' does spring to mind.

As regards that first short Fruit trade fiasco (mine) I may have the same problem Kyle
had a few days ago regarding his AIMS settings.

At face value, on my chart it looked like Immy dived in short for no apparent reason
and I dived in straight after thinking it must be something to do with the Open. I
can see now it wasn't.

I seem to be missing something, either on the chart or in my head

Actually I can see why Immy might have intuitively gone short as price had deviated
at a wide angle away from gator plus that Bearish momentum bar right on cue for LO -
all I'm missing is the actual Fruit arrow

Missing Fruit Signal.JPG

[kiravon]

After reviewing Tracker Gregor's journal and noting his
admirable progress from -160 pips per 20 campaign sequence
to yesterday +163 pips an hour over just four campaigns
I feel my progress may be lagging in comparison, and quite
likely due to having been scattered with more than one strategy

More discipline and focus, and watch out for baseless
overconfidence!

[kiravon]

From this day on I trade the Fruit, the whole Fruit and nothing but the Fruit!

You will note that despite all the blunders I finally congratulate myself on a good
trade in image trade 5 and on my add on to it in trade 7.

But trade 5 was non qualifying! - signal appeared within AIMS box! so add on
logically must also be invalid

Both lost spectacularly!

and trade 3? Someone called 'Breakout' right on LO - didn't want to miss that!
It reversed but more to the point it had nothing to do with Fruit! Why am I so
greedy for demo pips? where do I think I am going to spend them - even if I did
accidentally win on extra system trades.

Five losers today, I don't call them rents as rents are a necessary expense,
these were voluntary avoidable blunders!

Dax Fruit 5m Sequence 3
Campaign 1 -17
Campaign 2 -29
Campaign 3 -32
Campaign 4 -3
Campaign 5 -10

trade 1.png

trade 2.png

trade 3.png

trade 4.png

trade 5.png

trade 6.png

trade 7.png[/attachment ][attachment=0]trade 8.png

[kiravon]

Great quotable post from Tracker -

the pips look nice, but at the moment it's not about pips for me, actually I hope it never will be.

I have to stay disciplined.
Take good entries,
manage my trades correctly and
exit them correctly.

For me that is the only way to try to stay objective and to take fear and greed out of the equation.

as Immy said if I remember correctly ''The pips and the money, have to come as a byproduct''.

Sorry if that sounds like a lecture, I repeated it for my sake to burn it into my brain!

[immy]

Your Trade management Sucks. Read the book again specially under Trade Management . Specially the last image where you say "just not my day" well the SL was supposed to be Above aims level high. not that it would have mattered anyway on this occasion because your entry was wrong in the first place. There is no such thing as "traded the add on". what is that?

I wish you trade as good as you write! but we will get there. Now that you have made a huge statement that you will trade the fruit i think it would be best if you actually did that.

cheers

[kiravon]

Probably wrong terminology. You do add on to a
valid Fruit trade, thats where the profit is, or maybe
thats something else Iimagined is in the book, but
I shouldn't be thinking about adding on when I'm not
even getting the basic trade right

yes definitely time to review Fruit book, in
the meantime last trade for this week
and it ain't pretty

trade 10.png

trade 11.png

[immy]

ps: and my proof reader guys have done a crappy job, it would be nice if you can come up with some corrections while you're at it (wink) (wink)