Kyle's Journal Mk2

[Kyle]

Alrighty, January is done and dusted. By most accounts, it has been a difficult month. It seemed that most days that I was at the charts, nothing came up, but I was using the XJ filters as well, which filtered some more trades out. The only exception was last Wednesday (27/1) where I slept through the start of London and missed a wonderful opportunity, and then was not 100% on the mark when a second one came, so there was 4R's waiting to be taken there - which most in the Skype room took.
To round out January, here are my stats, which are extremely low in the number of trades taken. I was active on the screen for 11 days, and of those, three days had trades placed. Low on the active days as my son had holiday time with me and wasn't missing any of that . I only took NFP and a few DAX m1's, but here they are.
Firstly, January Trades;

2016-01_Trades.png

January P&L;

2016-01_P&L.png

And the trade summary;

2016-01_Trade_Summary.png

I suppose one benefit looking at this is that you do not have to trade often, and a part timer can do very well. I would hope that this month was the slowest of the year in trading activity, but I will take what comes. Very happy to leave January in profit.

[Kyle]

Now, first trading day in February.

All set and ready to go with indicators etc refreshed. Unfortunately, my 2hrs of LO did not give a signal that I was after. There were a few that were sort of lineball in respect to TZ1 being too close, and on some others, TZ1 was just past 2R, so they took them and made good profits on the day. I stuck to my chart and signals though, and can still happily say the day in itself was a DS=1 day, although no trades were taken.
Below is a chart of the LO session;

2016-02-01_London_Session.png

[Kyle]

Slow day on the charts today, but that's OK. So long as the DS stays consistent.

LO broke to the downside and recovered to its previous equilibrium, but a bit over half way through the session, we got our break out from the channel and return with a nice seed setup. Took the PO and it soon took the trade and made it to 1:1. Then slowed and retreated again, taking out SL at BE. In all, a BE trade, but with DS=1 on it and so easily could have been the 2R we were looking for.
The day's tally was one trade, for a BE and a DS of 1

2016-02-03_London_Session.png

On to tomorrow. Looking forward to it, as usual

[Kyle]

Sat through LO today, but no setups as per my rules. there were two possible ones, but TZ1 was too close and filtered.

Later on in NYO, there was a good move down and then a pullback off W3 peak with an ideal zig-zag structure. Seed signal came up close to the channel, and I jumped in at the trade. Looked great, almost touching the 1:1 mark, but unfortunately, it pulled back and hit SL for a -1R. No issue. The trade was valid, so simply a next. Will trade again tomorrow.

2016-02-05_0102_DAX_Seed.png

2016-02-05_Trades.png

[Kyle]

OK, time for a quick catch up.
On Friday, I had nothing on the charts during LO for me, but wasn't too worried. Just might be because of NFP later on. happy to wait and trade the news.

On NFP, for some reason, I had both DAX and EU set to trade. Since I was upstate, I wasn't at my main PC, but saw the results on the laptop. The EU took two trades and made 4R's for the event, however, the DAX didn't want that and proceeded to take 6 trades, with two BE's somehow and 4 rents, so overall, the event should have been 4R's and ended up being -0.66R for the NFP. More attention to be paid there as it cost profits.

2016-02-06_NFP_Results.png

[Kyle]

Monday had no trades for me - no issue. I am patient and just three trades a week at 66% winners is more than enough.

Tuesday was initially no trading. Off to a birthday function and my son here tonight, but after settling him and looking at the PC for a small while, an ideal seed set up and I was too tempted not to take it. Seemed a bit slow to start with, but it wasn't going backwards, then after a bit more of a down move, W5 was identified and as such, the TZ1 was printed on the screen. TP was past TZ1, but 1:1 was in reach and when it hit that and moved the trade to BE, it became risk free, so I let it run its course. You could see a lot fo sellers and buyers in the mix, so one was going to exhaust the other, and eventually, it hit TP for a nice 2R. Pushed me back in to small, but positive R's for the month so far - with more to come with the correct DS on the trades.

Pic attached

2016-02-09_2234_DAX_Seed.png

[Kyle]

OK, time for an update. I have been slack with last weeks results. I still want to add all the trades in rather than just todays effort, so the journal is as complete as possible - warts and all. It will be good for me to be able to refer back after the three months and see the improvement.
Four trades in total taken for the week, as per the screenshots below. Unfortunately rented each of them.
Wednesday 17th, at LO, we had a nice uptrend and after a new peak of eWaves, we got a good seed signal. Placed the PO, which was snapped up quickly and just as quick hit SL. Oh well, got to trust the probabilities. I feel that it was a DS=1 trade still, so was satisfied.

2016-02-17_LO.png

I was at my PC when NYO came about, and similar to LO, we were in a nice up move and fresh eWave peak occured. Took the seed that came up and rented again. No biggie. The price then went to the channel and gave another seed. I took that one as well and rented again, which was a shame, but no problem. This is the first time I have hit the -3R's in a trading day, so I took the rest of the day off - ensuring that I subconsciously did not go about trying to make a few rents back. They are simply part of the game. in hindsight, looking at the second rent on NYO, the bar before was very much a bullish bar and the hindsight tells me that is was not such a good trade with that in mind, so a DS=0 for that trade.

2016-02-17_NYO.png

Result for the day DS=2/3 and -3R's

[Kyle]

Thursday 18/2
LO broke out nicely and after some time, it retraced a little bit and seed printed on pullback, which was also just after eWave peak. I took the first Seed PO, and renewed it the next candle with the fresh seed. This one rented, and with hindsight look at it, it may have been valid, but it was far from CDLC since the retracement was not very much at all, and it was still a little way fromt he channel. This was the only trade for the day, so ended up -1R for the day. A bit up in the air if it was a DS=1 or DS=0 this time

2016-02-18_LO.png

[Kyle]

Now to round out the week for Friday 19/2
We had a LO breakout and then reversal with trend going up by the time LO was half over. Fresh eWave Peak and Cherry entry this time. Took the entry, but soon went to SL. There was a much better retracement this time, but in hindsight, may have been a bit impulsive without a nice zig-zag on the way down. Everything is perfect in hindsight after emotion is peeled away from a trade. Score it a DS=0, however, some discretionary parts could have been put to better use maybe. Day ends on -1R.

2016-02-19_LO.png

Results for the week a bit slow on performance, but it is the first week on the Hunt that was like this. Looking logically, it is possibly the W2 of my 3 months, and am sticking with the challenge, looking forward to a nice W3 coming up

Results for Feb so far. Looks a little sobering, but I am not swayed by it. It is upwards and onwards from here still.

2016-02-19_Trades.png

I listened to a great analogy the other day. Although it is to do with money, and I tend not to look at the $$$ side of this and prefer the DS and R instead. It was quoted that Bill Gates spent a huge amount of time and effort to get his way to his first Million dollars. It was a huge mountain to climb, however, once he got there, every Million since has become easier and easier. We can really equate the same thing to our experience and learning here. It may take some of us a long time to "get it" and roll forwards with ease, but with genuine application to our craft, and humility towards our own results by recognising the mistakes so we can learn from them, then at a magical point in our experience, trading this method will become very easy for us, and we will trade like Immy and Grant, almost like going to a supermarket and scanning the shelves until we find the product we want. We select that product and take it with relative ease and consistent behaviour, which also results in high DS counts and rewarding R's.

This week was my worst on performance basis. I say that not to worry about it, but to recognise and accept it in my way forward.

[Kyle]

Alrighty, a new week has begun.
Monday had no interest from me for trades, and Tuesday was not a trading day with my son here, but I did spend LO at the PC today and was rewarded with some good entry opportunities. LO itself looked a bit average, however, it soon found its direction and within the first half hour, we got our eWave peak plus retracement with at first a cherry that I elected not to take due to looking a bit impulsive on the retracement. The next seed that came up was valid and many in the Skype team took it. I was unfortunate to have placed the PO and had a slow order execution, so missed it . Fortunately, a few candles later, another seed popped up and I took that one. This trade hit 2R within just a few minutes. A nice, DS=1 trade with 2R's attached to it. There was a Cherry earlier, about 10 minutes in, and some were able to catch it, but it did drop instantly at the open of the candle, so that valid entry was not able to be taken.
Quite happy with the first trade for this week B-)

2016-02-24_LO.png