TJ's Journal

[SprayPlaster]

Small Introduction

I'm a single father of two, working part time and studying part time, and because of that I have very limited trading time but I am very committed to make this work. I'm relatively new to Forex but I've always believed that being in a community of like minded people with similar goals will greatly help me achieve my goals whatever they may be. After reading around various forums and blogs, I've decided to make AIMS my "trading home".

Strategy

As of Apr 27th 2016: The Setup on EURUSD M1 pair (due to its high volatility and low spread on my broker), using the Flowchart, or at least what my understanding of it is. For now, I will only find setups in the direction of higher time frame trend (higher probability setup). I'm still new to this, so feel free to tear me new one if I did something wrong/interpreted the charts and setups wrongly.

Trade Management

For entry: Long is 3 pips above AIMS box (1 pip + rounded up spread), short is 1 pip below AIMS box.

As for the rest, Immy wrote this simple TM on page 117 of his The Setup journal:

Hi

The simplest TM is 10P stop loss move to BE at +10 and exit at 20p. this is ideal for Stage 1. Which is , Train to be Disciplined by utilising T20 principle into your Written Trading plan as per the template.

Thanks for your post, appreciate it.

cheers

Risk Management

0.1% for at least 20 trades (T20 principles) but I plan on continuing to use it until I consistently break-even or even better, consistently profitable. I debated using a demo account at first, but I feel like I learn much more winning/losing $0.50 of real money than winning/losing $500 of demo money. When I first started trading Forex, I blew up a couple of demo accounts and I didn't even flinch, but when I entered my first real trade and lost around $2, I started doing things like revenge trading, seeing setups that aren't there, doubling my risk to make back what I lost etc.

Trading Schedule

I only have around 30-60 minutes on some days to watch the charts, and I will try my best to make sure it's around Frankfurt/London Open or New York Open. If I don't see any setups or I missed it, then I will move on.

[SprayPlaster]

I apologise for the lack of pictures for these four trades, as I took them before I planned to write this journal. I won't include them in the T20 trades, but I thought it would be a nice reminder for me in the future.

Trade 1

- Result: Hit 2:1 take profit target
- Did you follow the flowchart, trade management and money management completely: Yes
- Additional info: The chart continued on to make more than 3:1 profit

Trade 2

- Result: Break-even
- Did you follow the flowchart, trade management and money management completely: Yes
- Additional info: The chart hit TZ1 and 5th wave was clear on Snorm's eWave before BE was hit. (Not sure what this means but I noted that down nonetheless haha)

Trade 3

- Result: Break-even
- Did you follow the flowchart, trade management and money management completely: Yes
- Additional info: Got stopped out before the trend continues in the right direction. Oh well.

Trade 4

- Result: Break-even
- Did you follow the flowchart, trade management and money management completely: Not the money management part, I restarted my computer before taking this trade, apparently MT4 settings wasn't saved. Didn't check Snorm's Trade Manager properly, so instead of 0.1% risk, it was 1%.
- Additional info: N/A

My apologies again for the lack of detailed info and pictures, as my "journal" before this only recorded how much I win/lose and some random footnote. I plan to remedy this starting now.

[SprayPlaster]

Hmmm...so this is awkward, just after I finished writing this journal, I realised that the Skype membership is now open to new members. I didn't wanna miss the opportunity to learn more from the masters so I subscribed straight away. So I'm going to spend the next couple of weeks reading and re-evaluating my trading plan based on the Hunt strategy and will then resume (not that I've started yet...) my T20 trades with the new strategy.

[zlabis]

Hi TJ,
great that you've started you journal and have picked a free seat in Skype room. I wish you all the best and a big portion of enthusiasm and endurence which is necessary for most of us to succeed on our journeys as traders.

Cheers
Michael

[immy]

Yes, Agreed with MZ, Congratulations on starting your journal. I'll repeat here my often stated welcome note, that you have taken a gigantic leap towards trading success. Let there be lots of it. This can pervade into your life and make you record everything you do. Life truly is worth living and recording... get better at it, enjoy it ... all the best

[SprayPlaster]

Thank you very much MZ and Immy for the welcome and wishes, learnt a lot already from the skype chats the past few days.

Below is a summary of my updated trading plan.

Strategy for T20 1.0

The Hunt (Seeds and Cherries) on the hourly timeframe on the following pairs: EURUSD, GBPUSD, USDJPY, EURJPY, AUDUSD, NZDUSD, USDCAD and GOLD. The signals will be validated and filtered using Grant's seed flowchart and by making sure that it is in line with higher timeframe trends.

- If TZ1 is less than 2:1 away, then the signal will be ignored.

- If there is a divergence on eWave then I will ignore the signal.

- Make sure channel is "slopping" the correct direction. Upwards for longs and downwards for shorts.

- Make sure the signal/PO is outside the channel i.e. break out of channel.

- At least 2 dark bars on AO during signal.

Trade Management

Entry for long is (1 pip + rounded up spread) above signal candle with stoploss at 1 pip below the candle. Entry for short is 1 pip below signal candle with a stoploss at (1 pip + rounded up spread) above the signal candle.

Stoploss will be moved to break even when the trade is at 1:1.

Updated Trade Management: 2 trades will be taken for each valid signal, each at 0.5%. The first trade will have TP at 1:1 and the other will be trailing fractals/boxes.

Take Profit is set at 2:1

Risk Management

0.1% risk.

Trading Schedule

I will try to look at the charts every hour during the London session (living in south east Asia, I will probably have a peek at the charts during the Aussie session as well) but due to the random nature of my work, I can't be in front of my laptop for some of those hours.

Next week will be reserved for backtesting and forward testing the charts as well as continuing to read the forum and chats. Once I feel like I have grasped the basics of the method, then I will start my first T20.

Updated schedule: Only signals that appear between Frankfurt Open and London Close will be taken, except for Yen pairs which can be taken around Tokyo Open.

[SprayPlaster]

Pair: USDJPY
Entry: Cherry
Exit: 2R
Result: 2R (0.2%)
Disciplinary Score : DS 1
Comments: At first I placed a pending order after the seed before the cherry appeared, but it didn't trigger so I canceled it then placed another one after the cherry appeared. I'm not sure how long I should leave a pending order for, so to be safe, I just canceled it. Is there any rule for how long/how many candles a pending order should last before taking it off?

[SprayPlaster]

Pair: Gold
Entry: Cherry
Exit: 2R
Result: -1R (-0.1%)
Disciplinary Score : DS 1
Comments: Missed BE just by a couple of pips. I'm really happy that I managed to stick to the rules and not fall for the temptation to move the stoploss to BE early. Using Snorm's ATM let's me to just place the trade and walk away.

[immy]

I took the one that appeared at LO hr. A nice cherry for 7 points profit 3.5 points SL. it was nice. Keep going, you're doing fine

[SprayPlaster]

Trade 1

Pair: USDCAD
Entry: Cherry
Exit: 2R
Result: -1R (-0.1%)
Disciplinary Score : DS 1
Comments: N/A

Trade 2

Pair: USDCAD
Entry: Cherry
Exit: 2R
Result: 2R (0.2%)
Disciplinary Score : DS 1
Comments: N/A


The lads on skype are having a great day on DAX M5 and Fruits H1. Must resist the temptation of joining in and abandoning my current strategy...