Abe's Journal

[apoovakad]

Hello Everyone:

A little about me. I'm a very fortunate forty year old with a beautiful wife and 4 year old little girl. I am expecting our son next month around the 15th of October. I live in Los Angeles, Calif USA, and work in the IT world (boring and can't wait to turn in my resignation). I, like many others came across Immy by chance and thought it was just another "system" and looked for a few days before buying. I purchased the system 3 weeks ago, and used the first week to take in all the information to see if this is something that could fit into my lifestyle. The second week, I tried to trade it:

2nd week results: 20% gain (looking back I bracketed a couple of trades and honestly got lucky, IMHO)
3 week results: Gave back all my winnings when I was trying to "tweak" the system to see if I could get better results

My commitment to myself: To trade the system as is. I will post my results every day until such time I truly feel I have an good understanding.

My goal: 25+ pips per day trading NYO around any news events. If I make 25 pips after my last trade, I will call it a day. If my last trade is continuing, I will let it run until I get a clear exit. No more guessing when to exit because I like my gain, or no more staying in just because I have a huntch.

I welcome any feedback from anyone willing to help me. I hope to be able to do this full time and also give back to the world I have been so fortunate to be a part of. Best of luck to everyone and let the pips begin. Day 1 tomorrow morning

[immy]

Hello Abe

Congratulations on starting your journal. It is a very powerful tool. using this tool you can learn about yourself and your trading. I highly recommend keeping a journal. I send my best positive intentions for your success, consistency and a beautiful healthy son. I pray that the process of receiving your son is joyful and painless (for mum and you). May you have all the best.

Wishing you success.

Immy

[apoovakad]

It is amazing how much emotion plays a part in trading. My goal using this journal is to keep my emotions in check and trade the system as is. I was doing well for so long until the end when I gave into my emotions a bit.

Stats:
Trading NY Open after 5:30am Red Flag News Report

Trade 1: 1 pip
Trade 2: -8 pips
Trade 3: 14 pips
Trade 4: 13 pips

Total: 20 pips (had to leave early for kids)

Info: I only took trades that met the criteria (either Set up 1 or Setup 2); No trades were taken that would cause my SL on 1Min to be larger than 15 pips. Never traded towards purple. Last trade I trailed candles and even though I got +13 pips, if I let it come down to green line it would have gone up another 10 pips. For some reason, I didn't want to give back any money on that one and caused me to lose out in the long run. But either way positive pips is a good thing. Day 1 in the books. Not too shabby. See everyone tomorrow. Please let me know if anyone sees anything in these charts I missed. Feedback is always great.

9-26-2011 - us open.gif

[tmmbabs]

Nice trade, keep it up, with good Money Management, you re laughing your way to the bank

[immy]

Great start to your journal. If you keep doing what you did you will see some very good days. its ok to take profits over 10 pips with time you will learn to let it run. while the market was going up and down i watched it go 100 pips down and another 100 up i could not do anything with it because of my strict rules.

well done

[apoovakad]

Rough start to the day, but learned a few things as well. Trying to decide whether to move SL to B/E a little sooner if possible, but don't want to deviate too far from the rules. Got caught in a few choppy ranges but learned how to trade in trending markets much better.
Don't have all the trades attached, but put listed what I could.

Result: +25

9-27-2011 - us open- 1.gif

9-27-2011 - us open- 2.gif

[immy]

Good Trading, keep it up! just keep doing this and never change. you will love it!

[apoovakad]

Ok. I've realized a couple of things with this weeks trading
1. I realized that I'm not a big fan of saddle point setup 1 trading as profitable as it may be. I've gotten caught up in more choppy ranges during saddlepoints than anywhere else it seems. That was my first trade below rent 11 pips. I must say though I realized my mistake when I got in, and didn't follow proper trade managment. I should have only gotten -7 using either Grants or the red dot, so my bad on losing the extra 4 pips. I was also careful to use the 5 min entry as well. I guess sometimes you try to do everything right, and still lose
2. My second realization is I only trade NY open, but there is almost some red news event every day, and when I went back and checked, I realized if I waited till all NEWS events were finished and traded 30 mins after, I would have done much better. Today there was no news so I started from true NY open. As much as I haven't done well with Saddle point set up ones, I seem to have much better luck with Setup 2 after a trend starts from a saddle point. +33 on this one after I got greedy and trailed near the end. I am too emotional and need to just step back a bit more..

I'll get this eventually Have a good weekend everyone

Result : +22

9-30-2011 - us open.gif

[apoovakad]

Hello Everyone,

Sorry it has been a while since I posted, I've had to trade "after the fact" lately since the birth of my second child last week, and haven't been able to trade live the last couple of weeks. Today I am posting since coming back. I wanted to post 4 bad "rents" today before I had a 50 pip winner. I'm not as concerned about the winner as I am about the 4 losing trades since my goal has always been to minimize bad trades. I'm seeing how trading just the setup 2 is working for me. Set up 1 although very lucrative seems to have gotten me into some choppy markets (even after keeping an eye on the 5 min ranges) and I seem to have better luck with the setup 2. Below are the four trades I took today. I believe I was careful to make sure the 5 min upper and lower ranges weren't near by when I entered them, and I also try to trail AIMS levels for my SL (this took a lot dicipline since it is very tempting to just bank 10 pips). The vertical lines are the start of each trade. Any help from anyone would be appreciated. I'm very Ok with "Hey it was a good entry but it just went against you". I think its important to also know that some trades just don't work out, and I just want to be sure I took everything into account when I traded. Many thanks to everyone and nice to be back...

10-24-2011 - us open.gif

[Grant]

Hi Abe,

hindsight is a wonderful thing so i will try and analyse ytour trades "as live".

1. would have taken this entry, looked a good entry just didnt play ball... Only difference there is i move my SL to -4 at +5
2. would have passed on this, M5 aims was too close to the m1 PO, and if the PO was above m5 then the iniotial SL was too far away
3. would have taken this entry and closed on a SL above the inside bar at the lows..
4. i dont have an up dot just before your entry so for me its a no trade but i'm not sure its just because i am not seeing this as it happened...

Again hindsight is great but 1 thing i will say is just be aware of how far price has travelled from an AIMS before it triggers your order.. EU loves 20 ish pips waves, so if it has travelled 15/17 pips just to fill your order then watch it closely....

other than that keep going, not every trade will disappear immediately in the trade direction..

hope this helps..

Grant