Tom from Leeds's Journal

[Grant]

Morning Tom,

Excellent discipline and patience this am... Like you no trades yet

My office is just across the hall from the lounge so Whilst trading i have Absolute radio 90s on through the tv, i also have zero hedges squawk feed through the internet on my laptop so i can hear any sudden news releases asap....

To top it off, if the skype call is open we sometimes get to hear Imrans singing which has been known to make ears bleed.... (rofl) (rofl)

cheers
Grant

[immy]

(angry) (angry) 8-}

(rofl)

[tombacon89]

I had an order on cable and euro short, but when I was triggered in euro I cancelled my cable order. I'm not good at multi tasking! Both were valid setups and made pips, happy to spot them both setting up! I trailed red candles when I was in euro short, and came out with 4.5pips. (excluding spread.) I then went back In short not long after and came out with break even. when the trigger candle on the first trade was nearly 10 pips I went straight to break even. Happy with my entry spotting and trade management on both trades.

[tombacon89]

Morning all, I don't normally trade NFP day so thought I would give it a go. Looking for a move short on the 5min chart, I set my order after a pink dot and was triggered in not too long after.

Following grants trade management I set my stop initially at 20 pips (ultimate disaster.) After the trigger candle closed I moved my stop 4 pips above this to around 12 pips. Was looking for the market to reach 10 pips profit and allow me to bring my stop down to -8 pips, this never happened. We had though had 5 red candles, I moved my stop 4 pips above the 5th red candle to -5 pips. This is where I was taken out for -5 pips -0.25%.

I am happy with my trade management here as price totally reversed and went the other way after. Glad to keep my loss to a small amount, this is something I need to work on looking back at my results over the past months. Now to the day job, cheers

[tombacon89]

I have now got a full week off the day job and will be dedicating a fair bit of my time to trading for the next few days. Out of curiousity I decided to run a bit of a test to see how 'disciplined' I have been whilst trading AIMS for the last 5 months. I knew I wasn't the most disciplined trader, but... I wasn't expecting the results I got.

In all honesty, since starting my journal I have never sat and read it cover to cover I've only flicked back a bit and then stopped. So, I spent some time tonight reading through my journal to see where I have come so far on my AIMS journey. With the flow chart infront of me I looked at every trade, and starting with 'is there a dot' on the flow chart I analysed each trade to see wether or not I had followed the rules 100%.

On my scrap piece of paper I had 4 boxes to divide my trades into, I kept a tally in each box as well as the number of pips on each trade. Here are my results.

1, Winning trades by following the rules: 33 trades, average win of 4.5pips (including break even trades)
2, Losing trades by following the rules: 21 trades, average loss of -4.5pips
3, Wins by bending the rules: 1 trade, 20 pips
4, Losers by bending the rules: 29 trades, average loss of -5.5pips

So from my scrap piece of paper I have proved to myself that:

1, Currently my rule abiding winners and losers are on average the same, but with more winning trades than losing trades by following the rules. I can be a consistantly profitable trader which is my ultimate goal.
2, A 'bending the rules ratio' of 1 winning trade to 29 losing trades proves it really is crucial to stick to the rules. The rules are there to protect us and our capital, without rules there is no edge and I may as well go to the bookies and gamble my money away. I don't want to be the gambler I want to become the house.
3, If I take the losing and winning pips away from when I bent the rules I would have a profitable account to date.
4, I need to remember this exercise every time I see a potential setup developing, maintain focused, patient and DISCIPLINED throughout my trading sessions.

[Topher]

Superb Tom that is the power of the journal and diligently keeping it upto date..

Bit by bit it is falling into place for you. looks like that may be that elusive piece you have been searching for.

Richard

[immy]

This Ladies and Gentlemen! is the pinnacle! If we could all understand what Tom shared with us and then apply it 100% we can guarantee ourselves a successful trading career!

cheers Tom, 3 cheers to you for sharing! ^:)^ u r a (*) \m/ (wd) (hug)

[Dave]

Well done Tom, excellent post and a great example of excellent record keeping. (wd)

Now pin that piece of paper next to your computer so it stares you in the face everyday!!!

Dave

[tombacon89]

trade 1, euro break even
trade 2, cable -8 pips.. next
trade 3, cable +3.5 pips (trailed red candles and got tagged out, no sweat.. trade management rules are rules, rules are there to protect me)

[tombacon89]

trade 3 that didn't attatch in the previous post..