Dave from Sydney's Journal [Awarded Title: the Box-Trader]

[wiseambitions]

To put it simply, my trading has completely gone to S**t. I need to go back to the start and reassess everything, starting with micro lots and nothing but the rules. Hopefully this is the bottom and its only up from here.

youre not the only one, Things are different the last 10 days to the previous 4 months I can assure you of that!
I'd appreciate comments from other members, even the main Aimsters about this

[immy]

Good Idea Dave!

Remember Patience and Discipline! The markets are the same, we change from time to time!

cheers

[Dave]

OK, so I've reduced my account to an inconsequential amount and the learning begins... again! More often than not it's harder to break habits and relearn a correct technique than it is to start from scratch, but hopefully a small account will help this. I don't care if I make $5 or not so I'm no longer trading for money - I'm trading to take perfect setups and to return positive pips and not until this happens will I put my money on the line again. Who knows, maybe my small account will grow BIG over time! Patience and discipline has always been my flaw, particularly when trading around a job and feeling like my time at the charts must be profitable or else it's wasted. But, as before, I am AWARE of this problem and I am taking action to improve on it.

Dave

[immy]

OK, so I've reduced my account to an inconsequential amount and the learning begins... again! More often than not it's harder to break habits and relearn a correct technique than it is to start from scratch, but hopefully a small account will help this. I don't care if I make $5 or not so I'm no longer trading for money - I'm trading to take perfect setups and to return positive pips and not until this happens will I put my money on the line again. Who knows, maybe my small account will grow BIG over time! Patience and discipline has always been my flaw, particularly when trading around a job and feeling like my time at the charts must be profitable or else it's wasted. But, as before, I am AWARE of this problem and I am taking action to improve on it.

Dave

Good approach Dave! Well Done!

[Dave]

Fri 1 Feb

1. Did you perform your pre-trading routine?

Yes, getting back into good routines!

2. Did you trade today? If yes, detail your entries including reasons for entry and exit and trade results.

Started at London open and sat very patiently watching the market yo-yo with volume. I am determined to be more patient in my trading and I was waiting for the perfect setup…. but, I also had Immy’s words ringing in my ears, “when it’s trending we want to trade the s**t out of it!” (rofl)

EURJPY buy for +12 pips with an add-on of +8.8 pips for +20.8 pips. The most pleasing thing about this trade for me was, apart from waiting patiently for it, that I had my finger poised to close the trade when it flirted with the green line shortly after entry. I was prepared to accept the rent – and I still had the presence of mind to set the add-on. Anyway, a good setup, rules met, with the trend etc. Exited on limit order at BRN knowing that that was >2%.

Pictures of before and after.

Screen Shot 2013-02-01 at 8.21.45 PM.jpg

Screen Shot 2013-02-01 at 8.31.46 PM.jpg

3. Were your entries in line with your trading plan? Discuss.

Yes, a welcome return to trading. M5 freshly opening alligator, fresh cross of ZL on HTF and close to ZL on CTF. If this trade hadn’t gone well I would have been annoyed I didn’t enter on a genuine cross of ZL on the CTF, but it was close to ZL and there were horizontally stacked AIMS levels to enter above.

4. Was your trade management in line with your trading plan? Discuss.

Yes.

5. Were your exits in line with your trading plan? Discuss.

Yes. Targeted a point greater than risk and closed on limit.

6. Was your money management in line with your trading plan? Discuss.

Yes. Position sizes calculated in line with account balance and desired risk %.

7. If you had a losing trade were you patient in waiting for the next setup? NEVER SEEK REVENGE.

Only entry, so no loser.

8. If you had a winning trade were you patient in waiting for the next setup? NEVER GET CARRIED AWAY.

Called it a night after this one.

9. Other points for discussion and general feeling of days trading (include results summary).

Needed to hit a bit of a low before I reset my mind and refocussed on the job at hand. I had tremendous success at the end of last year and my account boomed, but it was too much for me mentally and I managed it very poorly, and chasing losses created bad habits and really screwed my mind. So back to a small account is a good thing for now.

Results summary:

1. +20.8 (12 + 8.8)

[immy]

PERFECT!

ps: better take market generated exit signals rather than pocket generated ones! wink wink, (something to think about for future)

[Dave]

Nothing for me as I'm at work tonight - hoping someone grabbed that big EURJPY drop!

Screen Shot 2013-02-04 at 10.51.25 PM.jpg

[Dave]

And another nice one on the DAX... gotta get away from my real job! )

Screen Shot 2013-02-04 at 11.07.38 PM.jpg

[Dave]

Hey Sam. The GER30 is also called the DAX, same thing, and its the index for the German stock market. Same as our ASX200 or the FTSE. I can trade it as a future with IG Markets but they don't have MT4, so my pics are from a FXCM demo account.

Dave

[Dave]

Been working the last few nights (so missing the UK and NY sessions) and it's my bday today so I doubt I'll watch the charts much. Homemade pizzas and red wine on the menu. But I couldn't resist posting this trade in my journal. I didn't take it as I wasn't at the charts but I like to include these pics for two reasons:
1) To continually remind myself the system works and there's no need to change anything;
2) To continually remind myself that it takes just one big runner to wipe out a lot of small rents, so keep the losers small and give those winners a chance!

Screen Shot 2013-02-07 at 7.49.57 PM.jpg

Dave