Ganesh Trading Journal

[ganesha04]

Hi Aimsters,

I would like to introduce myself. My name is Ganesh and I’m from London. I was first introduced to trading in 2013 and straight away felt like this was my life calling. Unfortunately, it wasn’t as easy as many YouTube videos were promising, and I went from trying to giving up and then trying again and giving up. Time past by and in the mean time I was able to build a successful business, but I still felt that trading is something I wanted to do in the long term. So last September I decided to give this a proper go, especially as I have more time at hand now.

I luckily met a mentor via LinkedIn and he introduced me to a number of interesting concepts such as the AO, Divergence, Price Action, etc etc and he has been incredible in guiding me on the long term concepts.

He recommended to check out AIMS at the beginning and doing a bit of research I really liked the simplicity with a clear setup and also the focus behind the individual stages.

I still have a long way to go, particularly my mind (entrepreneurial mindset may not be the best for trading lol) but I am willing to work hard and give this a go.

I am going to spend the next few days, getting all the basis ready, watching Setup 1 and then putting my Trading Journal together with the aim to start trading the morning sessions for next week and to complete the first 10 batches of T20.

Best,
Ganesh

[vickyp]

Welcome Ganesh.
Starting with the basics and a journal is a great start.
There is alot of help and support here if you are open to it.
All the best
Vicky

[immy]

Hello Ganesh

Welcome to AIMS and well done on creating your first post in your journal. I'd say your first post is one of the interesting first pots I've read.

You made an interesting point about entrepreneurial mindset and trading. I so agree with you partially. And here is why. I have run businesses myself and still do. I too once thought, that since I have a business mindset, and academics etc, I'd probably do well in trading. But It did not work that way in the beginning. I changed my mind on this. Years later I realised that having business knowhow and specifically my management degree actually might have helped me a bit. Trading is a Business. Every trade you take includes, business rates, rents, salaries, and inventory. Every trade you take is a microcosm of "starting a cafe, spending the capital, opening, beginning to see profits, and then divesting the business as the markets change). The difference is, this is a microcosm of the lifecycle of a physical business. I need more words but don't have time. Hope it made sense.

I have never blown an account. And that is quite odd. Because when you listen to stories of traders *chatwith traders comes to mind* , they usually have blown a lot of money and multiple accounts before they found success. Having said, Yes, I lost money by letting others manage it for me in the beginning and have lost money in terms of buying expensive seminars and courses. But I have never taken an account from say, 10K and brought it all the way to 0. That is probably because I understood risk management and probabilities. Not a great deal but a little bit. Risk Management is KEY. We don't want to look at a trade and think "how much can I make" before we establish, "how much can I lose". The same goes for starting a TRADING STRATEGy. WE want to establish how much can this strategy lose. (DRAW-DOWN is REAL). I hope you spend time ,quality time creating your trading business plan.

(sorry this was supposed to be a small reply, my template reply for whoever starts a jouranl is to say hello and congratulate them on their first step towards consistent profitability,. i.e. journal. )

So I'll cut it short and hope to catch up in SLACK when you have time.

cheers

[ganesha04]

@vickyvp - thanks for your kind words.

@immy - also thanks for your kind words. I totally understand where you are coming from. Each trade or a series of trade is like a business itself with (Revenue (wins) - Cost (losses) = Profit. I totally appreciate your comments regarding risk management. Something I'm going to focus on heavily. Looking forward to having further conversations on Slack.

I have attached my trading journal & I am going to treat it as an ongoing document.

I a couple of questions:
1. The Ebook was around EUR/USD but I understand that the preference is now towards the Dax. What would you describe as a close to exit-entry in points? I believe for the EUR/USD it was 15pips on the M1 chart so curious to see what the consensus is on the Dax across the group?

2. Given that the M1 chart moves v quickly, how do you quickly calculate the Position Size, see whether M5 box is close and put in the order within 1min? Appreciate everyone has their own technique and

Best,
Ganesh

[immy]

You Asked:

I a couple of questions:
1. The Ebook was around EUR/USD but I understand that the preference is now towards the Dax. What would you describe as a close to exit-entry in points? I believe for the EUR/USD it was 15pips on the M1 chart so curious to see what the consensus is on the Dax across the group?

Answer: yes, eur/usd volatility is way low than it used to be back then. infact any market that goes below 100 pips ADR (average daily range) and spread above 2 is out of the range of M1 trading. As a rule. Keeping that in mind, we only have 2-3 markets left. one is DAX. in uk you get 1 spread and this market does produce over 100 adr. these days its kind of very low volatility. not very keen on M1. Sticking to m5.

2. Given that the M1 chart moves v quickly, how do you quickly calculate the Position Size, see whether M5 box is close and put in the order within 1min? Appreciate everyone has their own technique and

Answer: we use ATM by Snorm @www.for-exe.com the guy from the land of concrete cows does a good job @snorm

[ganesha04]

Hi Immy & Aims community,

I'm posting after a few months; unfortunately shortly after I've started I had to take of private matters. However, all solved now and I have time and headspace again to learn and get involved.

Attached is my trading plan and below I will post my T20; I had my first trade on Friday.

Best,
Ganesh

[ganesha04]

1. Trade Number: 1/20 Batch 1
2. Date/Time: 8/11/2019 - Morning Session
3. Symbol/TF: Dax/1m
4. Signal Type / Direction : Long, Setup 1, Blue dot
5. Comments and Feelings at the Time of Taking The Trade: I was patiently waiting the whole morning for a clean Setup 1 according to my rules; when this opportunity came I jumped on it; unfortunately, I use a Mac so still figuring out how to get Snorms ATM to work; hopefully will get it fixed this week; as that will make placing a pending order easily; throughout the trade I was constantly guessing where price may go and depending on every up or down movement; I was going in my head thinking this will hit my TP (on up bars) to "Oh no it's going to hit my SL"
6.Comments and Trades After Exiting the Trade: I was happy that, it hit my TP even though due to order issues my 1:1 was slightly higher than it should have been.
7. DS For this Trade: 1DS
8. DS Running Total: 100% (1/20)
9.

Screen Shot 2019-11-08 at 10.49.03.png

[ganesha04]

Three Trades today: 1 winner, 3 losers...

Trade 1:
1. Trade Number: 2/20 Batch 1
2. Date/Time: 12/11/2019 - Morning Session: 7:56am
3. Symbol/TF: Dax/1m
4. Signal Type / Direction : Short; Setup 1, Red dot
5. Comments and Feelings at the Time of Taking The Trade: Went through my checklist and entered; still annoying that I have to enter the trades manually which causes a bit panic of always as I'm scared of missing the trade by not entering.
6.Comments and Trades After Exiting the Trade: Pre-London open trade opportunity; trade almost went 1R, then reversed and loss. When the loss occurred I felt, bad & an instant questioned everything. I'm glad I went through that as I learned, that I need to able to cope with the emotion of a loss.
7. DS For this Trade: 1DS
8. DS Running Total: 100%
9.

1.png

Trade 2:
1. Trade Number: 3/20 Batch 1
2. Date/Time: 12/11/2019 - Morning Session: 10:50am
3. Symbol/TF: Dax/1m
4. Signal Type / Direction : Long; Setup 1, Blue Dot
5. Comments and Feelings at the Time of Taking The Trade: Felt that this was a nice, setup 1 and entered
6.Comments and Trades After Exiting the Trade: I felt less emotional with the loss.
7. DS For this Trade: 1DS
8. DS Running Total: 100%
9.

Screen Shot 2019-11-12 at 10.50.38.png

Trade 3:
1. 1. Trade Number: 4/20 Batch 1
2. Date/Time: 12/11/2019 - Morning Session: 11:02am
3. Symbol/TF: Dax/1m
4. Signal Type / Direction : Long; Setup 1, Blue Dot
5. Comments and Feelings at the Time of Taking The Trade: Previous trade failed and I went in again; thinking that it's still a strong Setup 1.
6.Comments and Trades After Exiting the Trade: Happy that I went in, as it turned out to be a good decision; also feeling in my head in the past would have been; "oh damn, I don't want to loose again"; this time it was "it's a valid setup; lets go in".
7. DS For this Trade: 1DS
8. DS Running Total: 100%
9.

Screen Shot 2019-11-12 at 11.02.34.png

Trade 4:
1. 1. Trade Number: 5/20 Batch 1
2. Date/Time: 12/11/2019 - Afternoon session: 17:30pm
3. Symbol/TF: Dax/1m
4. Signal Type / Direction : Short, Setup 1
5. Comments and Feelings at the Time of Taking The Trade: Long day and returned from a number of meetings; sat down on my desk and saw this setup 1 and red dot; price didn't trigger and box went smaller with another setup 1 and red dot; so I adjusted.
6.Comments and Trades After Exiting the Trade: Realised that the spread has increased for some reason; so need to figure out when the spread increases to 2.5points on IC Markets; wondering whether I should enter the trade a second time; whilst I was wondering the price just dropped quickly !!!!!!!! Lesson, learned, if you think it is a valid setup 1, then enter!
7. DS For this Trade: 1DS
8. DS Running Total: 100%
9.

3.1.png

3.2.png

Screen Shot 2019-11-12 at 17.51.17.png

[immy]

T20 Rule 1
MAx 2 Hrs of Trading
Rule 2.
No trading after hours.
Spread is higher because the market is closed you're being fed a fabricated "futures" based quote.
I trade only the first 2 or 3 hrs of LO. no trades before LO (spread is high) no trades after DAX closes that is 4PM UK.
I can trade at 2.30pm at NEO but its not wildly profitable.
It appears that you have not worked on your trading plan properly.
if you did you would trade only during correct hours and wont consider trading as a trip to gym

cheers

[ganesha04]

Thanks Immy; I will change my trading plan accordingly.