Stephen's Journal

[luxinterior]

Hey there!

My name is Stephen, and while I'm originally from the UK, I've been living in the Philippines since 2004. I lived in Australia for a year, Canada for a year and then Hawaii for five years, before deciding to make the Philippines my permanent home.

I became involved in Forex shortly after arriving here and have been a steady BE trader since. I've had a problem with consistency, and I made all the mistakes that most people make when they first start.

The biggest mistake I made was 'System Hopping.' I spent way too much time on Forex Factory and found myself getting distracted by each new shiny object. It took me a few years to realize that the best thing I could do was STOP going on the forum altogether.

One of the good things that came from being on FF and trading with MT4 was that I became quite proficient in MQL4. I managed to make a decent side income by writing indicators, EA's, and tutoring people on how to program. I have a programming background, so it was relatively easy for me to pick up, and it's been advantageous over the years.

I originally signed up for AIMS in 2017 but didn't become a paid member until recently. I liked the simplicity of the system and had some success initially, but just like always, I saw another 'shiny object' and moved on to yet another system.

I've addressed that over the past year and was trading a longterm strategy based on Harmonics. The higher timeframes were a good test of my patience, and for the most part, I enjoyed it, but waiting for trades to develop over days, weeks and months, is its own kind of exhausting.

I'm not an adrenaline junkie either in my personal life or when it comes to trading, but the daily, weekly, and monthly timeframes are just WAY too slow. I like the idea of committing to only two hours a day and trading the DAX, so I'm going to throw myself into that.

Being the geek that I am, I coded my own simplified version of Snorms ATM over the weekend, so it'll be fun to test it on a live market as soon as I see a decent Setup 1 trade.

I am looking forward to starting my journal and getting feedback from my fellow Aimsters.

Take care

Stephen

Trading Plan - Updated 5/14/2020

[immy]

Hi ~Stephen

firstly congratulations on starting your journal and your first post. I enjoyed reading it. Now the question is this. Will you work on your trade plan? will you apply the T20 principle? will you make at least 1 post daily to update your journal?

If you do the above, success becomes a byproduct of this process

cheers

[luxinterior]

1. Trade Number: B1-T1
2. Date/Time: 2020/5/12 10:49
3. Symbol/TF: DAX M1
4. Signal Type / Direction : Setup 1 BUY
5. Comments and Feelings at the Time of Taking The Trade: Whilst the box hadn't technically formed the two candles were almost identical so I decided to call it a fractal. Not sure if that was the right choice and will wait to hear comments. I feel OK with it though.
6. Comments and Trades After Exiting the Trade: I was feeling OK during the trade and decided to stand up from my desk, stretch my legs, and do some breathing exercises. I didn't want to sit staring at the trade and already had my EA's BE set. I was OK with the loss as I think I followed the rules.
7. DS For this Trade: 1
8. DS Running Total: 1 / 1 (100%)

ger30-m1-pepperstone-group-limited-cropped.jpg

[luxinterior]

1. Trade Number: B1-T2
2. Date/Time: 2020/5/12 11:30
3. Symbol/TF: DAX M1
4. Signal Type / Direction : Setup 1 BUY
5. Comments and Feelings at the Time of Taking The Trade: Setup looked OK to me but the choppy market on M1 and long tails had me wondering a little. There were two false signals earlier where it looked OK but the price broke through the bottom of the box so I canceled those PO's.
6. Comments and Trades After Exiting the Trade: As soon as the trade started to immediately turn against me I wondered if I'd been too premature but all things considered, I think I followed the rules.
7. DS For this Trade: 0
8. DS Running Total: 1 / 2 (50%)

On looking at the trade again, I don't think I did follow the rules for a setup 1 and so have changed my DS to 0.

Forgot to take a screenshot so this is after the trade closed.

GER30M1-2020-5-12-2.png

[luxinterior]

Hi ~Stephen

firstly congratulations on starting your journal and your first post. I enjoyed reading it. Now the question is this. Will you work on your trade plan? will you apply the T20 principle? will you make at least 1 post daily to update your journal?

If you do the above, success becomes a byproduct of this process

cheers

Thanks for the kind words of encouragement Immy.

I took my first two trades today which was interesting.

I'll definitely be committing the T20 as I can see the value in that. I've tried keeping a journal before but as there was no accountability, it was too easy to just become complacent and ultimately, give up. I can also see the value in a trading plan and I do intend to get that started soon.

It'll be a work in progress but I figure it's better to get started and develop it over time, rather than fretting about how much work is required to get it written.

Stephen

[luxinterior]

Didn't see any 'Setup 1' today on DAX, so no trades. No problem and I'll be back tomorrow to see what the market has to offer.

Stephen

[luxinterior]

Well, I didn't take the setup 1 today because I convinced myself it wasn't valid. In hindsight, I think I was dead wrong and probably should have set the stop order when I was thinking about it. About two minutes before it broke out.

I'd somehow got the idea in my head that the red dot was too far away and therefore wasn't valid. It happened 15 minutes earlier but just before price broke out I could see that a new dot would have appeared had it moved just a fraction of a pip more.

It turned out to be a perfect trade and hit TZ1 to the pip. VERY nice to watch even if I wasn't in it.

I won't beat myself up too much about it though as it was only the first decent trade I've seen since I joined as a premium member, and will be ready for the next and not question myself so much.

Here's how it developed and I've marked the point where the order would have been triggered.

2020-05-14_1654.png

Oh well, on to the next one. I'll be back tomorrow to see what the market has to offer.

Steve

[immy]

Well, I didn't take the setup 1 today because I convinced myself it wasn't valid. In hindsight, I think I was dead wrong and probably should have set the stop order when I was thinking about it. About two minutes before it broke out.

I'd somehow got the idea in my head that the red dot was too far away and therefore wasn't valid. It happened 15 minutes earlier but just before price broke out I could see that a new dot would have appeared had it moved just a fraction of a pip more.

It turned out to be a perfect trade and hit TZ1 to the pip. VERY nice to watch even if I wasn't in it.

I won't beat myself up too much about it though as it was only the first decent trade I've seen since I joined as a premium member, and will be ready for the next and not question myself so much.

Here's how it developed and I've marked the point where the order would have been triggered.


2020-05-14_1654.png


Oh well, on to the next one. I'll be back tomorrow to see what the market has to offer.

Steve

Stage 1. NO SETUP ... no red dot ... had you taken this trade, you'd have got yourself a Great Trade but a big FAT DS0.

NEXT

[luxinterior]

Thanks for the feedback.

So, what's the hard and fast rule as it relates to the dots? They have to occur within the box or something else? There is a red dot, but it appears 15 minutes before, which is what caused me to hesitate. So it sounds like I did the right thing but I'm not sure why.

S

[immy]

Your question tells me that " You have NOT completed all parts of Lesson 3... I'm sure of that. tell me I'm wrong...