30 December 2011

So here it is, the last trading day of the year!

Although this day wasn't stellar, I still came out learning things.

I felt really distracted today and not focused.  I ended up missing a lot of really great setups.

All well, I've come a long way in the past few months, and I'm ready for the new year!

Stats:
Net Pips: -5 pips
Trades:  5
Winning Trades: 2
Pips/Trade:  -1
Win %:  40%  

If my losing days continue to only be this bad, I'll be a happy (and rich) camper!

And now for the monthly stats:

I know this month was special because of vacation, but my new year's resolution is to trade more, and calm the hell down.

Happy new year's to everyone, and good luck next year!

29 December 2011

Back from vacation back home in Texas, and man was it amazing.


It feels good to be back on the trading horse.  I can't feel good unless I'm learning and growing in this endeavor.




Good day to day.  Only 3 trades, but at 100% win rate.  I have been feeling more like I can call where good entries are.  Most of my trades I'll be like "I think a good entry will be around 1.xxxx" Then a few minutes later if it pulls into that area and I see a good setup, I take it.


The last trade kinda chaps my ass.  I have been forcing myself to hold trades longer and go for bigger moves, but I got in a bit early, almost got stopped out, then it moved 2 pips into my favor, and it was at a fib line, so I called it and took the two, only to have it drop another 14 pips.




I don't know, maybe it was the right call, maybe it wasn't, it worked this time though.  I'll continue to go for bigger moves.




Stats:
Net Pips: +11.1 pips
Trades:  3
Winning Trades: 3
Pips/Trade:  3.7
Win %:  100% 

19 December 2011

All in all, not a bad day.


I had a few stupid mistakes at the beginning, but then I started trading just fine.  I should've waited for a better position on the second trade, I would've held that for a big winner.  The third trade I should've cut much earlier.


Anyways, I'm heading back home to visit family for a week, I'll be back trading around the 28th.


Happy holidays!




Stats:
Net Pips: +5.7 pips
Trades:  10
Winning Trades: 8
Pips/Trade:  .57
Win %:  80%

16 December 2011

Been sick as hell lately, so been trading only off and on.

Got a good session in this morning.

The biggest thing I've changed is that I am going back to where I started in that I put the 5 minute chart as the main chart, and look for setups off that, and only use the rainbow for precision entries and exits.

I put far too much emphasis on the rainbow recently, and I paid for it.

The session was still super choppy, so my R:R was less than optimal for sure, but it still turned out great!

Stats:
Net Pips: +12.8 pips
Trades:  7
Winning Trades: 7
Pips/Trade:  1.83
Win %:  100%

Special thanks to Throw from apipthrowingparty.blogspot.com and Ryan from sim-fx.blogspot.com for the coaching and encouragement.

12 December 2011

Not a great day.
This is exactly what I'm talking about.  My winners are so damn small that one bad loser wipes it all out.

I really need to figure out a way to fix my R:R...

Stats:
Net Pips: -3.45
Trades:  4
Winning Trades: 3
Pips/Trade: -.86
Win %:  75

December Week 1 Review

Great start to the month.  If I could continue to trade like this or better, then I certainly will be successful in this venture.

I've been focusing on being more conservative and waiting for high quality trades, and also started closing half of my position early and letting the other half ride.  This has helped my win rate stay high.

Let's see if I can keep it up!

09 December 2011

The no-losers streak is finally over, and I have to say I'm relieved.  That was a bit too much pressure.

All in all, still pulled out a win though.

What really bothers me is that I took nothing but shorts today on a complete uptrend...  It worked out this time but that's a horrible habit.  I think I'm just so used to having a down trend the past several weeks that I'm used to only shorts.

Also, my pips/trade really sucked badly.

Stats:
Net Pips: +9.6 pips
Trades:  7
Winning Trades: 6
Pips/Trade:  1.37
Win %:  85.7%

08 December 2011

Another perfect day, the third in a row.  I think this will be leading me into a false sense of security, or get me thinking that I've somehow become a badass overnight.

Although I'm happy that I've been doing better and being more cautious, I am weary of letting it get to my head, because I will have losers.

I sat and watched the market for about an hour before I actually started pulling the trigger.  I feel like I may be a little too cautious right now, but hey, there's a right balance for everything.

The good news is, every time I was planning on making a trade, but decided not to pull the trigger, it would've gone in my favor.  So I'm at a minimum getting better at predicting the price movement.

Stats:
Net Pips: +6.9 pips
Trades:  3
Winning Trades: 3
Pips/Trade:  2.3
Win %:  100%

06 December 2011

Another 100% day.

I've been working on only taking very high probability trades. Although I don't end up with as much pips at the end, I feel like it's substantially safer.  After all though, this is scalping, and I only need to average 5 pips a day to live on very comfortably.

Stats:
Net Pips: +7.2 pips
Trades:  3
Winning Trades: 3
Pips/Trade:  2.4
Win %:  100%

05 December 2011

Back from the weekend and another trading session.

Although the results were not bad, this time, one or two failures could've completely wiped me out.

The market is so damn choppy during these hours, I have to take profit as soon as I have it at like ~2 pips.  Which is not good while I continue to risk ~5pips per trade.

Stats:
Net Pips: +11.3 pips
Trades:  4
Winning Trades: 4
Pips/Trade:  2.8
Win %:  100%

02 December 2011

Haven't been trading for the past week because I've been sick and haven't had the cojones to wake up at 4:30 am.
I have been watching the market though and have been seeing how crazy it's been acting since the central banks changed their interest rates.
This morning was super choppy, I was happy to get anything off of it.

The blue vertical lines are counter trend surges on the 30 second chart, which get posted to all 3 charts.  That's where I start looking for an entry to continue to ride the trend.

Stats:
Net Pips: +3 pips
Trades:  3
Winning Trades: 2
Pips/Trade:  1
Win %:  66%

24 November 2011

Woke up this morning, and was ready to trade!

Got a solid 2 hours in on the NYC/London overlap.  Even though the US market was closed, this thing still really moved!

I was a little more aggressive than usual today, which I may or may not should have been, but it worked out very well.

One thing I surely have noticed is that I close my positions waaay too early, I never ride them out.  And that's the thing about this "close half then wait" strategy is that I can have a little more balls to ride it, so it's time to do that!

Stats:
Net Pips: +19.3
Trades:  9
Winning Trades: 8
Pips/Trade:  2.14
Win %:  89%


Even my wild trading demo account had hardly any losses and was wildly profitable.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

23 November 2011

Another winning day today.

Being patient and trading WITH the trend has been quite helpful.  I didn't take a long the entire session.

Although these were my only real trades, I actually had a lot more pips from the secondary practice account. I'd been working on the stochastic surges that I used to do, and being a little bit more aggressive.  I had zero losers on that account, which would've made the overall session +19.5 pips.

More screen time is needed!

Stats:
Net Pips: +8.6
Trades:  4
Winning Trades: 3
Pips/Trade:  2.1
Win %:  75

18 November 2011

Am I back on the horse?  Only time will tell.

A couple of additions I want to mention real quick.

First, I started opening two positions at each entry, I close the first entry as soon as I get spooked (IE, price stalls, or it surges 3-5 pips) Then, I hold the second trade for a bit longer hoping for some more pips.  The good thing about this is, the second position would have to go twice as far backwards just for me to break even, when I really won't let it run that far, so if it goes positive at all, I will lock in profit.

Secondly, in order to deal with my anxiousness, I have a separate demo account that I practice with placing the wild trades that I would like to eventually be able to do, while I wait for the real setups with the main account.  The second account is obviously for no money and for no record, just for entertainment while I wait.

In almost an hour and a half, I had 3 trades, but all 3 were winners.  Patience is a virtue.

Stats:
Net Pips: +12.8
Trades:  3
Winning Trades: 3
Pips/Trade:  4.1
Win %:  100

Also, the market was super choppy, this method would work a lot better during the London/NYC overlap.

Also, I'm going on a little mini vacation with the wife next week.  I'll be back trading on wednesday.  Enjoy your weekend!

15 November 2011

Although it wasn't a profitable session, I'm still ecstatic about how it went.  I went back to the basics, and it's coming back to me.

One of the MANY problems I was having before was a screwed up R:R.  Most of my winners were getting 2-5 pips, and my losers were -5 pips (or even more!).

The way I trade now is looking for tight reversal or consolidation patterns. This allows me to have super tight SL's.  Most trades I'm looking to only risk about 2-3 pips.

This would really work out a lot better on the NYC/London overlap, because I could hold my winners longer and they would wipe out the losers.  However, at least today, the winning moves were pathetic at best.

I'll continue to trade this and get better at spotting entries and see if London is really tradeable on this.

I've also worked really hard on breaking my habit of counter trend betting.  I mostly took shorts today, only 2 longs.


Stats(demo):
Net Pips: -11.4
Trades:  9
Winning Trades: 4
Pips/Trade: -1.26
Win %:  44


Also yesterday I tested the difference between FXDD and LCG.  WOW.    FXDD : LCG as a Sledge Hammer : Scalpel.

Too bad minimum pip size is $10 for LCG, so it'll have to wait.

There were a lot of really badass entries that I missed.  I'll get them next time!

11 November 2011

As much as my pride hates to do it, took a step back to demo to review everything and get more screen time in.

Due to veteran's day I had the day off and could trade NYC.

I spent several hours yesterday reviewing my past charts and noting what worked and what didn't.

I know exactly what my problem was.  I thought I was Throw from apipthrowingparty.blogspot.com, and that I could click the mouse 60 times an hour and rack up over a hundred pips.  

I've shifted myself back to the fundamentals and patience.  I also deleted all of my indicators, they're a crutch.

Here are a few of the types of chart patterns that I am looking for:

             

There are more patterns, and I may have different names for them, but the key difference is waiting for the actual reversal to happen and maybe getting in a bit late, vs the jump before you look style that I was trying and failing in the past 2-3 sessions.

I took all the trades listed, but there were some others that I didn't mark as I was playing around with things.

10 November 2011

No trades today while I sort myself out.

Spent 2 hours from 4-6 am watching the market and making predictions.

09 November 2011

Wow, I really need to get out of this funk of mine.

It's all impatience and impulsiveness.  My previous successes had lulled me into a sense that I was experienced and knew what I was doing.  Neither of which are true.

Even though I have PATIENCE written largely on the whiteboard next to my computer, I somehow managed to ignore it and trade away.

As far as my -20 session SL goes... I set that rule, just to break it, I wasn't paying close enough attention.

This is a rough patch, but I will make it through it.

"I know quite certainly that I myself have no special talent; curiosity, obsession and dogged endurance, combined with self-criticism have brought me to my ideas."

    ~ Albert Einstein

Stats:
Net Pips: -25.3
Trades:  8
Winning Trades: 1
Pips/Trade: -3.16
Win %:  12.5

 I really wish I didn't have to post days like this.

08 November 2011

It seems I was able to recover from the emotional catastrophe that was yesterday and managed to pull out a big W.

I started focusing more on S/R levels, and most importantly being PATIENT.  This is so hard for me.  Especially because I wake up so early for this I guess I feel like I need to get my trades in so I jump into stupid trades that I immediately regret when I push the button.  I can say today I had much fewer of those than usual.

After yesterday's monster, I'm going to keep this one quick, especially since I spent so much time recreating my chart because I accidentally closed it.

Stats:
Net Pips: +13.6
Trades:  11
Winning Trades: 8
Pips/Trade:  1.24
Win %:  73

^ My board screaming at me to calm down and remember the basics!

07 November 2011

Well, I should've just stayed in bed this morning.

Today was by far the worst day I've had scalping yet.

I started off pretty good, getting up to +7.5 pips, then I went on a series of horrible trades.

First off the market was super choppy and of low volatility, I was assuming because of the up and coming news release at 4:30.  Well, 4:30 came as I sat on the sidelines, nothing happened, so I checked the release, it was bearish.  Seeing as how the price was sitting at a level of resistance, I figured this would be a great place to jump in short.  This ended up burning me bad.

Next I took a couple of botched Gann crosses.  It had lots of fakeouts.  I shouldn't have been using that as a sole entry signal...

One thing that actually did work was a triangle breakout.  This ended up setting me near even, but still a few pips shy.  Because I added in on this position and it payed off, I for some reason fell in love with the idea and started adding in to everything.  This lead to my ultimate demise.

Finally, I hit the wrong button.  Instead of closing a winning trade, I accidentally added and ended up really screwing myself on it.

I was planning on going up a price tier if this week went well, but I'm going to cancel that right now, I'm not ready to move up.

I'm also contemplating if I should have a max stop loss for the session (ie: -20 pips) so that I pack up there because I'll be emotionally compromised and end up trying to trade my way back to positive.  This also helps because consider the following situation:  I'm -17 pips, instead of thinking like I did this morning "Oh, I really need to jump in and catch back up", I would be thinking "I've got 3 more pips before I have to pack up, I need to be patient and look for the perfect opportunity".

This was a cheap lesson to learn at such a low tier, and I'm glad it happened here and not later.

I suppose we can't know victory until we've truly tasted defeat.

Tomorrow is another day.


Stats:
Net Pips: -32.4
Trades:  15
Winning Trades: 6
Pips/Trade: -2.16
Win %:  40

01 November 2011

Another London session, and another wad of cash in the pocket.

Through some coaching by Throw I've been working on adapting two different styles based on whether the market is ranging or trending.

For trending markets, I will wait for good price action setups, for example, a head and shoulders pattern showing the change in a trend, then a Gann crossover.  Normally if it's heavily trending I will ride the Gann line all the way to the new one.  However, if the rainbow is choppy I'll switch to a short 5 pip TP, which ended up really working this time.

Also, I'll mostly only take stochastic surges that are counter trend (so I can buy/sell in the direction of the trend) and this will typically only be done in ranging markets, as shown on the charts.

Stats:
Net Pips: +16.7
Trades:  8
Winning Trades: 8
Pips/Trade:  2.03
Win %:  75


This was by far my highest pips/trade ratio, which for scalpers is so important because it effects the bottom line because of commissions.

Unfortunately because of a death in the family, this will be my last session for the week.  I'll be back for a full week next week.

31 October 2011

And here begins a new week!  Although I came out in the plus, I am absolutely unhappy with how I traded today.  Absolutely ridiculous.  I'm going to try not to be too hard on myself because this is a learning process, but being self critical is one of the biggest tiers to self improvement.

New add-in rule as suggested by Throw:  "Adding of a maximum of 2 times, with a total stop loss of -14 normal sized pips."  This will help prevent an ugly slippery slope that could wipe out weeks of gains someday.

Stats:
Net Pips: +9.6
Trades:  15
Winning Trades: 11
Pips/Trade:  .64
Win %:  73

Oh and my pips/trade was horrible.  I ended up paying most of my winnings in commissions.

Tomorrow is another day!

Happy Halloween everyone!