Tuesday, March 18, 2008

I got myself a new trading style. Bollinger + DMI + MAC/D. Works excellant. But decided maybe I'll start keeping physical records instead of online ones.

Only thing which is holding me back is, should I stay fully technical or fully fundamental?

Monday, March 3, 2008

Exams are over, finally. Trade will resume on 3/3/08, after such a long time of self evaluation. Updates on trades coming up soon, but would be concentrating on Asian sessions.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

I apologise for the lack of entries, and I admit it's due to the lack of discipline. Anyway lots of ups and downs, but will not update now, maybe tomorrow.

Be back soon.

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Trade Review 7/1/08

In the afternoon, I entered into a long EUR/USD @ 1.4700, with a t/p objective @ 1.4720 and s/l @ 1.4675. I fully understand that it is pretty outrageous for me to have such a poor r/r but for me at this point of time, it would always be better to have profit, than to not have any at all. And so, managed to get my t/p @ 1.4720 with a $16 profit. Not a bad start.

Afterwhich, I entered a short @ 1.4707 as it was right below the 5ema line, my favourite way to enter a position. That position felt good initially, reaping me profits. However as time passed, it seemed like it was getting more and more wrong. Until at night, it was nearing my s/l @ 1.4740 and I decided to move my s/l a bit higher to 1.4745.

At the same time, I decided to go short at somewhere near the peak of the previous day high @ 1.4734, with the same s/l @ 1.4745. This position was basically entered with the intention to set off losses in the 1.4707 trade. However, all I did was go to the washroom, and come back with a realized loss of $39.20, and the peak at bid price 1.4742. You must be wondering, how it hit my s/l @ 1.4745 when the spread for EUR/USD was only 2 pips. Because of a news release, and the broker widen the spread to 3 pips, so it hit my s/l @ 1.4745. And of course, that was the last of 1.4745 seen for the day as it was the high and all could have been avoided if I was more careful with my s/l and more attention paid to news releases.

So at this very moment while I'm blogging all these down, I'm also in a short EUR/USD @ 1.4734. Peak of today at this moment was 1.4743, which was indirectly pretty similar to yesterday's. I'm looking to take profit @ 1.4704, which I had just missed by one pip approximately 10 minutes ago. However, I'm still being positive about the decline in the Euros right now.

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

How does it feel to be correct and yet lose money?

Updates soon after emotions are balanced out.

Saturday, January 5, 2008

Trade Review for week starting 2/1/08 - 4/1/08

This week of trading has been pretty smooth, except for some minor mistakes which I never fail to make.

Been really attached EUR/USD, and enjoying the movements in the pair. I guess the most attractive thing about this pair would be the low spread. 2 pip spread is great as I do not have to worry about paying too much even if I was on the losing side.

On 2/1/08, made some mistakes by not trusting myself and switching around too much. I'm glad the spread was only 2 pips, so switching around did not really cause me to lose too much in the spread. Went long in the first trade @ 1.4665 but took a quick profit @ 1.4667. Earned $1.60 there as I stuck to 0.8 lots. Reason for exiting so quick was because on my hourly chart it showed a reversal, so I shorted again @ 1.4670, and seriously I was right initially and was up approximately 20 pips. However, the mistake in this trade was that I did not pay attention to news release, and I ended up taking a 10 pip loss of $8.00, and hence I quickly reversed my position and entered long @ 1.4688 to ride on the wave. This brought me a 42 pip profit by closing @ 1.4730, which was $33.60.

Overall profit/loss for the day was +$27.20, a pretty decent trading day.

On 3/1/08, main mistake was trading in a rush. I was out literally for the whole day, from 8am in school, all the way to afternoon where I went for my medical checkup, and then going to look for May in the evening, and reaching home only at 11.30pm. Went home, and saw EUR/USD chart, hourly chart signalled a short, but not at an exactly good price. As I wanted to earn at least $10.00 that day, hence I just hastily entered a short at 1.4721. Before I knew it, I was down a good 10 pips. Then I saw a friend on MSN and asked him for opinions, he was confident of how much it would go up, and as usual, I was taken in by his confidence. Closed off the first position at a 20 pip loss, losing $16.00 and entering long @ 1.4743. The moment I entered long, prices immediately started to decline and not before long my losses were fluctuating around 10 - 15 pips. This definitely signalled a bad sign. I didn't want to think so much and hence I just held the position overnight.

On 4/1/08, I woke up and saw a profit of approximately 10 pips, but that definitely wasn't what I was asking for. So I just held on further. At approximately 2pm I couldn't stand the losses anymore as it had hit 20 pips and it was the limit of my rsk appetite, so I closed it off at a 20 pip loss. Both these trades took away $16.00 and caused my balance to fall below the initial.

These two trades caused me to think through what I had done wrong, and the obvious mistake was that I entered trades hastily and the next would be I was wavered easily when people told me of their opinions.

So I just waited, and kept waiting for a chance to enter into EUR/USD again. About 5 hours later, this chance came as there was employment data release from the US. Prices started to escalate and I was prepared to go long at any price which came. Managed to long @ 1.4724 and I decided to not be greedy and just t/p @ 1.4775, earning a sweet 51 pips, giving me $40.80.

Before I entered this trade, I was looking at some other charts as well, and saw a good chance at GBP/JPY, but I guess I really have this phobia with this pair and have no wish to touch it again even though I saw a very strong resistance @ 216.55. I seriously have to blog this down otherwise I'll feel very bottled. It really sucks to see yourself missing on a chance which you had spotted. A good 300 pip that would be.

Ok, no point fretting over something which I was bent on not touching. Then I went over to May's house at night and brought my laptop along, was prepared to go short on EUR/USD again, and yes eventually I did after much hesitation and missing out on good movements. Shorted @ 1.4770, not an excellant price as well, saw a 13 pip profit but did not want to close it, ended up taking it @ 1.4767 making $2.40 out of it. Though if I had held on, I could have closed it off at a 10 pip profit, but I didn't want to hold on as I was so tired by that time at around 4am. So overall, up $38.12 from initial capital, not a bad start though I did not hit my profit objective of 30usd/day on average.

Lessons learnt: Do NOT trade when you are all tired and worn out. Do NOT trade based on a friend's opinion.

A friend is a fiend in trading.

New Year, New Objectives

Start of the year, enrolled myself in IBFX competition again. Now I only concentrate on one pair, EUR/USD. Lowest spread, lowest fluctuation. I don't exactly earn a lot on this pair, but it's considerably decent.

"30USD a day keeps poverty away."
Trading this doesn't exactly make me rich, but at least it does not bankrupt me.

"A friend is a fiend in trading."
Never listen to a friend, unless you are thinking the same way then maybe you could have some additional topics to talk about. However if you ain't, then jolly well just ignore whatever a friend says because you chose that trade initially with a reason.