My first month day trading Forex

[Modest]

What a great ride so far even with non-stop studying into the late hours every single day, only sleeping because I am at a point where my vision is becoming blurred and coupled with an account draw-down of 14%; I am not discouraged one bit. Rather, I am even more determined to continue tweaking my trading and have been gradually reducing my avg daily losses. I figure that's probably a safer way of doing it instead of setting a daily profit target (for now).

I hope to use this thread as my journal...If I am lucky I'll get pointers from some of the more experienced members who may drop by in here.

Contrary to popular advice I started to learn (still learning of course) trading on the lower time frames - all my micro lot trades are executed on the 15m and the hourly and daily for direction.

My most recent trade:


Price Action is bloody brilliant I wish I was told to just study that from day one - it saved me from that sudden drop. I guess watching Price Action for 10 + hrs a day you start to get (dare I say) a feeling for these kinds of things.

 

[Modest]

It's really frustrating closing winners prematurely this thing went on another 15 pips after closing it! I know it's a problem in fact I did it yesterday but the fear of it turning on me is massive so I bail.

 

[Modest]

This has been one of the very best setups I've taken thus far, literally just hit my TP.

Strong uptrend followed by an exhaustion candle and immediately followed by a 2 x Double Inside Bar Setups (Rarely see these!) at a new Support Level.

The first swing on the 11th had three legs up and a re-trace of 38%
2nd swing (I started stalking) had 3 legs and the above two signals and confluence.
So I set take profit at a potential 38% re-trace. A retrace did take place and my TP target was hit.

 

[Modest]

Stalking EURCAD today. A few things are lining up, looking for a Short in the Blue zone.

 

[Modest]

Well... The only thing I got right today was identifying an area for potential action, and action we got! But it didn't go my direction.

I did act on a Sell signal a couple of hours earlier before it shot up into space and could have taken profits but I did not as I was expecting a larger decline and got stomped out for a small loss.

 

[Muttata]

It's really frustrating closing winners prematurely this thing went on another 15 pips after closing it! I know it's a problem in fact I did it yesterday but the fear of it turning on me is massive so I bail.

Dude. You shouldn't be buying against the trend as in your first trade pic. Picking tops and bottoms is a sure way to do our account. That is trading 101.

 

[Muttata]

This has been one of the very best setups I've taken thus far, literally just hit my TP.

Strong uptrend followed by an exhaustion candle and immediately followed by a 2 x Double Inside Bar Setups (Rarely see these!) at a new Support Level.

The first swing on the 11th had three legs up and a re-trace of 38%
2nd swing (I started stalking) had 3 legs and the above two signals and confluence.
So I set take profit at a potential 38% re-trace. A retrace did take place and my TP target was hit.

Again, the trend is still up on this one - don't want to sell against it as it is too high risk. Safest to wait until the swing low 87.057 is penetrated and see if a downtrend is established.

 

[Modest]

Hi thanks for your response I definitely prefer trading with the trend but I will also take counter trend signals if they're very good. I have different rules for trading counter trend but basically there needs to be a strong signal, confluence and I take profit at local resistance based on the last 6 or so bars and their respective tails (very quickly).

I am motivated to learn the art of being able to trade in any market condition with or against trends and I am prepared to put some skin in the business to learn it. I try to read as much as I can to minimise the mistakes (and it's helped!) but so far the best teacher has been the market.

 

[>Apocalypto<]

Hi thanks for your response I definitely prefer trading with the trend but I will also take counter trend signals if they're very good. I have different rules for trading counter trend but basically there needs to be a strong signal, confluence and I take profit at local resistance based on the last 6 or so bars and their respective tails (very quickly).

I am motivated to learn the art of being able to trade in any market condition with or against trends and I am prepared to put some skin in the business to learn it. I try to read as much as I can to minimise the mistakes (and it's helped!) but so far the best teacher has been the market.

nice thread. what i learned this week. stick to your plan if you head anit right stop trading. had my worst day in 10 months yesterday.

 

[Modest]

nice thread. what i learned this week. stick to your plan if you head anit right stop trading. had my worst day in 10 months yesterday.

Bummer mate what do you think went wrong and what pair was it?

 

[Modest]

The signal was exhaustion candles and RSI divergence. Quick 10 pips in the bank!

Note the RSI in this screencap isn't showing divergence because the template uses 14 period close - I execute via 6 period close RSI on the 5 and 15m TF's.

 

[Modest]

Slight RSI Divergence, Fib confluence + plus with Trend = high probability trade.

Take Profit target was set based on a higher timeframe zone. Another 10 pips bagged.

 

[>Apocalypto<]

Bummer mate what do you think went wrong and what pair was it?

GBPAUD Modest, normally only trade the 5min DAX but spent the week on a few FX pairs off the hourly. GA got into a range i failed to see and i ended up swinging low to high to low getting chewed up on .3 -.6 size trades.

Back to the 5 min DAX now. two fx pairs off the daily.

nice thread

 

[Modest]

Two trades this morning, didn't like how price was behaving and closed these positions at 0.1 - 2 pip gain (breakeven).

USDJPY

Initially nice RSI Divergence (blue line) + 9 Inside Bars in an obvious bigger picture uptrend. Entered at break of Inside Bar (mother candle high). Impulsive move up, nice - I am thinking yeow clickity click clankity clank, da moneys go in the piggy bank!

But quickly noticed a conflicting RSI divergence developing (red line) and got out for 1.1 pips. Also the price action wasn't behaving how I like it to.




Similar story with EURAUD


Bearish RSI Divergence, down trend but got out of this one quickly as again, the price action didn't go how I like it, after screenshot was taken price reversed heavily actually.

Although not much in the piggy bank today I am however, pleased with my ability to close positions that I 'feel' aren't going my way. Up until recently I was hoping too much - no more of that sissy bitch here on!

 

[Modest]

GBPAUD Modest, normally only trade the 5min DAX but spent the week on a few FX pairs off the hourly. GA got into a range i failed to see and i ended up swinging low to high to low getting chewed up on .3 -.6 size trades.

Back to the 5 min DAX now. two fx pairs off the daily.

nice thread

Ah yeah what made you shift gears to FX, was it Spot FX? Hope the loss you encountered hasn't totally put you off FX...

 

[>Apocalypto<]

Ah yeah what made you shift gears to FX, was it Spot FX? Hope the loss you encountered hasn't totally put you off FX...

nah hasn't, still trade off the daily. but short term stuff sticking to the DAX and WTI.

 

[Modest]

A few trades today. Still focusing on battling the voice in my head when it comes to cutting losers quickly, getting there... Slowly but surely...

USDCAD - Counter Trade
Exhaustion candle near a resistance zone and RSI divergence. Took the trade. 3 Pips in the bank.


USDCAD - With trend

Waited for price to come to 38.2% level (green) it did, entered on 2nd inside bar confirmation. Again, I feel as though I am getting better at reading price each day. I noticed something wasn't right and quickly exited the trade with a +1 gain. Shortly after as you can see it retraced significantly and continues to do so.

Made a Rookie mistake today and tried to catch the proverbial falling knife, stopped out. I am disappointed because I made the mistake before and said to myself I would not do it again.

 

[Modest]

Okay as soon as I got out of the last trade in USDCAD with +1 before it retraced I got another setup and reentered. This time I reached my take profit target. 11 pips in the bank.



Actually happy I was able to hold onto it and let the winner ride. So difficult holding on to winners yet the opposite is true for losers, work in progress.

 

[Modest]

It has been some time since my last update but I have been chipping away each day and making ground at a 'conscious cat' pace. December has started off really well - I am honing down entries and exits and getting better at filtering out bad trades.

17 trades so far this month, 12 winners and 5 losers. Tweaked my SMA (changed it to 20 from 50) and added a few conditionals to help with filtering out bad trades.

A few trades this week:

 

[Modest]

GBPUSD



Great Pinbar formation at support on the 5m TF. Pin bar formation also on the 15M TF and a pin bar forming on the 1HR TF, excellent confluence I'm in!

Could have stayed in longer and got extra pips but my rules regarding the 20SMA (if conditionals regarding whether price is under or above SMA) force me to not be greedy and take profit at either pullback to 20SMA or next logical local resistance zone - in thise case 20SMA and local resistance where on the same level.

8 Pips bagged.

In the coming weeks I am going to slowly increase my lots sizes where possible as my trading improves and I gain more confidence.