There have been a few times I have started journals on FF but then get distracted or bored with it so I stop. This one may or may not be just like all the others.
I called this one Sheep or Lion to describe how I use to trade based on how I trade now. When I first started in Forex, I was taught many things by so called experts and guru's 99.9999999% turned out to be total BS! Fact is that most of them were "teaching" forex trading mostly because they couldn't trade themselves so they would put together a "system" and then pick out the best trades to show everyone how great the system worked.
Like many I traded hard earned money based on what these mentors were telling me. Wiped a few accounts thanks to them. Finally got frustrated enough with the "bro-science" they were teaching and stopped everything to study. For nearly 2 years I didn't take a single trade. I stopped listening to the experts and began to observe the markets. I would wake up at 3 am just to watch the London open and see how price moved. I spent many hours in front of the screen analyzing what I saw. Every mental trade I would make regardless of how it turned out, I would determine what made it successful or what caused the loss. I took notes. Even on the weekends when the markets were closed I would analyze charts. 10-12 hours + each day. I had to prove to myself beyond a shadow of doubt that I could confidently enter trades and understand completely why I did so. I also began to see how the sheep are brought to slaughter based on how I was originally taught to trade. I began to see things like what some call "stop hunting", which really isn't hunting at all. The big boys know where everyone is parked, herded together with all of the other sheep. Because I could see this "hunting" on the charts, I started to take advantage of it. Over time I created a "system" that worked well for me.
Since this is a journal and not a discussion of trading systems I won't be covering much on how I trade other than to say I have 4 moving averages on my charts and my focus is on the relationship of price movement in relation to each moving average. I usually trade very short time frames 10 second to 1 minute. This does NOT mean, however, that I scalp the market. Some of the winners will only be a fraction of a pip and others will be 20+ pips. It will depend completely on what the market is doing at the time. I will attempt to post trades as they happen but due to the short time frame it may only be an entry like "Short EU 1.06155". I will try to add pictures later. Since I trade with Interactive Brokers, I cannot put up a trade explorer. I like trading with them especially since their spreads on EU are normally 0.1-0.2 pips. Even in conditions like today where the market is a bit thinner.
You will also note that although the starting account value is relatively small, I will be trading with much larger amounts than most will feel comfortable with. This is primarily because of the very short time frame that I trade on gives me an opportunity to jump in with very small "mental" stops. This doesn't mean I am risking too much. Even with the large lot sizes typical risk is sub 2% per trade. I will typically trade without a hard stop. While I don't recommend this for most, I am confident based on the number of ways I can get to my account and close a trade that loss of connectivity isn't really that big of a deal for me. I have 2 internet service providers, a decent sized battery backup and I can even switch to mobile if all else fails which includes tablet and mobile phone trading. Because of the redundancy I have never had to use mobile trading to close trades in an emergency. I even have a natural gas powered whole house generator that came in handy during a major ice storm a year or so back.
To answer a few questions that I know will come up. Yes, I do trade full time. It is a portion of my total income. I don't like having just one revenue stream so I am constantly involved in many ventures and investments. Most of my income from Forex comes from a few trading robots I created that do reasonably well. These are not in MT4 but created in Windows as stand alone programs. While they are consistently profitable, a part of me misses the trading live excitement so I have set up an account to get back to trading hands on. These robots that I created have been trading the market for about 7 years with no adjustments by me for over 5. No they are not for sale nor will I post them. I know that some will want me to outline my trading system but I won't. By doing this journal, I am hoping that I can get you to create your own. When you do, then it is yours and you will be able to move in and out of the market with complete confidence.
I will get started tonight after I pig out on Thanksgiving and take a post feast nap. LOL! I will most likely start looking at charts around 7pm Eastern time U.S. Shortly before the open of Tokyo.
I called this one Sheep or Lion to describe how I use to trade based on how I trade now. When I first started in Forex, I was taught many things by so called experts and guru's 99.9999999% turned out to be total BS! Fact is that most of them were "teaching" forex trading mostly because they couldn't trade themselves so they would put together a "system" and then pick out the best trades to show everyone how great the system worked.
Like many I traded hard earned money based on what these mentors were telling me. Wiped a few accounts thanks to them. Finally got frustrated enough with the "bro-science" they were teaching and stopped everything to study. For nearly 2 years I didn't take a single trade. I stopped listening to the experts and began to observe the markets. I would wake up at 3 am just to watch the London open and see how price moved. I spent many hours in front of the screen analyzing what I saw. Every mental trade I would make regardless of how it turned out, I would determine what made it successful or what caused the loss. I took notes. Even on the weekends when the markets were closed I would analyze charts. 10-12 hours + each day. I had to prove to myself beyond a shadow of doubt that I could confidently enter trades and understand completely why I did so. I also began to see how the sheep are brought to slaughter based on how I was originally taught to trade. I began to see things like what some call "stop hunting", which really isn't hunting at all. The big boys know where everyone is parked, herded together with all of the other sheep. Because I could see this "hunting" on the charts, I started to take advantage of it. Over time I created a "system" that worked well for me.
Since this is a journal and not a discussion of trading systems I won't be covering much on how I trade other than to say I have 4 moving averages on my charts and my focus is on the relationship of price movement in relation to each moving average. I usually trade very short time frames 10 second to 1 minute. This does NOT mean, however, that I scalp the market. Some of the winners will only be a fraction of a pip and others will be 20+ pips. It will depend completely on what the market is doing at the time. I will attempt to post trades as they happen but due to the short time frame it may only be an entry like "Short EU 1.06155". I will try to add pictures later. Since I trade with Interactive Brokers, I cannot put up a trade explorer. I like trading with them especially since their spreads on EU are normally 0.1-0.2 pips. Even in conditions like today where the market is a bit thinner.
You will also note that although the starting account value is relatively small, I will be trading with much larger amounts than most will feel comfortable with. This is primarily because of the very short time frame that I trade on gives me an opportunity to jump in with very small "mental" stops. This doesn't mean I am risking too much. Even with the large lot sizes typical risk is sub 2% per trade. I will typically trade without a hard stop. While I don't recommend this for most, I am confident based on the number of ways I can get to my account and close a trade that loss of connectivity isn't really that big of a deal for me. I have 2 internet service providers, a decent sized battery backup and I can even switch to mobile if all else fails which includes tablet and mobile phone trading. Because of the redundancy I have never had to use mobile trading to close trades in an emergency. I even have a natural gas powered whole house generator that came in handy during a major ice storm a year or so back.
To answer a few questions that I know will come up. Yes, I do trade full time. It is a portion of my total income. I don't like having just one revenue stream so I am constantly involved in many ventures and investments. Most of my income from Forex comes from a few trading robots I created that do reasonably well. These are not in MT4 but created in Windows as stand alone programs. While they are consistently profitable, a part of me misses the trading live excitement so I have set up an account to get back to trading hands on. These robots that I created have been trading the market for about 7 years with no adjustments by me for over 5. No they are not for sale nor will I post them. I know that some will want me to outline my trading system but I won't. By doing this journal, I am hoping that I can get you to create your own. When you do, then it is yours and you will be able to move in and out of the market with complete confidence.
I will get started tonight after I pig out on Thanksgiving and take a post feast nap. LOL! I will most likely start looking at charts around 7pm Eastern time U.S. Shortly before the open of Tokyo.