7-7-09

Here was a USDCHF trade initiated yesterday. +52 pips on 10k.

LT

Changing things up

As some of you may have noticed I've been posting sporadically recently. Honestly I haven't been satisfied with my short term trading results and have been skipping trading some mornings.

I'm going to take a break from scalping for a bit. As such I won't be posting results every day (at least for the near future), however, I will post some of my swing trades as they come along.

LT

6-24-09 Sticking to one thing

Well its pretty obvious, but the currencies as well as other markets have been pretty choppy recently (must be the low volatility).



As such I'm not seeing much bang for my buck when it comes to trend continuation and breakout moves. For now I'm gonna stick to fading the chop. And for those who are worried yes the first position on a couple EURUSD trades was averaged. But I had a hard stop in (just decided since we are in a noisy place in the markets right now it wouldn't hurt to avoid the noise).

-4 pips on 50K

LT

6-23-09 Fighting the chop

I didn't seem to get the picture this morning - we are in a chop zone still. Had several attempted trend continuation trades on both the EURUSD and USDJPY that didn't pan out. Finally got the "news" and started scalping some solid reversals.



-7 pips on 50k

LT

6-22-09 Slow day

Not a whole lot going on this morning. +8 pips on 50 k.

LT

Not feeling great

Haven't posted here in the past couple days cause I haven't been trading. Been feeling sick and since I am making a trip to LA this upcoming weekend I'm trying to get better. I may trade later this week or not depending.

LT

6-12-09

A very quiet Friday morning that was pretty choppy. Should have picked up on this earlier and not gone for the breakout trades, but otherwise not much to say.


-6 pips on 50k.

LT

6-11-09 Taking trades in all the wrong places

Well I won't be buying the wife any jewelry today, but I definitely managed to do everything else wrong.

The biggest problem was missing out on the run in trade number 3, although I exited based the correct price action at the time. This would have been worth +20 if I'd been able to hold it.

Otherwise just a tough day for my setups. -24 pips on 50k.

LT

6-10-09 TheTrading Idiot

The average loser strikes again! How many times do I have to average to realize it's not helping my trading?

Second trade on the EURUSD was averaged. Entry wasn't valid (why did I take it again)? Also missed two winning trades while managing this one.

Like Mark Douglas says I haven't accepted the risk of my losers. Ironically this is causing me to lose.

So after reviewing the morning trades I'm doing something I haven't had to do in a few years. I am reinstating the trading idiot mode. As apparently I no longer have the ability to protect myself from myself. So idiot mode goes like this. For the next 60 trades if I fail to follow my trading rules (such as no averaging) and purposefully pull a stop, take a trade I shouldn't or even not take a trade I should my wife gets a new $1,000 piece of jewelry. The wife will be checking the account statements every morning to ensure that I follow the rules. Eventually I will learn to trade by my rules or the wife takes my trading account piece by piece.


+2 pips instead of +15

6-9-09 Failure to Focus

Well this morning definitely proved that I didn't have my brain turned on.

First trade was taken prematurely and incorrectly.

Oh boy. Second trade should have been a short on the USDJPY instead of the EURUSD. Got myself in a bit of a spot there and missed out on a 20 pip move on the USDJPY. REMEMBER KIDS ALWAYS CHECK WHICH MARKET YOU ARE ACTUALLY SHORTING!

I'm not going to mention the other trades as they were fairly inconsequential and were taken as they should have been.


Overall -7.0 pips on 50K

LT

6-8-09

Overall this morning there is a lot less volatility than Friday (no surprises there), however, the pace and tendency for the majors to range are well suited to my scalping setups.

Basically easy trading this morning which is why I don't have a lot to say about it. If only everyday were as easy.

+16 pips on 50k



LT

Ok FX this chart is for you.

6-4-09 Changing up my posts

I've decided to post less pics and more description of what I did. Still will post blotter, but not sure if there is much value in posting a chart (since it only shows the last 30 min on the timeframe I trade - 1 min bars).

Had problems with Oanda for first 45 minutes. No trading.

Spotted one valid breakout trade during this time that would have been -6 pips

Second trade was a #6 on the USDJPY for +5.6. Trade taken correctly within the rules.

Third trade sequence on the EURUSD was a valid reversal signal. Oanda froze up on me so I added to get out at scratch. Got lucky and the market tanked and let me out with a nice profit.

Fourth trade - gah. Not even a valid setup by the rules, compounded error by adding. Should have just gotten out. Yeah it didn't cost me much. But I am pissed at trades like this. Need to stop averaging...

Of course as part of this fourth trade sequence a valid signal was missed - was a winner - of course.

Fifth trade, scratch as I didn't like how much we had retraced.

Sixth trade, taken correctly, winner.

Conclusion - 1 breakout - would have been a loss but missed
3 #6 reversals - 3 winners - took 1
3 reversals - 2 taken. 2 winner 1 loser (missed
a winner)

Net pips should have been +15, was actually +29.

However, I'm not pleased. Averaging is what produced those numbers. And while that may work fine on a day like today you can quickly get burned when the market gets into a steady trend.

6-3-09

Funky slippage this morning on the last trade. Not too pleased with how I gave back earlier wins.

-3 pips on 50K



LT

6-2-09

Not much to say this morning. The EU and UJ varied between chop and stair step most of the morning.


+14 pips on 100k.

LT

6-1-09 Back to work

So as you may notice from today's charts I've changed things up a bit. Still using basically my system but have added some "new" indicators and decided to add the USDJPY to my lineup. The new indicators don't really tell me anything different, but give me an idea of the intensity of the trend. Made a few good pips last week in Cabo, and hope to keep up the pace.


+27 pips on 100k this morning.

LT

Just Another Day in Paradise

Made my taco money this morning and just hanging at the pool.

Avery and a few other folks are here in Cabo to trade and have fun.

LT

5-26-09 Trading from Cabo

Enjoying the sun and the sand here in Cabo. This is a view from Avery's unit (I'll post mine later once I get my camera setup).

A very relaxing day for +10 pips on 40k.

LT

5-22-09 Slow and steady

As the Euro slugglishly moved up this morning was able to grab 13 pips on 40k

LT

5-21-09 Back in the chopper

Sideways from London on. No trades.

LT

5-20-09

Just one solid trade here this morning on a very strong Euro. +15 on 40k.

LT

5-19-09

Caught the end of a retracement on the Euro this morning for +4 pips on 40k.

LT

5-18-09 No trades

No trades this morning.

5-14-09 No Trades

Pretty slow this morning, no trades.

LT

5-13-09

Well as some of you may have noticed this has not been the best week or two for me. This is pretty typical whenever I up my trading size :P

Tomorrow I will go back down to 40k lots until I get back in line with the market pace. This isn't October after all.

-25 pips on 50k.

LT

5-12-09

Had a nice Mother's Day with the folks, and didn't do any trading on Friday or yesterday.

Not much to report this morning. Despite some tepid news events, the overall pace and volatility of the market is way down even from a few weeks ago.

-15 pips on 50k.

LT

5-7-09 So much news so little happening

This morning was a classic example of a day where there was lots of news but little conviction. At least early on.

First trade went back to breakeven as the spread widened me out of my stop. Second trade never had a chance to go anywhere. Took some profits on my third trade and still holding for the next value area. We'll see where it gets to.

Closed positions -5 pips on 60k. Still have 1 20k trade open short.

LT

5-6-09

Sometimes the patience pays off and sometimes it doesn't. First trade cracked through resistance on the 15 min chart and just hung out for about 45 minutes. That should have been telling me something. Funny thing was it missed my first target (which would have scratched the trade overall) by 1 pip. Yep now that's luck :)

Second trade was no waiting around and a nice reversal play. Unfortunately it moved so fast there was nowhere to add to my position.

Overall +9.5 pips on 50k

LT

5-5-09

As mentioned yesterday, I will be taking more retracements in moves that have broken their range on the 15 minute bar. I've also increased my size to 50k lots.

Net on the day -14 pips on 50k.

LT

5-4-09 Late post

Forgot to post this morning's trade. Fading the extreme of the downtrend. Watched the trend reverse and move up from there. Thinking more and more about how I might be able to capture this trend moves more effectively in some fashion. I guess I can't just be a countertrend trader :P

+15 on 37k

LT

5-1-09 Mr. Newb trades the bank holiday

Yep. What's even funnier is that I had looked at Forex Factory's calendar earlier in the day. Says bank holiday right on it!

On the plus side I got great service from my Oanda rep in live chat. I couldn't figure out why my positions weren't updating in real time! The outrage :P

Still managed to squeak out of the holiday with +6 pips in 37k hehe.

Overall end of the week is +53 pips on 37k or about $200. Planning on upping my size soon so I can hit the dollar targets in my weekly goals. For such a slow week I'm pleased with these results.

LT

4-30-09 Solid green for profit, solid red for position sizing

The p/l statement definitely doesn't reflect the mistakes made today. As those of you who follow the blog know, I control my losses with intelligent position sizing. Except today - not so smart.

The most important thing to recognize about emotions is that they are illogical. Thus when the market is at extremes it is the least logical. That is when we must be our most logical to profit. Simple, but definitely not easy. So can you spot today's mistake trade? That's right kids - the 2nd long entry.

I'm very forgiving of my first position in any trade (also the lightest), but my 2nd position shows (or should show) that the market has blown through all expectations and that emotions have shown themselves clearly. I did not wait for that confirmation. I knew that this was a mistake as soon as I entered! Duh.

No excuses.

P/l wise this was a +35 day on 37k.

LT

4-29-09 All was quiet before the Fed Meeting

Yep it's a ghost town this morning. No surprise since we've got a Fed Meeting this afternoon. No trades.

LT