Back On Track

Last week was a poor week on the platform. I finished 43 pips down. The reasons; a lack of discipline on my part for one, and the market just doing its own thing another. There was also the fact that I got taken out of trades by just a few pips, before the market turned around and hit what would have been my profit target.

I still haven’t changed my stance on stop losses though. You have to draw a line somewhere, and for now I’ll leave it where it is, between 30/50 pips. As the account grows, I’ll use the higher end more often, and at some point may extend it, but that is for the future. Onward now to the past week’s activities.

Mon 21 Feb: Holiday in the States today and slack movement on the market overnight. I wasn’t sure about trading today, due to the US holiday usually meaning a lack of volatility, but there were good indications for a downturn. I decided to follow the signals and set order to open at 1.6230 just after 09:00. I was thinking I could net myself 15 pips, possibly more. One hour later, the trade was over and done with a happy conclusion. I took a net profit of 17 pips. I expected the 1^st support to be around 1.6206, -0.25% from the Daily Pivot. I’ve found this to be reasonably accurate, with a +/- factor of around 10 pips. I set the order to take profit at 1.6210, 20 pips from entry. Take off the 3 pips for the spread, and a good trade in the bag.

Tues 22 Feb: I was pretty confident in placing a short trade here. The pair was trading below the daily pivot, and the signals were indicating a move down. At around 07:35 the trade was triggered at 1.6150. I didn’t have the time to sit and watch this morning, as I had a lot of work to catch up on, not least getting the upcoming website constructed. So I set my stop @ 1.6190 and looked to take profit @ 1.6110, and set about my work. I managed to look in once or twice, and the market seemed to have stagnated. I finally managed to take a look just after 16:00 and discovered that the trade had been stopped out roughly 20 min’s earlier. Stop had been busted by 7 pips. Annoyingly, it then turned around and proceeded to plummet to my original profit limit! I honestly felt that a 40 pip stop loss would be sufficient – obviously not. Soldier on then.

Wed 23 Feb: Missed out on a potential early morning profit today, losing out on around 35+ pips. That will teach me not to sleep in! The price seemed quite high again this morning, though the indicators were pointing to a continued climb. The BoE MPC meeting minutes were due to be announced at 09:30, so I decided to wait until the initial impact of that had made its presence felt. Sure enough, the spike appeared, and as I watched it start to come back down again, I entered a short trade @ 1.6240. Stop was set @ 1.6300. I didn’t set a profit limit on this, but I was looking to around 1.6190, and hopefully a bit further than that. I decided to close the trade at 1.6210 for 30 pips. It did drop to 1.6204, but halted there. I was happy to have recouped most of yesterday’s loss. Time to get on with some other work for now.

Thurs 24 Feb: No sleeping in today! Got to my desk at 06:45, just as the signal indicated a move down. Set an order to open @ 1.6200, looking to scalp profit at 1.6160. The trade opened just after 07:30, and before 08:00 I had 40 pips in my pocket (37 net). I could have taken it further, but I was happy with that for now. The price did begin to reverse after that, but could not reach the daily pivot point. The short signal was still strong, and the previous support was around the 1.6140 area, so I entered another short trade @ 1.6180. I was thinking of scalping a quick 20+ pips here, and I would have been happy to set my limit for that, but I left it open, eventually closing the trade at 1.6145. I decided to leave it at that as I had made a net profit of 69 pips this morning, well and truly putting me in profit for the week.

Fri 25 Feb: The market had been quiet overnight, hugging the daily pivot at 1.6160 for the most part. Checking what news was due out today, I decided to wait until after that had been delivered before making the final decision. The signals were being a little contrary too, another reason to wait, but they were starting to favour a short trade. I set my ticket up ready, I was just after a classic SAS type trade this morning, in and out, pronto. As the news came out, which was poor for the £, I opened a short trade @ 1.6125, and inside 15 minutes I closed @ 1.6096, pocketing a net 25 pips. Exactly what this system is developed for, Scalp And Scoot! The virtual account is now healthy again at £338.35.

As ever, that’s it again for this week. All that remains for me to do is a little admin work on other business, then it’s time to be Dad. Something I look forward to with great pleasure. Have a great weekend all, and remember, stay happy, you’ll live longer.

Stormy Waters, but the System still Works!

Hello and welcome to this weeks review.
Last week we had a poor but profitable week on the platform. Mainly due to technical errors beyond my control, there was only a couple of days trading done. However, we still came out in profit. This weeks trading account therefore, stood at £310.85. Lets look back at the week gone by.

Mon 14 Feb: Movement overnight was pretty static, and the indicators weren't really giving anything away. I decided to take a chance and favoured a short position, deciding that it was going to be a quick scalp before I got started. It did pay off and I closed the trade out with a net gain of 25 pips.

Tues 15 Feb: A narrow escape here. Overnight the pair were climbing, with the indicators saying to go long, but at the time I logged on, it looked as though it had topped, and looking at the indicators, I felt things would change there too. I waited a little while and as the pair began to drop I set up an order to open. Again I was just looking for a quick 30 pip scalp. Fortunately for me, the price got to about 1 pip away from opening the trade before turning around, producing quite a surge upward. It started to look a bit too uncertain for me from then on, so I called it a day.

Wed 16 Feb: The signals were indicating to go long this morning, after waiting a short while to see what was happening with the price action between Frankfurt and London opening, I took the plunge and went straight in on a long trade, following the signals. The trade got taken out following a high impact news announcement just after 09:30; less than 2 pips beyond my stop loss! Then the inevitable turn came and the pair climbed.

Thurs 17 Feb: The signals this morning were once again indicating a long position. I set up an order to open @1.6115 with a 35 pip stop in place. Once again, I got taken out of the trade, and once again, the price barely moved beyond my stop before turning around. This time it moved no more than 6 pips beyond it.

Fri 18 Feb: Cable had had a quiet night and this continued through the early hours of the morning. The signals were showing a climb, but it was quite shallow. I was thinking that a downturn was on the cards, as the pair were at a similar high point from earlier in the month. It did look as though there was going to be a head and shoulders forming. However, I decided to go with the signals and set an order to open long @ 1.6170. The trade closed out at a profit less than 45 minutes later.
I then proceeded to ruin things by thinking I knew better again! Basically, I got pigheaded. I went more or less straight back in with a short trade, even when the signals were strongly supporting a climb. And it initially looked as though it was going to pay off. Alas and alack, it didn't. For some time it traded sideways, occasionally giving me hope, but the inevitable happened and I threw away the early morning good work.

In summary; the week finished with a net loss of £21.50, taking the virtual account to £289.35, which is still good, it's still in profit. I still have to learn to stay with the system though, it is proving itself to be working. The other issue I need to solve is the stop loss level. Twice this week I've had potential winning trades taken out because I didn't give enough breathing space in the trade. What would constitute breathing space though, 50 pips, 60 pips! That's something to chew over for the weekend. Have a good one and stay happy.

A Poor But Profitable Trading Week!

Hello and welcome to this weeks trading diary.
Update so far. As you may remember from last week, the system picked up some good, profitable movements in the £/$ pairing that I've been following. The trading account finished the week on £286.35. Now that isn't bad in the short time I've been trialling this system, remember, I set up the virtual trading account with £100.00, trading with .50p per pip (see blog entry from Fri 21 Jan). So now then, we'll move on to this weeks events, commencing Mon 7 Feb.

Monday and Tuesday 7/8, ended up as dead days as far as trading was concerned. My cable service broke down, so I was bereft of my broadband ( thanks a lot Virgin!). Still, it gave me a chance to concentrate on other work for a couple of days (thanks Virgin!).

Wed 9 Feb: Broadband back up and running, I logged into my trading platform to take a look. My signals were not giving me a clear picture, and the candlesticks certainly didn't inspire any confidence. They were very choppy in fact. I kept my eye on it for around an hour and half, and in the end, I decided to give it a miss. A mantra I've kept at the forefront of all trading/betting activities of late is "If in doubt, leave it out." It pays off, trust me!

Thurs 10 Feb: There hadn't been much movement in the pair overnight, but the indicators were showing an overall trend downwards. At 07:00, I set a short order to open @ 1.6070, aiming to get 40+ pips in the bank. The trade was triggered around 07:30, and it did actually reach the profit target I was looking for. However, I didn't close it. I moved my stop loss to 5 pips away from breakeven and let it run. It was a bad move, the pair reversed and I got stopped out with a measly 2 pip net gain. Not a loss, but a lesson learned.

Fri 11 Feb: The indicators were showing a significant move down in the pair. I sat and watched for a little while, as at the time of logging on, the candlesticks were moving against the indicators. By 08:30 I felt the climb had peaked, so set a short order to open @ 1.6050. This time though, I also set a profit limit @ 1.6000, I didn't want to make the same error as I did on Thursday. Between 10:15/30, the trade closed out at a profit. The pair did continue to fall, but I was happy with the profit I'd taken, besides which, I had other work to do. Being a Dad not the least!

In summary then, how did it fare? The week finished with a 49 pip net gain, taking the virtual account to £310.85. In retrospect, it could have been more had it not been for my lack of staying with a strategy on Thursday, but the system is doing its job.
The lesson learned here was don't get too impatient or greedy. The strategy has to be, let the system do what it's been designed to do, and stay within those parameters. Use another system to chase the big gains, for now anyway!
That's it for this week, have a nice weekend all, and stay happy.

System still looking good so far!

Hello and welcome to the past weeks update.
It's been a good week for my system, which has had some good success. Read on for a day by day account of how the trades went this week.

Mon 31 Jan - What the hell do I know! Indicators on the 15 min chart were showing a climb in pair. However, I thought I knew better, I felt a drop was inevitable, and that was showing on the 1 hour chart, so I set an order to open. The price did drop enough to trigger the trade at 1.5840, and then began to reverse.  I wasn't concerned about that initially, that's the way the market moves, I was expecting a reversal at some point, plus my stop loss was set 1.5875, so I was safe.
Not only did it reach the stop loss, it pummelled its way through it, eventually making a gain of almost 200 pips! Ah well c'est la vie. That took the kitty down to £224.35, still up overall.

Tues 1 Feb. - 15 min chart was looking good for a long trade. At 07:45 I set an order to open @ 1.6070, which was triggered between 09:15-30. I set the original profit target at 100 pips as I had the time to sit and watch this morning. I decided to close the trade out with a net gain of 55 pips.
That was a good feeling. Not only had I recouped Mondays loss, but added 20 pips to the trading account. I know it's only virtual for now, but it doesn't stop me getting exited. Took a quick look around lunchtime, when the US markets opened, but it was looking quite contrary then. There was also some high impact news coming out at 15:00 which could have had an impact, so I left it for the day.

Wed 2 Feb. - Signals were showing a continued climb this morn', so set an order to open a long trade at 1.6160. I had the stop/profit ratio as 1:1 for this 40 pips either side of entry. I then set about some admin' work I needed to do for the Ebay business. Around tea break time, I logged back into the platform and was rewarded with a hit target. 40 pips up again (37 if spread is taken off). That occurred between 09:30-45.
I was tempted to take it further, but I had other work to do and decided to call it a day.

Thurs 3 Feb. - No trade on this morning. The indicators were pretty neutral, across a couple of other time frames too. I decided to leave it alone, and not try and second guess it like I done on Monday. Sticking with the indicators, or leaving it out pays off in the end.

Fri 4 Feb. - Signals at 07:15 were giving a hint of a downturn, nothing concrete, just a hint, so I decided to watch breakfast news with a brew for a while. Looking back in just after 08:30, the signals definitely showed a downturn, yet the candlesticks were being contrary and looking very green!
I stuck my neck out, followed the signals and went short, setting an order to open @ 1.6145. I looked in a couple of hours later and the profit target had been reached, another 32 pips net.

This week has seen the kitty reach over £280, despite a losing day and a no trading day, I've got to be pleased with that. The name of the game here is to scalp 20/50 pips profit on each trade, and to be honest, I would be just as happy if I was clearing around 15 pips per day.
I know that isn't a lot when your trading with just 50p or cents, but think about playing with £5.00, or £10.00 per pip. That's £75 - 150.00 per day. Try and find a bank that will give you that sort of return!!!

Well, that's me for the week. I'll be posting next weeks attempts in a weeks time. In the mean time, you can follow me on twitter by clicking the link over on the right, or by clicking here

Thanks for reading, and stay happy.

Best wishes.