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 1st 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.
No comments:
Post a Comment