My Trading Journal – Week of June 15, 2015

In tandem to my last posting, the week that followed was not a very promising week for my trading. 

Started with GBPJPY pair on June 16, H1 chart showed potential sell trading at around 11:00 ~ 12:00 hours. Entered at 192.41 about an hour later, a risky entry in fact, as MN, W1 and D1 charts showed uptrends. I was right, my trade was taken out about two hours later at 193.06 with a total loss of 65 pips.

On June 18, tried to trade for EURUSD while out for lunch but did not feel it was a viable trade after entering, closed off the trade with 1 pip. On the same day, traded GBPJPY again for a short trade.  Entered at 194.83, with target profit of 31 pips set at 194.52, it was taken about an hour later.

On June 19, traded USDCAD for a long trade. Made two entries for this trade at 1.2233. (Total of four entries shown above, two of them were correction entries for my lot size. Yes, made a mistake again as mentioned in my previous post). This was, to me, another risky entry. While H4 time frame showed that it was a buy trade, D1 chart indicated that it was a down trend whereas H1 chart showed ranging was taking place at that point of time. Set my first TP for 15 pips at 1.2248, which took a while to hit. Price only took momentum after the American markets opened. Second target of 34 pips was achieved an hour after the first target. So USDCAD gave me a total of 49 pips.

Tried another short trade for GBPJPY again later that night. Price did eventually go my way, but given it was already quite late at my time zone, I just closed it off taking 1 pip and retired for the night.

This is my short journal for my trading for the past week. As I did not take as many trades as the week before, barely broke even after suffering some losses early of the week on GBPJPY.

Happy trading.

My Trading Journal

It has been a month since I last posted my trading journal. Office commitments had prevented me from doing so, in fact, from trading at all. It was until early June that I entered the market again. Now, taking some time over the weekend to share my trading results from early June.

Table below shows the results of the first ten days of June (excuse me for not showing the lot sizes J):

Started off the month of June with shorting EURUSD after seeing the show card on H4 time frame (my trades were also based on H4 time frame). From the table, you can see that there were three entries were made at $1.0940 (all three with the same lot sizes), taking profit at different levels. First target ($1.0920) was hit after nearly 7 hours after entering, taking 20 pips. About a little over an hour later, second target ($1.0900)  was hit, taking another 40 pips. After pocketing 60 pips from the first two entries, shifted the stop loss to +ve 1 pip and let the third entry run, waiting for it to hit my third target ($1.0883). Unfortunately, the price reversed and hit my stop loss. Took 61 pips in total from this trade.

On the same day, I took another on GBPUSD, it was a long trade. Entered at market $1.5240 for the first entry and set a pending order for second entry at $1.5217. Took profit ($1.5270) on the first entry about half an hour later making 30 pips. Cancelled my second entry as price did not fill my order.

On June 2, tried my luck again on GBPUSD given that the chart still showed a long trade is viable. Why two entries with the same TP levels? Oops, made an error on the lot size, so make a “correction” entry to increase the lot size to the level that I wanted.  The market gave me 18 pips in 30 minutes.

While looking at the charts at night after retiring the kids, saw an entry show card to short USDCAD, entered at $1.2447. Checked the trade again through cell phone, took slight profit, 17 pips.

June 3, entered at market ($0.7139) for NZDUSD for a long trade and put a pending order for AUDUSD. Woke up the next morning and check the trades, NZDUSD had not hit profit level yet and AUDUSD was not filled. Price action showed that bull momentum is not present, therefore following the rules I had to close the trades before leaving for office. I took only a marginal 9 pips for each entry for NZDUSD. Price in the end went against me. Whew, luckily had the early warning exit system to help me out.

Again, I wasn’t able to trade for the next two days and came the weekend.

On the next Tuesday, June 9, saw a number of show cards for entries. Set a pending order for EURJPY but was never filled. Saw an opportunity for GBPUSD for a short entry just before having my dinner. Took it at market @ $1.5309. The trade gave me 17 pips after the dinner. Later that night, took another short trade on EURGBP @ $0.7352. Before retiring for the night, hastily entered a sell trade on EURAUD as well, at $1.4656.

Woke up the next morning and took a look at my trades. To my surprise, the EURGBP pair did not hit my tp yet while EURAUD was suffering loss. I did not like what I see and closed off both trades. Took marginal profit of 9 pips on EURGBP while suffered heavy loss on EURAUD. Learnt my lesson here about hastily entering trades that did not fulfill trading criteria.

Later that morning saw an entry show card on D1 time frame for NZDUSD, took a long trade at $0.7144 but my tp was based on H4 time frame. This entry were made with the expectation to cover the loss from EURAUD pair. Took 13 pips from this trade. The return, combined with the winning trades from the day before was enough to break even against the loss on EURAUD. In fact, if the price for NZDUSD went all the way up after that. But I called it for the week, did not take any more trade for the rest of the week.

Over the weekend, after going through the charts for EURAUD, only to realize that the pair already hit support and should not have sold it.

From my trading results, many may feel that 143 pips in 10 trading days is not “meaty” enough. For me, a newbie in trading and doing this on part time basis. I am contented with what I have achieved so far. I am confident that with the passage of time, my skills will get better and warrant me to take more pips from my trades.

Lessons learnt:

Be meticulous in reading your charts, never made an entry in haste. If you are time deprived, do not trade. Let my profits run.

Do your maths and calculate your risk, ensure that you are able to withstand the potential losses from trades, both your account size and mentally.