West's Trading Journey

[westcountry]

Hi All,

It is time I start sharing my trading journey here. I have been inspired by the folks who post and contribute here in this forum - Thank You. While I am not profitable yet, I am working towards it. Perhaps sharing and logging my work here will help me.

My goal is to profit 10-20 pips per each day I trade.

Things I am working on:
+ Keep losses small (10 pip S/L)
+ Consistency (e.g. not doing my own random stuff, and stick to a trading strategy)

Today's trades and results:
(I am using TRO's Daily Wick Zone strategy for entering. I am new to this strategy, so I am still getting used to it.)
gbp/jpy: -10
cad/jpy: -12
eur/jpy: B/E (I moved S/L to entry while I was in profit or at least +10 or more)
eur/jpy: +15
usd/cad: -10
usd/jpy: -10
usd/jpy: +1 (I moved S/L close to entry while I was in profit or at least +10 or more)
usd/jpy: +1 (I moved S/L close to entry while I was in profit or at least +10 or more)
- - - - - - - -
Total for the day: -25 pips

Reflections from today:
+ Trying to keep losses small (so when I am at +10, I move my S/L to my entry)
+ While I was hoping for some big moves above where I was in profit, price came back and stopped me out at entry. In hindsight, if I would have taken 10-12 pips on those trades I would have done better today. Its something to consider for tomorrow.

Here are two trades from today. This first trade sequence below was a loss...

-West

[westcountry]

This trade sequence was a profitable one...
[I sold as price was exiting the previous day's wick zone (show in yellow).]

-West

[MightyOne]

This trade sequence was a profitable one...
[I sold as price was exiting the previous day's wick zone (show in yellow).]

-West

If you feel the need to move your stop then it is usually an excellent time to just close the trade.

What would your trade have looked like if you reduced to 50% at +10 and liquidated at +20?
The way you did it ends in +0 or +15 (10 to make 5) where as if you took profit you would get +5 or +15 (5 to make 5).

Another way that you could do it is reduce to 50% at +10 (+5), reduce to 25% at +20 (+10 total), & hold 25% if your stop is well positioned on a larger chart. 100 pips at 25% is 25 pips. A quarter of your position, when you are up by 20 pips, is 5 pips so you are risking 5 to make a multiple of 25.

Again, taking profit is the only sure-fire way to protect profit.

[westcountry]

Thanks MO,

Absorbing and digesting your feedback above while morning trading. Already today (in one of my trades) I took a quick profit vs. moving my stop to BE, and that helped (as it would have evaporated).

-West

[laksh]

Things I am working on:
+ Keep losses small (10 pip S/L)
+ Consistency (e.g. not doing my own random stuff, and stick to a trading strategy)

gbp/jpy: -10

-West

Hi westcountry,

All the very best.

From my experience of scalping/trading GJ , your SL of 10 pips seems ultra tight on GJ.

You may consider halving the size and doubling the SL on this pair, especially, given the volatility these days.

Yes, the Beast can be tamed

[westcountry]

Thanks Laksh,
Good advice. . .and yes, I agree. . . GBP pairs too volatile and my spread higher on those. (need a bigger stop for sure)

Update from today,
I got my butt kicked today, but I know its all on me (as the trader). I need to own it and I need to get better.
It hurts to admit my results from today, as I wanted to show up here in this forum a little closer to break even or on the winning side, but I need to do it, and be honest, so here it is.

usd/cad -11
aud/cad -10
eur/cad +10
aud/usd -10
eur/cad -12
usd/cad -11
aud/cad -10
Total: -54 pips

Reflections from today:
+ I need to stay away from the bigger spread and volatility pairs on this entry method with 10 pip stop, or increase the stop.
+ I did good holding to small losses on each trade (I was tempted to move my stop to give trades a little breathing room, but today it would not have helped me much).
+ I did take profit instead of moving stop to B/E entry, that helped me on the winning trade. I need to look into MO's feedback too on size/position management.
+ Couple of trades above were against the Hourly and Daily candle color (not a good idea).

Here are a couple of trade progressions from today, this one is the winner ...

[westcountry]

This one is one of the losing trades:

-West

[westcountry]

Here is a live trade, Asian session, sold at bottom of the wick zone (after price just sucked back to the zone edge)...
-West

[westcountry]

Just exited with a quick +10 pips.

-West

[westcountry]

Here is another live trade, sold at bottom of the yellow wick zone upon hourly candle's suckback. Made this mistake of not going with the Hourly candle color here. Lets see...

-West