The Hawk's journal

[Metalhawk]

As I mentionned in another thread, I now feel confident enough to add price action to my trading. I still only focus on GBP/JPY.

I will no longer go in details about trades, but only give quick descriptions...

The second half of last week was not really a trading period. That's when I decided to add price action, and so decided to experiment a little, so that's off the record. Some winning trades, some losing trades, about half and half. Keep in mind that with Oanda I can trade $1, so wins and losses are pennies, not even that sometimes.

I then got serious again to start this week, and will re-start my trade count...

Trade #1:
Following the double-top formed from Wednesday the 28th to Friday the 30th, I entered short on Sunday @ 227.975 and closed @ 227.442.

+53.3


Trade #2:
On Tuesday there was a pivot point meeting a S&R line in the 225.70 area. I decided to enter short if price was to reach 225.50. There was a few close calls, but price never reached that level. It did on Wednesday morning, and so I entered since even though the pivot point was moved, the S&R was still strong around 225.60. So I went short @ 225.50 and closed @ 224.949

+55.1

Total for the week: +108.4 pips
Target for the week: 100 pips (MET!)

I am done for the week.

Bonus Trade
Sometimes I will enter trades in Metatrader. Those are usually trades where I am less certain of what I'm doing, usually with price action at the moment. I do not count those towards my weekly total. I entered one such on Tuesday when I saw 3 candle in a row reaching the same level, and the following 2 candles being a spinning top and a dragonfly doji. I shorted @ 227.52 and closed @ 226.85 for +77.

[JeffNLisa]

Originally Posted by Metalhawk

Sometimes I will enter trades in Metatrader. Those are usually trades where I am less certain of what I'm doing, usually with price action at the moment. I do not count those towards my weekly total. I entered one such on Tuesday when I saw 3 candle in a row reaching the same level, and the following 2 candles being a spinning top and a dragonfly doji. I shorted @ 227.52 and closed @ 226.85 for +77.

I do this a lot too. Especially if one system is not fitting my style or schedule, and I ant to test another. Not exactly the same experience as trading it live with penny positions, but experience nonetheless.

Jeff

[drunknmunk]

nice trades....that was a good week

[Metalhawk]

A few updates...

First, Sunday night I entered one of those "testing" trades. There was a double top formation that I thought would indicate a down move, but I entered on the candle after the second top was achieved. That's never a good idea. You are supposed to wait for confirmation with that following candle to see if the price will really go down. Lesson learned. Good thing I still use only practice for those.

On to the real trades now.

Trade #3:

I entered a long trade once price crossed both the minor S&R line (227.40) and the pivot point that was a few pips above. As always, give a few pips of breathing room above just to be safe. Entered @ 227.727, exited @ 228.258 for profit. This was my exit point because it was approaching a decent S&R line around 228.40.

+53.1 pips


Trade #4:

This one pissed me off a little because I didn't give enough room on the down side before I just barely got stopped out. The trade was based on another pivot point and S&R combo. Entered @ 228.65, stopped out @ 228.15.

-50 pips


Trade #5:

I believed so much in the previous trade that got stopped out due to a little oversighton my behalf that I re-entered the trade at almost the same place, for the same reasons. And my beliefs were proven right. Entered @ 228.677, exited @ 229.207.

+53 pips


This pisses me off because I was right all along. I should be over 100 pips already and done for the week if it wasn't for a little oversight on my behalf. I always have floating stop-losses that are never exactly 50 pips, always floating around 55, and I would have been fine with such a stop.

Anyway, I am now keeping a close eye on the 229.32 (S&R) and 229.48 (pivot) lines. A reach of 229.60 would prove a nice opportunity with a profit somewhere below the 230.33 line (next pivot resistance).

[drunknmunk]

it's cool man....s*** happens

you learned and made up for it though.

[Quinthius]

Trades 4 and 5 ... I did almost the exact same thing. I actually manually closed my trade at a bid price of like 228.08 or something. If I had allowed just a few more pips I would have still been "in the game" throughout the next few candles. I was also determined about it and tried again, making 23 pips on 1 lot, and 5 pips on the other, but not enough to cover the loss from getting stopped out. Sucks huh?

I'm glad you recovered from it!

[Metalhawk]

Originally Posted by drunknmunk

it's cool man....s*** happens

you learned and made up for it though.

I don't know if I learned anything from it other than to take extra care when assigning a stop loss.

The important thing though is not to rashly jump in a spur of the moment trade to make up for it. I waited for the alignment to be right once again and got in. I am really starting to feel confident when entering trades based on S&R with pivot point care.

I hope that a year or two from now we can all look back at our journals and say "man were we ever poor traders back then", all the while getting ready for a 5 day weekend because we all made enough profits for the week in the first couple days of the market.

[Metalhawk]

This simply continues to be a whacky week...

Trade #6:

The one I mentionned at the end of my previous entry came to pass, so I entered @ 229.60, but after a promising start, things went down the shitter big time. I don't know the reason why, buy all of a sudden, GBP/JPY just plummetted about 200 pips. Anyway, entered @ 229.60, stopped out @ 228.93. I'm not mad about it. I feel this was well planned, but shit happens.

-67 pips


Trade #7

The candle that caused me problems with the previous trade ended up being a nice long-legged spinning top, and while I find waiting for a confirmation candle important, when there's a very clear move in the opposite direction, it's just as good as a confirmation candle. This was the case here. So I entered short @ 228.549 and took my profits @ 227.745. Momentum seemed to die at this point, so I decided enough was enough.

+80.4 pips


So as I said, it's been nuts so far. But I still would have reached my goal with a better placed stop on trade # 4...

Total for the week: +69.5 pips
Target for the week: 100 pips

[Metalhawk]

Trade #8:

Another S&R / pivot lines combination. I had 226.50 marked as a minor resistance on the upside, and there was the main pivot line at 226.75. I got in long at 226.82, aiming between 30 and 50 pips, depending on the momentum. I ended up closing this trade at 227.153.

+33.3 pips

Total for the week: +102.8 pips
Target for the week: 100 pips (met!!)

So I am done for the week, having reached my target. It was a little more tedious than last week, but in the end, my way of doing things worked out for the best once again.

[Quinthius]

Hey Metalhawk, I was just reading thru your entire journal with the intent of seeing what you're doing with pivot lines, but came across something more intriguing...

I noticed you close a lot of trades at breakeven when they start to retrace on you. When I saw that I smacked myself on the forehead (not literally) and said "Ohhh why haven't I thought of that?"

There have been so many trades that took me into the green by a few pips, say 8-10, but I wanted to hold out for 20-30 pips. Then, price would retrace on me and I would let it drop into the negative with the intent of "allowing it to breathe". Well, more often than not it hits my stop and I'm out 40 pips. If I had closed at breakeven I could have avoided so many losing trades. Of course, there are also those that turn around right away, and those I will allow to fluctuate, since they never even reached breakeven to begin with. But the ones that go green a little, then retrace, I think I should close at break even.

Yes it will cause me to miss a few that fluctuate into the negative then come all the way back, but it's not worth the risk to me, to let it fluctuate so much in hopes of it turning around. I'll still catch the "good" ones that have sufficient momentum to reach my target (or close enough), and this will sort of filter out the less certain ones.

So umm, I don't really have a question, but I was wondering what your thoughts on this are? I know there have been NUMEROUS cases where this would have saved me quite a number of pips... far more so than the few cases where I let it drop into the negative and it managed to turn around in my favor.

Sorry for making such a long post on your blog but this seems like a pretty major idea in trade management, at least when profit targets are small (20, 30, 40 pips) and I'm kind of excited to put it into effect
--James