Trades for 9-30-09

Today I feel I did good with that the market gave me. No update yet as to my weekend job, still waiting on them to call me. Totals for today do not include “abnormal hours” trading (7:30amMST to 9amMST).

Totals for the day
Forex: (+.19%) Real Trades
All times on the charts are Mountain Standard Time

5 trades: 1 loss, 1 breakeven, and 3 gains

Trades for 9-29-09

I did “ok” today, kind of harder trading today because most of everything (except for the EUR/GBP in the early morning) was kind of choppy though I still could have done better than I did. Today’s figures do not include “abnormal” hours (7:30amMST to 9amMST) trading.

Onto a different subject, I decided to try and get a weekend job to keep myself busy and bring in some extra cash. Well, I called a place I used to work at a few weeks ago and they said I would start sometime during the beginning of November working front desk (the place is a resort in Breckenridge, CO). Today I get a phone call saying that one of the night auditors will be leaving in a few weeks so they want me to start ASAP because I requested the night audit job. So, I won’t know until tomorrow what my schedule is going to be like but it should be Thursday nights through Sunday nights. That means that I will be taking Fridays and Mondays off for trading (or only trade when I get home on those days), which is no big deal because I’m only paper-trading them right now. Hopefully I’ll get a laptop soon so I can maybe make a few trades from work since my shift runs from about 10pmMST to 8amMST.

Totals for the day
Forex: (+.31%) Real Trades
All times on the charts are Mountain Standard Time

11 trades, 4 losses, and 7 gains

Trades for 9-28-09

My 2nd, 3rd, and 4th trades (2nd and 3rd charts) show that I had a case of the Mondays today. I’m glad I decided to paper-trade the entire day, and today’s figures do not include “abnormal” hours (7:30amMST to 9amMST) trading.

Totals for the day
Forex: (+.35%) PAPER Trades
All times on the charts are Mountain Standard Time

5 trades, 1 loss, and 4 gains

Trades for 9-25-09, and weekly total

My real total for the week is -1.63%, had I traded today (Friday) for real I would have been +1.57%.

I did really well today, but it was paper-trading. No notes except that I wasn’t expecting that big of a move in the USD/JPY (1st chart).

For Friday’s post this week I made a video showing how I do my stops/trailing stops. I tried to explain as best as I could, but if you have any questions please post them in the comments. Click here to watch how I do my stops during a live session.

Totals for the day
Forex: (+3.20%) Real Trades
All times on the charts are Mountain Standard Time

4 trades, all gains

Trades for 9-24-09

Had some nice moves today in most of the pairs, and gold had a decent pullback. My trading went well, nothing to really note other than I wish I had traded “abnormal hours” for real. Totals do not include my paper-trades during abnormal hours.

Totals for the day
Forex: (+.60%) Real Trades
All times on the charts are Mountain Standard Time

5 trades, 1 loss, and 4 gains

Trades for 9-23-09

Today I did good and decided to only paper-trade from 9:30amEST to 11amEST (“abnormal hours”). The reason I decided to paper-trade that timeframe is because after about ½ a year it’s at -8.50%. I plan on continuing to paper-trade that timeframe because I want to see if I can make it work by just trading the first 10 minutes (for example) of the US market open. So from now on (including today) the totals for the day will not include any paper-trades I may make during 9:30amEST to 11amEST.

Totals for the day
Forex: (+1.76%) Real Trades
All times on the charts are Mountain Standard Time

6 trades, 1 loss, and 5 gains

Trades for 9-22-09

After a talk with my dad over the phone last night I almost decided to paper-trade today. However, I thought it would be ok to trade for real and it was (though I am down its almost breakeven and a “normal” down day). What we came up with is that my #1 mistake has been for a long time basing my sizing on how well I think the trade will do. Like for example I would do a ½ sized trade on something I think would have about 60%-75% of being correct. Instead I need to go back to how I used to do it which was basing it on my stop-loss. I only adjust my sizing according to how much my stop is upon entry of a trade, this way my stops are always a certain percentage of my account value. Before today I was just willy-nilly guessing sizing based on how I felt about the trade, instead being more technical about it by basing it on my stop.

Overall I feel I’ve improved a lot but as you can see in today’s charts I still need to work on not having my stops so close.

Totals for the day
Forex: (-.15%) Real Trades
All times on the charts are Mountain Standard Time

6 trades, 2 losses, and 4 gains

Trades for 9-21-09

Today I didn’t do very well, and my biggest mistake was not managing my sizing in a few trades. The other mistake I made was I over traded, but I spotted my mistake and stopped doing it. I also took the time today to crunch the numbers on my daily performance, and it looks like I will only paper-trade Fridays, and Mondays from now on. Here is the data:



I also crunched the numbers on my intraday performance and I will likely stop trading what I call “abnormal hours” (about 7:45amMST to 9amMST). I would post the chart, but it has dollar figures and I like to keep that kind of stuff private :).

On a side note, it snowed today! Just a dusting in my yard but the stuff at/above treeline got a decent amount. Here are some photos of my yard:




Totals for the day
Forex: (-3.84%) Real Trades
All times on the charts are Mountain Standard Time

17 trades, 8 losses, and 9 gains

Trades for 9-18-09, and weeky total

For the week I am +.94% on my account. It was kind of a crazy week for me with visiting family, and trying to trade on a different computer while working my sizing up. But in the end I made out good, and I somewhat look forward to next week (though it’s a fed week so we may see a lot of choppy/flat).

I took the day off today, and it looks like I didn’t really miss anything.

I don’t really have anything for the Friday post, but maybe next week I’ll have something worth while. So for this week I’ll just leave you with some music:



Totals for the day
Forex: (0%) Real Trades
All times on the charts are Mountain Standard Time

No trades

Trades for 9-17-09

I almost backed off and paper-traded, but after going over my trading I realized that I shouldn’t paper-trade. The reason I decided not to paper-trade is I realized that all of my mistakes yesterday were caused by emotions. I had gotten rid of the emotion so therefore there was no reason I should paper-trade. I also decided to trade full account size because the only reason I’ve been holding myself back on it is emotion. All percentages are based on full account size.

Totals for the day
Forex: (+.86%) Real Trades
All times on the charts are Mountain Standard Time

Trades for 9-16-09

I traded full account size, and when I took a loss I started to spaz. However, I stopped spazing rather quickly but at the end of the day I over traded. Overall it looks like I just need to get used to the full account size again. I may drop it to ½ account size tomorrow, but I'm thinking about just going to paper-trading because of the over trading I did at the end of the day. All percentages are based on full account size.

Totals for the day
Forex: (-.31%) Real Trades
All times on the charts are Mountain Standard Time