My Goal for 2007: Break-Even

datamerc, I'm trying to better understand your reasons for entering these trades. Feel free NOT to elaborate if you feel you will be revealing too much of your edge. But if you don't mind I am curious.

In your EUR/USD trade, the price had bounced off the top band and just passed through the middle band while the MACD bars were negative, so your short position made sense to me there.

But in your first trade on USD/JPY everything was in reverse: the price had bounced off the bottom band and just passed through the middle band and MACD bars were positive, and yet you still shorted?
 
Quote from dejatrader:

datamerc, I'm trying to better understand your reasons for entering these trades. Feel free NOT to elaborate if you feel you will be revealing too much of your edge. But if you don't mind I am curious.

In your EUR/USD trade, the price had bounced off the top band and just passed through the middle band while the MACD bars were negative, so your short position made sense to me there.

But in your first trade on USD/JPY everything was in reverse: the price had bounced off the bottom band and just passed through the middle band and MACD bars were positive, and yet you still shorted?
More...
Hi dejatrader - I'm not too worried about my edge... given the same system, two traders will surely get different results.

As you've noticed, I use a few indicators:
- BBs for targets
- MACD to give a little help on the trend
- 9min EMA tells me when I can go long or short (this is the green/red squares at the bottom; these do not correspond to the candle directly above).

You're right about the single EURUSD trade - pretty cut and dry on the 3min chart. Target was the lower BB when it broke the mid, 5 pip stop.

The USDJPY trades are the main reason it was a "B" day. They were eased into based on the 15min charts where shorts looked good up to about 123.30-40. I based the trades off a longer time frame (against the primary system) because of the ~60 pip move that had already happened by the time I started at 5:00am CST. I closed them all when it was time to leave for work.

Based on my system, the perfect setup that I wait for is a bounce (in a trend with good 9min direction) to the mid BB at which point I go short to the lower or go long to the upper. If the stars are aligned and my head is straight, there are usually 2-4 nice bounces in a trend.
 
6/27/2007
+$232.52, 4 trades (3W, 1S)
EURUSD: +3/14
USDJPY: +34/61

A
26 pips of the USDJPY profit are from yesterday evening (5-7pm CST) from a single short position opened and closed during that time. The trades this morning were by the book, felt good and relaxed. Stopping early because of other projects needing my attention.
 

Attachments

Thanks for your response, datamerc. Some interesting stuff to be sure.

One other question, I'm looking for charting software that allows the entry of stop-loss and target limit orders directly on the chart and shows them in real-time.

Does Sierra Charts do this with the orders routed through IB?
 
Quote from dejatrader:

Thanks for your response, datamerc. Some interesting stuff to be sure.

One other question, I'm looking for charting software that allows the entry of stop-loss and target limit orders directly on the chart and shows them in real-time.

Does Sierra Charts do this with the orders routed through IB?
More...
I'm not aware of that feature in SC. I recall IB saying that they have something like that in their charts, but I get a headache just thinking about the IB charts.

If you need to have order entry on the charts, the only software that immediately comes to mind is GFT's and <a href="http://www.vtsystems.com">VT Systems</a>, but I don't have experience with either of these companies.
 
6/28/2007
+$18.04, 3 trades (1W, 1L, 1S)
EURUSD: -2/20
USDJPY: +4/15

A
Like the other day, my son decided to wake up way too early and join me in the office. This time I closed the two open positions and put him back to sleep (in hindsight I could have kept them open for nice profits, but that is just what it is - hindsight, and doesn't really mean a thing). As I was putting him to bed, I couldn't help but think that how eventually this is all for him and that is the most important reason to take my stops.
 

Attachments

datamerc, I've read your entire journal and just wanted to say that it looks like you are really getting your emotions in check and becoming more and more relaxed in your trading. At the same time you seem to also be getting good at recognizing when you are moving out of that 'zone' and have the good sense to call it a day, instead of doubling up your losing trades like you were doing before.

I was wondering if you might add a running tally of your total P/L instead of just the day-to-day. Since your goal is to break even, it would be good to see where you stand.
 
Quote from dejatrader:

datamerc, I've read your entire journal and just wanted to say that it looks like you are really getting your emotions in check and becoming more and more relaxed in your trading. At the same time you seem to also be getting good at recognizing when you are moving out of that 'zone' and have the good sense to call it a day, instead of doubling up your losing trades like you were doing before.

I was wondering if you might add a running tally of your total P/L instead of just the day-to-day. Since your goal is to break even, it would be good to see where you stand.
More...
dejatrader, I had actually seriously considered doing this when I started the journal but decided not to for a number of reasons. There is no getting past the fact that I am down a very large percentage on the account; and maybe this will be a good wake-up call to some newbies... in May I was up 7.77%, this month I am up over 39%, yet I am still in a very deep hole. It is definitely possible for me to accomplish my goal, but even easier to slip back down.

I obviously keep a very close tally of all my trading activity, but here are a couple of my reasons for not posting a running P/L in this journal:
1. To reach my goal, I need to focus on the daily routine of making it through each session and not on the massive YTD loss. In the past when I began thinking too much on the YTD figure my trades became more reckless as I was trying to only hit home runs.
2. Unreasonable posting from people more intent on harassment than constructive criticism. Trolls can be like flies on shit and love to come out when someone is down.

Yes, it is my goal to break even this year and I believe I can do it. This journal, and the excellent posters in particular, are helping me become more disciplined in my trades. I hope you can understand my reasons on not showing a running P/L.
 
Say no more, I completely understand. You make an excellent point about staying focused on your day to day discipline rather than your long term P/L.

In your particular case you are down YTD and focusing on that could be discouraging and lead to an inability to pull the trigger. At the same time if you ('you' in the plural not you personally) were way up and focused on that you could very easily slide down the other side of that slippery slope into over-confidence and greed.

In the end we all have to find our own way to balance on the tight-rope between fear and greed, and whatever works for you--keep doing it!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top