My Goal for 2008: Trading to Trade Well

I believe the "death of a trader" syndrom is a rite of passage that any trader must overcome in order to succeed. Unfortunately, there isn't yet a cliffs note to make the journey any easier. :D One of my greatest discoveries is that there's a distinct rhythm to price movements much like waltz (or tango if head fake is involved): 1-2-3; 1-2-3...
 
I really enjoyed reading your journal, actually spent the last hour reading this year and last year journals of yours. Like yourself, I am a currency trader currently concentrating on the eur/usd pair. Reading your journal as you go through the PROCESS of becoming a long term successful trader is pretty cool. Myself went through some crazy and costly learning stages. I would have to agree with Rob Booker with regards to trading is more of a learning of oneself rather than the market once one learns the basics of trading. I took a look at Oanda but I didn't like thier charting package. I am with FXCM and I love thier marketscope 2.0 chart package. It has a tremendous amount of flexibility to it. You have inspired me to do an ET Journal on my new system I am working on. I am on the last stages of it that being the money management portion. The system yielded 154% from July 8, 2008 when i started the account to July 18, 2008. Then I blew the account up in one day!! Well most of it anyway. Kind of what you did back in Feb. of this year. Good thing it was only a demo account to work out the bugs in the new system. I will take the system live next month once I figure out the risk/reward, probability and expectancy ratios and more backtestiing. Good luck to you and I am rooting you on for further sucess.
 
I appreciate that PipProphet! It is nice to see when others are able to learn from my ups and downs. You're doing the right thing by focusing on just a single pair (EU has nice movement and usually the lowest spread). There is no reason to try and trade other pairs until you learn one like the back of your hand - after that you will begin to expand and see how they are all interwoven. Saliva mentioned in the post above, the prices often move like the rhythm of music.
I agree - Oanda's charts are very bad, but the spreads are fair.
Good luck with your journal (I look forward to reading it) and system; just remember - the brighter the star, the larger the explosion :)
 
Update for week ended 8/1/2008.

Unlike last week, I now have reason to be scared. Like I've noted before, I've become to lazy with this range we've seen in most of the pairs (UJ, EU, EJ) and this has given me too much comfort.

Monday I was greedy, watching profitable trades reversing course only to get stopped out. So rather than taking a break, I tried to churn out a few pips here and there in an attempt to break even.
Tuesday was the worst psychologically... I got tired of getting shaken out from the day before and early in this session so I began taking off my stops rather than just walking away. This was proof of my lack of respect - I've got to get back on track because this will definitely bite me in the ass.
Wednesday I was swinging perfectly but just couldn't make contact with the ball - this was frustrating enough so I didn't tempt fate on Thursday.

I was happy to basically break even this week, but not happy with the way I react when my back was against the wall. I was planning to increase position size next week, but will hold off until I see a change in my attitude.
Code: 
Date	                        P/L	Pips	Range	Size	W	L	S
Monday, July 28, 2008	        -$1.69	-3.4	50.0	10,000	6	4	0
Tuesday, July 29, 2008	        $49.98	49.9	70.0	10,000	8	6	1
Wednesday, July 30, 2008	-$40.00	-41.0	30.0	10,000	0	6	1
Thursday, July 31, 2008	        -	-	-	-	-	-	-
Friday, August 01, 2008	        $0.37	0.4	3.0	10,000	1	0	0
---------------------------
Total for the week:             $8.66	5.9	153.0	-	15	16	2
 
Update for week ended 8/8/2008.

This week was a nice birthday present. Nothing felt different and I really didn't watch that much; it just came down to cutting the losers that didn't feel right and getting a few EURJPY home runs on Mon, Tues, and Wed.
Code: 
Date	                        P/L	Pips	Range	Size	W	L	S
Sunday, August 03, 2008	        $30.78	33.2	150.0	10,000	1	0	0
Monday, August 04, 2008	        $109.93	119.0	130.0	10,000	6	4	1
Tuesday, August 05, 2008	$104.83	114.7	200.0	10,000	3	1	0
Wednesday, August 06, 2008	$91.38	100.0	145.0	10,000	1	0	0
Thursday, August 07, 2008	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Friday, August 08, 2008	        $8.70	9.0	40.0	10,000	1	1	0
---------------------------
Total for the week:             $345.62	375.9	665.0	-	12	6	1
 
Scale trading, ie., moving in a out of position you hold, as part of investment strategy, makes sense. More thinking and less trading, but trading when the fundamentals and technicals point in one direction.

I do not endorse Cramer's research, or timing approaches. He is about as good as the weatherman.
 
Update for week ended 8/15/2008.

This week was got overwhelmed with the honey-do list, so my quality trading time was punished. I hope to be able to get back to schedule next week (but nothing is guaranteed with a wifey around :)). Overall this week wasn't too special - Sunday I took advantage of the large EURUSD move and every other day was just a scalp when possible.
Code: 
Date	                        P/L	Pips	Range	Size	W	L	S
Sunday, August 10, 2008	        $100.00	100.0	140.0	10,000	1	0	0
Monday, August 11, 2008	        -$0.10	0.0	20.0	10,000	1	1	0
Tuesday, August 12, 2008	$4.60	5.0	10.0	10,000	1	0	0
Wednesday, August 13, 2008	$91.29	90.7	160.0	10,000	5	1	0
Thursday, August 14, 2008	$11.71	12.0	70.0	10,000	2	0	0
Friday, August 15, 2008	        -	-	-	-	-	-	-
---------------------------
Total for the week:             $207.50	207.7	380.0	-	10	2	0
 
Quote from thatsmyopinion:

I hope you have continued success datamerc, despite the honey do list. :D That's my opinion
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Thanks - it can be difficult sometimes because we have different schedules. In order to keep the peace I sometimes need to stay up later than I prefer just trim down that list.
 
After my first year of trading, I made it my goal for the second year to papertrade only and stop throwing money away doing things that were cool but that I didn't understand.
 
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