Forex Intraday Trading

Can you believe this chart?

2009-11-08T21:42:00.006+01:00

First thank you all on your comments of support.

This is my YTD performance and it drove me mad few times. Well I drove myself mad with doing mad things in the first place.
This time blow up really surprised me, I wasn't expecting something like this lately. I had very good run and without for me before usual averaging. I was only thinking how much further into positive side can I move account in two months that are left in the year.

After first blow up in the beginning of the year, three times I approached break even and then ensued new big and fast loss.

Problems with trading on positive side is something very subjective and individual to me. I believe that I had blow up because of feeling uncomfortable being on the positive side. Don't ask me why I feel that way, or I felt that way. It's up to me to clear that out however odd does it seems to feel it.

I gambled and lost

2009-11-05T14:47:00.000+01:00

I lost -40% today. Something is really flawed with my attitude regarding trading and money. You can understand that I don't want to talk about it so probably I will not respond to comments. My account dropped little bit below level where it was this summer. This is biggest loss of money with trading I ever had. So all work in last two months is now gone. With first of this month I was at break even for the year and this week I gained 7.5%. It seems that whenever I get back to my starting point I make sure to quickly lose as much as I can. I played that game few times this year. It's like I want to lose. Also it seems to me that I don't value money gained by trading as real value. I guess that deep down I believe this is not work but gambling. I don't know, I'm just thinking out loud.
Funny thing is that I was really on good track last two months. I was thinking that I finally moved away from problems. Well little averaging yesterday was first sign of trouble. You can't run from yourself. If you have problems or issues they will find a way out and materialize themselves. If you are alcoholic it doesn't matter for how long you are sober you are always one drink away from abyss.

Lucky to be profitable

2009-11-04T11:21:00.003+01:00

Pretty much mediocre trading today. Market wasn't in break out mode but something different. I'm not comfortable trading from retracement and that was game today. So I would go long when the move is near end, then wait out through retracement to get some tiny profit. On my third trade I had to close in a loss because news time was approaching. After the news I tried to be "creative" with 1/3 trades. I was lucky that market continued my way.
After all I had to be more "creative" and short gbp/jpy. O.k if I short it with 1/3 but when I add one more it's so close to full size in the most volatile pair. Very bad trading on idea that some resistance trendline from 4h time frame is on. Again some luck with really hitting resistance on usd/jpy and eur/gbp so I could close those two shorts profitable. I could get really burned. That 1/3 game would just lead me in averaging problems.
If there isn't trade that I like or market isn't suitable for me, well just don't trade.

+9 pips

20 trades

2009-11-03T12:42:00.003+01:00

Today trading consisted of two parts. In first one I got nice scalp in eur/usd and then I oriented on gbp/usd. It was wrong decision today because eur/usd was trending down nicely and gbp/usd was different. I marked yellow on gbp/usd chart move that wipe out my profits. When you scalp you need to be right most of the time, because all those nice 4 pip scalps are easily taken away by one trade with 3 pips spread and sudden move in opposite direction.

When I realised that I simply missed eur/usd while trading gbp/usd I got back to it. Now it was in consolidation. I had so many trades because it's easy with 0.9 pips spread to jump in and grab few pips. After few successful trades I lost a lot trying to catch next leg down. I really got myself whipsawed. When finally I got right trade on, I didn't catch majority of the move down.
I need to concentrate more on overall picture while I'm scalping. At least on 1min chart time frame so I can trade more optimal.

+20 pips

I overstayed my welcome

2009-11-02T11:44:00.003+01:00

With new month size of my position is up again. It's three times September size. So you can see how in the start I was careful, extra careful. Well market was behaving in a way that 4 pips were most I could capture. As the time passed after few trades my concentration drifted away. The best example is second eur/usd trade where I took just 1 pip. Thirty seconds later I jumped in gbp/usd at the high and I was awaken when I lost all my profits so far. Bad trade, bad mental state in a fifth trade of a day, first losing one. Now bigger size was in my mind again making me reluctant to close this down. I was betting on profits and more. I could close it at the break even two minutes later but I didn't. Twenty minutes passed by with me waiting in a loss. I was lucky, trade finally gave me profit and I was happy to close it.

+18 pips

October 2009. results

2009-10-30T15:44:00.003+01:00

+183 pips

+21 %

Only first ten pips were with previously used size, from that point size was double the one before. So starting leverage for new size was around 12 times.

I'm more then satisfied with results because I didn't expect that high pips win with bigger size. I was mainly scalping and I was satisfied even with 4 pips wins, in the end it all add up. I didn't move from my emotional nature but I'm trying to prevent problems as much as I can. Great thing is that it's shown how only scalping can make very nice profitable month.

So-so trading

2009-10-29T12:21:00.003+01:00

In the start I was overheated from my trading lately so I went in without clear break out of the range. Then I didn't get out on the time, I even moved stop on that first trade. Wanted to move it again farther but stop caught me before. So I wasn't really in the game with right mind set.
I cut loss in half with next trade.
Third trade was very long in duration and market moved nowhere. Then I was shaken out right before move up. Good that I was eager to trade because in fourth trade I covered my loss so far and made seven pips.
Fifth was a scratch and sixth drove me back in a loss for a day. I had cushion of seven pips and eur/gbp was ready to break out to new low. When it did, but stopped without extending I had to get out. That is a catch. Sometimes it fly when level is broken and you can get nice profit in less then a minute. This time it didn't and I luckily saved all of the pips from that move.

+15 pips

Today's trades

2009-10-28T10:46:00.003+01:00

First trade in eur/usd didn't look good after entry. Eur/gbp started going up and I wanted it to accelerate down to give boost for eur/usd short side. So I was quickly out and that was correct decision.

Lately I don't like to trade eur/usd so much because it moves back and forth and it's hard to get clear scalp. You need to get in before move starts because if you go after initial thrust, it stop and go back giving you a loss. Maybe it suitable for daytrading off 1min and 5min charts, but I don't find it attractive for scalping.
Gbp/usd moves clear and smooth. With Oanda's 1.8 pips spread on it, it's great for scalping. When I started trading at Oanda I think that eur/usd spread was 1.8 pips and now it's 0.9 all the time and 1.8 on gbp/usd most of time.

Trade in gbp/usd started tricky. From my entry for next four minutes market didn't move and gbp/jpy at that time drop 30 pips. Usually when Jen is rising and usd/jpy, eur/jpy and gbp/jpy go down gbp/usd go down as well. Maybe not much, depending on it's situation but rarely it just sit still. So it was possible that gbp/usd spike up if gbp/jpy first make bounce. On the contrary, usd/jpy stop falling and then gbp/usd made it's move down. I was out when gbp/usd ticked up at the level of trendline and previous wicks on 15min chart. Too bad that I was groggy after concentrating on the trade and didn't notice 30 sec later continuation of the move.
I had one more short scalp in the end.

+16 pips

Beyond worry for money

2009-10-27T11:36:00.003+01:00

Today I got that experience very rare for me. Where I trade because I see the move and want to be in the market to capture that move, not worrying about money. It's such relief to enjoy at those moments free from worry. You got only positive stress, will it go your way or not. I've got that feeling after first couple of trades. I didn't use it too well because I was cutting profits because of trading from 10sec chart and I had too much trades. But anyway, it was great to felt that way and glimpse in to the state that I believe is the exactly right mind frame for trading. Absolutely detached from money, but cutting losses and capturing profits as best as I can.
It was similar experience like last year's Mental shift day.

So I started with some gbp/usd long trade that wasn't going very well. I was happy to be out of it. Then after false brake down I took very nice portion of next move up. Off course, too bad that I got out prematurely but it was ok trade and exit because move quickly melted back down

After that I was watching eur/usd, gbp/jpy and eur/gbp to tell me when to take next trade. In first attempt I took just scalp because it started getting back. In second I made mistake of getting out so fast because move materialised and I was out of the gbp/usd.
After that one were those detached trades, scalps. In and out.

+25 pips

Reversal

2009-10-26T20:54:00.003+01:00

Equities were falling today and eur/usd lost ground, well Usd gained strength all over. I was surprised when I saw -200 pips for eur/usd. So I opened some small trades, I don't know why, for amusement I guess. With intention to hold them as swing trades. Then I opened one half size trade for scalping. I got bored holding it and watching. When there was bounce in equities from the low I won some profit but I didn't get much.
I closed those micro trades also.

+5 pips

Big news move in gbp/usd

2009-10-23T10:38:00.003+01:00

I was ready to risk with this trade and wait for more downside from my entry even if it bounce 50, 60 pips against me. I could see it go to 6400 level after this kind of drop in one minute. Trades were half size. In this kind of trading it's not so brilliant to add position after last low is broken. I did it but it's a trade made after 30 pips already in that move since last peak. So it doesn't go much further. It stop or bounce soon. It's much more wiser to short it just when it rolls from last peak. But I didn't want to average down.
My intention was to take second trade and leave first one on. You know how I'm undisciplined when I lose. When I win it's even harder for me to watch open profit oscillations. I just couldn't stay so I closed the second one immediately after first one. It's just one of my emotional limitations that I have to live and trade with.
I didn't want to trade after those two profitable trades because I know that if something goes wrong in next trade I wouldn't be able to control myself. Simply I wasn't ready to risk just made profit and I have to respect that, better safe then sorry.

+27 pips

Angry bet

2009-10-22T10:11:00.004+01:00

I'm such a bad trader that I wonder how do I manage to stay afloat this much as I am. I'm so liable to acting on bad emotions that it's ridiculous.
I lost my full stop on eur/usd trade that wasn't really trade in which I had idea what is going on. Gbp was flying down after the news eur/gbp up and I gave a shot that eur/usd will go up because it was sold out whole morning. Well it didn't.
Wave of anger just flew through me when my stop was hit and price bounced up from it. I couldn't stand it so I guess I needed to react. So I was long gbp/usd. Nothing else but an angry bet. I guess it's easier to stand risk in a new trade with hope of profit and satisfying the need to recover just made loss. That is usual reason in all my "bad trading". Averaging, moving stops, huge risks for small rewards. It's emotionally easier then emotions of a loss. It seams that only reason for trading bad is managing one kind of emotions with different set even if it's long term financially unsound. In that moment of emotional emergency you just act to make it easier emotionally right now. You don't trade for a profit or a break even but for emotional relief.
That was my gbp/usd trade. I moved stop on it and I would lost at least 30 pips probably more and then who knows how would emotions hit me and what would I do next. That is how every bad sequence starts.

Only thing positive that I learned so far is that if you have very good reason for a trade if it goes in a loss it's not such big deal. So I try to avoid this half baked ideas like my eur/usd long trade because they hit me hardest. Maybe I'm just harsh emotionally to myself because I know that I just lost on mediocre idea and a trade. So I blame myself for that loss. It's best to dig out best mental attitude every time you sit to trade, just to be in the zone and avoid problems.

+6 pips

Gbp/usd fireworks

2009-10-21T10:12:00.007+01:00

Trend day and after news time for gbp/usd action time. First scalp was o.k., all trades except last were made with half size. Second trade, I went long because at the time gbp/jpy just broke 150 that I believed would be harder at the moment. So I was looking for acceleration but it didn't came. I made very poor job of not getting out. So I lost all my profit from previous trade and much more. Gbp/usd was up 70 pips in 5 minutes after the news, I didn't pay attention to that and it was really extended and when wave of up momentum stopped I had to get out and not stay and wait.
Third trade was pretty much gambling that trend will continue. I wanted profits back. I add one more half size trade but it didn't brake previous high with strength. I did a good job of giving those two trades enough chance for two, three minutes and getting out when it reversed.
Fifth trade was a suckers trade because it spiked up seven pips in a second and I just jumped in and then it reversed back. Luckily for me it was really strong trend so it quickly came back and then I knew that we will have continuation most definitely. So I doubled that trade again with new half size trade. Unexpectedly it hit some kind of resistance after 5 pips and it was very unusual and I got scared and closed it.
Well soon enough it continued and then I made another trade now with full size. Foolishly bold, but it was strong trend. It would be better if I stayed in those two before it. I closed very quickly. Oanda's charts didn't update for 5-10 seconds and I just hit close to get out expecting that trend brought it more up while Oanda's hiccup in updating get resolved. It did. Funny I got executed at level that never existed inside of bid ask at that time, you can see it in a second chart. I hope that they will not take it from me, sometimes slippage goes into our favor.

Good thing about my trading today was that I didn't have one thought about going against the market in some short trade. Bad was showing how I was slow in getting out when I'm in a loss. Because of such fast market my trades were half size. So after first loss I was down only -7 full size pips. I was lucky with strong trend that forgave me and corrected with it's tide all my errors and questionable judgments. That's why it's important to go with the trend.

+16 pips

Ten minutes of scalping

2009-10-16T10:48:00.003+01:00

On last trade I started to become "clever" with shorting this move up. Also, I was reluctant to close it when it went against me. I got lucky with taking some profit on it. I had reasons for shorting as for other trades looking mostly at gbp/jpy and eur/gbp but it's to risky and pointless trade.

+12 pips

Gbp on rocket fuel

2009-10-15T12:43:00.004+01:00

First short was with half size because it was against a trend. It's risky to even try things like this, it's not so good trade. It's attractive to be a contrarian on strong trend, but it's just ego wish.
I missed first part of strength in usd/jpy while I was trading gbp/usd. I took nice scalp as I should always, in the direction of trend when previous consolidation level give in.

+12 pips

Made up trades

2009-10-14T11:26:00.003+01:00

With working in the morning I wasn't able to stay at home and trade. So I catch some time at work. In the end I was trading trades that were mostly in my head. Not really nice market for any kind of trading. I gave myself opportunity to gratify the urge for trading even if I knew at the time that it could backfire. Better to be consciously irrational then unconsciously. At least I was trigger happy regarding exits.

+5 pips

Three trades

2009-10-13T10:39:00.002+01:00

Two scalps in gbp/usd after the news time at 10:30. They were made with half size because I didn't believe that 12 pips stop would be enough if things turned against me because of volatility. So I doubled the stop and cut size.
Trade in eur/usd was with full size. It gave 4 pips. It looks pretty much random. I took it because of developement in eur/jpy and jpy/usd at that time. They were going down and by the speed of eur/jpy there was a chance that it would pull eur/usd as well especially if usd/jpy hit some small support.

+15 pips

One trade

2009-10-12T12:14:00.004+01:00

There were five attempts to go through 5800 before gbp/usd did it. I was close to being stopped out after twenty minutes in the trade with stop at 5780.
+14 pips

Bigger size

2009-10-07T12:40:00.003+01:00

It wasn't good day for my kind of scalping. Also I was in the start impatient. I wanted to trade and I didn't wait for right chance but I took first one. Second trade I had nice profit but I still believed in break out of the highs. After third profitable trade I lost all in fourth getting in on spike up. Really impatient. In the end I got lucky in gbp/usd where I picked up bottom and recovered losses.

To all that I have to add that my position size was double from the one last month, so that also added to nervousness. I now need to get accustomed to trading with that size.

+4 pips

Two scalps

2009-10-01T11:28:00.003+01:00

On my first trade I was surprised how gbp/usd came back after spike off resistance that you can see on 5min chart.I closed because it stopped ascending in front of figure, so I didn't want to risk pullback.
Second trade in eur/usd was interesting. I included 5sec chart so you can see how hard fighting was even if there was fair pressure to brake down. I didn't want to risk staying in here because it was going against major support on daily and it wasn't nice for clean scalping.

+10 pips

September 2009. results

2009-09-30T11:10:00.003+01:00

+240 pips

+17%

I had nice profitable month. I really need it after June blow up no matter how did I manage to achieve it. Now I can aim toward more reasonable trading that I think already started this week.
Plan is to aim for small number of pips with strict control of losses, no wiggling around. Also building size of positions if my results are positive and I behave totally disciplined. I can't trade larger amounts of money if I can't obey stops and risk parameters. So I turned toward scalping where years of screen time give me advantage.

I found quite an inspiration in blog that I recently came across. I read all posts of The forexbird and it's incredible how scalping works for him and how he became much more disciplined now then in the beginning of the blog.

End of month

2009-09-30T10:59:00.002+01:00

Today leader was CHF I think, it was gaining on all fronts and at 11:30 was news time for it. Because it stalled after the news I shorted the eur/usd in my second trade but it didn't move and it was too risky to stay short so I quickly closed.

+9 pips

Scalps

2009-09-29T10:49:00.003+01:00

Interesting for me to watch is change in attitude that I have now. With new goal orientation on safer and smaller target I tend to first click exit and then think. I don't need much pips so I grab very fast without second thought. No problem for me with that attitude, let it continue.
On first eur/usd trade I was little absent minded at the time of the entry. I knew about EUR news time and I had some level drawn. When market started to move I just clicked and then I realized why is it moving, I simply forgot it.
On gbp/usd I just took the first wave in 10sec and I was really watching at what exact time should I jump in with help of eye on gbp/jpy and eur/gbp.

+12 pips

Right after my exit GBP had crazy bull run. It's like the same one's that run up that rally first pushed market down to fool as many as they can about a direction of least resistance.

Some new thoughts

2009-09-28T14:26:00.000+01:00

To be frank I became tired of my way of trading. You know all this averaging and running bigger risks when things don't turn my way. In few weeks since I returned I got nice results if we look at pips won. But it's majority done by such gruelling trading. The important thing is that if I trade like this I will never be able to trade bigger positions that way. Emotional pressure and stress is so big now with small positions that I could never behave that way with ten times bigger position and financial risk. I need a way to trade more relaxed with defined boundaries so I don't get stressed out. Before when I had such thoughts my main motivation was to stop losing money because I got hit to hard. Well now it's not so much about that. I want more efficient way of trading, without so much emphasis on how much I win but with strict control of my losses.
This new thoughts came when I was thinking about some money in savings account. I calculated that I get less then 4 pips a month for it in interest if I look at things in forex relation and leverage factor of ten. So I'm thinking why am I happy with this? In my much smaller forex account I think about four pips as nothing, so why couldn't I earn doing forex trading instead of interest that I get. Well, no way that I would have courage to swing this big positions with way that I trade. So I see that there is no long turn success with things how are aligned now. I should learn to trade much safer so I will be able to take my size up. With averaging and moving stops there is no way I would dare.
So let put aside orientation toward bigger gains in a week of let's say 50 pips that I had in mind last few weeks. I can have a goal of 10-20 pips a week with safer and much more controlled trading. I would probably be stopped out on many of my trades that I turn in to winners with bigger risk. But if I succeed and became profitable in quality trading that could mean much more long term. I really don't know will I be able to do it taking in consideration my past performance. But I really am eager to go for it. I really got bored of big risks and unpredictability of my reactions. So much that it seams to me that I lose interest in trading more and more with such behavior.

Today was pretty much slow day. I did trade according with tighter risk in mind, somewhere got to be first step.
+5 pips

Junky

2009-09-25T09:05:00.005+01:00

I had quite a run last few weeks and days since I returned. Most of it was done with questionable trading practices. I remember from before about a phase that I just went in to today. It's when I take whatever signal without much of thought or observation prior to it and then if it's not going my way I have no intention of taking a loss. It's simply like I don't know how to trade any more. I really don't in this situation and frame of mind. I know only how to average, be there valid reason for it or not.
So I need to cool it off now. Only option if I continue in this state is big, big over leveraged loss. I think that I became addicted to satisfaction of monetary gain and trade only to get another hit of it.
If today market didn't retraced who knows where would I end. So I'm taking a step back. Also I'm glad that I noticed it and I got to say that i don't like that addiction feeling very much. I'm not that good drug user.

+4 pips