mattman

Thanks for the info on No man's land. It's interesting to see where terminology such as that came from.

I got filled on a couple of trades yesterday. The first one short eur/usd from 1.3650 and I moved my stop loss to a break even and got stopped there. The next one I tried the same play a little while later and got stopped out for a small loss again.

Overall as far as accuracy rate goes this is probably the worse week I remember. As far as trading itself goes this is one of the best weeks I can recall. Whereas, I didn't hit any profits I was able to remain calm and disciplined and execute my trades. I was also able to consider each stop loss as only one trade in a series of trades, so they didn't feel so significant to me. This is a major break through for me. It's just a matter of time before the trading changes from stop losses to take profits.

I'm busy later during the trading session on Friday, so my trading week is finished as far as day trades go. I got 6 trades I think it was 5 stop out for a loss and 1 break even. The market is hard to read right now, so I think the side lines is a good place to be until I get more clarity.

I did set a limit order on a longer term position long usd/cad at 1.0215 I believe it was, I'm at work so I don't have my charts with me. Friday is a risk event for the pair, so I hope it will give me a chance to get filled around there I would like to ride it up to atleast 1.07 possibly more depending on what's going on in the market.

SergeanTrader

Hey Matt,

I'm glad you have your mind in the right place on how you traded this week. I myself didn't have a good week either. I'm up like $20 for the week. But I am quite happy with the things I learned. Which I'm sure you are too. We should try to get a bit of good out of every trade we make. Keep us up on the USD/CAD.

Jay

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mattman

Up for a week or down for a week doesn't make a whole lot of difference. One week is just a small fragment of time.

The more important part of the equation is were you able to anticipate your trades, and then follow through with them?

SergeanTrader

Yes, and that's what made this week good for me. I made good decisions on entries and not so good ones on exits. But that's ok because I took some education out of it.

__________________
Fear and skepticism have never gotten anyone more than minimum wage.
My Blog: The Unshackled Mind

mattman

As long as you learned from it that's the important thing. One day you will have a nicely funded account and be able to draw from your experience and achieve good performance.

chewwy

testing..

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If you can go cold turkey with the cigi's.. thats more than enough discipline to be a trader

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mattman

hey guys,

It's Monday, a new week. Last week was a rough week for me. I got stopped out on a few trades, and didn't make a profitable trade. To make matters worse the trades that would have been profit missed my entry by a fraction of a pip. But, now it is a new week. I learned a lot from my trades. Here's some things in the market that pop out at me.

1. I have been watching the usd/cad. I set a limit order that was filled Friday, and I got stopped out rather quickly. Their was daily, and weekly support around 1.0215 (see the charts below), the bears quickly took that out. If you look at the chart of the CAD futures below, I will be watching to see how volume does today. If volume is low, I will take this as a sign that the bulls accepted defeat and step on the side line for this one for a while, and see how things play out as (if) it gets closer to parity.

2. The Euro. What a clown show the Europeans have been putting on for us. America is in pretty bad shape right now economically speaking, for the time being I think Europe fundamentally sucks worse than the States. So the Germans, French and Greek prime minister went on camera and made everything look nice on camera. Debt problems like that don't just disappear that easy. I think this is just the beginning of a debt crisis. I'm sure there are a lot of Germans, and French that are angry about having to bail out Greece. The euro rallied. This is where I got stopped out a few times on day trading. I took a few trdes short the eur/usd,as well as a trade or two long at the beginning of the week.

Europe still has a problem with Spain and Portugal on their hands. The Spanish debt problem is worse than the Greek problem, it just hasn't come up as much yet.
It's just a matter of time before this problem surfaces.

I've included the COT report for the euro futures below. The non commercial positions are the ones owned by banks, hedge funds, and wealthy individuals. Their euro short positions increased last week despite the fact that politicians made out nicely with the Greek PM on camera. Perhaps they know something...

As far as day trading the eur/usd goes, I am stepping on the side lines for more clarity before I continue. As far as swing trading/investing go, I will continue to watch the usd/cad. I remain long in my aud/usd and short in my usd/zar position I set up several weeks ago, both are profitable, and I will be looking for exits on those sooner opposed to later, due to what I consider fundamental shifts.

mattman

I placed a limit order for short usd/cad just a few hours ago. I have my entry set at 1.0200 with a stop at 1.0250 and a take profit at parity. Reward/Risk ratio of 4:1. I'll have to wait patiently for a while maybe a day or two who knows to see if I can get filled. If not I'll see what the market sentiment is around parity on this position. The relatively low volume confirmation on the futures on Monday let me know the bears have accepted defeat. Also commodities appear to be doing well for the time being. Oil typically goes up between March-May, so maybe the rally will be last until then who knows. Depending on what's happening in the market when when (if) it approaches parity I may adjust my take profit on some of my position to try get around .9737 which is the next support on the weekly chart, you can see in the previous post.

mattman

I moved my stop losses up on the aud/usd which is a position I have had since the latter part of January. I scaled back on the position a few weeks ago. Now It is time to secure some profits, as my fundamental view has changed. I am adjusting my stop loss to below the range on the chart below at .9150 with my average long entered at around .8750. I am playing the wait and see game on this pair, I am contemplating taking a short in the near future for a swing trade.

DeeBee

Hi mattman,

Awesome three months ride on that trend I'm also doing position trading on my long term equity accounts maybe someday will do the same in FX.

Just wanted to ask the following queries:
1. How do you determine the trend? Reading the weekly chart or fundamentals?
2. Are you using the daily chart to enter a position?
3. How do you determine your stop loss after entering?
4. In FX if you hold a long position do you get credit daily and if you're short you pay interest?

Thank you for sharing your thoughts.

DeeBee